Commander Dante - Part I

 

Head hunting.

One of the first models that I painted when I got back to painting was Commander Dante. That was a finecast model, and I had painted the metal version long ago (and had also given that army away long ago). The new, Primaris, Command Dante is an excellent update to that old sculpt. The basic design remains the same, but has been updated with modern approaches to miniature design, and of course a slightly larger scale.

I was thinking for quite some time about how to paint the new model. I wasn't going to do NMM, but I also didn't want to go for a simple approach - I wanted to try use metallics to push the envelope and see what I could do with them.

Originally I tried to base coat with the airbrush using Balthasar Gold. I was definitely leaning towards the original paint scheme itself and I like the darker colour that gives a more antique and master crafted feel to the armour. Unfortunately I forgot to first base coat with Rhinox Hide, and didn't know how to properly thin airbrush paints at the time. The result was very poor coverage with an awful lot of speckling, and black does not work as a shadow colour here.

After a very long time trying to think how I might want to fix airbrushing mistakes, I finally decided to simply go in with a brush using the same colours and smooth out the initial highlight volumes. The airbrushing, for all of the mistakes I made, still shows the volumes nicely and gives a great idea of where to place highlights. It's about here where I thought to deviate slightly and take some hints from the idea of painting NMM, but with metallic paints.

Only the left leg has been started because I wasn't sure how it would turn out and figured the legs wouldn't draw as much attention as the face, but do offer a large enough space to get an idea about how the rest would end up. All I did was mix Rhinox Hide and Balthasar Gold in varying ratios, layering and glazing over the volumes. The Rhinox Hide dulls out the Balthasar Gold, giving a very satisfying satin finish - highlights are certainly more reflective than shaded areas, but not excessively so. Flow improver helps to thin the mixture, and I'm starting to experiment with Lahmian Medium to slightly dull the more "pure" metallic glazing. I do want contrast in surface finish (more matt in the shadows, satin or slightly gloss on the brighter points), but I want more control over it and I'm hoping the medium will permit that.

I'm quite pleased with the result so far. I've already started on the "face" (helmet) and have highlighted that up further with Gehenna's Gold and Auric Armour Gold along the same lines. Gehenna's Gold has some Rhinox Hide mixed in mostly for the surface finish, and while it works I'm still considering pushing it a bit further. The details need more highlight contrast to properly make them out, which is something often missed when using magnifying glasses all the time.

-- silly painter.

Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack - Part III

 

I'm about...this tall.

Painting has been extremely slow going still, and that won't be letting up anytime soon unfortunately, but I have managed to finish all ten of the helmets (bar the sergeant insignia) and all the holsters (bar some finishing touches after the matt varnish stage).

The helmets were much easier to airbrush this time around, although I did mess up in a few places with too much pressure too close to the surface - this leads to the paint running in thin liquid veins and pooling in places. This was too unsightly for me and I went back in with Flash Gitz Yellow and Phalanx Yellow to rebuilt the highlights. Rebuilding them too quite a good deal of patience, a good brush, and some flow improver to make a glaze out of each colour, but it smoothed everything out in the end.

The gloss varnish as ever let the washes settle into recesses far easier without staining the rest of the area, with the slight exception of shallow depths. If the recess is too shallow and curves gently into the surrounding surfaces then I find that the gloss varnish impedes a smooth transition and it might need a few touch-ups later on. This is most noticeable up close on the stripe (for lack of a better term) on top of the helmets. Just something to keep in mind.

The eye lenses were relatively simple to do this time around, even with the reflection dot. A combination of a very pointy brush, paint which takes slightly longer to dry (flow improver, or use an ink), and a magnifying headset really helped in this regard. A few minor mistakes, but nothing that wasn't quickly fixable (or as quickly as poor coverage of yellow paint will allow for).

This leads me back around to the colour yellow. As a primary colour, it's actually difficult to get a very pure yellow - paints will naturally tend slightly towards the red or green side of things. Normally I would try to keep base, midtones, and highlights on one side, but here a mix is actually used. Averland Sunset is more of a red shifted base colour, but for example Flash Gitz Yellow (or at least my pot of it) is slightly green shifted. Does this really matter too much? Not entirely, thin enough coats will balance it out enough, but it's made me start to consider what is really going on, and if perhaps I could use something similar to my advantage in the future.

