Imperialis Baneblades - Part II (Showcase)

 

11 barrels of bling!

I'm calling the Baneblades here, if for no other reason than I've had enough of painting them. I messed up with them, and simply don't feel like investing the time to redo and recover them.

The main problem is the colour scheme: I don't like it at all. It doesn't work here. The models are simply too dark, which makes the Blingblade trim stick out too much, airbrushing didn't work, recess shading doesn't give enough contrast, the list goes on. The trim on the Blingblade I decided to cover up with Balthasar Gold because it was far too much of an eyesore, and I can tell why they have that trim on the Imperialis models: it outlines the shape. You can instantly see on the table what kind of tank it is, and I think it really works with the right colour scheme. In future I would probably do something like the Solar Auxilia with Contrast paints. I don't always like copying colour schemes, but I'm not sure what else I'd like to do here.

Drive me closer, I want to use flamers!

The second Baneblade I didn't paint the trim, and used Agrax Earthshade to dirty down some of the recesses, and I do like the end result much better, but it's still missing something. The shape isn't as well defined, so perhaps some more tone contrast on the edges could help with that. It's no good collecting more of the Imperial Guard tanks until I know how I want to paint them.

What did work was the barrels on the back. Warplock Bronze, and Screaming Bell over the top. I also mixed in Sycorax Bronze for additional highlights, and it ended up very close to how I wanted. I generally use this kind of look for canisters that might have a flammable liquid, or otherwise might need to deal with intense heat. It also gives much more visual interest to the models.

The viewports are basically Evil Sunz Scarlet. I tried a purple to shade them in places, and Fire Dragon Bright for highlights, but not much of anything other than the red shows up. The front headlights are Dorn Yellow covered with Talassar Blue, which gives a very bright, light, vibrant blue. Such points help to break up the plain colours and gives little hints of visual interest - it's not much, but it's critical to have.

Not much else to say. I should have started with drybrushing, then used contrast paints, and maybe a bit more drybrushing to highlight. Next time.

-- silly painter.