Devastator Squad - Part VI

 

The most high powered laser pointer.

Not a long post, mostly just a whole bunch of words to say that another of the squad is fully assembled. Fully assembled does not mean complete - it just means that all the sub-assemblies are entirely glued together and I can finally see how the model will be.

The colours used are almost entirely:

• Iron Warriors
• Iron Hands Steel
• Black Legion (mostly to base over the varnish stage)
• Abaddon Black
• Corvus Black
• Eshin Grey
• Dawnstone

By and large that's it. I did use Warplock Bronze with Castellax Bronze for the (charging coil?) and also for some smaller details - yes, only those colours, but what a difference it makes to change the ratio when painting components.

This might seem like an overly zealous selection for what amounts to black and silver, but they aren't used all at the same time and this does include all the highlights and shading. I'm not entirely done (that silver cable needs perhaps Basilicanum Grey on it) but having a smaller selection on the palette for just e.g the black casing is quite manageable and I have ended up putting paint to more than just the lascannon. For the result I do consider the palette limits, but I could remove a couple of the blacks: the Black Legion is an effective glaze when thinned, but it's also not something which interacts with the other acrylics in the same way. There is a tradeoff occasionally, and black is especially difficult to highlight, so I think the count isn't so bad in the end.

There's still two more of the squad to fully assemble, and I hope they won't be too far behind. Work is kind of crazy still though, so I guess another couple of weeks before I get that far. I really do hope the pace will pick up again in a few weeks and I can complete all of this.

-- silly painter.

Devastator Squad - Part V

 

monocle, binoculars, trioculars?

This long running series will no doubt make it to ten posts, but that's mostly because updates are shorter and I'm trying to keep them running for motivation to actually get a little done every day. Except today, while I write this out.

The first of the Devastators has finally been fully assembled. Focusing purely on the one model has definitely helped keep me moving forwards and I've still managed to paint little extras on the rest as well. The sergeant is almost ready for full assembly too, just a few little details that are easier to reach for now, but actually the next I'm likely to focus on will be a lascannon wielding marine. Before I get that far however, I have realised one mistake in full assembly: the right knee pad. I kind of forgot to put a squad marking on there. I've lost where I keep track of what I've already used so I'll need to go back over all my painted models and figure it out.

That out of the way, I decided to try and make the grav weapon have a green glow, or energy indicator, to it. Hexwraith Flame in the recesses is all that is - I might have used one of the brighter Contrast range, but Hexwraith Flame is sufficient and already in my paint collection. I tried not to go overboard but I'll still need to add highlights again later to brighten up a few edges - and that can wait until after the varnish stage if I decide to mix in metallics.

Iron Warriors with Black Templar (mixed with flow improver) is looking to be my go-to for darkened metal. My painting style is not exactly bright, saturated colours and so going darker is necessary to keep a value range. It's been working well enough so far but I'm still stopping at Iron Hands Steel before the varnish stage.

To simplify everything I ended up just painting all the helmet lenses green. I could have used varying colours except that would then have needed more decisions on which basic colours and an awful lot more time to pick out the right paint pots; far better to just use what was already on the palette. I also have come to appreciate once more the fine tip of a good sable brush. I've been using a synthetic brush for a while now that allows me to base coat smaller details, but for eyes, lenses, etc, the equivalent of an artificer brush can't be beaten. Considering I really only intended the synthetic to last for metallics on the Sanguinary Guard, then it's been lasting surprisingly well.

The last little update to how I paint things is actually the cabling. Colourful cables suit some of the of saturated schemes from 2nd edition, but I go for a utilitarian approach these days. The outer layer of cables is probably hardened for protection while colour codes are on the ends or inner sheaths. As a flexible material though I want that cabling to have less stark highlights but also shadows that aren't as deep. For that I've been experimenting with:

• Corvus Black base latyer.
• Corvus Black / Stegadon Scale Green (1:2) over most of the cable to help define volume.
• Stegadon Scale Green / Dark Reaper (1:1) for highlights.

The end result is fairly subtle with the highlights and is more about giving some colour to make it distinct from the black of weapon casings and armour. I like it so far, but only because it's contrasting against the red of the armour. I'm not sure it would be suitable with, say, Raven Guard. I'd want perhaps some Thunderhawk Blue in such a case. Something to think about anyway.

-- silly painter.

Devastator Squad - Part IV

 

This is really heavy.

Well. A few things have prevented me doing much for some weeks, and it's not likely to let up anytime soon. This means something has to change if I'm going to get any painting done and models actually finished. These stalled Devastator Marines are going to serve as a bit of practice in that regard.

