Space Marine Heroes 2 - Part II

 

If that's the hammer, I'd like to see the nail.

This post is fairly short and is just being used to keep track of another attempt at the yellow of Imperial Fists. There has only been the airbrushing so far, with no edge highlighting or recess shading done yet. Why an Imperial Fist? Yellow is a difficult colour that needs practice, and the model just seemed to really fit for them. Doesn't have to be anything more than that.

This time around I tried to undercoat with a red base (actually the Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark mix I use to base Blood Angels with) and then given a zenithal highlight of (thinned) White Scar. Over this I applied Averland Sunset. The intention was to try give some depth to the yellow, and see how much of the undercoats would show through. Did it work? Yes, but not to the degree I wanted. Thinning the yellow more wouldn't have given good coverage, and any less would have given too much. I'm not convinced this approach works with yellow, so I'll avoid the undercoat next time - or try again with a much brighter zenithal.

One point to remember is that Averland Sunset worked brilliantly for fire based OSL, particularly over the red. It's not a bright yellow, somewhat more mustard instead, and would perfectly suit the glow of a fire.

Moving on with Flash Gitz Yellow for an initial highlight, then finishing with Phalanx Yellow to bring back that near-white pizzazz that is iconic of the Imperial Fists. At this stage some of the depth was lost, so a shade of Angron Red (the best of the clear range of Citadel air paints, in my opinion) was sprayed from underneath to add that back. In future I should probably do that step before the final highlight, but it doesn't matter much.

Next there needs to be some edge highlighting and recess shading. The edge highlighting will be Dorn Yellow, which will hopefully convince the eye of the yellows being brighter overall, without actually being brighter anywhere except the edges. For recess shading I'm considering Seraphim Sepia, however that is more of an earthen red that's better suited to e.g Lamenters. An orange shade is likely a better contrast to help outline the model.

The rest of the Terminators are all highlighted and shaded, with most fully assembled. A couple of heads remain to be done yet. A thin layer of gloss varnish still works wonders and made the shading step much easier, and also helps protect the airbrushing. I'll see how these turn out before deciding if it's going to be a permanent addition to my painting steps.

-- silly painter.