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.

Justaerin - Part II

 

Mr T. Knot

Just a quick post because I wanted to wrap up the sculpting practice for the first of the Justaerin. There's ultimately not a whole lot done, but the small details are enough to shift the outline and bring some more depth to the character of the model.

Starting with the Sons of Horus symbol, that is essentially an embossed decal. I applied a decal first, adding some softener to make sure it was strongly adhered to the plastic, and used that as a guide to sculpt over the top of. This would never be quite so precise as the decal itself, but the intent here is to gain experience with sculpting, not try to be a human 3d-printer. With that in mind I tried to think of what to sculpt first: what is the basic shape to build the rest upon? The central oval shape of the eye, with a small cutout for the "pupil". That was the easy part, and I used straight green-stuff for it. Next I mixed green-stuff and Milliput together for more fine detail work and built up everything else. I've learned that this particular mix can be troublesome when freshly mixed, but given 20 minutes to cure it's more workable to my liking (at least for this scenario) and I managed something passable in the end. It's not quite as clean as I wanted, but with careful painting then it should be more than sufficient.

Next is the top-knot. I spent some time thinking that one over, looking at tutorials on hair, trying to figure out where exactly it should go, and how to anchor it to the model. I couldn't place it on the helmet directly: there's just not enough space. The top of the armour seemed too far back, leaving the arch above the head as the only real solution. I needed to carve a little away to flatten an area, before drilling a small hole with a 0.4mm drill bit and gradually increasing size to 0.8mm to fit the paperclips I use. The reason for multiple drill bit sizes is just to make it easier to centre the hole. A touch of superglue to place a piece of paperclip, with green-stuff to blend it into the model, and the shaft to attach hair to was done.

The hair itself I might have tried to put a blob in place and then carve into, but I took a far more painstaking route to rolling out multiple, thin lengths of green-stuff and wrapping them together. I did try to taper one end more to give natural bulk when it would attach to the shaft, then simply stuck it on and shifted it around to a pose I liked. In hindsight I should've used a dot of superglue when initially sticking it to the shaft, but here I needed dab the glue into place after the fact in order to hold it down. Wrapping a small amount of green-stuff around the join and blending it together works to hide all of that.

Not a very colourful fellow.

Priming the model brings it all together and gives a clearer view of what the end result will be. I was worried the hair might just look like tentacles, but it seems alright here.

I have made a mould of the Sons of Horus symbol and might see how well I can cast it onto a fresh shoulder pad, but equally repeating the same again would be good practice. Perhaps I can do both: there are, after all, five more in the squad to go.

-- silly painter.

Justaerin - Part I

 

Clad me in spiked studs!

The recent Siege Assault Battle Group was good value for money when bought from a third party store, so I ended grabbing myself a copy. I didn't really fancy buying more models just yet, but I did want those new Cataphractii, and I could always sell the rest (probably won't, but I could). Naturally having the box sitting there I needed to assemble something and get a true feel for the new sculpts.

The end result is pretty great. The torsos aren't as bad as photos initially suggested, and if really necessary they could be padded out with green-stuff. The poses I was a little unsure about, but they do make everything seem more ponderous, which is absolutely spot-on for these suits of armour. Assembly, though, could use a few improvements.

The initial problem I was faced with (pun intended) was how to position the head correctly. I wanted it to face the same direction as the gun, and a wild guess likely would have it in the wrong position. So I needed to assemble the legs, some of the torso, and glue the arm into position, but not attaching the front and rear of the torso. Then I lined up the head, took some reference positions, and glued the head into what I thought was the right position. I did have a little time to make minor adjustments with tweezers afterwards and it ended up alright. I generally prefer to paint and glue heads into position much later, but the assembly here wouldn't permit that. Maybe I could trim some of the bottom of the head, but then that won't sit proper, and so in the end I've just fully assembled the model. Maybe in future I could PVA glue the chest in place, but that's just a lot of effort to paint areas that I doubt will be seen anyway.

