Sergeant of the Squad

Posted here today is the almost complete tactical squad sergeant. I've chosen to distinguish him from the squad leader (not shown) by the weapons he bears, and some more subtle colouring. The skull on the chestplate is painted golden, for example. The armour is also a little more ornate, making him stand out more from the rest of the troops.

There's not an awful lot different to the normal painting techniques I've already built up, but there are some small tidbits that are new (for me, at any rate). First off, I wanted the "golden" colour of the left shoulder pad insignia to differ slightly from the colour of the rope seen on the right arm - one is rope, the other is armour decoration after all. With that in mind, it was really quite simple:

• Averland Sunset (base)
• Casandra Yellow (wash)
• Yriel Yellow (layer highlight)

And that's it. Nice and simple, but effective. Additional highlights could be done with Flash Gitz Yellow, or perhaps White Scar, but I didn't deem it necessary.

The gold on the chainsword and elsewhere was done normally, however this time I used some Necron Compound to drybrush on a few highlights. If carefully done, this gives edges a bit more of a shine over sticking only to golden metallic paints. This is normal for Games Workshop to do (I tried it after seeing it done in a White Dwarf paint splatter). It's definitely a case of less is more, however, so I'll practise a little more with that.

The other item of note on this model is the base. It's not finished yet, and the photos really don't show what I want properly, but I've determined that painting the base before gluing the model is somewhat easier. I can also apply some Purity Seal spray (finally found a use for that) to help keep the technical paints from flaking off. There's normally enough flat areas to glue the model onto afterwards, especially if you keep it mind while painting.

While easier to paint, looking afterwards I noticed that something wasn't quite right: shading around the feet. The line between the model and the ground was a little too distinct; there should be some shading to help make the model and base really fit together. This is a very subtle effect, though I think it needs to be done more still in the model shown, but it really enhances the overall end result.
For the ground shading, I just used Agrax Earthshade around the feet, keeping it as close to where the feet meet the base as possible.

So a few things need things need fixing up, some skull icons need doing, and a bit more work on the base, but one can see how it will turn out.

-- silly painter.