Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

Low hanging jewels.

Diving right into it, the cloak I wanted to have some kind of texture. It shouldn't be too bright, shouldn't have hard edges, and should be a little dirty in places (the predilection for "my" Blood Angels to not have dirty armour in the middle of a battle does not extend to their cloaks). I also wanted to play with contrast paints some more. So ultimately, the red cloth is as follows:

• Grey Seer (base)
• Blood Angels Red (contrast)
• Agrax Earthshade / Lahmian Medium (1:1 mix, mostly in recessed areas)
• Astorath Red (dry, concentrating on raised areas, or where armour is directly pushing against the cloak)
• Sylvaneth Bark (dry, around the hem)

And that's really it. The last stage doesn't really show too well in the picture, but it gives the appearance of the cloak having been brushed against the ground quite heavily, and not just freshly back from steam cleaning.

Armour is even easier:

• Corax White (base)
• Apothecary White (contrast)

There are more stages to go as well. I may use some thinned Nuln Oil in deeper recesses, and I'm uncertain whether to use Ulthuan Grey or White Scar to highlight with at this stage. I'll pick an area for the former, to see if it's actually lighter than how the armour already appears or not. Overall though, I'm quite happy without how Apothecary White works for white armour, even if it's not something I paint much of.

I'm experimenting with my lighting setup a little. Once I have that organised, I should be able to better white balance and take much nicer photos.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal (WIP), Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

One eye is colour blind.

Still having some trouble with getting the lighting just right, but it's late and I wanted to get something written out. So the above picture will have to do.

Small progress on Horus after a bit of a break. Mostly just filling out the belt and remaining torso armour plating. Nothing new in terms of colours, so far it's just a continuation of the same I've used before.

I've been thinking for a while about how to paint the studs, for example those seen on the pauldrons. Most variations of Horus have them as silver, however I'm slightly concerned that it will be too bright and take focus away from the rest of the model. On the other hand, the rest of the model isn't really there yet, so it could actually balance out once the model is finished. Perhaps it's worth seeing if Leadbelcher can mix well with black, or otherwise blob some contrast over the top to tone it down somewhat.

I'm also still deciding on the colours for the mace (Worldbreaker). I could strictly speaking glue one of the arms on now, but I'll wait longer until the mace is nearly finished, and perhaps more of the left leg, for reasons of ease of brush access.

Hanging pretty low there.

Purely for additional experimentation with Contrast paints, I've also started on a Sanguinary Priest. It's the white armour that I'm interested in. The above is a test on areas that are actually hidden behind robes, so they're intentionally a little darker than normal.
The armour is:

• Corax White (primer, and then base paint for a smooth finish).
• Apothecary White (contrast paint)
• Basilicanum Grey / Contrast Medium (1:1)

That's really it. The recesses where shaded naturally from the paint. It's somewhat more grey than exposed armour should be, so future steps will just use Apothecary White, and then some white or light grey (perhaps Ulthuan Grey, or White Scar in a pinch) for edge highlights.
The robe seen here is:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Blood Angels Red (Contrast)
• Druchii Violet (Shade)
• Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1) for edge highlights

Actually the last step is Mephiston Red with some pigment added in, but the pure pigments can't be bought anymore, so the equivalent now would be to mix in Dryad Bark (something I've done for the airbrush paints). On the outer garments I'll probably just drybrush Mephiston Red directly for the last step, both to change the texture and make it a little brighter.

Choosing the right base prior to applying Contrast does make a noticeable difference, so it's important to get that right. I may use something slightly brighter for the outer garments, and the outer garments should be done before the armour. Otherwise it's going to make fixing mistakes very difficult; white is an unforgiving colour if mistakes are made in red.

-- silly painter.