The shoulder pads were a pain. They're in multiple pieces, I took the wrong parts from a different sprue (because the numbering is the same), and on the left shoulder pad the top tilted down where it wasn't supposed to. This gave everything the wrong angle and actually forced apart the under "plate" (I needed some severe gap filling with green-stuff to correct that). To compensate for the wrong angle I forced the arm up slightly and used pieces of plastic to add a kind of wedge (melted with copious plastic glue) to keep it in place. I fell like a few adjustments with little plastic nubs could've made all of that a lot easier to handle.

The hip plates do fit alright, but need care and should be done before putting the arms in place. Too bad I needed to put the arms in place first on account of the torso, but maybe that can be avoided: the attachment for the hip plates on this model are actually not on the torso piece and might not interfere if trying to add it later.

When attaching to the base, the angle wasn't quite right either. That's on me of course, and I only needed to tilt the model by one or two degrees, but it did mean mixing up the base and putting some extra debris underfoot to stabilise everything. Luckily the foot happened to be over an area that I thought would look cool if it was kind of crushed as the heavy armour stepped on it, so it all worked out in the end.

I'm making this model a Justaerin for practice. The triangular spiked studs let me try my hand and smaller sculpting, working the putty, and getting to be more familiar with how fast it cures, how the tools work, etc. I've actually made a small stamp for the spikes in future and can scuplt them sparately to later glue into place, but the experience with clay shapers was worth it for now. The little stamp was made by drilling a hole into a spare piece of sprue, adding putty inside, and then pushing the end of a thunder hammer from the kit through. Water or Vaseline makes sure that nothing sticks to the stamp when using it - but it works best with a "spiky" tip to stamp into. Pretty sure I'm getting the hang of bases too, but I have a few other ideas to make that easier (I don't have unlimited Sector Imperialis bases, and I'd like all the Horus Heresy models I do to have similar bases). Much sculpting ahead!

I'm not yet done with this model, and I have no real intention to start painting it quite yet. I just wanted to play around with it. There will be more painted model progress coming very soon.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Back, bigger than ever.

I'm calling it done on the conversion / kitbash of Captain Karlaen. I absolutely could go all-out on highlighting the armour more, making it really pop, but that would take at least another two days and then I'd have to start fixing other little mistakes too. This model is not a competition piece, but I've learned enough that it could be.

Before anything else, a nice sable hair brush with paint at the right glaze consistency (preferably using flow improver) over the matt varnish really, truly does wonders for highlighting red armour. Synthetics don't quite have the same softness or "spring" to them, and the matt varnish evens out the brush strokes in a way that's difficult to describe. I may have to use this to really step it up a notch on another model before too long.

For learning NMM, this model has been both a success, and a failure. I learned a lot about light placement, shadow placement, and using contrast to bring out the shape of something. The hammer haft and the storm bolter worked particularly well. The tilting shield trim did not. The rest of the gold was hit and miss - I could probably make it work, but I don't think the formula for gold was quite right for this model. I also need to use more mid-tones with less yellow because it goes too bright too fast.

What really helped with NMM for me was not starting from the darkest colour. Start from the mid-tone. That's the "unlit" colour of the metall, everything else is just adding light and dark for reflections to sell the effect.

If I'm going to continue learning NMM then I may need to add some texturing to the mix to help differentiate NMM from something simply lighter in colour. The Crux Terminatus is too close to the NMM areas and might come across as an earlier experiment - but actually I want it to look more like stone. Weirdly I could probably make it work with NMM quite well, but I think that a stone look gives them more weight, makes the armour look heavier, more powerful, and more menacing. In the meantime though, I want to switch back to metallics - I like the end look of them more in most cases, but I can still apply some of the lessons learned here.

The inner cape is darker than I originally intended. There's no colour reason for this - it was just difficult to reach that area and it was getting annoying. It was a risk I took, but next time I'll paint the cape before gluing the model into position.

The hammer grip was a good choice to be something other than red. It makes the hammer more distinct, whereas something more red or brown might have looked like an extension of the arm.

