Commander Dante - Part V (Showcase)

 

Angel of Death.

Despite not thinking I would manage this, I've actually been able to finish Dante over the last week. Everything just kind of fell into place, and I'm calling him done. Not that I'm entirely happy with everything: the axe blade in particular doesn't really do it for me, but I think I'll leave it as a reminder for later projects.

The base I think turned out better than I'd hoped. It doesn't clash with Dante, and I intentionally gave it a cooler, darker tone that was complimentary to the red, but contrasting to the warmth of Dante's armour. It's not actually much darker though: it's the glossy shine from the metallics that give that impression. Compared to the shaded areas, the base is actually a lighter tone. The rough painting approach is:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey / Black (3:1, or even 2:1, exact amount isn't important) as a base colour over everything.
• Chronos Blue drybrushed over all of the stone, with very light touches over the dirt and loose rubble.
• Stormfang Blue drybrushed as highlights over the previous step.
• Wrack White drybrushed onto the very edges of the stone, and again lightly over all of the dirt and loose rubble.
• Seraphim Sepia shade into random areas of the dirt. This isn't a heavy wash, just a light one to more or less glaze over them.
• Agrax Earthshade in the deeper recessed areas, and also glazed as a transition colour on stone, or where the previous shade was too red.
• Nuln Oil as a glaze more than a shade, mostly to define some of the carvings in the stone, or to darken some of the stone work. This is most noticeable where the broken pillar meets the ground.

I'm fairly pleased with the end result, and thankful that I made the decision earlier to strip the texture paint off and go with more of a "pillar crashed down from high into stone tiles" look. On a note about drybrushing: as it turns out, the Citadel paints for that are really good! They have the right consistency if using the right (_very_ slightly damp) brush, and moving between values slowly instead of any one large value jump (e.g white over black) helps smooth out transitions and helps prevent that grainy texture that drybrushing is so often associated with.

The half-tabbard is Barak-Nar Burgundy and Gal Vorbak Red, with mixes of black in there to shade things, and even the old Bloodletter Red to shift some of the volumetric highlights more. In general I didn't go for much in the way of extreme highlights, effectively only going as high as a mid-tone. This makes it look less reflective and more like material of some kind. I need to work on that kind of thing more, but I think the basic idea is sound.

Must have good type script for battle.

I haven't magically become very good at writing on scrolls (although a size 0 Windsor & Newton is making short work of purity seals), but for the right pauldron I used the opportunity to give self-printed decals a go. My printer isn't configured for super high quality to leave it at that, but it does give enough of an outline that I can fill in the rest with a fine-tipped paintbrush. It has that "cheating" feeling, but ultimately I chose the font, I cut it to size and applied it, and I painted over it to clean up the lines, and if it gives me excellent lettering every time then who really cares? I have a bunch of names printed out to use in future as well. The skull is a little too bright white, even after I dulled it down slightly, but I need to stop somewhere and it's not bad at all. I'd work on it more if this was for a competition, but that's all.

The axe has one component with Canoptek Alloy glazed onto it for more of a brass feel. This was mixed with Balthasar Gold to help shift the colour, but it turned out nicely enough. I'll keep that in mind for future reference.

Not much else that it's paint-by-numbers and which I haven't done many times before. I'm happy with the end result, and really upped my game with using metallics. The base turned out much better than I'd hoped, learned few tricks with drybrushing, and decals for words is a definite hit - plus, the model itself looks great.

-- silly painter.

Commander Dante - Part IV

 

Now officially more bling than Sanguinary Guard.

In what I hope will be the penultimate post on this more recent version of Commander Dante, there's actually very little change since the last time. The winged iconography has been filled in, some of the silver metallics have been started, the grip on the axe haft done, and the base given a new primer layer.

By far the most interesting choice I've been exploring has been the metallics. I knew I wanted to try more mixing metallic paints with non-metallics, wanted to try paint them in an NMM style, and wanted to keep more glazing. The problem is really that black is a terrible colour to start that with and so I went with a darker grey instead. So far I've found this works acceptably well:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey / Abaddon Black (4:1, doesn't need to be specific). This creates a dark grey without being too black - the ratio isn't too important, just need it darker than Mechanicus Standard Grey on its own, but lighter than Corvus Black.
• Stormhost Silver, glazed. I prefer to use a small amount of flow improver or Lahmian Medium rather than water to help get the glaze consistency but without the reflective particles flowing too far out of the way.
• Stormhost Silver more directly layered for edge highlights.

