Blood Angel Hellblaster - Part I

Powering up.

With Mephiston completed, and despite other projects in the works, I wanted to carry on with more troops in an effort to simply get more models done. Primaris models are still good for airbrush practice, and I have pretty much everything else sorted for them, and so can get individual models done fairly quickly (by my standards).

Still, there's always something new with any squad. In this case, Hellblasters have plasma weapons. This means I had no reference for gun casing colours, but did have an idea for the plasma coils from the original Mephiston model.

So the plasma coils are quite simple in this case. I had thought of trying to use the airbrush for them, but ultimately decided that it would look out of place, and it was just as quick to use a normal brush anyway. This is really something that the contrast paint range excels at too.

• Corax White over all the plasma coils, and a little along the edges surrounding it. Alternatively for the edges, just make sure they're highlighted quite brightly.
• Aethermatic Blue over all the coils.
• Aethermatic Blue again, but heavily applied around the lower edges and allowed to flow over the surrounding gun casing areas.

I dabbled with a bit of Temple Guard Blue for lighting effects, but found it didn't really work properly.

I quite like the effect. It's not overly bright, but instantly recognisable as a plasma weapon - Hellblasters will easily stand out as such. The Aethermatic Blue works well as an energy colour, and being a green-blue complements red armour well, and is still distinct from the deeper blue of the helmets.

The head this time was done far more simply than normal:

• Wraithbone over the exposed head areas. A couple of coats was required to make it even, naturally staying clear of the eyes which were done previously.
• Guilliman Flesh contrast paint over the head.
• Eshin Grey, very thin, mixed with a little of the Wraithbone still on the palette, to give a shaved head impression. This step really gives a lot of character, and is definitely well worth doing.

The blues for the helmet (and right knee pad) are quite simple:

• Kantor Blue for the base.
• Macragge Blue for initial highlights.
• Caledor Sky for final edge highlights.

For other helmets I will likely use Drakenhof Nightshade in recessed areas to give a bit more depth, but it wasn't needed in this case.

Everything else is as normal. The model isn't complete yet, but it's not far off. The next squad member will have a little more contrast in tone from the airbrush step - this is something I'm still very much working on, but also getting better at. I don't think I'll ever beat the quality of what I can do with a paintbrush, but I'll leave that time consuming task for special characters.

-- silly painter.