Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part IV (Semi-Showcase)

 

Before he was shiny, now he's feeling dull.

This is a semi-showcase on account of one model being done (others aren't even primed yet) which acts as the recipe for the rest of the squad. It's also missing the jump-pack exhaust being coloured in, which I intend to do with an airbrush once all the models are ready for that.

The base was very much whatever was on the palette at the time and looking for sepia tones, browns, yellow tints to mix into greys for highlights, your basic urban rubble. I still prefer Basilicanum Grey to add depth to the base and then layer over the top with scratches and markings for visual interest. Not much to be said really.

The bulk of the rest of the model was varnishing and then metallics to highlight, Sons of Horus Green to highlight, and slight mix of Gauss Blaster Green for extreme edge highlights on the topmost areas.

The turquoise armour highlights are mostly to restore a slightly satin finish more than anything else. I probably went too heavy with the matt varnish and it dulled down the model considerably. I'm also still adjusting to not-red for this kind of thing. The finish makes quite the difference when viewing the model in person. In a photo it might be more useful not to have environmental lighting shining off the model, but in in hand it just looks off - people are used to the shine of different surfaces, and unifying it entirely seems (to me) kind of wrong. For armour at any rate, the satin surface for highlights is what I will continue to aim for.

The varnish also made a few metallic areas quite grainy. The lighting interaction with the Vallejo TMM after that varnish was particularly annoying - I should simply paint them after varnishing in future, but locking the colours in place first is far more motivational. It will come down to how I feel at the time probably, but I definitely liked the look of the metallics before varnishing, and not as much after, even with the additional highlight steps.

In general though I quite enjoyed painting a not-red model and I hope to start airbrushing the base layers of the rest soon. I'd really like to finish up some squads and keep the flow going, but I know very well how bad it is with work right now. Darn.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin II - Part II

 

Doing it in style.

Continuing with the red theme from before, I had actually shaded the second Crimson Paladin along with the MkII Assault Marine. The details are once more lost in the photo, but the shading is there and it does make a real difference. I also know that the later steps will dull down the vibrancy after the matt (matte?) varnish, and I'll build up the highlights with glazes afterwards. This has definitely allowed me to progress much faster with this model: I'm not getting bogged down on the first stages and I can see progression.

Castellax Bronze as before, shaded with thinned Cryptek Armourshade. I've not yet highlighted the metallics - and there still remains a good deal of the shield to be done too. This is a good thing because I missed a spot on the right foot.

The pteruges are more or less the same as the leather pouches I've been using the MkII and MkVI: Thondia Brown, then orange tones to highlight, and darker colours (I used Corvus Black) to outline or shade. The colour isn't quite as rich as with the first Crimson Paladin, but I do like the framing better. I might try Rhinox Hide as the base colour next time again, if I can get a replacement bottle (or equivalent colour); I've had a few paints finally dry out on me after however many years it's been.

On the topic of dried out colours, Steel Legion Drab unexpectedly did that to me. It's basically dried pigment with medium on top right now and it took a long time to get acceptable base layer coverage. This made the sash a little annoying to start with, and the paint rubs off far too easily in places. It's ok now, but I might want to look at a similar colour progression with the Tone Pro line (more on why those paints in a moment). Painting the sash I used a degraded synthetic brush and tried to be a little less smooth with the applications, preferring multiple passes to build up the look with some texture. I'm not unhappy with the result but I am in search of how to jump to that next level of ability in painting coarse beige material.

The paints I own have lasted a long time, but I finally want to try out alternatives. This is great if I can access those alternatives, but every time I just want one particular colour then I need to factor in the cost of delivery - which makes the paint at least twice as expensive - or include it with another order and thus delaying the purchase for a very long time. I've been waiting a month as it is for a Two Thin Coats order. There is actually only one brand of paint that I can simply go into a local shop and buy: Warhammer Colour / Citadel. If the Tone Pro range is better for some of my use cases, then so much the better - and I don't even mind the pots. I may transfer to droppers just to take up less space on the shelf, but that's very much "may", not "will".

Back to the Crimson Paladin, next up I might need to sort out the helmet. I intend to paint all the remaining helmets in one go - but first they'll need minor adjustments with green-stuff to pad out space and let them sit slightly higher.

-- silly painter

Blood Angels MkII Assault I - Part I

 

Doesn't need a pistol. He is the long range weapon.

As with the previous box of MkVI, half of the MkII squad will be Blood Angels (and half Sons of Horus) because I enjoy a bit of painting variation and it's not like I play the games. As the squad lead of the SoH bore a volkite pistol, I figured the Blood Angels sergeant should carry a shield: Blood Angels prefer up close and personal and the shield will help him get there. Also this particular post looks really cool.

I'm likely to paint one model at a time with the MkII Marines. I just don't have the free time for much else. I might well paint parts of the others in batches, but certainly the first will be standalone to serve as a reference for the rest.

Along with a Crimson Paladin, I had actually airbrushed this model a while ago with the usual reds, followed by a gloss varnish, and then a 1:1 (or thereabouts) mix of Carroburg Crimson and acrylic flow improver. On this model it worked extremely well: flowed into all of the recesses, barely anything on the main surface. It's difficult to capture with the camera properly, but the difference before and after is quite noticeable. What I haven't done yet however, is the extra highlighting afterwards. No building up volumes more, and no edge highlights of any kind. This will be taken care of after the matt varnish stage anyway, so I'm going to try hold off until then to work on it - and being slightly satin, that should make the highlights stand out even more. I hope it won't take too long before I can try that out: I'd like to varnish at least two models at once, which is what the SoH squad leader is waiting for now.