I like how this turned out. It could use some more experimentation to get everything just right, for example I didn't mix the metallic and grey colours together (because I'd swapped out the palette by then) which would help smooth things out. I think there's potential in the contrast it gives. I still need to glaze over a blue of some description, just for the weapon glow effect.

The other very minor (and not visible in the photo) new idea is actually for the axe grip. That was done as normal for such things by now:

• Doombull Brown
• Tuskgor Fur to highlight.
• Carroburg Crimson shade.

However this time on the opposite side from what's visible, I mixed a very small amount of black into Doombull Brown and used that as a shadow colour. It makes a very dark and leathery brown which I'm definitely going to look into later. I may also try mixing Rhinox Hide and see how that turns out, although I'm not convinced it will be any better. I suspect this will be one of the few occasions where black is more suitable for the dual reason of it darkening and desaturating the mix.

The base so far is mostly Mechanicus Standard Grey, some black mixed in there just to play around with some areas, but nothing too noteworthy. I had some complicated plans for the base, but the darker and more muted tones play off the shine and relatively brighter appearance of Dante. A combination of drybrushing and washes will likely carry the lion's share of the work on the base.

The weapons need to be finished, gemstones painted in, a little more purity seal writing, the base, and of course the half tabard are yet to be done. It's simultaneously not much left to do, but also will take plenty of time owing to how different each piece is and how much I'll need to change approaches on each area. I doubt I'll have a quiet week to finish this model, but maybe in the next two weeks (or longer if I get sidetracked onto other projects).

-- silly painter.

Commander Dante - Part III

 

Dante's Inferno Pistol

After what seems like an age, I've finally painted enough of Dante to fully assemble the model. There's obviously still a lot left to do, but now that everything is in place I'm hoping motivation will speed up the rest.

I might have reached this point a week sooner, except the base was looking pretty horrid and I decided to try and fix it up. I have a lot of trouble with bases actually, and it's the one thing that I wouldn't mind a 3D printer to help sort out. For this particular model there's a fallen pillar of some kind, but it's lying on top of a pile of rubble that looks almost like dirt. That just doesn't make much sense outside of ancient buildings in Greece or something. It should be something more recent, related to whatever battle and campaign that Dante is prosecuting. Originally I was going rubble strewn about and covered in dirt, but decided to scrape most of that off and instead have tried to adapt it to look more like a pillar or column has fallen from a height and smashed into some flooring (and maybe the halo of some large statue next to it). It won't be quite as effective compared to having thought of it much earlier, but I'm hoping it'll be acceptable. I still need to clean up some rough edges, glue pieces down, add some texture in places, prime and paint it all.

Painting-wise, not much to say really. The "white" iconography is just repeats of before, and most of the rest comes from my standard recipes (I should probably link to that somewhere again). I've tried a few silver metallics in areas, and it's not quite as effective yet as with the gold armour. I'll need to try glazing over a colour other than black - possibly Mechanicus Standard Grey, and see where that takes me.

The glossy nature of the armour is causing some photography problems which I honestly don't have the time to sort out right now, but in good lighting the model really does look a lot better. Actually the black pauldron trim looks far too dull in comparison and I might need to try give that a more satin finish later. I won't be varnishing the model in general because it will simply dull the armour too much, but then I'm not likely to be using it for gaming anyway.

The eyes of the mask are incredibly simple: white, and Talassar Blue over the top. With a very pointy brush and magnifying headset. I wasn't sure if blue would work, but again in proper lighting this really gives an impression of a golden figure with incredible power. It's a really good sculpt. Too bad the Sanguinary Guard models are...not. More about that and how to improve them in the coming weeks I hope.

Otherwise, that's all for Dante right now. Painting is slow going, but not stalled.

-- silly painter.

Commander Dante - Part II

 

I like to think he's just hopped off his flying Land Raider.

The focus of the last week has been to get Lord Dante's armour more or less finished. I might add spot highlights later, but I doubt it - I'm fairly happy with the result. There is a slight catch though: photographing this model is not an easy task, and the "golden angle" is slightly off the photographed axis; the highlights don't quite match up with the lights that I normally use. This is a model painted to be viewed in real life, not as a digital facsimile.

