Assault Intercessor with Jump Pack - Part I

 

Shiny armour is shiny.

As a bit of a background project (because I don't have enough of those already!) I bought a bunch of the older jump packs with the idea of converting an Assault Intercessor squad into a jump pack capable squad. This was before the newer models were released, but while I don't entirely dislike the newer jump pack design, the ankle thrusters look out of place to me. I also prefer the poses of the non-jump assault infantry, so just putting old style jump packs on them combines the best of both worlds really.

I also just realised that I haven't added all the appropriate bling to this model yet - various pouches, backup knife, holster, grenades, etc. I was apparently in a rush, so I'll need to glue them on later.

Mostly this model right now was an excuse to test a new way of painting up red armour. I don't have it fully nailed down yet, but I think it shows a lot of promise. The basic overview:

• Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red in a 1:1 ratio, over the whole model (airbrush to make this easy). This will serve as the shadowed colour.
• Mephiston Red (again with the airbrush) for basic midtone.
• Averland Sunset (still with the airbrush) to sketch out highlights.
• Blood Angels Red (Contrast) (yep, the airbrush) to cover the last layer and blend it all together.
• Gloss varnish (airbrush still makes this easy).
• Carroburg Crimson mixed with artist grade acrylic flow improver (not Lahmian Medium) and used as a pin wash.

There will of course be edge highlights later on, and a matt varnish followed by any edge higlight touchups, but that's the basic approach I'm trying to use now.

I've learned to properly thin paints in an airbrush, and that helps dramatically. Cleaning is quicker, fewer dry tip problems, and far more control. The Averland Sunset helps to show where the highlights will be without getting lost in smooth transitions, but I'm still getting used to upping the opacity with several layers here. The brighter it is, the more it will show through the Blood Angels Red filter.

The newer Carroburg Crimson formula works nicely as a pin wash when combined with acrylic flow improver. The older shade formula didn't seem to mix as well, and thinned out too much - just didn't seem to work as nicely. No water or dish soap was added - the flow improver has low enough surface tension as it is, and combined with the gloss varnish it was almost like working with an oil wash. The drying time is increased slightly too, so any mistakes can be fixed up quickly.

There are downsides of course. The gloss varnish obscures mistakes sometimes, and they only show up after the matt varnish is applied. I'm hoping that won't happen here, but I'm likely to do this first test model before I try move on to the next nine of the squad.

I'm both hopeful and slightly confident that this approach will work out. It's not necessarily fewer steps, but each step can be done with far more confidence. This means fewer mistakes to fix, and a greatly reduced time spent on each step. I should be able to get this basic level done much more quickly - but I'll very possibly only use this on basic squads. Special characters that I really want to stand out are still almost certainly going to use a trusty brush to really control the highlights.

I'll continue this model as I go with other projects, such as the Dreadnoughts which are next in line to be finished.

-- silly painter.