By highlighting with a very slight green shifted yellow over a red shifted yellow base, it pulls the result into a more balanced midpoint, giving a rather vibrant highlight. This won't work if the shift from either is too great - it will probably just end up looking more brown - and the highlight will need to be higher up in value as well (not a problem, that's partially what makes a colour a highlight). It also gives a little more contrast between final edge highlight and shadows. This would really only work with primary colours because of how difficult it is to mix up a "pure" primary colour, but it explains why the red paints I use work so well - there's a subtle blue hint in Carroburg Crimson, and the final highlight of Wild Rider Red is more of an orange (sometimes excessively so, and I need to knock it back with Evil Sunz). I've not tried it too much with blue. There's no reason secondary colours can't follow this as well of course, it's just going to rely much more heavily on glazes to shift colours where wanted - partially why Lamenters Yellow is very good at highlighting greens.

None of the above is really anything new, and seems almost obvious. The key difference for me was not really any hidden colours in a colour wheel, but instead a new way of thinking about my selection of paints for a particular scheme. Normally I might be thinking "that one looks brighter, I'll go with that", but now I'll think much more along the lines of "that one looks brighter and shifted away enough that a glaze will pull it towards the colour I really want".

I guess I'll see what difference it makes with future models, however long it takes me to start on something more experimental again.

-- silly painter

Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnought - Part II

 

He can always headbutt - and win.

I was motivated to do a little more of the Furioso, so thought it about time to do an update. Some of it has actually been sitting a while and was done alongside the Librarian.

Firstly, the left shin name plate I'm particularly proud of. I didn't change how I paint it at all, but everything came together almost perfectly - it was the shadowed upper area that I noticed early on and leaned into, matching the highlighting elsewhere on the model. I can't really repeat this on every model - the sculpt itself is slightly concave and the painting simply accentuated the depth. Writing on that will certainly be done with a decal.

It's worth noting that this model was the last I had done with the three coats of reds to build up highlights. That's why they're not quite as bright of "punchy" as with the Librarian. I'll need to really sharpen up the edges later.

The sarcophagus will be the next item of focus now that basic torso colours are blocked in. The hope is that once I can make the sarcophagus either complete, or nearly so, then it will start to make the rest of the model look nearly finished, and that will motivate me to carry on more quickly. I fully intend to the follow the box art for basic colours. The arms I'll focus on once the core of the Dreadnought is finished.

The white wings on the torso (and again on the arms actually) is something I think I like, and was incredibly simple to do. Corax White as a base coat, and then a mix of Apothecary White / Basilicanum Grey / Contrast Medium (about 1:1:2) to give definition. Given the already white look, there was no point is trying to highlight anything further and I'm all for the softer shadows in this case. The one downside is that the medium used can dry a bit thick; it's fine as it is, but if I add anything more than paint will start to obscure detail. The intent is to try this same effect on the crossed bones, but given their lack of detail it might not turn out quite as nicely.

The metallics were applied with an airbrush, and poorly at that, but fortunately are dark enough that I can get away with simply highlights later. Metallic paint through an airbrush definitely needs thinning before use, but not too much or it really easily separates and pools weirdly. I do want to try a different approach at some point, which is to drybrush metallics over a black (or very dark) undercoat.

-- silly painter.

Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack - Part II

 

Not sure any pistol should be doing that.

It's been a while since my last post, and while I've trying to be doing anything hobby related, the reality is that I've been very busy and haven't done that much. I've not really touched the next Dreadnought, there's a fair bit waiting for airbrushing, and I have another particular model that has all of a foot done. So with everything going so slow, I've taken a kind of break and have been very (very) slowly assembling more of the Assault Intercessor troops.

The first test model doesn't have too much additional done: some colours blocked in, a couple of decals applied, and glued to a base. What is more interesting however is the plasma pistol, which I took some inspiration from Angel Giraldez for. I don't really recall the actual paints used, but that's relatively unimportant: just use reds, oranges, yellows, mix in white. I was looking at the model and noticed that the red overspray gave an interesting look to the pistol, almost like it was slightly glowing, and I recalled a painting of Mephiston that Giraldez had done. I also have recently been thinking of OSL effects, and it occurred to me that instead of painting this pistol in the "normal" way, I would try a little OSL and punch it some more by keeping the rest of the pistol very dark in comparison (no metallics). This works really well in the end, but the trick was to use Corvus Black to build up from (or layer down to), which gives a coal black that's a little more flexible with the lighting. At any rate, I'm happy with the result.

