Captain Tycho - Part II

Wipe your feet before coming in.

Tycho is now finished to a degree that the Purity Seal varnish can be applied. Given the amount of metallics on the model, it means actually being entirely finished is still at least a day's effort away (depending on motivation), but that's much closer than to the start.

There's again not a whole lot that hasn't been detailed before. And once again, having built up a formula for Blood Angels (and written it down!) makes the process that much faster.

The one area that is new, and not actually seen much in the photo, is the pistol holster. I was playing around again with that, and came up with:

• Rhinox Hide over the entire holster.
• Gorthor Brown for basic highlights.
• Druchii Violet over the whole holster, careful not to let it pool too much.
• Gorthor Brown again to re-highlight. This was done while the shade wasn't quite dry, so it blended into the brown nicely as it was being applied.

Seems to work quite well for this model, but I'm not convinced it would be as effective on something else. This is another case of the sculpt showing itself off, and the paint job doesn't need to add much.

The finecast models may be older designs, but those designs certainly have a lot of character to them.

-- silly painter.

Captain Tycho - Part I

Phantom of the Golden Opera.

The next model in the finecast collection is Captain Erasmus Tycho. I decided to paint him pre-Death Company, for no other reason than I felt like it.

There was no airbrushing on this model. I considered it, but ultimately decided that I would do the armour the same as the Sanguinary Guard, and the highlighting metallics have no matching Air range. I'll save airbrushed golden armour for the Custodes.

Not a whole lot that hasn't been covered before, other than the hair. I wanted grey hair; not the white like with Mephiston, and not normal Blood Angel blonde, but grey as a nod to the ongoing trauma that Tycho suffers from the Weirdboy attack. Very simple in this case:

• Grey Seer over the entire hair.
• Black Templar (Contrast) over the entire hair.
• Grey Seer, thinned, to highlight some raised areas.

That's it. Don't see the need to do anything more, just rather let the sculpt show itself off.

The eye was a massive pain to paint. I did that before any other part of the face fortunately. Once done, I just had to be careful not to accidentally cover it. Again I used something other than white for the, uh, "whites" of the eye. In this case I had Grey Seer at hand, and so used that. It really works better than using something like White Scar. The mask eye was much easier, and though not yet finished, it's basically a red lens.

The loincloth I painted white first, and then remembered I should have started with more of a brown. Oh well. Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade to the rescue, and next I'll just rummage around with whatever I feel like to try bring it back to a cloth appearance.

About the armour in general, that will actually be highlighted last. The varnish spray dulls metallics, and so I would have to either repaint it, or rely on 'Ardcoat. That latter doesn't quite give the same effect, so the former it is - and though it won't be protected by the varnish, it's also much easier to fix later on.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part IV

No idea if this is really the 4th post of Horus, but I'm changing the heading titles to give numbering for each work in progress and so I need to use something.

You put your left leg in...

This isn't much of an update, mostly just proof of continued work on the model. The left leg is pretty much done now, although the knee pad remains to be done of course.

There's been no change to the colours normally used, this is simply extra work done. I'm not wholly convinced by how the metallics are looking in the photo. They do look different with more natural lighting, but it's not picking up the contrast as nicely as I'd like. I may have to go back in and try fix some of that; a little more shade here, a bit of highlighting there. I'll come back to it once more of the model is done, to make sure I don't unbalance things.

A fine brush, and a wet palette are making all the difference to the speed of painting too. It's much easier to switch back & forward between paints, and it really does speed up everything. Maybe it won't be months before the other leg is done.

-- silly painter.

Nekima - Part V

Pinup for Kurt Wagner.

Nekima is finished, based, and varnished.

The base was quite easy in the end, and like all good bases it was just playing around to see what worked. The grass is Scorched Grass from Games Workshop, which despite the name works quite well to give an impression of fields of normal grass. The trick behind it is that the it's not a uniform green; shades of brown and gold give it some extra depth.

Originally I had painted the base, not knowing quite how much the flock would cover it. That step wouldn't be needed in future if so much is going to be applied.

I won't go into exact details of everything, but the small note that I did figure out is to add some flock to the rocks, because they've probably been there for some time and plant life will find purchase wherever it can in such circumstances. Also, once the PVA glue was dry, some small amount of Agrax Earthshade over the grass on the rocks helps to tie it in a bit more.

One must wonder who her tailor is.