The number one thing that stops me is not knowing how to paint various bits & pieces. What colours to use, what material I'm trying to represent, that sort of thing. I'm slowly solving that with references to models already painted, but also going by box art to decide. The latter doesn't show everything though, notably it only typically has a single view point and rarely shows the backpack - so even with box art I still need to spend time deciding what colours go where.

Related to that is the number of paints to apply: switching paints out all the time is very demotivating, especially with my current setup where the paints are actually in another room. I generally need to know which ones in advance, get them all, lay them all out on my (small) wet palette, and make sure to stretch that as far as it will go before starting all over again. It suits my painting style of focusing on details, but it's very slow to make obvious progress.

Slow painting is its own demotivator - the less I paint, the less I want to paint. It's very hard to break that cycle, which is why tackling something that makes a bit visual change is always a good idea - but I'm running out of that on these models.

So what to do? I think I've come up with a plan to tackle the above problems and get back to painting, to a degree. First I'm going to focus on a single model at a time for the Devastators. That's not to say I won't batch paint where possible: all purity seals for example can be done at the same time, it's just that other models will be done as more of an afterthought against the primary. This will keep visual changes more frequent, and fits in with these particular models all being that little bit different (a hallmark of Blood Angels as they used to be designed).

The next idea is to simply reduce the number of paints used and rely on "good enough". I've been using metallics for skull icons recently for example - only three or four paints for all the little details across the whole model. The idea is to break up monotonous surfaces rather than show off as many paints as possible. The weapons are going to be black, metallic, and some minor details. Edge higlighting I'll try make more apparent to show off the shapes, otherwise just keeping the colour palette very simplistic.

Finally I'm trying to paint smarter by using paints to their strengths. In this example I make sure to paint most details with a layer of Black Legion for the simple reason that it helps later layers adhere and cover better. The varnish layer normally takes many coats of paint before everything covers properly - but even a single thin layer of high pigment Contrast acts as both primer of sorts and pull back excessive red in areas. Black Templar mixed with some acrylic flow improver turns into a sort of Nuln Oil, and flows nicely into the joints.

All the above I've started to do on the weapon and shoulder pad trim. It was a marked improvement in speed and let me actually assemble everything. Of course the arms didn't quite line up properly and I had to use putty to  help them stick (it looks really ugly from the rear), but I was expecting that to happen on at least one model. The price I pay for sub-assemblies. From here I'll start to fill in some details and try get this one model done, moving on afterwards to the rest of the squad.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part V - Showcase)

 

Glow-guns

For whatever reason it was an absolute slog to get these four tanks finished. Not much time to paint coupled with indecision over colours and a continual questioning of just how much detail I should go into really took its toll here. In some regards it might have been easier to paint a full sized version (that's for another day - I have a couple of the resin kits from a few years ago). What let me finish them in the end was a change of mindset to just simplify the colours: make the bulk of the weapon covers black and just use edge highlighting to pick out lines. Limit the palette and focus on overall appearance instead of getting lost in the close-up.

The colours work well enough, though I'm not entirely happy with the barrels of the plasma weapons. I'm still not really a fan of blue glowing plasma coils, but that's obviously luminosity from whatever hardened material is used to house all that energy, and it makes it immediately apparent on a tabletop what the weapon is for gameplay purposes. Think I do prefer the look of the other turrets though.

Now that the varnish is dry and the models are done, what would I do if I painted more? The base coats worked well. The main airbrush steps did their job, but I'm still getting used to Contrast paints through an airbrush. I might prefer a standard acrylic paint and multiple passes which will keep the end colour more consistent across each model rather than trying to ensure that last Contrast pass matches for them all. The shading is subtle enough by works, and using Black Legion (Contrast) mixed with flow improver and applied over a gloss varnish continues to provide an excellent way to panel line everything. Selected edge highlights accentuate the armour plates more and the end results is a very readable small scale tank. I also really like how the tracks turned out. Ratling Grime added just the right shading to give the look I was after.

I could do some weathering, battle damage, muzzle burn, etc, but these aren't intended as display pieces (although it's not like I've ever actually played a game with them). The viewports and sensor lenses are far too bright here, I probably could have darkened them with a shade, but again effort and it does give them a sinister look - psychological warfare that this horrifying tank is watching you.

Now I can put these away and see what's next on the list. Probably a dreadnought and devastators.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part IV)

 

Hold up, how do my pauldrons fit through the hatch?

These models are taking an insanely long time to get finished. This is partially a lack of motivation because they're taking so long (circular reasoning), but also because I just have so little spare time right now. So I've cut a few corners and forced myself to get the Sicaran tanks nearly done - just the other set of turrets to go. I've also not added any decals - I figured paint scheme shows easily enough which army they're part of, and also there's really only one panel to put a decal on. That would require a white transfer, which would stick out like a sore thumb. The alternative is to paint symbols on by hand, which I just frankly can't be bothered with.

