Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part II

 

Looks cool on the battlefield because he can.

A delay in posting because reasons, but I'm back at painting again. Not sure how regularly throughout the week, but I'm planning to do a little across a range of models in one step: painting with the one colour is much easier to keep on standby and get something done whenever there's five minutes spare.

The Praetor I've continued to base coat details without moving into any shading or highlights. The head was done before assembly, but I needed to wait for the proper time to remove the masking tack and see how it matches up against everything else. The first thing to notice is that the helmet is much brighter than the rest of the model. This was to be expected: I'm still having some trouble with getting the reds bright enough through the airbrush. The head also has final highlights applied and hasn't been gloss varnished, both of which alter how it shows up in a photo. I think it will match more at the end, and if it's still brighter then it's not too bad as it will just keep attention on the "face".

The helmet is slightly raised on a blob of putty compared to how it's normally assembled. I felt that it was too sunken inside the armour before and slightly raised seemed to fit the proportions better. I perhaps should've adjusted angle of where he's looking, but maybe he's still bringing the storm bolter to bear on a target or otherwise shifting the weapon out of his way to get a better view for a moment.

I've not readied a base yet, however the putty is currently curing. I'm intending to cut up some pieces to create something like cathedral flooring that's been damaged in the fighting. I'm not convinced that I'll do a great job of it, but it's all experience. If I wanted I could design the base around where he should stand, but that seems like effort.

While I'm copying the box art closely, I'm also simplifying it in places. The model is busy enough and I think I've achieved a good balance with the basic colours blocked in. The metallics will of course need to wait until after the matt varnish, but I think it gives a very good impression of how the final result will be. There's still a cape to go too: the model looks imposing as he is, and while I'm not always keen on them I think a cape would really add to the level of authority he should carry. A blue tinted grey that's near white is what I'm likely to go for, bringing out the airbrush to see how easy it will be.

Back to the helmet, I debated a while if the face-plate should be red, black, gold, and again what the rest of the helmet should be. I've seen just about all combinations, and they work well. I ended up going for a black faceplate to match the jetbike squadron, red on the rest, and framing it all in black. I also went for glowing eye lenses in a departure from my normal reflective dot look, and put a thin layer of OSL around them. I think it really sells the menacing look and I might try keep that for other Terminators from the 30k setting.

-- silly painter