The original plan was to add some tufts of grass, or shrubs, but the flock works so well that I just don't feel the need. I could work on the little stream some more, but motivation is moving on to other models, so I'll just leave it be.

Overall, a fun model, and fun to try something different.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part V

Lord of Death

I was originally intending Mephiston to be a model done in the background between other projects, however I ended up finishing the model straight away. I consider the model now done.

The skulls on top of the psychic hood balance well against the light coloured base. I was worried a little about that, but it ended up ok, and the focus is still on Mephiston's face. Those skulls weren't anything special:

• Wraithbone
• Skeleton Horde (Contrast)
• Wraithbone, thinned down and used to highlight in places.

Contrast paints are useful for smaller details I find.

Stormvermin Fur was used to edge the skulls on the cloak. Small matter perhaps, but it frames the details nicely without going overboard.

The sword, Vitarus, perhaps could have gone with a red flame effect. It's sometimes described that way in books, and various artworks show that, however for this model it would have unbalanced everything. I also felt that the sword is too long to go with a similar detailing as was used for the Grey Knights, again because it would unbalance the model. The hilt however I kept to my "psychic weapon brass" scheme:

• Balthasar Gold.
• Reikland Fleshshade.
• Runelord Brass as a first stage highlight.
• Sycorax Bronze for edge highlights.
• Ironbreaker, just very small amounts on the skull icon to help make it stand out.

The blade itself I ended up playing around a bit with. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it does match the glowing eyes and balances against the glow of the plasma pistol:

• Leadbelcher over all the blade.
• Nuln Oil over all the blade, keeping a little more in some areas to show the shape of the blade better.
• Leadbelcher higlight as necessary.
• Ironbreaker highlight to bring extra shine to areas.
• Talassar Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, to glaze some blue glow onto the blade.
• Aethermatic Blue, thinned greatly with Contrast Medium, for additional glazing.

The plasma pistol looks mostly as it was done. Nothing particularly special about it, however I wanted something around the heat vents to show it as having been used. Not the usual kind of burnt discolouring many people use because Mephiston would use something of superior make that would be less prone to overheating, but something still. In the end I just dabbled a bit of Balthasar Gold between the vents. It's quite subtle, and can't really be seen in the photo, but on the actual model it just adds that little something extra.

As for the rest of the model, those are details that I've covered before and are no different this time around.

The final note worth mentioning is what I didn't do. Mostly people will try to add edging around the cloak, embroidered details or some such. I looked back at the finished model and decided again not to do this. The shading gives enough difference that there's no need for additional details to help give form or balance of colour. Trying to add freehand would only ruin the cohesiveness of the model, not to mention that I would likely ruin the freehand itself as well. Better to leave the model as it is.

And so the finecast version of Mephiston is complete, and looking much better than the original metal version I once had. Hopefully all these notes will make painting the Primaris version relatively quick, and it would be nice to have the two models seen side by side.

-- silly painter.

Nekima - Part IV

Magical night-light sword.

A good deal of progress on Nekima, in fact the body is done and all that remains is the base.

Diving right in, the left shoulder armour and right vambrace was painted mostly in traditional gold:

• Balthasar Gold.
• Reikland Fleshshade.
• Gehenna's Gold as a first stage highlight.
• Auric Armour Gold as edge highlight.

the top of the armour looks more like some kind of fur, and I figured it was to padding under the metal. So this was painted differently:

• Wraithbone.
• Gore-Grunta Fur (Contrast).

Small detail, nice and simple, didn't need any further work.

The sword hilt metallics:

• Balthasar Gold.
• Reikland Fleshshade.
• Runelord Brass as a first stage highlight.
• Skullcrusher Brass as an edge highlight.

The last step is a little bit of a mistake really. Skullcrusher Brass is far more yellow than Runelord Brass and doesn't particularly fit. I have trouble with brass colours still.
The blade is more interesting:

• Caliban Green down the length of the blade.
• Corvus Black down the end, in multiple thin passes.
• Kabalite Green glazed towards the base of the blade, starting at about half the length of the blade and building up to a solid colour at the base.
• Sybarite Green, about a quarter of the length of the blade and again multiple glazes. It's frustrating having nothing else to glaze while waiting for each pass to dry. Small dents and chips in the blade also had a little applied just for effect.
• Aethermatic Blue thinned with Contrast Medium and glazed over the entire blade to help tie it all together.
• Mechanicus Standard Grey thinly applied as edge highlights along the tip of the blade.

