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.

Crimson Paladin - Part V (Showcase)

 

That's not dakka. This, is dakka.

The first of the Crimson Paladins is now finished. It doesn't look as though a whole lot more was done since the last time, and in truth it's not much - but it's enough to make all the difference.

The usual matt varnish layer and then final metallic highlights, armour highlights, that kind of thing. The most interesting of the metallics is the trim, which was a 1:1 mix of Castellax Bronze and Runelord Brass. This leaves some room to add more spot highlights if necessary, however I was worried that this would overpower the red too much so I left things as they were. If I were to do more then it might be Canoptek Alloy as very thin edge and spot highlights, and nothing more. I think this bronze or brass metallic colour was definitely the wiser choice over gold for this particular model, and I will of course need to carry it on through the rest of the squad.

The sword has Omega Blue (TTC) in the middle, along with Talassar Blue, Doom Metal, Iron Warriors, Iron Hands Steel, and even some edge highlights with Ironbreaker. The photo doesn't show the angle of course, but it's certainly worth continuing down this road to see where it leads.

The black higlights worked well here and I still have a Death Company marine hanging around somewhere that could use airbrushing to get that effect across larger armour panels without quite so much effort. If only I had that little bit of extra time each day to get the models to that level.

The pauldrons turned out far better than I had hoped, and they really draw attention to the upper area. This compensates for some of the interesting proportions of the legs. The armour in general I spent some extra effort on at the end: it was at a stage where I thought "I could do more, but effort...." and then just decided this time I would put that effort in. The higher upper surfaces are intentionally much brighter, but the highlights on the lower half weren't as obvious before and so they were slowly glazed up to define the shapes better. I can always, always, do more, but it would run a high risk of ruining the look if I did so now.

The base I'm unhappy with. I should have sanded everything back to be more smooth, the melted rock sludge look of the casted base isn't very inspiring, and the colours are just kind of wrong. I will need to think about the next one in how I'm going to sculpt it. I'm still thinking about a filament 3d printer and seeing if that will be up to the task, but for now it's green-stuff and milliput.

Guess I need to assemble more, and also start to think how to convert the newer Cataphractii models.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin - Part IV

 

This ground sure feels weird.

Having recently decided on the general base theme for 30k models, I tried to see if I could make the base for the Crimson Paladin fit.

The base for this model was originally created out of a green-stuff / Milliput mix pressed into a mould of an original resin base topper created by GW (long since out of production). It works well to add height to the model, but there are a good number of details that look, for lack of a better description, melted. I figured I could work with that, however there's also an awful lot of stones, rocks, smaller pieces of debris covering everything. It looks more like a generic dirt wasteland than an Imperial hab block, and therein lies the real problem: it doesn't fit with the other bases.

I attempted to paint it more or less the same as the simple dirt areas on the other models: Thondia Brown, highlight with Dawnstone, shade it back with Basilicanum Grey, and re-highlight with Dawnstone. Now it kind of looks like blasted slurry that's since hardened.

I've tried to paint in some of the details with whatever random colours I could, and that does help - but it's not enough. I will add a skull soon more as visual interest and to distract from everything else because it's obvious that this base is Not Working (tm).

I could try to re-base the model, but it's fairly well glued down. I would try to sand back areas to create flattened street surfaces, add some more scattered rubble, piping, that sort of thing, but that's an awful lot of effort. Instead I'll probably just leave it as a reminder. I guess I could explain it as somewhere that a particularly powerful plasma weapon recently interacted with and was later covered in ash or something. Part of a larger impact creator - which is actually an idea to add to other bases: impact craters. I could (and should) sculpt explosion damage into future bases, bullet holes, etc. So long as I learn something from it, then being dissatisfied with this particular base is well worth it.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin - Part III

 

If it gets past that gun, not sure a sword will stop it.

I've finally managed to fully assemble the first of the Crimson Paladins. Still a ways to go to paint him, but at least assembly is done. There isn't a whole lot to say about the painting, so this post will instead focus on putting together the model.

The first thing to note is actually the last piece to be glued in place: the helmet. I really like the style of those helmets, and it really suits the aesthetic, but there's one small problem. The helmet sits too low compared to the arms, and the helmet-less head is larger than the helmets themselves. This gives them some weird proportions and so I made the decision to add some padding and lift the helmet just a little. This probably makes the head look oversized now, but it also makes the model look taller, and so I think on balance it was good enough choice. This wasn't difficult to do; extend under the helmet with green-stuff, pad the round connection point some more, and then file it back if it's too much. 

The arms were positioned almost exactly correctly because of pin holes I had originally drilled. Everything lined up and gluing was simple. I think the right arm was ever so slightly too high, only by about 1/3 of a millimetre, but at this scale that's enough to be noticeable. Not too much I can do about that now.

The pauldrons. They were never going to glue nicely into position with that design. It took a long time for me to think of something to try that might actually work, and the answer was: green-stuff. I tried to sculpt more surface for the pauldrons to sit on, and even in the end added a small blob to hold it in place while the glue dried. I'm still unhappy with the result. I think next time I need to extend the surface out with yet more green-stuff, sculpting it into the proper shape even before the model is primed.

The leather flaps under the pauldrons are painted with the same recipe as for the White Dwarf's gloves. Rhinox Hide and Squig Orange for the most part, some Nuln Oil in recesses. It could be a lighter tone. Maybe I can try that with the next one.