The base is nothing special, but actually I painted eleven of them in a batch, all magnetised, and waiting on other models. This particular model is missing a gun holster, and actually after gluing one to another model I've decided to paint them all separately and glue them later. It just makes getting at the armour panels and undersuit ribbing that much easier. I'm also painting all of the helmets in a line, and they're nearly ready now. With the jump packs already given initial airbrushing and shading, that really only leaves the bodies to be done.

The main bodies I very likely will still not batch paint in one go. I'll limit it to two or three at a time, if for no other reason than it keeps the airbrushing sessions shorter and more manageable with the free time I have. Assembly though, that I've been doing on occasion as a kind of chillout exercise: assembling models without any rush, small details one at a time, means that I'm still getting something done and can keep at it whenever I have a few spare minutes. Kind of like painting with only one paint over the course of two or three days, it's sometimes much easier to keep a small set of tools handy over multiple days, rather than a small number of models that need a large amount of tools and paints.

I will probably keep going like this for another week, maybe with some painting of the Furioso when I get to the right paints, but keeping things moving at a slow and steady pace.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnought - Part VII (Showcase)

 

Space wizard in a robot suit.

I'm calling the Librarian Dreadnought done. As is typical, there's always more I could do, but I think it's time to move on to another piece now. I'm overall satisfied with the end result, and I think as a model it holds up well even after all this time. The character that it portrays beats any of the more modern dreadnought designs.

The red I think worked out quite well. I was a bit concerned that the varnish would tone everything back too far, but I think it's ok. The photo doesn't really do it justice - the gradients are a little smoother in reality, particularly on the right shoulder, but I'm hopeful that as I continue to refine it a little then it will become what I wanted airbrushing to achieve in the first place. I'll still paint special models by hand, but it can replace squad based work...maybe. I'll find out with the assault squad.

The force weapon I kind of just stopped with. I could go back in an do a lot more detail, but basically I just didn't feel like it. I probably would have if there wasn't a sculpted design already in place, though now I think about it I could just make that design glow.

It's about here that I was considering again about why I paint, and what I want to achieve. Ideally I'd like to move onto single miniature work one day. That's the goal. To do that however, I'd need to put aside painting up armies, as there's just no time otherwise. So instead I'm focusing on above average tabletop standard for squads, a little higher for characters, and building up an army in that style. It won't ever win a painting competition, but it sure looks nice on display and I can experiment a little more easily. All speed painting techniques, all hacks to make me paint faster, are only done without sacrificing quality.

All that said, I think I'll have to get out an extra-special model soon and really go to town with it, over time.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnought - Part VI

 

Put your...hands? In the air!

Some progress on this Dreadnought, even if it's painstakingly slow due to being basically incredibly busy right now. Still, progress is progress and it shouldn't be that much longer before I can call it done.

The major change has been to the base, where I went with a black marble again. Actually I also left some of the airbrushed red in places to give it some colour from that, but mostly I just played around with various colours to give the characteristic veins of marble. In doing so, I believe I've come up with some new ideas on painting marble.

One of the steps that's often missed with generic baby wipe and airbrush is that marble has shades, not just lines. Shades and transitions between them can often inform where to places veins actually, and soften some of the harder lines later. Normally I just fill in some colour and then feather it out randomly to help define these shades, but then I was playing with contrast paints and actually using something like them and allowing some "coffee staining" to take effect gives an easy, random, and convincing edge to act as a guide later on. The trick is to make sure it all flows in one general direction instead of being circular. Overlapping this effect (allowing drying time between of course) can even help give some depth impression, before and after building up some the striations. I want to explore this more later, and will definitely search for an excuse to do that - possibly with the next Dreadnought.

As a minor point, the colours were Abaddon Black, Corvus Black, Eshin Grey, and Mechanicus Standard Grey, with a little white or pale yellow mixed in places if I wanted something that little bit brighter.