The shield I debated for a while and ended going with quite a simple scheme. Nothing too fancy, no extravagant detailing or hand painted filigree. This is MkII armour, earlier in the Great Crusade, and I wanted to depict a reflection of the Blood Angels still finding the balance of their souls. Working their armour into personalised art would take time. A simple red shield with the legion insignia is sufficient here, with Castellax Bronze edging as a neutral frame that breaks up the outline without overpowering it.

As a combat leader, and after a little digging through options of what I might like, I settled on black should pads with golden trim. This hearkens to the 40k colour scheme, but still offers something more ornate than simple yellow. The gold is actually Imperial Gold from Vallejo's TMM range, now that I've figured out how to use it more properly. I really like the warmth of that gold and think it fits the overall aesthetic quite nicely.

Obviously the left pauldron isn't the one with the kit. I might have preferred to keep the trim the same on both, but the sizes were a good enough match and I wondered if perhaps the armour was slowly being re-kitted from old Revenant Legion stock. At any rate I wasn't going to use decals were I could avoid them.

I need to block in metallics further next and sort out any smaller details. There is a feeling of fast progression, but I know I'll pay for that with the armour highlights at the end. If it works then I'll know I can trust the end result and maybe paint that little bit faster in future. When I have free time of any kind.

-- silly painter

Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part III

 

Now with candy floss gun.

I had originally planned to just block in the major colours but in all honesty the MkII armour looks really awesome and I kind of just continued. Another factor is that there's surprisingly little variation on everything: once the main armour panels are done, there's not that much left over.

The shoulder pad trim is just Ancient Gold from the TMM range, base and wash, although the final highlight is yet to be applied on account of waiting for the varnish step. I used spots of this on the weapons as well just to balance out the picture and to keep things interesting while limiting the palette. The weapon grip is exactly the same as the holster and a straight copy from the MkVI assault squad, which other than a base of Thondia Brown I can't recall right now.

All of the metals were covered first with Doom Metal (TTC) and then Iron Warriors, follow by spot highlights of Iron Hands Steel. There's a good deal of variation of this throughout, but that's the basic idea for the most of it. The exhaust of the jump pack is for now purely Iron Hands Steel. I may still add burn marks around it but that's definitely for later.

On the jump pack it's predominantly black, of course, but I messed around with the banding. I'll need to get a reference photo for later of what I made black and what I kept silver. There's a reinforcement band around the top of the turbines that I wasn't sure what to do with for a while. I wanted it distinct from the front of the turbine itself and tried Iron Warriors with Black Templar Contrast over the top. The latter was too strong and I needed to kind of glaze the metallic back over the top. Next time I'll use Contrast Medium to thin the black some. Most of the panels I tried to cover with a black ink, a particular one from the Daler-Rowney FW range. It has this oddly subtle brown hint to it that I think is extremely good for Sons of Horus, but it's not exactly made for miniature painting and I have trouble blending or glazing with it. So I mostly abandoned that idea and went with Corvus Black and Stormvermin Fur. Mixing some Twin Suns Yellow (TTC, or Dorn Yellow for the Citadel colours) gives a bright edge highlight spot colour to make the result look more like a hardened surface.

I should note that the turbine blades themselves are simply Doom Metal and Iron Warriors, with the latter just run along the high surfaces and leaving the former in the recessed areas. I haven't felt the need to do anything more as it's readable enough right now.

The weapon colour is white and Doomfire Magenta. That's quite a pigment heavy Contrast paint, which makes me wonder if it's a sort of pre-cursor to the upcoming Warhammer Tone Pro range. I like the colour now even if initially I might not have picked it, because it matches with the face rather well.

There's still some minor details to get done, the base needs to be done, the varnish stage, and then glazing back some the armour colours and metallic shine in places, but I'm happy with how the model is looking right now.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part II

 

My name is Bane.

The one test model has now been fully assembled, for better or worse. I couldn't get much else done during the week but decided that the focal point of the face would at least give some kind of sense of accomplishment.

I decided early on that I wanted pale complexion for the Sons of Horus, something decidedly unhealthy and representing their fall into corruption. To that end I originally was going to base the scheme on Idoneth Deepkin, but pivoted partway through for a more sinister look.

Base colour is Ionrach Skin, which is a pale almost blue/green tinged tone. This fits with the armour to harmonise the colours, but I went a step further and mixed in a hint of Lupercal Green and glazed it towards the back of the head and along recessed areas. The was followed up with a purple ink heavily thinned with acrylic flow improver. I particularly focused on the eyes with this, building it up with more concentration of pigment around there. Ionrach Skin glazed back over to smooth over transitions wrapped up the initial base.

Deepkin Flesh for highlight points was next, which I also tried to paint over the eyes. The eyes on this model are extremely small, and quite honestly it probably would've been better to simply wash over the area and be done with it. I could barely see where those eyes are even meant to be. Going further into madness I then used Iyanden Yellow to cover them and really make the model look insane. I even tried to put in a pupil on the left eye, but I messed it up and fell back to more of the ink to try make the whole face look aggravated.