The blue-green appearance was deliberately chosen to complement the purples, but also to tie in with the eyes, as though she's channeling power through the blade.

Finally, hooves and horns. I borrowed the technique used by Darren Latham in his youtube series (soon to be removed - shame on you Games Workshop).

• Rhinox Hide over all the horns and hooves.
• Rhinox Hide / Abaddon Black (just mixed on the palette) on the tips.
• Doombull Brown over about half of the detail.
• Skrag Brown over about a quarter of the detail.
• Balor Brown as small highlight lines over the previous step. It was at this point I also reversed back to Rhinox Hide for the hooves. They stood out too much if the base of them was too bright, so I glazed backwards to with paint from the palette, just to tone it back.
• Ushabti Bone as further highlight lines, though fewer in number.
• Screaming Skull as final edge highlights. I also glazed Skrag Brown back over some of the horns because again they were too bright and it just didn't quite fit.
• Screaming Skull / Rhinox Hide (about 1:2) just mixed on the palette, and added as shine highlights to the tips of the horns. I also applied this to the tips of the wing "claws" for a bit of colour because I didn't know what else to do with them.

Takes a fair bit of patience with such small details, but it's those that really matter the most I find.

Quite a fun model to work with, and hopefully I won't mess it up with the base. I'm also contemplating whether I should really give this a pass of Purity Seal, but I suppose I should, even if it will dull the metallics. I can always use a bit of gloss on them later.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part IV

Yeah, go for a staring contest with this guy.

This next update on the progress of Mephiston mainly centres around the face, although other details have been filled in. They're small, so I'll get them out of the way first.

The plasma gun glow is Corax White, with Aethermatic Blue over it. That's it. I'm not sure I want to do more to the charging coils - it's good enough, and I daresay would work better on more precise sculpts. I have some Hellblaster marines that this should be tried on at some point.

The wings of the Blood Angel symbols purposefully have an edging of black. This signifies the Black Rage that Mephiston had to overcome, and is a part of who he is. The rest of the wings:

• Corax White
• Apothecary White (Contrast), applied over the entire area.
• Talassar Blue (Contrast), but thinned with water (not Contrast Medium) and with a very fine brush kind of shaded into select recesses to outline the wings. The water in this case helped it settle only into recessed areas, and thinning is important because I didn't want a stark blue against white wings.

Mephiston's face I wanted to be very pale, and so it's very different to the usual approaches I've been using.

• Corax White, very thin, mostly used to generate a little depth so that I could pick out details. Part of this was painting in the eyes, but they were painted over later so I won't go into detail there.
• Rakarth Flesh over the entire face, except for the eyes.
• Druchii Violet, using a very fine brush, under the cheeks, lips, a little around the brows, and just under the eyes.
• Reikland Fleshshade over the whole face, excluding the eyes.
• Rakarth Flesh again, to highlight the nose, cheekbones, chin, forehead, and to lighten areas where the previous shading steps were too dark.
• Deepkin Flesh for additional highlights. At the time I though I might have gone a little too pale, but with white hair (something Mephiston normally has in the artworks) it turned out quite well in the end.
• Talassar Blue, thinly applied around the eyes, and a little on the upper cheeks. This is meant to be a glow of power emanating from his face; originally I had "normal" eyes painted in, which looked good, but I basically wanted to experiment and try make the model feel more like some kind of powerful psyker.
• White Scar, applied across the eyes.

I'm still debating adding back in pupils to the eyes, but that might end up making him look like he's wearing blue makeup, so for now I won't touch it.

The hair is quite simple, and though an older model it was also designed very nicely and so I didn't have much trouble here. Still, a fine tipped paintbrush is really useful here, as it was for the face.

• Administratum Grey, two or three layers to get an even coat.
• Nuln Oil, just enough to add to the recessed areas without overloading everything with black.
• Administratum Grey to highlight the hair.
• Ulthuan Grey to further highlight the hair.

I didn't do any further steps. There seems no need. White Scar could be used later to add further highlights, but it might be too much in this case, so I'll likely just leave it as it is.

Nekima - Part III

Red pants time.

Continuing with Nekima, some additional colours have started to be added. The model is starting to come to life now, but much remains.

In the interests of getting the model done more quickly, the clothing is fairly simple. I'm relying mostly on the sculpt and shades to bring out the detail.

