Blood Angels Librarian Dreadnought - Part IV

 

Hey goa'uld, I can do that too!

(There will be grammar and spelling mistakes, but if I don't get this written out now then it'll be another week before I have the chance.)

There hasn't been much time for painting progress, but I have filled in some dreadnought details. This makes the model look far more complete than it really is - there are still arms to do, the power plant, the base, final edge highlights, decals, etc. It's nowhere near complete.

I actually decided to brighten up the edge highlights of the blue. This was just mixing a little more Baharroth Blue into the mix still on the palette and very carefully applying it to the most prominent edges.

Not too much to say about the yellow details. Again, I might highlight the motif on top with more white to give it a more reflective appearance, but that's a step for another time. Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow, Phalanx Yellow. Same as used on the side cabling, although those were shaded with Agrax Earthshade and Seraphim Sepia.

The keys and Librarium symbol are plain Grey Knights Steel right now, with a slight Drakenhof Nightshade (barely visible). I'll do more of those details after the varnishing stage probably. The background is a little more interesting and was some experimentation with metallics in volume highlights. Warplock Bronze and Balthasar Gold, mixed in varying degrees and glazed. I like how it shows so far, but I'm aware that varnishing will change it considerably. I had intended to see if it would be something that might be suitable for shading, but I don't think I'll use in future - I'll stick with shade paints for the moment in similar situations.

The eyes on the helmet I debated leaving alone, but with more details done it was apparent something needed to draw attention back there. To that end I'm going for a glow effect, but it won't be anything particularly special: white (Corax White here) and a Contrast paint (Aethermatic Blue most likely).

The chained book cover is Lupercal Green. I mixed in a very, very small amount of white to highlight the upper edges mostly to see how the colours would mix rather than for any visual difference; the detail is too small for highlights to be noticeable.

Scrolls and paper used very similar colours to the normal approach for purity seals, but some slight variation:

• Steel Legion Drab as a base coat.
• Zandri Dust mixed into the previous colour and built up to pure Zandri Dust for initial highlights.
• Agrax Earthshade glazed into recessed areas.
• Seraphim Sepia glazed over selected papers to make them appear more aged.
• Ushabti Bone built up for further highlights.
• Pallid Wych Flesh glazed over more as appropriate.

The last steps used a small amount of Lahmian Medium to build up the glaze. Particularly for brighter or whiter colours, using a medium to thin it to glaze consistency gives a much smoother result than water. At a guess, water separates the pigment too much and leads to chalkiness, whereas a flow improver simply thins without changing too much else of the chemistry.

Lastly for the details so far: the winged blood drop icon. I wanted that to be white winged, but not with black shading. Blue is still much more indicative of sky, angelic, heavenly, and so I still wanted blue tinted recesses. To that end:

• Corax White, with multiple thin layers to get an even, opaque coverage.
• Apothecary White / Talassar Blue / Contrast Medium in a 1:1:2 mix, and heavily applied all over.

That's all. There's a much greater glow in the photo than in real life, and there's no real need to edge highlight anything. Contrast paints excel at this kind of task. If I were to continue with many more of these symbols I would play with the paints and dilution more, but for now it's ok. I can always knock it back further with Apothecary White later on.

Next steps are to fill in some metallic areas around the torso, perhaps some cabling, and then start to look at next pieces of the model. There will be a general harmonising at the end along with filling in the last details in one go (e.g gemstones) but it's about time to start more assembly.

-- silly painter.