I still need to fill in a few details, and the pauldrons are only base coated (no highlights yet). The base itself is obviously in need of some work. Quite a bit to go. I started off the year strong, but unfortunately the (rather predictable) events of work, house, health, and all of that, is forcing me to slow down these last few weeks. I might need to focus on just one model now and get it done, then move to the next, and the next, and so on. Or just keep painting what I feel like, when I feel like. Let's see.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin - Part II

 

Cleaning that sash must take some effort.

Originally I thought I could paint the Crimson Paladins relatively quickly, but this first model has proven me most incorrect in that matter. It's the sub-assemblies that annoy me, but even more it's that the shoulder armour doesn't have a proper mounting location and I can't glue them in place until the arms are done, and they need to be done separately from the torso to reach certain areas without hassle. One of those spots is the sash and rings on which it hangs.

The sash itself is fairly simplistic with building up from a dirty beige to an off-white:

• Steel Legion Drab
• Zandri Dust
• Skeleton Horde (TTC)
• Screaming Skull
• Pallid Wych Flesh

The issue I still have with cloth though is making it look like material. Trying to find references is difficult because photos are always with cheap costumes using nylon: thin, slightly shiny, overly smooth. I want something heavier looking, more durable. Ancient Roman togas is the closest I can find. Even then, the scale means it shouldn't be painted realistic, but instead painted more impressionistic: take the properties and exaggerate them. Durable, thick material will have large woven fibres that can be portrayed by painting always in the same direction to build up a kind of lined grain in appearance. It doesn't always work.

Another problem here is that I'm used to glazing and smoothing between layers, which is _very_ difficult with whiter and lighter coloured paints. It leaves everything looking blotchy and messy far too frequently. Using flow improver instead of water to thin the paint does help, but actually it's simply better to use slightly thicker layers and wet blend instead. Even then it was the Pallid Wych Flesh that brought everything together in the end - it was a total mess before that.

So I still need to find my rhythm for painting cloth.

The hanging straps could be leather, or just more heavy cloth. I painted them with Steel Legion Drab,  Barak-Nar Burgundy, mixed in Warpfiend Grey in some places and The Fang in others, then gave the whole thing a coat of Black Templar (Contrast) mixed with Contrast Medium (about 1:1). I played it fast and loose with the whole thing and may still go back and add scratches and edge highlights, but I'm starting to like using purple-greys with black leather.

As for the armour trim, that's still just Castellax Bronze with a thinned Canoptek Armourshade (1:1 with flow improver) right now. I may highlight after the matt varnish stage of the model, not sure yet.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin - Part I

 

Fear the Filigree

While starting on the Champion, I also was inspired to assemble a test model for the Crimson Paladins, mostly because they look awesome and I'm convinced I could convert the new Cataphractii into something similar with a moderate amount of effort. I also want to paint up the older models before the new ones make them look out of scale, so there is some time pressure involved.

I originally decided to make the test model the one carrying an assault cannon. The idea here was to avoid sub-assemblies. That didn't exactly go according to plan. The arms do make some places much harder to reach, and it was with great difficulty that I decided it was going to make for a much better finished piece if I painted the arms separately. It got worse from there, because the upper pauldrons don't have anywhere to sit properly on the arms. I will need to use a small ball of putty to get proper surface area for glue to adhere to, but without somewhere to align them this can only be done after the main arm is attached to the body. This probably means I'll need to paint those pauldrons separately as well, and only glue them into place after the arms are, which is going to make aligning highlights a real pain.

After some reflection about the bases, I remembered old Citadel base toppers and how I had created a mould of one. Mixing green-stuff and Milliput because I wanted to see how that would perform, I cast directly on top of a base...and made it far too high! Oops. Maybe this guy is standing on a small mound. Next bases I might simply try to create textured rubble out of the putty mix, push in stones and small cabling for visual interest, along with pieces out of the bits box just to spice things up a little.

I used a very small strip of green-stuff under the feet to better secure the model to the base. Just like how I'll need to attach the pauldrons, this gives great surface area for glue and gives a much more solid connection without the need to pin it in place. Even so, I used too much green-stuff and then had to pad around the feet with texture paint to connect the model with the environment more. In future I might simply push feet into the curing putty for the same effect.

The green-stuff / Milliput mix worked quite well. It definitely gives sharper edges than pure green-stuff, but also a longer curing time and less "rubbery" finish. Sanding is obviously somewhere between the two, and while water can smooth it out the surface it's far less prone to simply liquefying by accident. Green-stuff is still my go-to for the underlying volume, but this mixture will be excellent to sculpt greater detail on top.

Moving on, I finally found time to get out the airbrush and rotate back to my old recipe for red armour, but with the benefit of knowing how to properly thin the paints and build up layers. This definitely shows. The photo absolutely does not properly display the saturation and vibrancy of the model. Even so, I still treated the airbrush as a foundation to build upon and went back over it with a brush to further refine the highlights. This didn't take too long and is better performed before I apply a varnish so that the glazes settle into the grain of the surface and blend more easily.

Next steps will be a gloss varnish and wash to define the shapes, and I'm considering a mix of flow improver and Contrast medium to make that happen, or simply Contrast medium and a damp brush to remove paint from where I don't want it. There's a lot of detail here and panel lining everything doesn't feel like the best approach - that might work for something with larger, clean surfaces, but not where there's very few unbroken panels. The trick will be to shade darker in lower areas, maybe with purple mixed into the usual colour, and then simply a thinner version of the original as I go up the model. I've made a conscious choice to try make the upper model brighter and it would be a shame to ruin that with the shading.

-- silly painter.