And he does look aggravated. I think the ultimate win here is not trying to make the eyes themselves stand out, but to give contrast to that part of the face and the impression that this is not a sane individual.

With everything in place I really need to pick out the base colours next. This will serve as the reference for the rest of the squad when I start painting those, so it's important I try to get that "right".

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkII Assault Squad - Part I

 

Sure hope the helmets have noise cancelling earphones installed.

I had wanted all of these models assembled, I had wanted them primed and basic airbrushing done, and on the way to getting them in a good state to be fairly quickly finished. Then work happened and most days I'm up to midnight on that, with zero time for painting. So for the moment this is the only Sons of Horus model painted up, and I have more to still even assemble. Kind of sucks.

On the bright side I picked up a lot of lessons from the last batch and have fed them into here. The major starting point was that I base coated the whole model in Night Lords Blue first. I thinned it overly much and it took several coats to get it right, but it wasn't all that bad: the airbrush didn't clog at all and was easier to clean out afterwards. Lupercal Green followed that up, but thinned properly so that again several passes were used to soften the transition and it was done from above and the sides for the most part. Sons of Horus Green afterwards, mostly from above, and you guessed it: several thinned coats.

The airbrush is very quick to use and multiple thin coats is extremely quick to do. It may seem longer but because it also lets colours more easily fade into one another then the overall time taken is typically far less: fewer hard transitions to correct, easier to clean the airbrush. I actually switched between airbrushes on this model, using my Harder & Steenbeck for the last layer because of the smaller needle size I keep with it and the greater trigger control I have.

Gloss varnish afterwards to seal the model and then an overall wash of Shyish Purple / Terradon Turquoise. I was originally trying a 1:4 ratio, but it ended up closer to 1:2 or even 1:1 by because it just wasn't dark enough. The flow improver might have been too much, but roughly equal parts of that are necessary to make it really slide off the more flat surfaces. This really works as well as I expect, but again I had to try remove some from areas it was pooling incorrectly, which leaves behind a bit of a mess. I think it was still worth while, but I'll need to look at using a different brush, maybe soaked in flow improver or Contrast Medium to soften it out some. Another trick to to slightly damp the area with water first too.

After all of that I went back in with Lupercal Green and Sons of Horus Green by brush to clean up a few places and put in some initial edge highlights. I used a better brush this time around and make sure to thin the paints with flow improver instead of just water. This saves a lot of time and effort for what is basically glazing. I'll very likely do another pass of this after the matt varnish stage later on.

Although all the above sounds like a lot of effort, there aren't many colours being used and each stage is more about refining the previous. I'm still careful along the way, but I'm less perfectionist in knowing that I will be adjusting things later on as necessary. For basically the same result it took about half the time, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I will have to start blocking in all the other colours soon, but first I'm probably actually going to focus on the head. If I can get enough done to glue that in place then the model will be fully assembled and I'll be much faster in completing it and having serve as a reference for the rest.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin II - Part I

 

Making sure to step over the drain.

Just a fairly quick post because I managed to get a fair bit of airbrushing done in a single day and I'll be busy for the next week. I recently assembled the next of the Crimson Paladins and this time out I decided the arms should be fully attached from the start. It was to much hassle last time.

Painting-wise there isn't much to say. From the experience before I know that a wash stage will help define everything more, but that some manipulation as applying over the gloss varnish will increase shadows, and glazing later with Evil Sunz Scarlet is going to help make everything pop. The airbrushing was done with this in mind. I still used three passes (Dryad Bark / Mephiston Red, then plain Mephiston Red, then Evil Sunz Scarlet) but I didn't try to be very neat.

The first coat is to give the whole model a base colour to work from. This is also mostly the shadow colour, even if the wash will darken it more later anyway. I used my "new workhorse" airbrush with a 0.35mm needle here and made sure to apply many thin coats to get a smooth finish and to avoid clogging the nozzle.

Next was the first highlighting stage which again used the same airbrush, and mostly from a Zenithal angle. Basically I just sprayed from above and occasionally a little from the side, but not from underneath. It's similar in colour, but trust the process: the later wash will darken everything, and glazing will brighten again in select areas.

Finally I switched to the CRplus Infinity airbrush with a 0.2mm needle and build up the final layer more selectively. I know there's some good reviews about the workhorse type airbrush, and it's indeed perfectly fine, but once you're quite familiar and comfortable with airbrushing then that extra quality kit really comes into play. The trigger action is definitely better, the paint flows more smoothly, and it's easier to clean afterwards. I intend to buy a newer Infinity at some point, eyeing off the Giraldez model, as soon as there's some kind of spare money for such things.

At this point the reds don't give much contrast really. Shadows are there, highlights are there, but knowing that I'll be refining it later made the broader airbrush application now that much faster.

The base on this model is actually two thin layers of green-stuff. I was playing with a new texture roller which has a manhole cover I liked, which I then needed to turn into an actual base. With the slightly higher base these older kits are visually comparable to the new Cataphractii  models too, but there's still one more trick to make the Crimson Paladins seem taller. The previous one had this done, and it's the head. It sits too low in the torso normally. I'll try get all the helmets done in one go, but a little bit of green-stuff to extend the faceplate down and a little more on the base to make it sit ever so slightly higher and it makes all the difference.

That's about it for now. I did more airbrush of other models too, and I guess one of those will be for next week.