I could spend ages pointing out defects, mistakes, and generally describing everything in minute detail, but there's not really a whole lot of point to that. Also I'm tired and just want to finish up. The model was, overall, a successful kitbash. I know what I could improve in future for kitbashing, I know more than before about the placement of light and shadow, and I have a nice looking miniature all painted up before the end of the year.

-- 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.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part V

Back to it.

I somehow managed to get a fair amount done on Captain Karlaen recently, although most of that will be revealed later on the front. I'm still focusing on NMM techniques, and learning quite a lot in the process; I haven't cracked cubes yet, but I'm improving on other shapes.

The gold didn't really sit with the vision of what I wanted (it's too yellow) and so I experimented with something else on the hammer. I tried more of a white-gold, but in all honesty it didn't turn out at all. I dislike it so much that I'm not even going to write down the paints used - it's simply too beige, too sandy, and so I'll go back to the prior gold colouring for the rest: the right shoulder obviously need completing, along with the Iron Halo, along with a few odds and ends. Still, when painting the wing shape on the hammer I tried to give more contrast with a darker red in the shadows. This might work if I nudged into more ochre colours, something between yellow and brown and only moving to beige on the brightest reflection points. One mistake I did correct on the fly was when I realised I was painting the red as normal volume highlights without taking into account the angle; the deeper shadows would come from ground bounce light, and given the angle of the hammer this means they spread into the outer areas of each "feather". It's an interesting effect in the end and worth that realisation even if I don't like the overall colouring.

Over the rest of the hammer I stuck mostly to an dark iron / steel, borrowing mostly from the recipe used on Azrakh, but swapping a few colours around as I felt like it. I even tried Barak-Nar Burgundy mixed with the black, but subtle as I tried, the warm colour stood out too much.

Cylindrical shapes are easy when it comes to reflection points. It's mostly a brighter line down the length of the cylinder, some brighter does on the edges at either end. Cubes though, they're harder to make interesting. If they're highly reflective they simply act as mirrors, but with the environment missing then it's hard to show that. I settled for some kind of banding, which actually works better on swords. In future I might simply paint it a single gradient for the most part, or perhaps be a lot more subtle in the gradients, with only contrasting value jumps for the edges and corners.

One of the other techniques I was trying was really to build up highlights from a mid-tone, and then shade down from that same mid-tone. This worked. NMM isn't just about where to highlight, but where to add shadow and darker areas too, and both of these are easier from the mid-tone rather than trying to build up from darkest to brightest. White dots help sell the effect too.

I still don't really like NMM in general for miniatures, but it does work if done properly. It's just very difficult to do properly such that it works from multiple viewing angles. The shoulders don't do this, which is why I stopped. The left one looks amazing from the top, but not as nice from the front or side. The haft actually takes this into account and I have multiple reflection lines with a darker area between, allowing for the effect to be seen from multiple angles. the storm bolter has this slightly, but that's only really of interest when viewed from a certain angle anyway. The shoulders I don't think will work as I originally intended, but at least I'm learning why. I understand the advice from Darren Latham when he remarked in a blog post somewhere to pretend there are four light sources, one in each corner of a square above the model. It's what makes his style work on 3d pieces.

Ultimately I understand that NMM offers contrast and definition, which are critically important for miniature painting, but I also think it's not quite as easy as that. It will look nice in photos - but this isn't a two dimensional medium and that needs to be taken into account. I also like to play with the finish, from matt, to satin, to gloss. I'm convinced that mastering metallics hasn't fully been realised yet, that contrast is still possible with them, and definition. On that note I have two sets of Vallejo's TMM range, so I'll see how that goes on another model.

-- 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.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Fighting in style.

This won't be a long post, mostly because there wasn't a whole lot extra after the last photo and the model is now "done". As always, there's more I could do. I could highlight some of the armour more, make certain edges more apparent, that sort of thing, but also that runs the risk of overdoing it. Enough is done to serve as the basis for other 30k Blood Angels characters.

The metallics I think turned out as I hoped. NMM can be overwhelming on occasion, particularly with gold, but the muted colours here don't overtake the red while still allowing me to add some contrast (see the gorget for example).