• Khorne Red over all the clothing.
• Drakenhof Nightshade over all of the clothing.
• Word Bearers Red to highlight. This red has a lot of brown in it, and gives a more earthy tone.
• Mephiston Red for select highlighting, just to brighten a few areas and because it was on the palette still.

That's really it. Perhaps a contrast paint would have suited for the leggings, or perhaps some mixing with brown a little more, but I'm not going to go overboard here; this miniature is for fun, not for competition. I've also painted the upper thigh areas as though covered by part of the leggings too. I would have preferred the purple tones, for flesh, but the model has some join lines in those areas and skin just didn't fit with that, so red stockings or something it is. It's more apparent from a different angle to that shown above - next time I might take a rear photo as well.

A very fine brush and a very small amount of Aethermatic Blue (Contrast) was added around the eyes. The detail is very small and getting eyes in there would have been too much of a pain. Instead, a kind of magical glow seemed fitting. Aethermatic Blue is actually more of a blue-green in colour, so it complements the reds and purples well.

Originally I was going to go with black hair, but decided that this might unbalance the model slightly, and a white or silver colour would frame the face better.

• Administratum Grey over all the hair. This needed two or three coats, especially as it's a layer rather than base paint.
• Nuln Oil. Not heavily applied, but enough to darken the recessed areas.
• Administratum Grey again to highlight.
• Ulthuan Grey for further highlights.
• White Scar, thinned down, for final highlights.

Needs a brush with a fine tip, and a good deal of patience, but whoever designed this model really did a good job in helping someone to paint it. I've had far more trouble with the hair on miniatures from Games Workshop.

I've been starting to consider how the base might look, and strangely I might end up going for a forested look. A small stream running next to the rocks, some tufts of grass about. Something different than a blasted battlefield.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) - Part III

Skull-dron at the ready.

A quick update on Mephiston, just to keep track of some of the details and not forget what I did. There have been some metallic areas added since last time, although they won't be entirely finished until after I coat the model in Purity Seal - a step that's still a little way off.

Cabling for the most part is:

• Leadbelcher
• Ironbreaker
• Runefang Steel
• Black Templar (Contrast, thinned with some Contrast Medium).

The contrast paint gives a different feel to the standard Nuln Oil wash, and I wanted to highlight it beforehand so that it shows through afterwards. The contrast paint also removes any shine, but I'm ok with that for the cabling.

Mephiston's gloves are another bit of an experiment:

• Dryad Bark.
• Nuln Oil.
• Warpfiend Grey, to highlight raised edges.
• Gore-Grunta Fur (Contrast paint). This was thinned substantially with Contrast Medium to make it more of a glaze; I found the previous step a little too cold, and wanted to bring a reddish brown tone back into the model. I'm not sure it's entirely worked.

Many models have a far more saturated brown for his gloves, but I wanted something a little closer to black. This may or may not balance out in the end, and I'll simply have to wait until more of the model has been done before I decide to change the tone slightly more or not.

The right pauldron, essentially a skull, has been painted very similar to how it was done for Lemartes long ago:

• Dryad Bark
• Nuln Oil
• Baneblade Brown, multiple thin layers in most areas except the deeper recesses.
• Purples and reds on the wet palette, applied in "shallow recessed" areas; normally I'd use shades here, but I was lazy and just used what was on hand. The effect should be similar in the end.
• Ushabti Bone on raised areas, in multiple thin layers. This included blending into the previous step, or glazing over it if it was too purple or red.
• Screaming Skull, highlighted on selected areas (mostly the most prominently raised sections).

There's still a slightly less clean look in the end. I'm not sure if this isn't partly from the nature of old sculpts in finecast: the surface itself isn't as smooth as plastic models. Still, it looks more like bone this way, perfect for Mephiston's armour, so I'm not going to try smooth it out.
The temples of the skull I'll probably do in Grey Seer, followed by Black Templar contrast paint. If I don't mention it in a later post, then that will be what I've done.

-- silly painter.

Nekima - Part II

Don't stare.

Next phase on the Nekima model: after the basic airbrush steps, go back with a paintbrush and further highlight and shade as necessary. This time it was more than perhaps I would have liked, but the airbrush phase still gave an excellent baseline from which to work. That, if nothing else, still makes the airbrush worth it.

I chose layer paints to work with going forward, mostly because they're more translucent than the base paints and I wanted to glaze more than cover up. Owing to a wet palette making the paints easier to mix, I simply put down Xereus Purple, Genestealer Purple, Lucius Lilac (an edge paint) and White Scar, and mixed them as necessary.

