Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part III

 

Now with candy floss gun.

I had originally planned to just block in the major colours but in all honesty the MkII armour looks really awesome and I kind of just continued. Another factor is that there's surprisingly little variation on everything: once the main armour panels are done, there's not that much left over.

The shoulder pad trim is just Ancient Gold from the TMM range, base and wash, although the final highlight is yet to be applied on account of waiting for the varnish step. I used spots of this on the weapons as well just to balance out the picture and to keep things interesting while limiting the palette. The weapon grip is exactly the same as the holster and a straight copy from the MkVI assault squad, which other than a base of Thondia Brown I can't recall right now.

All of the metals were covered first with Doom Metal (TTC) and then Iron Warriors, follow by spot highlights of Iron Hands Steel. There's a good deal of variation of this throughout, but that's the basic idea for the most of it. The exhaust of the jump pack is for now purely Iron Hands Steel. I may still add burn marks around it but that's definitely for later.

On the jump pack it's predominantly black, of course, but I messed around with the banding. I'll need to get a reference photo for later of what I made black and what I kept silver. There's a reinforcement band around the top of the turbines that I wasn't sure what to do with for a while. I wanted it distinct from the front of the turbine itself and tried Iron Warriors with Black Templar Contrast over the top. The latter was too strong and I needed to kind of glaze the metallic back over the top. Next time I'll use Contrast Medium to thin the black some. Most of the panels I tried to cover with a black ink, a particular one from the Daler-Rowney FW range. It has this oddly subtle brown hint to it that I think is extremely good for Sons of Horus, but it's not exactly made for miniature painting and I have trouble blending or glazing with it. So I mostly abandoned that idea and went with Corvus Black and Stormvermin Fur. Mixing some Twin Suns Yellow (TTC, or Dorn Yellow for the Citadel colours) gives a bright edge highlight spot colour to make the result look more like a hardened surface.

I should note that the turbine blades themselves are simply Doom Metal and Iron Warriors, with the latter just run along the high surfaces and leaving the former in the recessed areas. I haven't felt the need to do anything more as it's readable enough right now.

The weapon colour is white and Doomfire Magenta. That's quite a pigment heavy Contrast paint, which makes me wonder if it's a sort of pre-cursor to the upcoming Warhammer Tone Pro range. I like the colour now even if initially I might not have picked it, because it matches with the face rather well.

There's still some minor details to get done, the base needs to be done, the varnish stage, and then glazing back some the armour colours and metallic shine in places, but I'm happy with how the model is looking right now.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part II

 

My name is Bane.

The one test model has now been fully assembled, for better or worse. I couldn't get much else done during the week but decided that the focal point of the face would at least give some kind of sense of accomplishment.

I decided early on that I wanted pale complexion for the Sons of Horus, something decidedly unhealthy and representing their fall into corruption. To that end I originally was going to base the scheme on Idoneth Deepkin, but pivoted partway through for a more sinister look.

Base colour is Ionrach Skin, which is a pale almost blue/green tinged tone. This fits with the armour to harmonise the colours, but I went a step further and mixed in a hint of Lupercal Green and glazed it towards the back of the head and along recessed areas. The was followed up with a purple ink heavily thinned with acrylic flow improver. I particularly focused on the eyes with this, building it up with more concentration of pigment around there. Ionrach Skin glazed back over to smooth over transitions wrapped up the initial base.

Deepkin Flesh for highlight points was next, which I also tried to paint over the eyes. The eyes on this model are extremely small, and quite honestly it probably would've been better to simply wash over the area and be done with it. I could barely see where those eyes are even meant to be. Going further into madness I then used Iyanden Yellow to cover them and really make the model look insane. I even tried to put in a pupil on the left eye, but I messed it up and fell back to more of the ink to try make the whole face look aggravated.

And he does look aggravated. I think the ultimate win here is not trying to make the eyes themselves stand out, but to give contrast to that part of the face and the impression that this is not a sane individual.

With everything in place I really need to pick out the base colours next. This will serve as the reference for the rest of the squad when I start painting those, so it's important I try to get that "right".

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part I

 

Sure hope the helmets have noise cancelling earphones installed.

I had wanted all of these models assembled, I had wanted them primed and basic airbrushing done, and on the way to getting them in a good state to be fairly quickly finished. Then work happened and most days I'm up to midnight on that, with zero time for painting. So for the moment this is the only Sons of Horus model painted up, and I have more to still even assemble. Kind of sucks.

