Ancient Rylanor - Part IV (Showcase)

 

Purple Flame

Another Contemptor joins the "calling it done" group. There is a whole lot more that I could do: more highlights, more panel lining, subtle oil and grime colours, etc. I have more models to do however, and I'm happy enough knowing that it's not lack of skill stopping me - it's just wanting to do something else. Also I'm not going to proof-read this, so excuse any mistakes; this is not a professional blog, just notes on what I did and why.

Lack of weathering kind of worked in this case I think, and I'm glad I kept everything more clean just to show it off. The purple highlighting works quite well, and the airbrush grain isn't really visible beyond a few centimetres.

The trim metallics is simply continued with Liberator Gold for edges, and some glazing to restore shine, and then Canoptek Alloy for the higher edges and eagle. I wanted the eagle to stand out slightly, and it just seemed that extra highlight attention would do that. Canoptek is also starting to be a favourite colour to edge highlight with because it's very desaturated without being silver.

Some of the metal areas I kept dulled from the matt varnish as a style choice. The best example of this is the assault cannon: I didn't want it to be bright, I wanted dark without being black. Using metallics for colour, and then varnish to remove the shine and dull it slightly, works for weapon barrels.

The shield designs I didn't know what to do with. Too bright and it would draw too much attention, but it needed something artistic. I also couldn't decide what to write across the scroll, and for that I ended up showing the Legion number (III) - so I leaned into that to write a stylised version of III on the shields. A black shield background, with gold lettering - and that was done using an artificer brush, a good amount of concentration, and a magnifying headset. Simple, stylised, and without clashing against the rest of the model.

The left leg design I wanted as (probably) laurel wreath I painted up as a green just because I didn't want it to be metallic, and it shouldn't draw too much attention away from the face (helmet) area, especially with the teal around the latter. Viewed from the side however, and then it starts to be a bit distracting, so the shoulders have white decals (eagle heads from some Aeronautica kits). These decals are far too bright, as I suspected might happen, but I'm not going to try change that now. A slightly more grey would have been better perhaps, but I won't be doing that now. I'll need to plan how to do such things in future as I'm not sure just painting over the decal would work.

The base was another case of just playing around. Celstra Grey I think, but then thinned Basilicanum Grey over it, some Black Templar to outline some areas better, and then just drybrushing up with off-white and slightly blue paints. Somehow the drybrushing worked really well and makes the designs on the base really stand out and show more depth than is actually sculpted. The value contrast against the dreadnought body helps, the details are clearly visible, and how everything ties together makes this one of the better bases I've done recently. Agrax Earthshade was also used to surround some of the rubble to separate it from the surface it's sitting on, making it look like...rubble.

Not looking forward to more resin models, but I am getting better at dealing with them. Now I wonder if perhaps Rylanor is looking for ordnance.

The count now stands at 9.

-- silly painter.