When the marbling was done, I still wanted to add some shadows and highlights. Space Wolves Grey glazed into areas worked rather well to add shadow and some ambient occlusion, while Apothecary White acted as a general brightening filter. Using Apothecary White in a more concentrated fashion also helped give definition to the broken sides; marble has a quality where broken edges look brighter, and this was a fast and mostly acceptable way to achieve that look. A little Wyldwood around some areas in various concentrations (glaze vs shade) gave some more earthen tones, though I might add a little more rubble and dust before I'm done.

Moving onto metallics, I played with mixing blues, purples, yellows, and browns to get a machine oil look on pistons. In the end I mostly went with Snakebite Leather. On its own it's almost like a fresh lubricant oil, perfect for those parts which receive regular maintenance. Adding a blue or purple helps dirty it some more, edging it closer to thickened grease. I'll have to remember this when it comes to Imperial Knights.

Space Wolves Grey works nicely over Grey Knights Steel as well. I played with this on the force weapon, but there's not much to show there yet. It darkens without shifting the colour away too much, and I want to experiment with that to paint metallics in a NMM style.

Next up I'll be working on the scrolls, purity seals, etc, to put "writing" on them, and then I can probably lock everything in place with a varnish. Then I'll be able to see how well the reds turn out. I did edge highlight in a few places, but much of that will be toned back with the matt varnish and will need re-applying later. I just need a couple of days without being too otherwise busy and I could get it all done, but let's see how that goes. I'm not counting on it.

-- silly painter

Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack - Part I

 

Shiny armour is shiny.

As a bit of a background project (because I don't have enough of those already!) I bought a bunch of the older jump packs with the idea of converting an Assault Intercessor squad into a jump pack capable squad. This was before the newer models were released, but while I don't entirely dislike the newer jump pack design, the ankle thrusters look out of place to me. I also prefer the poses of the non-jump assault infantry, so just putting old style jump packs on them combines the best of both worlds really.

I also just realised that I haven't added all the appropriate bling to this model yet - various pouches, backup knife, holster, grenades, etc. I was apparently in a rush, so I'll need to glue them on later.

Mostly this model right now was an excuse to test a new way of painting up red armour. I don't have it fully nailed down yet, but I think it shows a lot of promise. The basic overview:

• Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red in a 1:1 ratio, over the whole model (airbrush to make this easy). This will serve as the shadowed colour.
• Mephiston Red (again with the airbrush) for basic midtone.
• Averland Sunset (still with the airbrush) to sketch out highlights.
• Blood Angels Red (Contrast) (yep, the airbrush) to cover the last layer and blend it all together.
• Gloss varnish (airbrush still makes this easy).
• Carroburg Crimson mixed with artist grade acrylic flow improver (not Lahmian Medium) and used as a pin wash.

There will of course be edge highlights later on, and a matt varnish followed by any edge higlight touchups, but that's the basic approach I'm trying to use now.

I've learned to properly thin paints in an airbrush, and that helps dramatically. Cleaning is quicker, fewer dry tip problems, and far more control. The Averland Sunset helps to show where the highlights will be without getting lost in smooth transitions, but I'm still getting used to upping the opacity with several layers here. The brighter it is, the more it will show through the Blood Angels Red filter.

The newer Carroburg Crimson formula works nicely as a pin wash when combined with acrylic flow improver. The older shade formula didn't seem to mix as well, and thinned out too much - just didn't seem to work as nicely. No water or dish soap was added - the flow improver has low enough surface tension as it is, and combined with the gloss varnish it was almost like working with an oil wash. The drying time is increased slightly too, so any mistakes can be fixed up quickly.

There are downsides of course. The gloss varnish obscures mistakes sometimes, and they only show up after the matt varnish is applied. I'm hoping that won't happen here, but I'm likely to do this first test model before I try move on to the next nine of the squad.

I'm both hopeful and slightly confident that this approach will work out. It's not necessarily fewer steps, but each step can be done with far more confidence. This means fewer mistakes to fix, and a greatly reduced time spent on each step. I should be able to get this basic level done much more quickly - but I'll very possibly only use this on basic squads. Special characters that I really want to stand out are still almost certainly going to use a trusty brush to really control the highlights.

I'll continue this model as I go with other projects, such as the Dreadnoughts which are next in line to be finished.

-- silly painter.