-- silly painter.

Custodian Wardens - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Bodyguards looking for body oil.

Finally, done! It wasn't that there was an awful lot left to do, it's just that between work and horrible weather I've never had time or motivation to actually get them done. All finished at last though, standing tall and proud.

It's worth noting that these are large models, larger than Primaris possibly even the newer terminators. They're very imposing but it's really hard to get a feel for that without seeing them in person. A full squad in the middle of another force and you start to get a sense of how mean Custodian Guard can be.

In rounding out the weapons I fell back on my normal black weapon casing formula with with a slight twist:

• Corvus Black base coat over all the black details.
• Eshin Grey to build up initial highlights.
• Abaddon Black glazed into shadows.
• Ulthuan Grey / Eshin Grey (roughly 1:2, but depends) for edge highlights.

I played with the mixes of paint between stages and there was a good deal of back & forth before I had it just how I wanted. Generally the Ulthuan Grey was never used pure: it's too bright on its own and I wanted definition more than anything else.

Silver details are for the most part mixes of Doom Metal (TTC) and Iron Hands Silver. Everything else is covered fairly well in previous posts for the weapons.

The gemstones gave me pause for a while. I was originally going to paint them in a blue or teal colouration, but I decide that was going to stand out too much. One or two gemstones maybe, but all of them and the warmer tones of the armour will clash with the cooler blue too much. I then considered purple but again felt that I wanted more harmony and so went with basically red.

• Gal-Vorbak Red base coat.
• Wazdakka Red around most of the previous coat, but leave a small circular edge darker.
• Wild Rider Red as a crescent generally on the lower part.
• Fire Dragon Bright as a smaller crescent.
• Gal-Vorbak Red / Doom Death Black (TTC) in a circular shape opposite the crescent.
• Doom Death Black (TTC) glazed higher in the circular shape.
• White Star (TTC) reflection dots.
• 'Ardcoat over the gemstone to seal and make it gloss.

That's quite a lot for items to small. With everything on the wet palette it's much easier, and the TTC paints were chosen specifically for their thinning ability and slightly longer drying time. They have a matt finish but that gets pained with a gloss varnish anyway.

For the knuckles I decided they were simply far too small to bother going so far with and so I used Omega Blue (TTC) there and a few other places. That particular paint is quite vibrant and what else to say - it was a spur of the moment thing and I just went with it.

These are definitely worth the investment to paint them up to a high standard, and the marble basing suits them very well. I have a few more Adeptus Custodes in the backlog still, including Ixion Hale. I'm sorely tempted to start on his assembly. Maybe I'll just go find the box and see.

-- silly painter.

Impressions

 While I'm back and getting very close to finishing the current work in progress squad, I decided to write up something that's been on my mind for a while. This relates to how miniatures are painted and what the end goal is.

I've seen a good deal of talk about how to make something look realistic, how to make reflections behave as they would in real life, or how a particular highlight should be done. There's a certain element to that: a viewer will notice immediately if something doesn't "look right' - a blue reflection from a fiery battlefield would look peculiar for example. It's also somewhat untrue given the scale.

When painting miniatures then the viewer is probably going to see them under different lighting conditions to which they were painted, and under different lighting to the setting in which the model is placed. Already this is at odds with realism: the angle of lighting alone is going to differ depending upon where the model is facing, where any overhead lights are, etc. Size plays a role too: sunlight diffused through cloud layers will be noticeably different to direct overhead sunlight on a cloudless day. The sheer distances involved make volume interactions differ on a small miniature compared to an eight foot tall armour plated killing machine.

Ultimately, painting for realism is not the actual goal. Painting for the impression of realism is far more popular. Taking this further and instead it can be painting for an impression.

Early on the folks at the 'Eavy Metal team learned that contrast is key. The photography and magazine printing technologies of the time required a high level of contrast to make the miniatures show up properly in publications and showcase them to customers. The human visual system keys on contrast for object definition and recognition: contrast of colour, contrast of brightness, contrast of depth, it's the difference that matters. This is the entire concept behind edge highlighting: define the outline to make viewing a model easier.

Freeing the mind from the shackles of realism and focusing on painting to form an impression lets you play with the model and guide a viewer in many different ways. Cylindrical objects painted as panel modulation suggests height over shape, edge highlighting can accentuate OSL effects, or by their omission create an impression of shadow without actually needing to darken an area. Exaggeration of lighting can make a flat surface curved, or a curved surface flat. I typically don't align the direction of light with a helmet so that I can focus the viewer's attention on the head more easily - abandoning realism gives the flexibility to adjust perception of the model.

It's not just highlights and shadows, but the very colours used can do this too. Painting a specific vampire in moonlight allowed me create an impression of a night scene without making the model dark. It's quite high in value in places, and then the yellow eyes stand out extra against the blues and purples otherwise used. If the model was truly at night then barely anything would be visible.

Going beyond this to the very brush strokes used, the choice of blending or not, and there's still a world of artistic possibilities to explore. I saw a post once of a model that didn't win a competition, yet was undeniably one of the most visually striking models on display. It simply wasn't painted as what is normally expected. Miniature painting won't come into its own as a more widely accepted art genre until that range of expression is opened up.