Don't use the edge paint. It has a very high pigment count, thicker medium, and does not glaze as easily. I had to cover up quite a few mistakes with that.

Genestealer Purple ended up as the primary colour used on the skin. This was highlighted in places by mixing in the White Scar. Xereus Purple was used to add some shade to places as necessary. Very little Genestealer Purple was used on the wings as well, but it wasn't highlighted to the degree of the skin; I want the wings to be darker and not draw attention away.

I've not used any shades at all on the model yet, although a blue based shade on the wings later might be used between membrane folds. On the subject of the wings, a little Warpfiend Grey along skeletal outlines gives them more depth without going too bright, or too purple.

-- silly painter.

Nekima - Part I

Born to the purple.

Today's post is about Nekima from Wyrd Miniatures. Not a Games Workshop model for once. A friend left some behind, and I've been contemplating how to go about using the models for some time. I think I've come to the point where I need to try different techniques, or simply different models, to progress as a painter. Not everything can be a Space Marine.

The miniatures I have from Wyrd are all unique, of a smaller scale than from Games Workshop, and entirely different from a design perspective. The model of Nekima has exposed flesh, wrapped clothing, ceratin (horns and hooves), leathery wings, and possibly a sword of dubious magic in nature. I confess that I think the main horns are overly large and unbalance the model, but I'm leaving them in place because it's something extra to paint.

The colour scheme I wanted as purple, just because I wanted to try more of a colour I don't normally play with. I didn't want a complementary colour for the clothing, so the primary for that would be red. Turns out that this is not an unpopular choice for this particular model. The sword I'll likely try some NMM on, using blue-green to complement the skin. Split complementary from purple tends towards green and yellow; bronze and gold metallics for sword details and armour will provide more yellow oriented tones.
The base I'm not entirely decided upon, but I do like the idea of blues around the feet, sort of like a magical aura lighting up otherwise neutral grey rocks.

The photo above is immediately after the airbrush base colours:

• Night Lords Blue over the whole model.
• Chemos Purple over most of the model, leaving some of the previous code in the downward facing areas.
• Genestealer Purple highlight.
• White Scar added to the cup, mixed in, and highlight larger curved areas of the body.
• Additional White Scar added to the cup, mixed in, further highlights.

The darker blue is done because that allows later shading to be more natural. The white mixed in was done to deliberately desaturate the purple and give a much brighter skin tone. The wings did not receive this step much, which is on purpose to help give them a more leathery look, and to keep focus on head and torso.
Going back and defining the abdomen muscles will prove to be an interesting challenge no doubt, but then that's all part of the reason to be practicing on such a different model design than I'm used to.

-- silly painter.

Chief Librarian Mephiston (finecast) Part II

Showing of his muscles.

Continuing with Mephiston, I thought it a good idea to fill in some of the armour and juxtapose it against the robes. This is the step that really starts to give definition to the model, and provides some insight to the feel of how it will finally look.

The chest armour is very similar to my standard approach to Blood Angels, just with a different shade applied. The different feel to Mephiston's armour comes predominantly from the form of it rather than the colour; Blood Angels are blood red anyway, so there's little need to change much to give that flayed appearance.

• 1:1 Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red over the whole armour. Actually I'm still using some of the artificer tint mix I did, but it's very similar.
• Mephiston Red, applied in thin layers and building up to highlighted areas.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet, used for additional highlighting.
• Mephiston Red again, glazed to pull back the previous step to a more pure red.
• Druchii Violet, applied carefully with a very fine brush in between muscle lines and other recessed areas. Used rather than the normal shade to increase the contrast a little further, and to help set aside Mephiston from other models.

Edging of the armour has so far had Balthasar Gold applied, and will be highlighted later: likely with Gehenna's Gold, and perhaps a very select amount of Auric Armour Gold if I feel like it. There's not much of the edging, and I don't want it to detract from the red, so highlights will be thin and few.

The skulls along the cloak are a simple matter of Corax White covered with Skeleton Horde (Contrast). Some mistakes need fixing, but there won't be much more done. This is more due to the detail limitations than anything else, and is perhaps the area where the model most shows its age.

Overall I'm happy with how the armour is going. It shows the red of a Blood Angel, but subtly darker, more menacing, as befits the Lord of Death's demeanour.

-- silly painter.