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

Custodian Wardens - Part IV

 

No, the axe is not for chopping firewood.

It's taken some time to do not much visibly on account of very little time to paint, and what time there has been was spent getting every other model in the squad to the same level. Nearly. Unbelievably, I'm still not done with armour yet either.

Mostly highlighted as described before, I'm still going to pick out some areas with a heavily thinned Canoptek Alloy. This is a very strong paint normally and I don't want it to overpower what's there, but the detailing isn't standing out quite as much as I would like just yet. I will need to be very careful to not ruin everything.

The helmet lenses are really simple:

• Wazdakka Red
• Rust Orange (TTC) within the red.
• Fire Dragon Bright as a final highlight.

I did go back in with a black to outline where the red went outside the edges, but that wasn't always necessary. I didn't bother with white reflection dots - the lenses are barely visible as it is, anything more isn't really adding anything to the model.

The faceplate is simply Iron Warriors covered with Iron Hands Steel. I wanted a very polished look and didn't bother with any fancy gradients or shading. Other steel / silver areas have Doom Metal (TTC) for shading, but I'll reserve more extreme highlight points for the weapon most likely.

Finally (this is a short post) Flesh Tearers Red was used to fill in the gaps on the pauldrons and introduce more colour to break up the monotony there. I thinned it and used a couple of layers to build it up. I'm not sure it worked quite as nicely as if I'd used something else base and layer up highlight points, but I wanted to try something different and it fulfils the original purpose.

There are still a few details to go before I turn my attention to the weapons, but they are coming along nicely. I just hope everything else begins to calm down enough to let me finish these models without too much more delay.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part III

 

Seen some shit.

This is a shorter post about more than just the Custodian Wardens, but concerns faces in general. There's only one model in the set that I've assembled without a helmet, and that was purely because I thought it suited the silhouette better.

To start with, the sculpt lends itself to older white haired look. It really does for some reason - it just has that grizzled veteran vibe. Obviously the Custodian Guard do age, so I would assume this guy has been at it for a very long time and has witnessed a lot. He's also very well groomed.

Painting the face actually used comparatively few paints. I started off with Night Lords Blue but didn't exactly go for complete coverage. A little patchy in areas is ok as it will give a more natural look in the end. Barak-Nar Burgundy was next, leaving the previous colour in the recessed areas and just kind of sketching out the shapes. These colours were chosen for no other reason than they were on the palette at the time, but that's again something that gives a more natural look: not every person has exactly the same skin tone, and it's the variation in models that make them look realistic.

Barbarian Brawn and Dwarven Flesh, both TTC paints, were then used to build up the skin tones by mixing in previous colours and highlighting up as I went along. The deeper recesses and lower parts of the face predominantly used Night Lords Blue mixed in to give colder shadows, while Barak-Nar Burgundy faded out from there and was also more apparent to the sides of the head. Final highlights are pure Dwarven Flesh, glazed into place: nose, upper cheeks, and the forehead. I made a conscious choice to keep the front of the face brighter and this really sells the look. It helps define the shape of the head and keep attention where it should be.

The beard and hair is Trooper White, another TTC paint, which is also the "whites" of the eyes. The iris is just Night Lords Blue, and I did not even try to put in a black pupil. I did mix in some of the blue and burgundy into the white for initial hair colouring, moving more to the blue later. I used very little pure Trooper White for the hair; (barely) a hint of another colour is sufficient to make it look more natural.

I stopped about there. I could make the skin tone brighter, but that might clash with the hair and the skin was looking sufficiently leathery by this stage. I just added eyebrows then blue tinted cabling around the head and glued it in place.

Guardian Spear with built-in boltgun, but still wants to use a knife.

This model is not really fully assembled quite yet. The pauldrons and cape are just resting in place right now so that I can easily access some of the still visible parts of the model, but I do get a good feel of how everything will look in the end - and I'm happy with how that's going. I still need to highlight the armour on this model (and most of the others). Next models I'm definitely not going to go quite this hardcore on.

-- silly painter.

Custodian Wardens - Part II

 

Wonder if he washes his own cloak.

While the armour still hasn't received final highlights, I have managed to figure out the other major piece of the model: the cape / cloak / whatever. It took me a while to come up with an idea for that, and actually I had something in mind when I saw something similar from Trovarion.

The idea is that while it can go vibrant, it shouldn't look reflective. The shadows are are cooler and tend towards blue or purple, where the highlights are the warmer tones of a red. This gives contrast and readability while still looking softer, possibly like velvet. I did not want to use simply darker red or black for shadows and nor did I think a wash was appropriate. In the end it was just three paints:

• Barak-Nar Burgundy base coat.
• Night Lords Blue / Barak-Nar Burgundy (1:1) in the shadowed areas, basically anything facing down. The ratios aren't exact: more blue in the deeper recesses, more burgundy glazed into lighter areas.
• Mephiston Red build up for the highlights. Mixing this with a hint of Barak-Nar Burgundy helps transition in places to the purer red which is mostly reserved for upwards facing surfaces higher up.

I'm not sure if a brighter red is suitable or not and so haven't added anything more quite yet. I can always do that later once the helmet is in place and the armour highlighted more.

Rather obviously the model is glued to a base now. I haven't pinned the model in place but something tells me I should have. I'll think about it if they ever come off. Ideally I should have aligned the legs and drilled holes before putting the topper in place but it was too late to do that by the time I'd thought of it. Maybe next time.