At any rate there wasn't a whole lot changed to the formula from before. I added some black to really darken a few outlines and increase general contrast. It's fairly subtle but really makes the model that much easier to read: despite the reflective conditions and angle of the photo, the sculpt is still easily discerned. In general the process is:

• Rhinox Hide / Balthasar Gold to provide coverage.
• Black mixed into that or just Rhinox Hide for the deepest recesses.
• Balthasar Gold mixed into the original mode, for initial volume highlighting.
• Gehenna's Gold / Balthasar Gold for further highlighting.
• Gehenna's Gold / Auric Armour Gold for edge highlights.
• Canoptek Alloy / Gehenna's Gold / Auric Armour Gold for extreme highlights (only done on the helmet so far, not pictured).

The amount to mix varies, and there's a lot of glazing, back & forth, remixing, adjusting highlights, etc, that's simply done on the fly. Knowing where to place highlights was simply a matter of angling the model against an overhead light and taking notes: the original airbrushing made this a trivial exercise. Bounce lights were likewise quite simply once metallics were glazed sufficiently in areas: the reflection could be seen immediately, and a higher value colour chosen to accentuate the effect. If I had to sum up the approach: make it slightly reflective, paint according to a light source, and exaggerate as much as possible because of scaling reasons. Also don't be afraid to layer, glaze, and mix metallic paints.

The white chest detail is only three paints: Mechanicus Standard Grey, Ulthuan Grey, Corax White. Mixed and glazed in that order. The Mechanicus Standard Grey serves as a recess shadow colour to outline the details, with Ulthuan Grey added to raise the brightness very slightly, and to shift ever so slightly into a blue hue. Corax White just raises the brightness more, but doesn't go quite as bright as something like White Scar. Going too close to a purer white would dull the metallic shine by comparison, and I want the White Scar for the brightest reflection points of gemstones. I've not decided how much better I could do on the white, but I think it will do. I purposefully stayed clear of Contrast paints over concern of using too much an obscuring some of the detail like I nearly did once before. There are of course other white details to be filled in with this scheme, but I need to paint some other models first I think.

Much yet to do on this model, but I'm enjoying this one quite a lot. With still a long time until it will be completed, with the armour done I can at least get an overall feel of how it will turn out. One hopes the Sanguinary Guard will be equally well done, whenever they are given a refresh.

-- silly painter

Commander Dante - Part I

 

Head hunting.

One of the first models that I painted when I got back to painting was Commander Dante. That was a finecast model, and I had painted the metal version long ago (and had also given that army away long ago). The new, Primaris, Command Dante is an excellent update to that old sculpt. The basic design remains the same, but has been updated with modern approaches to miniature design, and of course a slightly larger scale.

I was thinking for quite some time about how to paint the new model. I wasn't going to do NMM, but I also didn't want to go for a simple approach - I wanted to try use metallics to push the envelope and see what I could do with them.

Originally I tried to base coat with the airbrush using Balthasar Gold. I was definitely leaning towards the original paint scheme itself and I like the darker colour that gives a more antique and master crafted feel to the armour. Unfortunately I forgot to first base coat with Rhinox Hide, and didn't know how to properly thin airbrush paints at the time. The result was very poor coverage with an awful lot of speckling, and black does not work as a shadow colour here.

After a very long time trying to think how I might want to fix airbrushing mistakes, I finally decided to simply go in with a brush using the same colours and smooth out the initial highlight volumes. The airbrushing, for all of the mistakes I made, still shows the volumes nicely and gives a great idea of where to place highlights. It's about here where I thought to deviate slightly and take some hints from the idea of painting NMM, but with metallic paints.

Only the left leg has been started because I wasn't sure how it would turn out and figured the legs wouldn't draw as much attention as the face, but do offer a large enough space to get an idea about how the rest would end up. All I did was mix Rhinox Hide and Balthasar Gold in varying ratios, layering and glazing over the volumes. The Rhinox Hide dulls out the Balthasar Gold, giving a very satisfying satin finish - highlights are certainly more reflective than shaded areas, but not excessively so. Flow improver helps to thin the mixture, and I'm starting to experiment with Lahmian Medium to slightly dull the more "pure" metallic glazing. I do want contrast in surface finish (more matt in the shadows, satin or slightly gloss on the brighter points), but I want more control over it and I'm hoping the medium will permit that.

I'm quite pleased with the result so far. I've already started on the "face" (helmet) and have highlighted that up further with Gehenna's Gold and Auric Armour Gold along the same lines. Gehenna's Gold has some Rhinox Hide mixed in mostly for the surface finish, and while it works I'm still considering pushing it a bit further. The details need more highlight contrast to properly make them out, which is something often missed when using magnifying glasses all the time.

-- silly painter.