What does this have to do with my own painting? When it comes to painting Marines then it impacts which colours I'm choosing, and other than Blood Angels it impacts how "far" I'll go. Does the model look like what I was going for? If so, I can leave it there. Blood Angels are the exception - I'm trying to be less exacting when I paint them, but their whole core ideal is artistry to tame the rage within, and I like to depict that with my approach.

Food for thought at any rate.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part V

 

So very shiny.

It's been a few weeks since the last post, which is an annoying consequence of incredibly busy work, alongside some other duties keeping free time at an absolute minimum. At last though I managed to finish up the armour on all models and fully assemble them. This makes them around ninety percent complete but for all the little details (gemstones in particular remain).

Since the last time, the remaining step has been to add a more extreme highlight to all the "gold" detailing. I wanted certain parts to stand out slightly more, such as the chest design in the picture above. This isn't about extreme edge highlights (which I can certainly still do) but a subtle brightness shift to pick them out more. Canoptek Alloy was the paint of choice here: thinned to an light glaze consistency because the paint has very good coverage and used to brighten specific areas. I mostly concentrated on "lines" of filigree and the chest.

I could go back and deepen recesses or add brighter highlight points, or more besides, but I figured enough is enough and they look about how I wanted. With everything being the same colour (more or less) then detailing isn't intended to stand out heavily. A conscious decision on my part to reveal more detail the longer you look rather than having it jump out straight away.

The silver components are just two colours in the end: Doom Metal (TTC) and Iron Hands Steel. The former for a base coat, followed by a mix of the two for initial highlights, and then the latter for final highlights. These areas are small and don't need many colours to make them work.

The top-knot is another three-colour scheme, which is chosen to ensure the gold isn't overshadowed by highlights elsewhere and also just to make it easier! Mephiston Red base coat, Shyish Purple (Contrast, thinned a little) as a wash concentrated underneat, and then thinly highlight with Evil Sunz Scarlet. This is brighter than the the lower parts of the model, but with a satin finish that contrasts against the armour to give it a different look.

The weapon has taken some thought. For now it's based coated with pick-your-black over most parts (the grip was painted previously so wasn't touched) and the blade left from airbrushing. I wanted a power weapon feel but without the lightning patterning commonly used (personal preference, I generally don't like it) so ultimately went with a combination of Doom Metal (TTC), Omega Blue (TTC), and Grey Knights Steel. The latter paint is darker than you might think so I was using that to shade more than anything else and pure Omega Blue for most of the edge highlights. Doom Metal mixes well with either and was used to help create shadowed parts or otherwise generally define the shape of the blade.

The blade additionally has wing designs which normally I've seen painted gold. I tried that and then glazed the blue metallics over the top to represent glow from the blade: this definitely works but still didn't seem to fit. Reasoning that the wing design is essentially the power node from other power weapons I simply base coated with Grey Knights Steel, highlighted to a pure Omega Blue on the tips, and used Drakenhoft Nightshade to add definition. The axe looks reasonable here but I'm not yet sold on the spears. I suspect I'll not be happy with anything and will end up leaving it as-is.

The gold on the weapons I've been playing around with a lot just to see if I could approximate the main armour but with far less effort. I think I've stumbled onto something acceptable: Balthasar Gold base, followed by Reikland Fleshshade (Seraphim Sepia normally but in this case I wanted a slight red tint to tie into the other reddish parts), then a mix of the base coat with Retributor Armour and finally mixing in Canoptek Alloy for the last highlights.

The weapon needs the black to be worked with some more yet, and aforementioned gemstones, some cabling and other sundry details, but they are definitely started to look like they'll be finished soon. Not that soon however because I'll be away for a couple of weeks again. I hope after I'm back I can find the time to sit down and complete these models so that I might then move onto the next project.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part IV

 

No, the axe is not for chopping firewood.

It's taken some time to do not much visibly on account of very little time to paint, and what time there has been was spent getting every other model in the squad to the same level. Nearly. Unbelievably, I'm still not done with armour yet either.

Mostly highlighted as described before, I'm still going to pick out some areas with a heavily thinned Canoptek Alloy. This is a very strong paint normally and I don't want it to overpower what's there, but the detailing isn't standing out quite as much as I would like just yet. I will need to be very careful to not ruin everything.

The helmet lenses are really simple:

• Wazdakka Red
• Rust Orange (TTC) within the red.
• Fire Dragon Bright as a final highlight.

I did go back in with a black to outline where the red went outside the edges, but that wasn't always necessary. I didn't bother with white reflection dots - the lenses are barely visible as it is, anything more isn't really adding anything to the model.

The faceplate is simply Iron Warriors covered with Iron Hands Steel. I wanted a very polished look and didn't bother with any fancy gradients or shading. Other steel / silver areas have Doom Metal (TTC) for shading, but I'll reserve more extreme highlight points for the weapon most likely.

Finally (this is a short post) Flesh Tearers Red was used to fill in the gaps on the pauldrons and introduce more colour to break up the monotony there. I thinned it and used a couple of layers to build it up. I'm not sure it worked quite as nicely as if I'd used something else base and layer up highlight points, but I wanted to try something different and it fulfils the original purpose.

There are still a few details to go before I turn my attention to the weapons, but they are coming along nicely. I just hope everything else begins to calm down enough to let me finish these models without too much more delay.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part III

 

Seen some shit.

This is a shorter post about more than just the Custodian Wardens, but concerns faces in general. There's only one model in the set that I've assembled without a helmet, and that was purely because I thought it suited the silhouette better.