The leather braces I straight up stole from a Duncan Rhodes video:

• Doombull Brown
• Nuln Oil
• Doombull Brown glazed into some volume highlights again.
• Rust Orange TTC (or Squig Orange from Citadel, but mine had all dried up) to edge highlight.

Very simple and yet effective. The weapon grips were similar:

• Doombull Brown
• Carroburg Crimson
• Rust Orange to highlight
• Doombull Brown glazed over the highlights to knock them back slightly.

I still have the rest of the squad to complete all of these steps for and so I suspect the next update might take another week or two. Everything is just slow going right now. At least the hard part is over and I think I can just paint without thinking of how to do each little detail.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Assemble!

Surprisingly shorter time to finish these models, but they now done. Matt varnished, highlighted, based.

The first piece of trivia is the edge highlights are actually the same colour as the final volume highlights through the airbrush, and so they're not very visible. I had considered mixing Gauss Blaster Green for something stronger, but the slightly satin finish of Citadel (or Warhammer) paints is enough and I didn't want the colour shift with a stronger edge highlight. Basically I think these models look just fine without much in the way of edge highlights at all.

The black turned out alright in the end. I did tone back the jump packs a good deal and the matt varnish softened things further. I think I like Basilicanum Grey over Dawnstone and might explore that with the airbrush at some future point. The weapons weren't to my liking with the same visuals, so I might just stick with something a little more subtle than Dawnstone in future, at least for the airbrushing.

Overall, despite the minimal effort and intentional limiting of colour choices, I think these turned out ok. That's partially the colour scheme itself: blue, green, turquoise, are just seemingly much easier to work with compared to reds. The sculpts lend themselves very well to airbrushing too, with the large and softly curved surfaces and relatively sparse detail.

Once I had the colours and paints picked out, everything went fairly quick. Painting in sections with a single colour throughout the day helped a lot, particularly with the metallics. It still goes quickly to get the basic armour, then very slowly filling in details, then suddenly very quick again to finalise and finish each model. It might only be tabletop standard, but I'd be proud to have a whole army painted to this level.

Onwards to the next batch of models.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part V

 

Changing the clip must be difficult.

Not a whole lot going on still with regards to painting (work + other responsibilities) but these models are getting really close to being done. Bases, varnish, final highlights mostly, although there might be more decals in selected places because why not.

The major change since last time is the metallics. Here are are few more spots of TMM Ancient Gold that I think work well with Sons of Horus more specialised troops and I think I'll continue with that going forward. The silver/steel/whatever details though are so far just:

• Iron Warriors
• Black Templar
• Iron Warriors to pick out volumes again.

I wanted specifically to go back to a wash or contrast paint because of the speed here. It's not quite as smooth as layering up various glazes, but it's fast.

Cabling in places is Screamer Pink and orange (actually Rust Orange from TTC to replace my dried out Squig Orange) mixed in for a bit of "let's see what this does". I also used the orange on the ammo counter for the pistols, but I need to darken that down again with a red wash probably.

The other point of interest is actually using Basilicanum Grey to glaze over the excessive highlights on the jump packs. I think the edge highlights are still excessive, but it toned everything down and gave a very subtle colour shift to make the "black" more visually appealing.

Short post today.

-- silly painter

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part IV

 

Overhead lights must be bright.

There are very likely going to be a few "not a whole lot done" posts in the near future because I can't get a whole lot done during the week right now. Far from being dismayed, it's simply a challenge to overcome and figure out how to keep the models moving forwards in the most efficient use of time as I can manage.

This is actually part of a broader discussion on painting motivation. I see many videos on how to paint fast, how to keep up motivation, and all of that - but the they all miss a very crucial point: humans aren't machines. Motivations change and what works one day might not work the next. Some days I feel like using a specific synthetic brush, other days a good kolinsky sable brush - and I'm using exactly the same paint for exactly the same task. Some days I want to paint metallics, others I just want to glaze and highlight volumes. Some days I just don't want to paint. Find what works for you on any given day.

The last couple of days I've been painting one part of each model at a time. Not all the metallics, but for example all the gun barrels of each in turn, then I might paint all the intake brackets on the jump packs, and so on. It's been keeping the sense of monotony at bay, and with the same paint I've been able to do one piece at a time whenever I get a few spare moments.

The metallics are going to be Iron Warriors covered with Black Templar as a base coat. This might not be as fancy as some of the dedicated layering I do, but it's fast and will give decent contrast around the details. I'll go back with Iron Warriors to neaten up later, and then it will probably be Iron Hands Steel for highlights after the varnishing stage (which shouldn't be too far off now).

Aged Metal (TTM) for the studs and some chainsword detailing gives some variety to the model - the shade for outlining, and later (post-varnish) I'll use the light version to highlight.

The black armour is an interesting story. I basically thinned down Dawnstone and shot it through an airbrush after masking the models appropriately. The masking worked, which was the main reason for this, but the use of Dawnstone was not the best. I should have at least mixed it with Corvus Black, or perhaps a dark blue. Dawnstone is too desaturated and gives too much of a broad, rounded volumetric highlight. I'll probably thin down Basilicanum Grey and glaze over it to knock back the stone look, though it might be better if I mixed in the barest hint of a blue for colour saturation.

The models are coming together nicely and I think I have all of the colour choices decided upon, so now it will just be a matter of following through with known steps to get them done. I'll be busy for a while however and no guarantees that such steps will happen quickly.

-- silly painter.