Space Marines

Recently I have felt that Malifaux simply does not give me enough elbow room for hobby projects. I really only want to work on one faction at a time and only really want to paint plastics which means that Wyrd are not producing miniatures fast enough to fill my painting needs. Thus, because I felt like guns and rolling dice recenty, I decided to paint some Space Marines.

 I am not interested in getting back into GW stuff, I don't want to buy the rulebook, but I might push the power-armoured flares round the table every now and then. Really I just fancied painting them.

 After researching this and that, I opted to go with my own chapter 'The Blades of Dawn' (not the primarch) which I made for a competition a long time ago. Here's the model I found in my bits box:

I fancied doing a half or quartered scheme though, so I decided that the normal marines who don't wear cloaks will have the light grey/white as half of their armour.

 Above you can see my first test model for the scheme. I am liking the purple, although it's much brighter than my previous model, but not so sure on the white. I wanted to paint the white in the same style as the purple, because I though armour should stay the same reflectiveness etc. but I don't think it works. Also, I wasn't exactly sure how I wanted to base them so I made two options. Which do people think is better?

It's weird going back to 25mm bases.

 To finish up I have a couple of questions. Would people like a painting guide for this guy? I took pictures as I painted so you can see all the steps, but I figured there was no point of people weren't interested. Also, do people reckon there is a market for just painting up figures to sell? I don't want to specifically go for commission because I don't want to put deadlines on my hobby ( a sure way to kill enjoyment, I think) but it might be good to paint things and try and make some money from it.

Thanks for reading.