To start with, the sculpt lends itself to older white haired look. It really does for some reason - it just has that grizzled veteran vibe. Obviously the Custodian Guard do age, so I would assume this guy has been at it for a very long time and has witnessed a lot. He's also very well groomed.

Painting the face actually used comparatively few paints. I started off with Night Lords Blue but didn't exactly go for complete coverage. A little patchy in areas is ok as it will give a more natural look in the end. Barak-Nar Burgundy was next, leaving the previous colour in the recessed areas and just kind of sketching out the shapes. These colours were chosen for no other reason than they were on the palette at the time, but that's again something that gives a more natural look: not every person has exactly the same skin tone, and it's the variation in models that make them look realistic.

Barbarian Brawn and Dwarven Flesh, both TTC paints, were then used to build up the skin tones by mixing in previous colours and highlighting up as I went along. The deeper recesses and lower parts of the face predominantly used Night Lords Blue mixed in to give colder shadows, while Barak-Nar Burgundy faded out from there and was also more apparent to the sides of the head. Final highlights are pure Dwarven Flesh, glazed into place: nose, upper cheeks, and the forehead. I made a conscious choice to keep the front of the face brighter and this really sells the look. It helps define the shape of the head and keep attention where it should be.

The beard and hair is Trooper White, another TTC paint, which is also the "whites" of the eyes. The iris is just Night Lords Blue, and I did not even try to put in a black pupil. I did mix in some of the blue and burgundy into the white for initial hair colouring, moving more to the blue later. I used very little pure Trooper White for the hair; (barely) a hint of another colour is sufficient to make it look more natural.

I stopped about there. I could make the skin tone brighter, but that might clash with the hair and the skin was looking sufficiently leathery by this stage. I just added eyebrows then blue tinted cabling around the head and glued it in place.

Guardian Spear with built-in boltgun, but still wants to use a knife.

This model is not really fully assembled quite yet. The pauldrons and cape are just resting in place right now so that I can easily access some of the still visible parts of the model, but I do get a good feel of how everything will look in the end - and I'm happy with how that's going. I still need to highlight the armour on this model (and most of the others). Next models I'm definitely not going to go quite this hardcore on.

-- silly painter.

Custodian Wardens - Part II

 

Wonder if he washes his own cloak.

While the armour still hasn't received final highlights, I have managed to figure out the other major piece of the model: the cape / cloak / whatever. It took me a while to come up with an idea for that, and actually I had something in mind when I saw something similar from Trovarion.

The idea is that while it can go vibrant, it shouldn't look reflective. The shadows are are cooler and tend towards blue or purple, where the highlights are the warmer tones of a red. This gives contrast and readability while still looking softer, possibly like velvet. I did not want to use simply darker red or black for shadows and nor did I think a wash was appropriate. In the end it was just three paints:

• Barak-Nar Burgundy base coat.
• Night Lords Blue / Barak-Nar Burgundy (1:1) in the shadowed areas, basically anything facing down. The ratios aren't exact: more blue in the deeper recesses, more burgundy glazed into lighter areas.
• Mephiston Red build up for the highlights. Mixing this with a hint of Barak-Nar Burgundy helps transition in places to the purer red which is mostly reserved for upwards facing surfaces higher up.

I'm not sure if a brighter red is suitable or not and so haven't added anything more quite yet. I can always do that later once the helmet is in place and the armour highlighted more.

Rather obviously the model is glued to a base now. I haven't pinned the model in place but something tells me I should have. I'll think about it if they ever come off. Ideally I should have aligned the legs and drilled holes before putting the topper in place but it was too late to do that by the time I'd thought of it. Maybe next time.

The leather braces I straight up stole from a Duncan Rhodes video:

• Doombull Brown
• Nuln Oil
• Doombull Brown glazed into some volume highlights again.
• Rust Orange TTC (or Squig Orange from Citadel, but mine had all dried up) to edge highlight.

Very simple and yet effective. The weapon grips were similar:

• Doombull Brown
• Carroburg Crimson
• Rust Orange to highlight
• Doombull Brown glazed over the highlights to knock them back slightly.

I still have the rest of the squad to complete all of these steps for and so I suspect the next update might take another week or two. Everything is just slow going right now. At least the hard part is over and I think I can just paint without thinking of how to do each little detail.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Assemble!

Surprisingly shorter time to finish these models, but they now done. Matt varnished, highlighted, based.

The first piece of trivia is the edge highlights are actually the same colour as the final volume highlights through the airbrush, and so they're not very visible. I had considered mixing Gauss Blaster Green for something stronger, but the slightly satin finish of Citadel (or Warhammer) paints is enough and I didn't want the colour shift with a stronger edge highlight. Basically I think these models look just fine without much in the way of edge highlights at all.

The black turned out alright in the end. I did tone back the jump packs a good deal and the matt varnish softened things further. I think I like Basilicanum Grey over Dawnstone and might explore that with the airbrush at some future point. The weapons weren't to my liking with the same visuals, so I might just stick with something a little more subtle than Dawnstone in future, at least for the airbrushing.

Overall, despite the minimal effort and intentional limiting of colour choices, I think these turned out ok. That's partially the colour scheme itself: blue, green, turquoise, are just seemingly much easier to work with compared to reds. The sculpts lend themselves very well to airbrushing too, with the large and softly curved surfaces and relatively sparse detail.

