Legion VI - Space Wolves (finished)

Scientifically proven to be a bad photo.

Before anyone complains, yes I know the shoulder pad colours aren't correct and it's missing Legion symbols, etc. Just pretend it's before their Primarch was found.

And the photo is really bad. I'm in the middle of a cleanup, the lighting isn't setup again properly, and I still don't have a decent camera to use. Which is a shame, because the model looks very flat in this photo, but actually has quite a lot of shading. No matter.

Not really that much to say. The model was painted. I tried some contrast paint for the eye lenses, but really it didn't turn out much better than normal methods. The area is just too small and requires more shading than contrast paints are capable of.

There is one cool thing I did learn, which naturally isn't shown in the picture, and that's Black Templar over Leadbelcher. A contrast paint over metallics in detail areas works rather well. It's a different kind of shading compared to using any of the washes, so can be used to help differentiate parts of the model. I tried it on some cabling on the backpack, and it works really well. I've struggled with "metal cabling" in the past, but I think this might just work ok.

-- silly painter.

Legion VI - Space Wolves

Simply because I wanted to try out the blue-grey colour scheme of the Space Wolves, a parallel project to the Aggressors is another Legion model. This colour scheme is important because I intend to use something similar (if perhaps a shade darker) when I eventually unpack some of the Adeptus Titanicus models.

Why only half the metallics are done is anyone's guess.

Initial airbrushed colours were The Fang, Russ Grey, and Fenrisian Grey. These worked fairly well, although later I used a very slight Drakenhof Nightshade through the airbrush as well, just to give some extra lighting contrast. That shade was also used with a traditional brush in the recesses later on, and to mark out areas where mistakes were made.
Mistakes happen. Battle damage is one way to hide these mistakes, if they can't be easily fixed normally, and sadly that is a problem with the airbrush sometimes. Either because of the "grain/noise" associated with using an airbrush, or because of slight colour variations, trying to touch up with a paintbrush might not quite look right. With experience, mistakes are minimal and normally close to edges that are more easily fixed with a highlight or shade, but sometimes there's sometime more serious. So in this case I'm still deciding whether it will be battle damage, or perhaps I could write runes around the right greave. Or both.
In any case, the metallics on this model are:

• Balthasar Gold
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss) (not shown in the picture here because the areas are too small)
• Sycorax Bronze
• Skullcrusher Brass

Now the last layer paint might seem an odd choice. It's a different hue than Sycorax, essentially making the final highlight a slight shift in colour as well as being a brighter edge. This ultimately works, but it's difficult to pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps it's because reflections often end up that way, with a reflected light being a different colour than reflected flooring. Certainly it helps give the appearance of directional lighting - and it might be well worth investigating this more in future, though I will probably just keep it as a subtle thing with this model.

I also got my hands on some of the new paints from Games Workshop, and decided to give them a go on a boltgun. I was particularly curious about some of the blacks, seeing as I struggle with highlighting that sometimes.

Quick edging of boltgun...

Above is Grey Seer as a base, with Black Templar (contrast paint) slathered on top. The edges really do stick out like they're highlighted, it's not just the poor lighting and photography skills. Still, on something with flat surfaces like this, it  looks like many applications of a shade. There's no sense of lighting direction, no uniform gradient,  and a somewhat blotchy appearance in areas. Edges in particular are always apparent; there's no discrimination of natural lighting, it's more like escaped visual from Tron. Above is a rare case of the photo looking much better than the actual model.

...now with more grimdark!

Corvus Black (a new base paint) thinned down  to the rescue, with the more traditional Abaddon Black on top of that. I'm unsure which was better to stick with, but the end result is effective enough. Does it compare to layered blending? Well, no, not really, or at least not yet. A bit more experience with the paints and it might. I did, however, get it done in a fraction of the time, and it's good enough for my version of tabletop quality.

So I'll continue to use contrast paints and see how well I get on. I think the potential is there with boltguns to give a basic start. Black is a very difficult colour to highlight, and this may make it easier in doing the reverse - create some definition highlights, and then darken areas down to black afterwards.

Lastly, Corvus Black has definite potential. It's ever so slightly more light, perhaps with just a hint of grey, or blue-grey. It's not much, but in having that to work from it makes it such a better base to use for highlighting from. I will have to try it out on the shoulder pad trim for the Aggressors. All in all, I believe the new paints from Games Workshop are well thought out. Not just the contrast paints, but new base and layers fill niches that have been missing for a while. And bringing the Forgeworld paints back, and indeed making it a part of the standard range, is excellent to see. I look forward to many more Legion models to try all these paints out on.

-- silly painter.

Contrast Paints (early impression)

Down at the local GW store (or Warhammer store), I managed to play around with the new contrast paints for all of 5 minutes. Not much time to see what they can really do, but enough to get an impression of them.

They're definitely something different.

I've seen the term "thick wash" bandied about a little bit. Is that accurate? Well, yes and no. Contrast paints do share some of the properties of a wash (shade) paint: the contrast paint will pool more in recesses, leaving raised areas with a thinner application. They are more translucent than a base, or even layer, paint, and do appear to work best going from light to dark (e.g are best applied over a lighter colour rather than a darker one).
Where a wash is close to the flow properties of water however, a contrast paint is more like a gel. It doesn't pool in recesses so much as the pigment seems to get drawn into them as the paint drys. I'm not sure it should be applied either as heavily as some apply a wash, or if it should be applied more. The tagline is "one thick coat", and I didn't really play around with that aspect much - too used to the multiple thinner coats to do much else. Contrast paint is also designed to be applied everywhere, whereas a wash is more for applying in select areas.

I'll be honest. I don't think contrast fits well with Space Marines. The armour plating is too smooth and large of an area, and the contrast paint can easily leave "tide marks" behind. A bit of experience will help with that, but it's still very difficult to get an even application over a larger smooth surface. The end result is a lot of samples look blotchy. I personally think traditional layer paints will give a much smoother finish on the armour.

It's not all bad though. Perhaps some of the browns (or whichever colour) can be used to dirty around the feet some, tying the model more in with the base. Where a contrast paint really shines however, is anything organic. Skins tones, perhaps fur, parchment, cloth, skeletons, rope, etc. I can see it being extremely useful in those cases. Lizardmen especially are likely going to benefit from these paints, and Orks. Even Eldar (or Aeldari now I suppose) where there is something closer to fabric between their armour plating. An Avatar would look pretty nice.

So I don't see the paints as the answer to everything. They're another tool to be used - good in some areas, not in others. I personally will see how well the black works with boltguns as well - initial impression with that shows promise, but it will take some experimentation to get right.

Sadly, the local store was unable to order any for me (everything sold out already - though quite how that should happen with a pre-order I don't know). I suspect it will be a few weeks before I can get my hands on some.

Last note: Grey Knights Steel base paint. The airbrush variant is a very nice colour indeed, and I'm glad to see it coming to the traditional brush.

-- silly painter

P.S - photos of slow works in progress coming soon. I hope.