On the bright side I picked up a lot of lessons from the last batch and have fed them into here. The major starting point was that I base coated the whole model in Night Lords Blue first. I thinned it overly much and it took several coats to get it right, but it wasn't all that bad: the airbrush didn't clog at all and was easier to clean out afterwards. Lupercal Green followed that up, but thinned properly so that again several passes were used to soften the transition and it was done from above and the sides for the most part. Sons of Horus Green afterwards, mostly from above, and you guessed it: several thinned coats.

The airbrush is very quick to use and multiple thin coats is extremely quick to do. It may seem longer but because it also lets colours more easily fade into one another then the overall time taken is typically far less: fewer hard transitions to correct, easier to clean the airbrush. I actually switched between airbrushes on this model, using my Harder & Steenbeck for the last layer because of the smaller needle size I keep with it and the greater trigger control I have.

Gloss varnish afterwards to seal the model and then an overall wash of Shyish Purple / Terradon Turquoise. I was originally trying a 1:4 ratio, but it ended up closer to 1:2 or even 1:1 by because it just wasn't dark enough. The flow improver might have been too much, but roughly equal parts of that are necessary to make it really slide off the more flat surfaces. This really works as well as I expect, but again I had to try remove some from areas it was pooling incorrectly, which leaves behind a bit of a mess. I think it was still worth while, but I'll need to look at using a different brush, maybe soaked in flow improver or Contrast Medium to soften it out some. Another trick to to slightly damp the area with water first too.

After all of that I went back in with Lupercal Green and Sons of Horus Green by brush to clean up a few places and put in some initial edge highlights. I used a better brush this time around and make sure to thin the paints with flow improver instead of just water. This saves a lot of time and effort for what is basically glazing. I'll very likely do another pass of this after the matt varnish stage later on.

Although all the above sounds like a lot of effort, there aren't many colours being used and each stage is more about refining the previous. I'm still careful along the way, but I'm less perfectionist in knowing that I will be adjusting things later on as necessary. For basically the same result it took about half the time, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I will have to start blocking in all the other colours soon, but first I'm probably actually going to focus on the head. If I can get enough done to glue that in place then the model will be fully assembled and I'll be much faster in completing it and having serve as a reference for the rest.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin II - Part I

 

Making sure to step over the drain.

Just a fairly quick post because I managed to get a fair bit of airbrushing done in a single day and I'll be busy for the next week. I recently assembled the next of the Crimson Paladins and this time out I decided the arms should be fully attached from the start. It was to much hassle last time.

Painting-wise there isn't much to say. From the experience before I know that a wash stage will help define everything more, but that some manipulation as applying over the gloss varnish will increase shadows, and glazing later with Evil Sunz Scarlet is going to help make everything pop. The airbrushing was done with this in mind. I still used three passes (Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red, then plain Mephiston Red, then Evil Sunz Scarlet) but I didn't try to be very neat.

The first coat is to give the whole model a base colour to work from. This is also mostly the shadow colour, even if the wash will darken it more later anyway. I used my "new workhorse" airbrush with a 0.35mm needle here and made sure to apply many thin coats to get a smooth finish and to avoid clogging the nozzle.

Next was the first highlighting stage which again used the same airbrush, and mostly from a Zenithal angle. Basically I just sprayed from above and occasionally a little from the side, but not from underneath. It's similar in colour, but trust the process: the later wash will darken everything, and glazing will brighten again in select areas.

Finally I switched to the CRplus Infinity airbrush with a 0.2mm needle and build up the final layer more selectively. I know there's some good reviews about the workhorse type airbrush, and it's indeed perfectly fine, but once you're quite familiar and comfortable with airbrushing then that extra quality kit really comes into play. The trigger action is definitely better, the paint flows more smoothly, and it's easier to clean afterwards. I intend to buy a newer Infinity at some point, eyeing off the Giraldez model, as soon as there's some kind of spare money for such things.

At this point the reds don't give much contrast really. Shadows are there, highlights are there, but knowing that I'll be refining it later made the broader airbrush application now that much faster.

The base on this model is actually two thin layers of green-stuff. I was playing with a new texture roller which has a manhole cover I liked, which I then needed to turn into an actual base. With the slightly higher base these older kits are visually comparable to the new Cataphractii  models too, but there's still one more trick to make the Crimson Paladins seem taller. The previous one had this done, and it's the head. It sits too low in the torso normally. I'll try get all the helmets done in one go, but a little bit of green-stuff to extend the faceplate down and a little more on the base to make it sit ever so slightly higher and it makes all the difference.