I painted the viewports and lenses with a simple mix of Mephiston Red covered in Troll Slayer Orange. Nothing special, no fancy effects, just dots of colour to break up the turquoise. The orange tint is a nod to the Eye of Horus.

Cabling is generically Khorne Red with some Mephiston Red highlighting. This is purely again to break up the monotony and add some visual interest.

Silver metals are Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil, Iron Hands highlights. All of this done before the varnish step. The brass is Balthasar Gold, Seraphim Sepia, Sycorax Bronze highlights. Absolutely nothing special, all of it very simple - just on a small scale and requiring a fine tipped brush that is just now starting to give. It's been an exceptional synthetic brush which I've leaned on heavily recently - I hope future purchases of the same are just as good. Da Vinci size 0, Nova Synthetics range.

Black areas are Corvus Black, Dawnstone (mixed on the palette), and Abaddon Black mixed with water to essentially shade back some areas.

That's pretty much all. The most time taken was in deciding what colours should go where, but once that was sorted then the next steps proceeded smoothly enough. The details make the painting a little slower than I'd like as well, but also because they're so small there is no sense is perfectly smooth blending - you really do want some contrast to pick out edges more than anything else.

And now it's on to the other turrets before I can classify these models as done. Next post however is likely to be about a change in painting approach that I'll be forced to make given the current circumstances - or else I simply won't get anything done all year.

-- silly painter.

Mermaid of Warsaw - Part III

 

Something fishy going on here.

The background project of the Mermaid of Warsaw received a little attention recently, which was mostly a combination of oils again, and then starting on acrylics over the top.

Originally I was trying to replicate some of the skin tones with oils, but it wasn't working. I didn't get the mix right, and I was necessarily short on time. While that was curing though I took at look at the spine and for no particular reason decided to mix up some reds and blues to pick out what is now seen. By all accounts it shouldn't fit, and yet somehow I like it. Some blending with the skin could still be done, but I'm not entirely sure I'll ever get that far.

The hair from the rear view I've not shown before, but again it's something that I think just sort of works. The blue/green shadows give it a seaweed appearance that I'd never have thought of with simple direct acrylic painting, and yet it really fits the overall theme of a mermaid. It's not complete by any means, but I think there's enough to work with going forwards.

The skin tones I have ultimately used Rakarth Flesh, Dark Reaper, and Ungor Flesh to fix up, once the oils could be painted over. Rakarth Flesh is a rather unhealthy tone, but fits in the shadowed areas, with Ungor Flesh bring some warmth in the areas I want to try attention to (the face and shoulders predominantly). There is still a good deal of work to be done on the skin tones, and a lot of glazing to fix up where it didn't quite work properly before. It will take some time.

Not much else to say right now really. Holidays and health problems, coupled with various other responsibilities, have painting a scare hobby right now. I'm still trying to finish off tiny tanks, which are both close to being done, and yet always seemingly far away from it too.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part III)

 

brrrmm brrrmm

I can't seem to find time to get these tanks finished, but there has been some progress.

I'm also incredibly tired right now, so this will almost certainly be brief and to the point.

The metal is mostly Iron Warriors, then Iron Hands over that on the tracks. The tracks had Ratling Grime over the top for a bit of weathering, which is just enough to make the tracks look used without making them look caked in mud while the rest looks suspiciously clean. The weapons are just a base coat right now and need a shade and probably Iron Hands later as well.

Balthasar Gold rounds out the rest of the metallics so far - again, needs a shade and then a highlight with something else. The Omega Destroyer (or whatever it's called) variant has Balthasar Gold on the firing ports, and then Iron Warriors sort of glazed over the top. I intended to go back over that with a thinned black for scorching later on.

Lenses, viewports, and power cables are all base coated with Khorne Red. I'll differentiate viewports from cables with some other colour later on, but the small dots of red accents nicely against the turquoise which otherwise dominates the models.

I was also stalled for quite some time not knowing what colours to use on various components. In the end I'm "cheating" by using the reference photos / box art from GW on the larger version to inform the colours on the smaller scale. Except for the plasma glow - that's purely so the variant is instantly recognisable on the tabletop.

Still a lot of detail left to go, and now that I'm on a roll with them I have to push the pause button and go away for a couple of weeks. Not that I'll have much time when I'm back, but at least the main colours are blocked in - just detailing it (including edge highlights on black areas) and they'll be good enough to call done.

-- silly painter