Simple Spray Masking Technique - Space Marine Razorbacks

Space Marine Tank Markings

Having been utterly absorbed recently in the Badab War Forgeworld books I have been very keen to try something more interesting with the Crimson Minotaur colour scheme other than just spraying them red all over. The Badab War books display some wonderful illustrations of various Space Marine task forces used throughout the brutal campaign. The vehicles involved in particular demonstrate some interesting variations upon the usual chapter colour schemes incorporating stripes and split colours across the vehicle hulls.

This really breaks up the large flat surfaces on Space Marine vehicles and the sharp lines make them look really dynamic.

I was keen to replicate this but without an airbrush and with little experience I was a little tentative at doing a sloppy job. It turns out you can achieve this effect quite easily with a bit of care when setting up and the basic spray paints that Games Workshop supply. I have purchased some razorbacks for the task of ferrying my Crimson Minotaurs around (I am not a fan of drop pods) and decided to try the technique out on a nice simple shape.

I used the following steps:

• Spray one half of the vehicle Mephiston Red Spray. (better to do red first as red over black looks slightly different to red over plastic whereas black looks similar either way.)
• Cover the area you want to stay red in asking tape. I used a couple of layers near the edge of the transition. 
• Spray remaining half in Chaos Black. I held a piece of card up to block any spray going to undesired areas whilst I did this.
• Peel off tape and done! Simple.

What I was worried about:

I was tentative about this as I thought the spray may go through the the masking tape. I was also worried that the edge would not be clean cut and the spray would bleed through. Finally I thought peeling the tape off would take some of the paint with it. If anyone has had worries about these issue then don't, as long as you are careful when first applying the masking tape you should be fine. Ensure there are no gaps and the line should be clean.

As you can see, it's turned out ideal.

Here are the razorbacks after I have started the paint job. Still a long way to go but I have applied some of the base colours:

Please let me know if you have tried something similar! I'd love to see other examples of vehicles with interesting markings and shapes. 

Leave a comment if you have and I may feature some examples in a later blog post.