Sanguinary Priest (finished)

Care for a drink?

Espresso machine. Or beer fridge.

There's really not too much to say, this is mostly a showcase of the finished model. Face and hair are largely the same as can be seen with the Aggressor Sergeant, and is something I picked up from a White Dwarf once upon a time. I should perhaps detail what was used one day, perhaps a special on painting faces (though I still can't do them right).
Two things I'm trying however are: don't use pure white for the eye (Grey Seer was used in this case), and use something other than black for the iris. I'm not actually sure what was used here - simply something from the palette, perhaps left over Dark Reaper from some Horus work.

Side note: lighting is a little better for these photos, so the red appears different to previous, but nothing was actually done.

Rear view shows the vials, and how a little brighter line makes them look partially filled. A little 'ardcoat over the top makes them look more like glass as well, but does mute that line (especially on the red).

Yellow cabling was Averland Sunset, a little Agrax Earthshade, and then some Bestigor Flesh. I didn't want a bright yellow, so was looking for other colours and that just seemed to work. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it's close to what I wanted.

Random note: old Finecast models are horrible to prepare.

-- silly painter.

Sanguinary Priest (continued)

Could just be turtling.

The Sanguinary Priest is coming along, but nowhere near where I had hoped to be by now. It's all the little details really - figuring out how to paint them takes a hefty amount of time.

Oh, and the picture is a little blurred. Rushed the photo, didn't accurately focus the camera.

The metallics are the normal, mostly. Balthasar Gold, Gehenna's Gold, Auric Armour Gold. Shoulder pads have some Agrax Earthshade (gloss) on the wings, which actually works ok. I wanted something different than Druchii Violet, for no particular reason. A little Carroburg Crimson for ornamental chalice handles, but that's not very visible. It was just to give them a little extra colour.

Corvus Black definitely works as an excellent base to highlight from, normally by using Eshin Grey. The more traditional black can then still be used very thinly to darken as required. Need to keep that in mind for future Death Company marines, but the more immediate use will probably be boltgun casings.

Another note is that after continuing with Corax White, and a contrast paint of Apothecary White, this works quite well. It's probably very suitable for future painting of wings (again, something Death Company will have), though perhaps I would mix in just a touch of a blue. The final contrast leaves a colour similar enough to Grey Seer in recesses, and Ulthuan Grey on raised areas, so each of these can be used to fix mistakes later on.

A note on blood in vials: techical paint (Blood for the Blood God) works as a base, but I finally figured out how to create a "level" of blood (i.e the capsule/vial/whatever isn't entirely full): a very thin line of red mixed with white, running along the "top". It really only works for side-on views, but for that it works really well. Perhaps later I'll show this with a photo of the back of the model.

There's a very small strip of rope wrapped around the top of the flask, hanging from the left hip. A minor detail, but excellent to continue experimenting with to get that golden rope appearance. I'm a bit further with that, using:

• Steel Legion Drab
• Balor Brown
• Agrax Earthshade
• Tau Light Ochre

It could use a little brightening still, but I think it works better than my usual approach of basing with Averland Sunset. Perhaps a glaze of Lamenters Yellow, but I'll hold off on testing that until I find something larger to play around with.

Not shown in the photo, but the green vial on the backpack (presumably some kind of combat drug cocktail) ended up as:

• Caliban Green
• Vulkan Green
• Kabalite Green
• Kabalite Green / Ulthuan Grey (tiny mix to use as the "level" in the vial).

Rather than try to show the "empty" space in the vial any other way, that was left as pure Caliban Green showing. It's quite a dark paint, so there's no need to do anything else. Only the "filled" space received highlight colours. While somewhat more muted in tone than the neon show in the reference photos, it still gives an excellent contrast to the red elsewhere on the model.

Not much else to say other than new tools that I've been playing around with. I'm getting better at using a wet palette, which really helps to layer blend. Paints don't dry as fast (or at all), and so some mixing can be done to really speed the process up.

Another little tool recently released is the Citadel paint pot holder. Basically a bit of rubber that can hold pots and prevent them from accidentally being knocked over. Invaluable when using shades and contrast paints. It's also useful to stabilise a pot when trying to remove dried paint from a lid. Much easier and faster to use than a 3d printed alternative I have, I can highly recommend getting one.

Final note: I've been slowing doing little bits & pieces of Horus. I'd hoped to have one arm glued on by now, but keep delaying it. Not long though, and I'll prepare better photos then.

Still looking for his armies.

-- silly painter.

Sanguinary Priest (continued)

Mostly 'armless.

Colours are a bit off in the photo, which is because I'm playing around with a lightbox, and haven't fully sorted it out yet. More diffusion required, and the white balance needs adjusting too, but if I wait to do that then this will never get written out.

Not much has actually been done, but enough experimenting that I wanted to note down how I achieved the effects. The halo collar was entirely coloured with washes and glazes, no layer paints of any kind. I could go back and do something more, but at this point it's not really worth it (and because I haven't decided what more to do).