That's about it for now. I did more airbrush of other models too, and I guess one of those will be for next week.

-- silly painter.

Custodian Wardens - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Bodyguards looking for body oil.

Finally, done! It wasn't that there was an awful lot left to do, it's just that between work and horrible weather I've never had time or motivation to actually get them done. All finished at last though, standing tall and proud.

It's worth noting that these are large models, larger than Primaris possibly even the newer terminators. They're very imposing but it's really hard to get a feel for that without seeing them in person. A full squad in the middle of another force and you start to get a sense of how mean Custodian Guard can be.

In rounding out the weapons I fell back on my normal black weapon casing formula with with a slight twist:

• Corvus Black base coat over all the black details.
• Eshin Grey to build up initial highlights.
• Abaddon Black glazed into shadows.
• Ulthuan Grey / Eshin Grey (roughly 1:2, but depends) for edge highlights.

I played with the mixes of paint between stages and there was a good deal of back & forth before I had it just how I wanted. Generally the Ulthuan Grey was never used pure: it's too bright on its own and I wanted definition more than anything else.

Silver details are for the most part mixes of Doom Metal (TTC) and Iron Hands Silver. Everything else is covered fairly well in previous posts for the weapons.

The gemstones gave me pause for a while. I was originally going to paint them in a blue or teal colouration, but I decide that was going to stand out too much. One or two gemstones maybe, but all of them and the warmer tones of the armour will clash with the cooler blue too much. I then considered purple but again felt that I wanted more harmony and so went with basically red.

• Gal-Vorbak Red base coat.
• Wazdakka Red around most of the previous coat, but leave a small circular edge darker.
• Wild Rider Red as a crescent generally on the lower part.
• Fire Dragon Bright as a smaller crescent.
• Gal-Vorbak Red / Doom Death Black (TTC) in a circular shape opposite the crescent.
• Doom Death Black (TTC) glazed higher in the circular shape.
• White Star (TTC) reflection dots.
• 'Ardcoat over the gemstone to seal and make it gloss.

That's quite a lot for items to small. With everything on the wet palette it's much easier, and the TTC paints were chosen specifically for their thinning ability and slightly longer drying time. They have a matt finish but that gets pained with a gloss varnish anyway.

For the knuckles I decided they were simply far too small to bother going so far with and so I used Omega Blue (TTC) there and a few other places. That particular paint is quite vibrant and what else to say - it was a spur of the moment thing and I just went with it.

These are definitely worth the investment to paint them up to a high standard, and the marble basing suits them very well. I have a few more Adeptus Custodes in the backlog still, including Ixion Hale. I'm sorely tempted to start on his assembly. Maybe I'll just go find the box and see.

-- silly painter.

Impressions

 While I'm back and getting very close to finishing the current work in progress squad, I decided to write up something that's been on my mind for a while. This relates to how miniatures are painted and what the end goal is.

I've seen a good deal of talk about how to make something look realistic, how to make reflections behave as they would in real life, or how a particular highlight should be done. There's a certain element to that: a viewer will notice immediately if something doesn't "look right' - a blue reflection from a fiery battlefield would look peculiar for example. It's also somewhat untrue given the scale.

When painting miniatures then the viewer is probably going to see them under different lighting conditions to which they were painted, and under different lighting to the setting in which the model is placed. Already this is at odds with realism: the angle of lighting alone is going to differ depending upon where the model is facing, where any overhead lights are, etc. Size plays a role too: sunlight diffused through cloud layers will be noticeably different to direct overhead sunlight on a cloudless day. The sheer distances involved make volume interactions differ on a small miniature compared to an eight foot tall armour plated killing machine.

Ultimately, painting for realism is not the actual goal. Painting for the impression of realism is far more popular. Taking this further and instead it can be painting for an impression.

Early on the folks at the 'Eavy Metal team learned that contrast is key. The photography and magazine printing technologies of the time required a high level of contrast to make the miniatures show up properly in publications and showcase them to customers. The human visual system keys on contrast for object definition and recognition: contrast of colour, contrast of brightness, contrast of depth, it's the difference that matters. This is the entire concept behind edge highlighting: define the outline to make viewing a model easier.

Freeing the mind from the shackles of realism and focusing on painting to form an impression lets you play with the model and guide a viewer in many different ways. Cylindrical objects painted as panel modulation suggests height over shape, edge highlighting can accentuate OSL effects, or by their omission create an impression of shadow without actually needing to darken an area. Exaggeration of lighting can make a flat surface curved, or a curved surface flat. I typically don't align the direction of light with a helmet so that I can focus the viewer's attention on the head more easily - abandoning realism gives the flexibility to adjust perception of the model.

