A Formula One fan posted a unique Kill Team of Warhammer 40k Space Marines to the r/formula1 board on December 20, each miniature decked out with the colours and badge of a different F1 team. Creator u/Plumpen mixed airbrushing with freehand brushwork to match the distinctive paintwork of each team.
The ten F1 teams that Plumpen adapted into Warhammer 40k Space Marines are Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Alfa Romeo, Aston Martin, Alpine, Alpha Tauri, Red Bull, Haas, and Williams.
Responding to questions on Reddit, Plumpen explains their approach to painting miniatures. To create coloured metallics, they used an airbrush to apply a silvery basecoat, highlighted raised areas with a brighter silver, then airbrushed on translucent, coloured paint. This wasn’t precision work, as Plumpen explains: “I did the whole models the tinted metallics at first and then used a regular brush to do all the non-metallics and all the details.”
Plumpen painted the logos freehand (the model painting term for rendering a 2d design onto a 3d model using a brush). He says he got the team logos accurate by “carefully comparing [my work] to an image of the logo on my phone”.
Plumpen tells Wargamer he was inspired to create an F1 Space Marine project during the 2021 F1 car reveals, but “held on to the idea until a few months ago when interesting faction rules were released for the models in Kill Team“. Each marine took around two hours to paint, though that varied a lot depending on the paint scheme: he says he tried out “several different paint recipes until I was happy with the outcome”.
Plumpen says: “I was supporting the McLarens this year, but I may have to change teams in 2023 due to how difficult they were to paint!”
Space Marines are one of the most popular Warhammer 40k factions when it comes to experimental paintjobs – earlier this week we wrote about a Space Marine Kill team in pride flag colours. The broad, flat surfaces of Space Marine armour are a perfect canvas for bold colours, without finicky details like cloth or skin getting in the way. That’s one of the main reasons these models are included in every Warhammer 40k starter set.
If you’re interested in trying out some of Plumpen’s techniques, we’ve got a guide to the best paints for miniatures to point you in the right direction.