Instead of the usual post of a work in progress of a model, this time I thought I'd start a summary of the steps I take to paint Blood Angels. These are for line troops, not special characters, but the formulae can be applied to most models anyway.
I intend to make this a two part post, after which I hope to have finished these Assault Intercessors and then move onto something new.
Armour
To begin with then, perhaps rather obviously, is the armour. Red. This is something mostly unchanged in the paints used since I began painting again, but has been tweaked and adjusted in how I do it, and probably will be modified more in time. I also almost always use an airbrush for this now, but the same can be done with a normal brush for more exacting highlight control.
- Black Primer. I use Chaos Black from Citadel (actually all the paints listed here are from Citadel because they're easiest for me to obtain). A dark grey might also work, but really anything dark so as to make shading a bit easier.
- Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1) (Air). I spray this over the entire model in an even coat. It might take two coats in places, but I normally find one sufficient. I have a pre-mixed bottle of this ready to avoid needing to mix it every time.
- Mephiston Red (Air). This is sprayed over most of the model. Some deeper recesses or heavily shaded areas (or areas I just want some gradient to show) are left alone.
- Evil Sunz Scarlett (Air). Highlight step mostly from above, but not really following the laws of physics when it comes to light. Models are painted for show, so a little artistic expression helps to do this. Mostly on the should pads, chestpiece, base of the feet, tops of the arms, tops of the backpack, that kind of thing. For helmets I do this step on the front face area. This may not always fit light sources, but it really draws attention to the helmet and makes it stand out.
That's really all for the airbrush. It's taken a bit of practice to get it how I want, but the results are much quicker than with a normal brush, and some very nice highlights can be done.
On with the normal brush, I keep the non-Air versions of all the above on my palette for the next steps. Sometimes the airbrush goes places I don't want and need to pull back highlights, or increase them in others, mostly by just glazing as appropriate.
- Crimson Carroburg used for recess shading. Directly applied to recessed areas to help outline them. If mistakes are made, they can be corrected later.
- Wild Rider Red for edge highlighting. Not every edge needs to be done, and this is a case of just getting a feel for it.
- Evil Sunz Scarlett very thinly glazed over the previous step. I find strong edge highlights make everything a little too neon in appearance, like it belongs in Tron, so I prefer to tone down edges that are too bright. Glaze consistency is key.
And that's about all for red armour. Red isn't the only colour for Blood Angels armour however: helmets can be red, blue, yellow, or gold, there's all gold armour, and there's black for the Death Company. All of this follows the same techniques as above, but with different colours.
For blue armour:
- Kantor Blue (Air)
- Macragge Blue (Air)
- Drakenhof Nightshade (recess shade)
- Caledor Sky (edge highlight)
For yellow armour:
- Averland Sunset (Air).
- Flash Gitz Yellow (Air).
- Phalanx Yellow (Air).
- Casandora Yellow (outline areas).
- Fuegan Orange (deeper recessed areas).
- Dorn Yellow for extreme edge highlights.
For gold armour I'm still getting that sorted with the airbrush, but likely it will follow the steps used recently on the Sanguinor. For now though:
- Balthasar Gold
- Seraphim Sepia as general shader, mostly in recesses. Removes metallic shine, but that's fixed up later.
- Gehenna's Gold for an initial highlight. It's best to do this after any varnish has been applied.
- Auric Armour Gold as trim highlight.
For black armour I'm again still experimenting with the airbrush but it should mostly follow the same steps as with a normal brush:
- Corvus Black over all the the armour. This colour is hinted more towards grey anyway, so highlighting is much easier to perform from here.
- Eshin Grey as initial highlight.
- Dawnstone as edge highlighting.
- Abaddon Black, thinned down to glaze consistency, over the previous steps to tie it all together. This can be done with an airbrush too, but more selectively applied.
Black trim on armour is done exactly the same as described above, but with a normal brush.
Weapons
For the most part, weapons for Blood Angels have black casings. This is painted exactly the same as the steps above for black armour. The difference comes in with the metallic components:
- Iron Hands Steel over the metal areas. This is a darker metallic, and great to build up from.
- Nuln Oil over the previous step. This will remove any shine, but that's ok.
- Leadbelcher thinned a little and used as a highlight. This will restore shine, but be careful to leave the recessed areas alone.
- Ironbreaker for edge highlighting. This can also be thinned substantially and applied after any varnish step to restore the metallic shine of those areas, which is something I normally do.
I rarely do any further highlighting beyond this point, but on the odd occasion I might use Stormhost Silver or Runefang Steel if I really want a bright edge.
The handles of special weapons, and maybe chainswords in future, is very simple:
- Doombull Brown over the handle.
- Tuskgor Fur to highlight some areas.
- Carroburg Crimson over the entire area.
Chainswords have an engine cover that I'm going to start doing differently, following usage on the Death Company Assault Intercessors:
- Screaming Bell base.
- Reikland Fleshshade Gloss. The gloss doesn't apply as strongly, which I find useful on occasion.
- Hashut Copper as highlight after any varnish has been applied.
- Fulgurite Copper as a final edge highlight.
Varnish
I do varnish my models, using the old Purity Seal from Citadel. Metallic steps I complete after this, to restore their appearance, as noted in places above. Sadly Purity Seal is no longer available, and I think a more satin finish is used on the replacement, but I'll find that out when the spray can runs out.
Next Time...
Next time I'll give a rundown of various details: purity seals, gemstones, eye lenses, etc. Steps given here will cover most of the model, but details end up taking just as long - and are equally as important.
-- silly painter.
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