It's not just highlights and shadows, but the very colours used can do this too. Painting a specific vampire in moonlight allowed me create an impression of a night scene without making the model dark. It's quite high in value in places, and then the yellow eyes stand out extra against the blues and purples otherwise used. If the model was truly at night then barely anything would be visible.

Going beyond this to the very brush strokes used, the choice of blending or not, and there's still a world of artistic possibilities to explore. I saw a post once of a model that didn't win a competition, yet was undeniably one of the most visually striking models on display. It simply wasn't painted as what is normally expected. Miniature painting won't come into its own as a more widely accepted art genre until that range of expression is opened up.

What does this have to do with my own painting? When it comes to painting Marines then it impacts which colours I'm choosing, and other than Blood Angels it impacts how "far" I'll go. Does the model look like what I was going for? If so, I can leave it there. Blood Angels are the exception - I'm trying to be less exacting when I paint them, but their whole core ideal is artistry to tame the rage within, and I like to depict that with my approach.

Food for thought at any rate.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part V

 

So very shiny.

It's been a few weeks since the last post, which is an annoying consequence of incredibly busy work, alongside some other duties keeping free time at an absolute minimum. At last though I managed to finish up the armour on all models and fully assemble them. This makes them around ninety percent complete but for all the little details (gemstones in particular remain).

Since the last time, the remaining step has been to add a more extreme highlight to all the "gold" detailing. I wanted certain parts to stand out slightly more, such as the chest design in the picture above. This isn't about extreme edge highlights (which I can certainly still do) but a subtle brightness shift to pick them out more. Canoptek Alloy was the paint of choice here: thinned to an light glaze consistency because the paint has very good coverage and used to brighten specific areas. I mostly concentrated on "lines" of filigree and the chest.

I could go back and deepen recesses or add brighter highlight points, or more besides, but I figured enough is enough and they look about how I wanted. With everything being the same colour (more or less) then detailing isn't intended to stand out heavily. A conscious decision on my part to reveal more detail the longer you look rather than having it jump out straight away.

The silver components are just two colours in the end: Doom Metal (TTC) and Iron Hands Steel. The former for a base coat, followed by a mix of the two for initial highlights, and then the latter for final highlights. These areas are small and don't need many colours to make them work.

The top-knot is another three-colour scheme, which is chosen to ensure the gold isn't overshadowed by highlights elsewhere and also just to make it easier! Mephiston Red base coat, Shyish Purple (Contrast, thinned a little) as a wash concentrated underneat, and then thinly highlight with Evil Sunz Scarlet. This is brighter than the the lower parts of the model, but with a satin finish that contrasts against the armour to give it a different look.

The weapon has taken some thought. For now it's based coated with pick-your-black over most parts (the grip was painted previously so wasn't touched) and the blade left from airbrushing. I wanted a power weapon feel but without the lightning patterning commonly used (personal preference, I generally don't like it) so ultimately went with a combination of Doom Metal (TTC), Omega Blue (TTC), and Grey Knights Steel. The latter paint is darker than you might think so I was using that to shade more than anything else and pure Omega Blue for most of the edge highlights. Doom Metal mixes well with either and was used to help create shadowed parts or otherwise generally define the shape of the blade.

The blade additionally has wing designs which normally I've seen painted gold. I tried that and then glazed the blue metallics over the top to represent glow from the blade: this definitely works but still didn't seem to fit. Reasoning that the wing design is essentially the power node from other power weapons I simply base coated with Grey Knights Steel, highlighted to a pure Omega Blue on the tips, and used Drakenhoft Nightshade to add definition. The axe looks reasonable here but I'm not yet sold on the spears. I suspect I'll not be happy with anything and will end up leaving it as-is.

The gold on the weapons I've been playing around with a lot just to see if I could approximate the main armour but with far less effort. I think I've stumbled onto something acceptable: Balthasar Gold base, followed by Reikland Fleshshade (Seraphim Sepia normally but in this case I wanted a slight red tint to tie into the other reddish parts), then a mix of the base coat with Retributor Armour and finally mixing in Canoptek Alloy for the last highlights.

The weapon needs the black to be worked with some more yet, and aforementioned gemstones, some cabling and other sundry details, but they are definitely started to look like they'll be finished soon. Not that soon however because I'll be away for a couple of weeks again. I hope after I'm back I can find the time to sit down and complete these models so that I might then move onto the next project.

-- silly painter