Devastator Squad - Part IV

 

This is really heavy.

Well. A few things have prevented me doing much for some weeks, and it's not likely to let up anytime soon. This means something has to change if I'm going to get any painting done and models actually finished. These stalled Devastator Marines are going to serve as a bit of practice in that regard.

The number one thing that stops me is not knowing how to paint various bits & pieces. What colours to use, what material I'm trying to represent, that sort of thing. I'm slowly solving that with references to models already painted, but also going by box art to decide. The latter doesn't show everything though, notably it only typically has a single view point and rarely shows the backpack - so even with box art I still need to spend time deciding what colours go where.

Related to that is the number of paints to apply: switching paints out all the time is very demotivating, especially with my current setup where the paints are actually in another room. I generally need to know which ones in advance, get them all, lay them all out on my (small) wet palette, and make sure to stretch that as far as it will go before starting all over again. It suits my painting style of focusing on details, but it's very slow to make obvious progress.

Slow painting is its own demotivator - the less I paint, the less I want to paint. It's very hard to break that cycle, which is why tackling something that makes a bit visual change is always a good idea - but I'm running out of that on these models.

So what to do? I think I've come up with a plan to tackle the above problems and get back to painting, to a degree. First I'm going to focus on a single model at a time for the Devastators. That's not to say I won't batch paint where possible: all purity seals for example can be done at the same time, it's just that other models will be done as more of an afterthought against the primary. This will keep visual changes more frequent, and fits in with these particular models all being that little bit different (a hallmark of Blood Angels as they used to be designed).

The next idea is to simply reduce the number of paints used and rely on "good enough". I've been using metallics for skull icons recently for example - only three or four paints for all the little details across the whole model. The idea is to break up monotonous surfaces rather than show off as many paints as possible. The weapons are going to be black, metallic, and some minor details. Edge higlighting I'll try make more apparent to show off the shapes, otherwise just keeping the colour palette very simplistic.

Finally I'm trying to paint smarter by using paints to their strengths. In this example I make sure to paint most details with a layer of Black Legion for the simple reason that it helps later layers adhere and cover better. The varnish layer normally takes many coats of paint before everything covers properly - but even a single thin layer of high pigment Contrast acts as both primer of sorts and pull back excessive red in areas. Black Templar mixed with some acrylic flow improver turns into a sort of Nuln Oil, and flows nicely into the joints.

All the above I've started to do on the weapon and shoulder pad trim. It was a marked improvement in speed and let me actually assemble everything. Of course the arms didn't quite line up properly and I had to use putty to  help them stick (it looks really ugly from the rear), but I was expecting that to happen on at least one model. The price I pay for sub-assemblies. From here I'll start to fill in some details and try get this one model done, moving on afterwards to the rest of the squad.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part V - Showcase)

 

Glow-guns

For whatever reason it was an absolute slog to get these four tanks finished. Not much time to paint coupled with indecision over colours and a continual questioning of just how much detail I should go into really took its toll here. In some regards it might have been easier to paint a full sized version (that's for another day - I have a couple of the resin kits from a few years ago). What let me finish them in the end was a change of mindset to just simplify the colours: make the bulk of the weapon covers black and just use edge highlighting to pick out lines. Limit the palette and focus on overall appearance instead of getting lost in the close-up.

The colours work well enough, though I'm not entirely happy with the barrels of the plasma weapons. I'm still not really a fan of blue glowing plasma coils, but that's obviously luminosity from whatever hardened material is used to house all that energy, and it makes it immediately apparent on a tabletop what the weapon is for gameplay purposes. Think I do prefer the look of the other turrets though.

Now that the varnish is dry and the models are done, what would I do if I painted more? The base coats worked well. The main airbrush steps did their job, but I'm still getting used to Contrast paints through an airbrush. I might prefer a standard acrylic paint and multiple passes which will keep the end colour more consistent across each model rather than trying to ensure that last Contrast pass matches for them all. The shading is subtle enough by works, and using Black Legion (Contrast) mixed with flow improver and applied over a gloss varnish continues to provide an excellent way to panel line everything. Selected edge highlights accentuate the armour plates more and the end results is a very readable small scale tank. I also really like how the tracks turned out. Ratling Grime added just the right shading to give the look I was after.

I could do some weathering, battle damage, muzzle burn, etc, but these aren't intended as display pieces (although it's not like I've ever actually played a game with them). The viewports and sensor lenses are far too bright here, I probably could have darkened them with a shade, but again effort and it does give them a sinister look - psychological warfare that this horrifying tank is watching you.

Now I can put these away and see what's next on the list. Probably a dreadnought and devastators.

-- silly painter.

Legions Imperialis - Sicaran Battle Tanks (Part IV)

 

Hold up, how do my pauldrons fit through the hatch?

These models are taking an insanely long time to get finished. This is partially a lack of motivation because they're taking so long (circular reasoning), but also because I just have so little spare time right now. So I've cut a few corners and forced myself to get the Sicaran tanks nearly done - just the other set of turrets to go. I've also not added any decals - I figured paint scheme shows easily enough which army they're part of, and also there's really only one panel to put a decal on. That would require a white transfer, which would stick out like a sore thumb. The alternative is to paint symbols on by hand, which I just frankly can't be bothered with.

I painted the viewports and lenses with a simple mix of Mephiston Red covered in Troll Slayer Orange. Nothing special, no fancy effects, just dots of colour to break up the turquoise. The orange tint is a nod to the Eye of Horus.

Cabling is generically Khorne Red with some Mephiston Red highlighting. This is purely again to break up the monotony and add some visual interest.

Silver metals are Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil, Iron Hands highlights. All of this done before the varnish step. The brass is Balthasar Gold, Seraphim Sepia, Sycorax Bronze highlights. Absolutely nothing special, all of it very simple - just on a small scale and requiring a fine tipped brush that is just now starting to give. It's been an exceptional synthetic brush which I've leaned on heavily recently - I hope future purchases of the same are just as good. Da Vinci size 0, Nova Synthetics range.

Black areas are Corvus Black, Dawnstone (mixed on the palette), and Abaddon Black mixed with water to essentially shade back some areas.

That's pretty much all. The most time taken was in deciding what colours should go where, but once that was sorted then the next steps proceeded smoothly enough. The details make the painting a little slower than I'd like as well, but also because they're so small there is no sense is perfectly smooth blending - you really do want some contrast to pick out edges more than anything else.

And now it's on to the other turrets before I can classify these models as done. Next post however is likely to be about a change in painting approach that I'll be forced to make given the current circumstances - or else I simply won't get anything done all year.

-- silly painter.