Once I had the colours and paints picked out, everything went fairly quick. Painting in sections with a single colour throughout the day helped a lot, particularly with the metallics. It still goes quickly to get the basic armour, then very slowly filling in details, then suddenly very quick again to finalise and finish each model. It might only be tabletop standard, but I'd be proud to have a whole army painted to this level.

Onwards to the next batch of models.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part V

 

Changing the clip must be difficult.

Not a whole lot going on still with regards to painting (work + other responsibilities) but these models are getting really close to being done. Bases, varnish, final highlights mostly, although there might be more decals in selected places because why not.

The major change since last time is the metallics. Here are are few more spots of TMM Ancient Gold that I think work well with Sons of Horus more specialised troops and I think I'll continue with that going forward. The silver/steel/whatever details though are so far just:

• Iron Warriors
• Black Templar
• Iron Warriors to pick out volumes again.

I wanted specifically to go back to a wash or contrast paint because of the speed here. It's not quite as smooth as layering up various glazes, but it's fast.

Cabling in places is Screamer Pink and orange (actually Rust Orange from TTC to replace my dried out Squig Orange) mixed in for a bit of "let's see what this does". I also used the orange on the ammo counter for the pistols, but I need to darken that down again with a red wash probably.

The other point of interest is actually using Basilicanum Grey to glaze over the excessive highlights on the jump packs. I think the edge highlights are still excessive, but it toned everything down and gave a very subtle colour shift to make the "black" more visually appealing.

Short post today.

-- silly painter

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part IV

 

Overhead lights must be bright.

There are very likely going to be a few "not a whole lot done" posts in the near future because I can't get a whole lot done during the week right now. Far from being dismayed, it's simply a challenge to overcome and figure out how to keep the models moving forwards in the most efficient use of time as I can manage.

This is actually part of a broader discussion on painting motivation. I see many videos on how to paint fast, how to keep up motivation, and all of that - but the they all miss a very crucial point: humans aren't machines. Motivations change and what works one day might not work the next. Some days I feel like using a specific synthetic brush, other days a good kolinsky sable brush - and I'm using exactly the same paint for exactly the same task. Some days I want to paint metallics, others I just want to glaze and highlight volumes. Some days I just don't want to paint. Find what works for you on any given day.

The last couple of days I've been painting one part of each model at a time. Not all the metallics, but for example all the gun barrels of each in turn, then I might paint all the intake brackets on the jump packs, and so on. It's been keeping the sense of monotony at bay, and with the same paint I've been able to do one piece at a time whenever I get a few spare moments.

The metallics are going to be Iron Warriors covered with Black Templar as a base coat. This might not be as fancy as some of the dedicated layering I do, but it's fast and will give decent contrast around the details. I'll go back with Iron Warriors to neaten up later, and then it will probably be Iron Hands Steel for highlights after the varnishing stage (which shouldn't be too far off now).

Aged Metal (TTM) for the studs and some chainsword detailing gives some variety to the model - the shade for outlining, and later (post-varnish) I'll use the light version to highlight.

The black armour is an interesting story. I basically thinned down Dawnstone and shot it through an airbrush after masking the models appropriately. The masking worked, which was the main reason for this, but the use of Dawnstone was not the best. I should have at least mixed it with Corvus Black, or perhaps a dark blue. Dawnstone is too desaturated and gives too much of a broad, rounded volumetric highlight. I'll probably thin down Basilicanum Grey and glaze over it to knock back the stone look, though it might be better if I mixed in the barest hint of a blue for colour saturation.

The models are coming together nicely and I think I have all of the colour choices decided upon, so now it will just be a matter of following through with known steps to get them done. I'll be busy for a while however and no guarantees that such steps will happen quickly.

-- silly painter.

Eye of Horus

 

Eye is watching you

I've been having some work and health troubles and so no real painting of late, but I did manage to get out the oils again and paint up the Eye of Horus, symbol for the Sons of Horus.

Oil painting has some applications to miniature painting, at least in the style I'm adopting. I don't really paint oils in one go, but instead plan them and paint in stages. Taking this example the first steps were to paint in the background (a green or turquoise for Sons of Horus) and then the central eye insignia. Black would be overlaid on top later and it's generally better to paint from background to foreground. Even the eye itself was first a mix of red and orange, then when that was fully dry (cured) I went back and added blended in the highlights up to yellow in the middle.

The black was actually a mixture of black, burnt sienna, white, even cadmium red. I wanted some depth to the surrounding shape, which black alone wouldn't give, and what you see is purely playing around for 15 minutes in the one spare moment I had. I'm not happy with the result, I know I can do better, but I'm not entirely unhappy either. It's not just greys, it's not plain black, and I figured how to mix on the fly better.

Working with acrylics I get used to layering a lot. Here it's different to a degree because the layers take a very long time to dry. It's better to mix the base colours and apply them with a rough outline and then later go back in and blend things together.

When working with acrylics I tend to mix colours on the palette first and then glaze and layer them up on the model. Here I was mixing white into the "black" on the palette but then when applied it would mix with the wet paint and be barely noticeable. Of course. So I mixed it directly on the painting itself. Oils are brilliant with blending, but therein lies the trick: figuring out when, where, and what to blend. It's also great to lean into that to work with the colours and move them around while there's time.

