Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part II

 

This is exhausting.

The next set of models are well into the initial base colour stages and I'm almost at the "paint by numbers" stage with them, but the jump pack remained somewhat of an unknown. Fortunately there are some good references available for Sons of Horus, so I've mostly tried to follow that.

Before anything else was done, I coated all the metal areas and weapons with Black Legion. This covers very well over the gloss and returns to a solid, satin, black layer to build upon. This is very important for metalllic paints to look their best. There's no need to be subtle with Contrast paints in this style: just give it a good single coat and about thirty minutes to dry (if not more).

The jump packs themselves I knew I wanted to paint some burn marks, soot, or general metal discolouration. I explicitly didn't do this for the Sanguinary Guard (or Blood Angels in general) as I figured of all the Legions, it would be the IXth that produced and maintained the best and most efficient jump packs, and kept them clean.

For the Sons of Horus though, step one is to give the exhaust areas a shiny metallic gleam. This is one occasion where I wanted polished steel and so base coated with Iron Hands Steel. This needed two thin coats for the best coverage, but gives a very smooth finish if done properly. It's well worth the time to do this, so it bears repeating: give it one thin coat, let it fully dry, then do another. Possibly a third in places if the paint is thinned a little more. I then applied Ironbreaker as a highlight, but I'm not sure this is really visible. It was thinned with flow improver, more glazed than layered, and I might just save this for a post-varnish step in future.

Next step is actually using a lighter gold tone for initial discolouration. I had Imperial Gold (TMM range, the layer/highlight paint) on the palette and glazed that around the central exhaust area. I didn't do it on the sides, but should have - something to correct for the next model. This was followed with Seraphim Sepia further down, but I did use it too heavily and needed to correct that. In general there is substantial correction with the base coat when necessary. Snakebite Leather mixed with Ratling Grime is next, further to the nozzle, and then just plain Ratling Grime on the very edges. There's no particular ratios here - mix and glaze, mix and glaze, adjust and push around the pigment until you're happy with the result. I will probably drop Nuln Oil into the side vents later, or could go with Black Legion if I really wanted it dark.

Aside from the jump pack, the other major addition is the decal on the right pauldron. 'Ardcoat is a thicker gloss varnish compared to what I use through the airbrush, but it seems to smooth itself out nicer as a result and so I much prefer to use that to prepare a surface for decals. The decal itself I should have cut some slices into just under the "eye" to allow the transparent film to slide over itself instead of crinkling up; it took two heavy coats of decal softener to really make that decal conform to the surface. Stormshield provides protection and satin finish afterwards. There will of course be a matt varnish later anyway, but this protects everything and lets me see how it will look until then.

The rest of the squad are in various stages of the above steps (the past week has been busy, I've not had time to do much painting) but in general the squad will proceed slowly because it's an entire squad. There's also travel coming up soon which means even if I manage to get into the zone for painting, there will be an enforced break.

-- silly painter.