Focus is firmly on the head, but the eye can wander and appreciate some of the detail. I also like the power sword using Omega Blue (TTC) to edge highlight. I feel there's more to play around with that yet.

The base worked as intended, even if that particular photo angle doesn't show it. The extra highlighting on the "wings" makes them stand out more than just black, and the Retributor Armour over a golden decal on the right pauldron fits by use of a different golden tint to the rest of the armour.

The only real issue I have with the model is that the cast was so detailed that the layer lines from whatever milling machine was used (I doubt this came from a 3D print) are visible up close. It's really the only time I've seen it on Forgeworld resin. I suspect the model was rushed a bit, even if it's a nice design that really fits thematically with the Blood Angels.

Now I'm off for a little, and when back I need to decide what I'll be working on next. Unlikely to be a new model - I really should try clear my works in progress before I start too many more.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part IV

 

Fear me, for I have a big hammer.

In the background I've been working on the Karlaen kitbash, just as I feel like it. I was originally going to paint metallics, but decided to try NMM on this model as well just for the fun of it.

The recipes are no different from more recent explanations, so I won't bother going over them again here. The gold is a little different on the actual model; colour balancing of the photo isn't quite right, and the reflection points are brighter and more white. Even so, the gold trim is probably a little too yellow. I use a base of Balthasar Gold with metallics for a reason: I like the darker gold it gives. I'll probably keep going with this for now though, at least on the armour. I may switch it up for the Thunder Hammer, to try replicate the colours of the metallics there.

I really should have left Karlaen off the base until at least the underside of the cape was painted. That's going to be a bit of a nightmare to get to now.

Obviously a lot to go on this model still. I'm not trying to paint it as my "primary" model, but may have to pick up the pace and get it finished by the end of the year, before I lose interest entirely. Better to have the model finished and be slightly unhappy with it, then sitting unfinished and be very unhappy with it.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part V

 

Superhuman murder machines never looked so stylish.

In the background of other projects I've been slowly working on the Praetor, trying to get this model at least to the stage of varnishing. I'm not there quite yet, but I'm very close now. I was working on the White Dwarf when motivation suddenly switched to this model so I just went with the flow.

I've deviated from the reference in a few places just because I felt this fit more with the rest of my Blood Angels, and also for reasons of symmetry, which is one approach to balance out the aesthetic. There are other ways of doing this, but they take a lot more mental effort than I could spare at the time.

Nothing new on the insignia and wing symbols, it's the same as I do across the range, but this time I tried to up the contrast more and make it more readable. Literally the same paints, just highlighting slightly more in places. This works particularly well on detailed sculpts, but less so on simplified designs common to 40k models.

The leather (or what I imagine to be leather) ornamentation took me a while to figure out. I wanted it different to the armour, different to the weapon, different to everything else. It's just Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin Fur over black in the end. I didn't want brown leather, but even so something with a brown hint would be suitable - a grey with a hint of brown. Those two paints are my go-to whenever I want that. It doesn't make a big difference in the photo, and even on the actual model it's subtle, but it's enough to be what I was after.

The major addition however is on the cape. I decided to go with an NMM approach to set it apart from the the TMM paints and hopefully depict gold threaded fabric rather than a solid metal lining. I think I like it.

• Rhinox Hide base coat. This will give a warmer gold tone.
• Dwarven Flesh (Two Thin Coats) mixed with the previous colour (it was on the palette) and layered on maybe 70% of the area.
• Tau Light Ochre mixed in and layered over maybe 40% of the area, focusing on the reflection points.
• Yriel Yellow mixed in and glazed over perhaps 15%.
• Dorn Yellow glazed over the final most raised or reflective points.

I didn't use any white, leaving room to still use this formula on hardened surfaces and provide a final spot highlight to really up the contrast. I intend to try that out on a certain other Terminator armoured conversion I'm also working on in the background.

I've started to edge highlight this model, even knowing that I'll need to do so again later. It worked well enough before varnishing on the dreadnought that I figured I'd give it a go here.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part IV

 

Not afraid to get that cape dirty.

