Finished: Space Hulk!

...so the last time I talked about my copy of Space Hulk, it was in a state something like this:

Well, I'm glad to say it's finally finished!  Since this is a board game (and will probably be played by non-wargaming friends), I wanted the finish on the minis to be extra-durable - I read in several places that this could be accomplished by giving the minis a coat of gloss varnish first, then a coat of matte varnish to knock down the shine.  As soon as I finished the paint job, I gave them a healthy coat of gloss:

...then I gave them a coat of matte varnish on each side:

Now, when I originally bought Space Hulk, I swore up and down that I was going to lavish every single model with a Golden Demon-quality paintjob - then, as usual, I primed them, looked at the huge pile of minis on my desk, and instantly felt overwhelmed.  Then, the possibility of needing to have the game finished for an upcoming game night appeared, so it gave me an excuse to get a bit more "quick 'n dirty" with my process.  The funny thing?  I had a lot more fun when I stopped stressing about making every model perfect, and I think the models I painted after this revelation actually came out better.  I was whining to lars4life over at Funderhammer one night about how I get overwhelmed and never seem to follow through with the high-quality paintjobs I want to do - he told me "Assembly line painting is a must if you want to make any progress on an army.  Assembly-line your troops, practice your advanced techniques on your sergeants, and try to do your best work on your named characters".  I thought that was great advice.

So anyway, here's some of the results (click to embiggen):

They're not going to win any competitions, but I see flashes of improvement in my technique - in particular, my highlighting is getting more precise, and I'm learning to use precise application of washes to a much better effect.  As far as color schemes and such, I mostly followed the GW painting guide, and just substituted equivalent colors if I didn't have the Citadel / Foundation version.  The only major exceptions:  I used my airbrush and based the Terminators with Mechrite Red first, then drybrushed them with Blood Red, and I didn't follow GW's formula for highlighting the Terminators at all - I tried their method first, and it looked terrible - I'm a fan of the "'Eavy Metal" style, and even I thought the highlights looked way too severe.  I used a 50/50 mix of Blazing Orange and Blood Red.