Blood Angels Standard Bearer (Showcase)

 

Banner Man.

The last of the Primaris from the Dark Imperium boxed set, a couple of first points: the writing on the banner is terrible (more on that in a moment), and I can't really understand Blood Angels, with Dante as Chapter Master, calling these guys an "Ancient". So I'm sticking with Standard Bearer.

The banner itself is the most interesting part, painting-wise, of the model. There's a lot going on there, and quite a few new things on my part. The background yellow is essentially the same as for the Lamenters Gravis Captain, but I used stippling a little to create some highlights. They were smoothed over later, but enough shows through to give that cloth impression. There's also some Casandora Yellow around edges just for definition.

The edge box and halo were done with an NMM style approach as this fits with a banner: it's some kind of embroidered pattern, but the artistry behind it would lend naturally to NMM techniques. This was in the end:

• Dark Reaper as a first step. This is a layer paint, so multiple layers will be needed.
• Thunderhawk Blue as first stage highlight.
• Fenrisian Grey as second stage highlight.
• Nuln Oil in a few key places to give some more contrast.

Happy enough with the results for that, and may well keep it in mind for future NMM, perhaps with an edge paint to punch the contrast a little more if necessary.

The lower panels of the banner were helped along greatly with some decals. 2nd Company, and so a number 2 is shown. I added a little filigree to outline the panel, which thanks to a size 000 Windsor & Newton brush worked out rather well.

Scribbling on the purity seals and banner were done with a fineliner pen, and of course coated with (spray) varnish to seal it and give a matt finish. As can be seen, it gives excellent results for small writing, but doesn't scale very well. In future I will rectify that problem by using more ornate writing, but I guess I was just in a rush this time around. With a bit of planning though, and a decent font, I'm convinced it could be greatly improved upon and still look just as effective as though a brush were used.

On the subject of the fineliner, one new approach that works rather well on larger scrollwork where mistakes are far more visible is to first coat it with a varnish of some kind. I used Stormshield, but any varnish is fine. If a mistake is made, a little bit of cleaner (I'm still using airbrush cleaner) and a cotton bud can be used to wipe it clean without damaging the underlying paint. I actually did just that on this model - wiped off and rewrote the word "blood", something I wouldn't have found quite so easy with just paint.

Not seen in the photo, I didn't wait long enough for the decal on the left pauldron to completely dry before the spray varnish step, so it has some little bumps similar to on the Gravis Captain. It's not readily seen, and there's no frosting again, so it's not all that bad. Also not seen in the photo, the left hand is painted black in homage to the old Terminator style. It just seemed to fit.

Finally, the banner keeps breaking off this model. It's a little frustrating, and the connection points are small and thin enough that pinning wasn't something I was willing to tempt. Have to remember this when handling this model in future.

-- silly painter.