The long curing time of oil paints is something I am very much appreciating. Yes it means I generally can't sit and paint from start to finish in one go (possible with oils for someone more experienced than I), but also it's possible to simply have multiple paintings on the go, switching between them each day.

Oils for miniature painting isn't really my thing, but oils on canvas most certainly is. It helps me to think of the colours in a new way which is applicable to any sort of artistic endeavour.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part III

 

Crazy Eyes

This probably isn't really worthy of a post, but I've not had much time lately to write things down and so I'm going to try get through it quickly.

I filled in the eye lenses of the squad, deciding that the reflection point was nice but perhaps overkill if I was trying to be less exacting when painting these models. I also thought that something else could give a crazier look, showcasing the descent of the Sons of Horus into madness.

To that end I started with Jokaero Orange, using some off-white on the palette to brighten it because I couldn't be bothered reaching for a yellow, and then....stopped. Something wasn't right. I carried on with Blood Angels Red (happened to be on the palette) to make a darker orange towards the back of the lenses, and to give an outline in the recesses. Not a whole lot of colours, and it certainly would look nicer with the lens on a prior Luna Wolf, but that's when it occurred to me what was wrong: the lenses are far too bright compared to the rest of the model. It's the same base orange, but a Luna Wolf is much lighter (very much a light grey / light ash tone) so while the colour stands out, the value jump doesn't. This was too much and I ended up dialling it back with another glaze of red.

I think in future I'll just stick with what I did on the Luna Wolf. It takes eyes that aren't tired, but it's worth the end result.

Next up is more leather. Thondia Brown, Skrag Brown, Deathclaw Brown. This gives a nice, warm brown tone to work with, but leather gets quite dark when rubbed in a lot, so I then mixed Agrax Earthshade with Drakenhof Nightshade (about 1:1) and shaded the whole holster. I'm going to try reduce reliance on just reaching for a black and instead go with "very close to black" (dark blue, purple, green) instead, which should hold up better with saturation. I also played with an off-white and then glazing a mix of Corvus Black and Thondia Brown over the top to give that shiny impression worn leather can sometimes give off. This worked out very well on small details and I'll need to try my hand with it on something larger soon.

I have more to say on the subject of leather, hopefully soon.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part I

 

Probably buried his head in the sand.

Rather unfortunately, I had assembled some Custodian Wardens earlier in the year and was always planning to paint them alongside some of the 30k models. Or maybe fortunately: I wouldn't be painting them at all with the crass bullshit being delivered in 30k Custodes.

I'll not go much into it other than: the way it was handled was pathetic, and the new designs with boob armour are again taking away choice. Give people head swap options, don't force specific ideologies onto everyone. I'll grab that dreadnought probably, heavily convert it, but the agenda driven troops have turned me right off the whole faction. On a side note, I'd been eyeing off Daughters of Khaine and now they're going the prude route and destroying the entire character of the faction.

Anyway, onto painting. There's not a whole lot done so I'll try be quick about it (note: glossy armour doesn't show up nicely in the photos I take, but the actual model does look much better). The first few layers use an airbrush:

• Dryad Bark Air to cover the entire model. This will serve as the basic shadow colour, but also helps give a richer gold tone rather than applying the gold direct over a black primer.
• Balthasar Gold Air over most of the model, leaving only the direct downward facing surfaces as Dryad Bark. The gold is best thinned and applied in multiple layers - which goes the same for everything following.
• Valdor Gold Air as a mostly Zenithal coat. This isn't entirely apparent, more or less makes the model a little more desaturated, but it still helps the next layers.
• Thallax Gold Air mostly covering the Zenithal, but letting it bleed into other areas if they were missed before. Thin coats is still the name of the game. This colour in particular really gives a rich golden colour to work with.
• Imperial Gold Shade (Vallejo TMM), applied with a brush. This paint helps give definition but does shift the colour very slightly. It works best when covering an entire surface but then encouraging the pigment towards recesses. It can be feathered off larger surfaces if necessary.
• Cryptek Armourshade Gloss, thinned at least 1:1 (if not more) with acrylic flow improver and then used to further define some of the shapes. I mostly guided this around recesses considered to be "underneath". Try not to let this pool too heavily because the gloss nature of the paint will be at odds for a shadow area. I may try to use Warplock Bronze for wing designs to give darker contrast to recessed parts without the extreme gloss of the shade, and then build that up through the gold layers. I'll think on that one.
• Thallax Gold Air / Liberator Gold mixed roughly 1:1 and glazed for initial highlights. I intend to work up to pure Liberator Gold at a later stage, but haven't done that yet.

The cloth is for the moment just Barak-Nar Burgundy, which will be the shadow colour and I'll highlight up to a red afterwards. Even this colour could perhaps be mixed with black to really deepen the folds - something to explore.

And that's really it. The shading and glazed highlight stages take quite a long time and so most of the rest of the squad are still waiting on those steps.

I played with feeding Omega Blue (TTC range metallic) through the airbrush with thinner and learned that while it does work, don't just use thinner. Use at least equal amounts of flow improver to stop it being so watery. While yes this did work and would be great for essentially airbrush glazing (I do have some ideas of where to take that), it took a few layers to build up a strong base colour. If doing that, just use a brush.

That's about all for now. For reasons, I won't be able to post for another two, possibly three weeks and then it'll be probably back to Sons of Horus assault troops.

-- silly painter.

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.