• Corax White (just the base coat)
• Lamenters Yellow (glaze)
• Casandora Yellow (wash; I just wanted an excuse to use that wash again)
• Fuegan Orange (wash; again, just wanted the excuse, limited to more recessed areas)
• Druchii Violet (wash; gold colours look better with a bit of violet)
• Seraphim Sepia (wash; just to tie everything together)

I let a few colours bleed into the lower collar areas, but otherwise kept that white. This keeps the focus on the halo itself rather than the entire collar, and also that area will be hidden somewhat by the helmet or head later on.

The flask on his left is something I spent far too much time with. I wasn't sure if I wanted it transparent or not, and ultimately went with "mostly not". So while it's still towards the red end of the spectrum, it's not blood-red. I did want the neck to be darker, hinting that the bottom of the flask is filled with something. Ultimately, the following:

• Shyish Purple (contrast)
• Gal Vorbak Red (base, thinned, more layers towards the bottom)
• Screamer Pink (layer, more towards the bottom)
• Bloodletter (heavily applied to shift away from pink, more to red)

Shyish Purple is a very dark purple. I'm considering it for part of Horus' cloak, or perhaps for Tyranids. It's so dark as to almost not be effective as a contrast paint, but I like the shade of purple regardless.

Lahmian Medium and Nuln Oil (about 3:1) were mixed and added into recessed areas of the armour to give it a bit more contrast. Ulthuan Grey turned out rather well as a highlight, but it's very subtle. Don't want to do much more - white is such a hard colour to work with that I could easily mess it up.

Next steps are to start filling in some metallics, and highlight the flask stopper slightly.

-- silly painter.

Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

Low hanging jewels.

Diving right into it, the cloak I wanted to have some kind of texture. It shouldn't be too bright, shouldn't have hard edges, and should be a little dirty in places (the predilection for "my" Blood Angels to not have dirty armour in the middle of a battle does not extend to their cloaks). I also wanted to play with contrast paints some more. So ultimately, the red cloth is as follows:

• Grey Seer (base)
• Blood Angels Red (contrast)
• Agrax Earthshade / Lahmian Medium (1:1 mix, mostly in recessed areas)
• Astorath Red (dry, concentrating on raised areas, or where armour is directly pushing against the cloak)
• Sylvaneth Bark (dry, around the hem)

And that's really it. The last stage doesn't really show too well in the picture, but it gives the appearance of the cloak having been brushed against the ground quite heavily, and not just freshly back from steam cleaning.

Armour is even easier:

• Corax White (base)
• Apothecary White (contrast)

There are more stages to go as well. I may use some thinned Nuln Oil in deeper recesses, and I'm uncertain whether to use Ulthuan Grey or White Scar to highlight with at this stage. I'll pick an area for the former, to see if it's actually lighter than how the armour already appears or not. Overall though, I'm quite happy without how Apothecary White works for white armour, even if it's not something I paint much of.

I'm experimenting with my lighting setup a little. Once I have that organised, I should be able to better white balance and take much nicer photos.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal (WIP), Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

One eye is colour blind.

Still having some trouble with getting the lighting just right, but it's late and I wanted to get something written out. So the above picture will have to do.

Small progress on Horus after a bit of a break. Mostly just filling out the belt and remaining torso armour plating. Nothing new in terms of colours, so far it's just a continuation of the same I've used before.

I've been thinking for a while about how to paint the studs, for example those seen on the pauldrons. Most variations of Horus have them as silver, however I'm slightly concerned that it will be too bright and take focus away from the rest of the model. On the other hand, the rest of the model isn't really there yet, so it could actually balance out once the model is finished. Perhaps it's worth seeing if Leadbelcher can mix well with black, or otherwise blob some contrast over the top to tone it down somewhat.

I'm also still deciding on the colours for the mace (Worldbreaker). I could strictly speaking glue one of the arms on now, but I'll wait longer until the mace is nearly finished, and perhaps more of the left leg, for reasons of ease of brush access.

Hanging pretty low there.

Purely for additional experimentation with Contrast paints, I've also started on a Sanguinary Priest. It's the white armour that I'm interested in. The above is a test on areas that are actually hidden behind robes, so they're intentionally a little darker than normal.
The armour is:

• Corax White (primer, and then base paint for a smooth finish).
• Apothecary White (contrast paint)
• Basilicanum Grey / Contrast Medium (1:1)

That's really it. The recesses where shaded naturally from the paint. It's somewhat more grey than exposed armour should be, so future steps will just use Apothecary White, and then some white or light grey (perhaps Ulthuan Grey, or White Scar in a pinch) for edge highlights.
The robe seen here is:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Blood Angels Red (Contrast)
• Druchii Violet (Shade)
• Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1) for edge highlights

Actually the last step is Mephiston Red with some pigment added in, but the pure pigments can't be bought anymore, so the equivalent now would be to mix in Dryad Bark (something I've done for the airbrush paints). On the outer garments I'll probably just drybrush Mephiston Red directly for the last step, both to change the texture and make it a little brighter.

Choosing the right base prior to applying Contrast does make a noticeable difference, so it's important to get that right. I may use something slightly brighter for the outer garments, and the outer garments should be done before the armour. Otherwise it's going to make fixing mistakes very difficult; white is an unforgiving colour if mistakes are made in red.

-- silly painter.