Lamenters Gravis Captain - Part III (Showcase)

 

Given their history, capable armour for a Lamenter is a must.

Turns out there wasn't much left to do on the Gravis Captain. A decal, some of my personal approach to power fields on a sword, some metallics after the varnish spray, and that's about it.

I could have done more with the base, but somehow had the impression it would run the risk of looking cluttered if I did. The model is relatively bulky and takes up enough points of interest on its own.

There are a couple of places where the varnish spray didn't set quite right, thanks to a few light drops of rain while leaving it to dry, but thankfully there was no frosting.

Anything I might change in future would be to add some edging in places to break up the yellow a bit. There is simply too much of it. Maybe deeper shading would help, e.g airbrush with Seraphim Sepia.

I do like how the left pauldron turned out though.

Only a Son of Sanguinius can keep a cape clean on the battlefield.

-- silly painter.

Lamenters Gravis Captain - Part II

 

The chapter symbol all painters fear.

More progress on the Lamenters test model, now fully assembled. I'll say it right out off the bat: that chapter symbol is a nightmare to paint. I don't want to even think of trying to do that for an entire army. Self printed decals would be the only way to go, if sculpted shoulder pads were unavailable.

Make no mistake, under a magnifying glass it doesn't look very neat at all, but I'm otherwise happy with the checkers and symbol turned out, especially considering my lack of freehand expertise.

The blue winged skull details are also something that worked much better than I originally anticipated. It's a good "punchy" blue, but not a bright blue (something that would have ruined the look when compared to the more muted mustard yellow). Recipe for the blue is:

• Nightlord Blue
  
• Altdorf Blue as a first stage highlight.
  
• Nuln Oil in the recessed areas.
• Ahriman Blue as secondary highlight.

Turned out well enough that I might consider the formula for whenever I paint a Nightlords model.

I do wonder if green eye lenses wouldn't have been a better choice. They might have stood out some more, drawn more attention to the face area. The iron halo (or whatever it's intended to be) I debated painting more silver, but ultimately went with a brighter yellow that wouldn't overtake anything else for attention. Didn't really quite work, but not sure what else I might have done.

The inside of the cape was

• Wraithbone (multiple layers to get a smooth, even finish).
• Seraphim Sepia in all the folds, particularly the deeper recessed areas.
• Morghast Bone, thinned, to blend in the wash staining.
• Wraithbone again, thinned, to lighten the raised areas.
• Screaming Skull (you guessed it) thinned to give a final highlight.

The corner details were left alone after the second step. So much of the model is already white or yellow that anything to make it stand out more would have been too much.

The model is very nearly done: a decal or two to add something in a couple of areas, varnish spray, metallics, and the power sword effect. At this point I'm still not a huge fan of Gravis armour, but I think the blue and chapter symbol have rescued this particular paint job.

-- silly painter.

Lamenters Gravis Captain - Part I

 

Pass the mustard.

Painting has been a little slow of late, but I have started on the last Primaris from the Dark Imperium boxed set. The captain in gravis armour I wanted to do a little different for multiple reasons and decided to give Lamenters a go.

Lamenters are predominately yellow, but more recent colour schemes for them depict more of mustard yellow rather than the brighter appearance of Imperial Fists. In painting this model I've come to the conclusion that Citadel paints don't really have much appropriate in the mustard yellow range other than Averland Sunset, which makes this a most difficult model to shade and highlight. I don't think I've done a very good job in this case, but I'm also not going to start again - all fitting with the Lamenters back story I guess.

The particular colours used are also really hard to colour balance from the camera and lighting used. Expect future photos to not match this one.

Basic armour though I tried with:

• Averland Sunset all over the armour. Multiple thin coats to get a good, even, coverage.
• Averland Sunset / Gorthor Brown (1:1) into shadowed areas. The base and layer paints here don't like mixing, and the brown wasn't the best choice in hindsight.
• Averland Sunset / Yriel Yellow (1:1) as a highlight colour. Yriel Yellow on its own is too bright.
• Averland Sunset thinned down to glaze consistency to blend the above steps together a little as needed.
• Lamenters Yellow (of course!) to saturate some raised areas very slightly. Mostly on larger surface areas. It could use a second coat of this in areas, but that might equally be too much.
  
• Seraphim Sepia used as direct recess shading. This is one colour that works well with Averland Sunset; if I were to start again I would use Seraphim Sepia through the airbrush for shading, and then Agrax Earthshade in the recesses.
• Dorn Yellow as edge highlighting. This is a very desaturated paint, very close to cream white, and worked well here.

Next steps on this model are a little annoying. The cape can't really be attached until more details are filled in, or else it gets in the way. By that time most of the model might well be done, and that's somehow demotivating. So this model might take some time, but I'll try do other models in the background to compensate.

-- silly painter.