It's been a few weeks since the last post, but I've not actually been idle - just haven't had time to take photos. One of the more recent tests has been the cape for the Praetor. I considered for a long while of how I wanted to show this, if it should be white, cream, or some other colour. Ultimately I wanted white to show purity and to help frame an otherwise darker model while still providing something to harmonise the brighter values of red on top and serve as a visual line to draw the eye upwards.

So the cape would be white, but white itself is never pure. There needs to be shadows, highlights, reflections from other colours, and so on. I ended up going for blue tints to continue the purity and angelic theme. Cream or beige is often associated with coarser material suitable for more rigorous endeavours, where as the blue is finery and status for the administrative halls of Terra. A high ranking Blood Angel seems to fit with status, purity, and the ornate armour already suggests artisan finery.

So far at least, the cape is just the basic outline and was entirely done with an airbrush. A few edge highlights will likely be added in, and then there's patterning to be added as well to break up the large surface (I'm thinking bright gold trim). I've struggled with capes in the past when using a brush, so this was mostly an attempt to gain experience with an airbrush to see what I could do.

The initial base colour is Night Lords Blue. This gives the deeper shadow colours, but it's not really too visible at the end - it will be entirely covered by the end, but covered with translucent layers. Next I mixed in Chemos Purple and used that to highlight some of the inner cape areas to act as a kind of reflection from the red armour. The end effect is subtle, but it's there.

Moving onwards through the paints I generally just remixed into an emptied but not thoroughly cleaned airbrush cup. The idea is to subtly influence each layer and help it blend into the one before - not sure it works too much, but it saves on having to deep clean between switching out paints. The next step up in blue was Macragge Blue, followed by Calgar Blue. These I started to add as highlights, but painting in thin layers and allowing them to over-spray into the folds.

One of the keys to cloth is that it's less about highlights and more about shadows: the mid-tones are the most important, deeper shadows away from the angle of the light source (_not_ just recessed areas, which might actually get direct light) and very soft highlights. The airbrush helps here: just angle the model and hit the sides or "walls" of the folds from one direction, adjusting the angle to reach recessed areas too as necessary.

Next up was White Scar, which was mixed with Calgar Blue in different ratios for multiple passes. Keep it thinned to almost glaze consistency here, and focus on raised areas the most. This was generally a filter to whiten the cape more than anything else.

After all of that I noticed some of the shading had been lost and so I went back with incredibly thinned Macragge Blue and deepened them again. I didn't want to go too much darker, again just filtering the colour is enough as that will naturally darken compared to white anyway. If I were to do this more then I would need to start adjusting air pressure, but as it was I played with trigger control and distance from the model for more or less the same effect (kind of, not really).

As always, the airbrush works best if the paints are thinned. Do not use them straight out of the bottle (at least not Citadel paints). Work in multiple layers, change colours gradually instead of going for large value jumps, and the end result can be very smooth without any speckling or "noise".

The cape is currently a little too contrasting to the rest of the model, however this will be sorted once edge highlights are applied on the armour (including the gold) and other details are added to the cape.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part III

 

Back to base-ics again.

With some brief moments between busy stretches, I finally painted up the base for the Praetor. The lighting is pretty bad on the photo, but it's the impression it gives that counts rather than perfect colour balance.

I originally had the idea of painting up another marble base, similar to the steps on which Horus stands, but replicating that needs a lore more attention, time, and most likely the airbrush to get the same colours. Instead I simply played fast and loose and then ended up liking the stone appearance so much that I skipped on the marble effect altogether. There's enough detail on the base that trying to add marbling could easily ruin the look, and besides which most of it will be hidden by the model on top anyway.

The first layer (or four) was Zandri Dust. My pot of that paint is less than stellar and I'll likely need to replace it soon (along with many of the other colours used here), but it's just workable enough that I can thin it with water and apply several coats to give proper coverage.

Next paint was actually Rakarth Flesh. It's almost useless, but a bit of stirring and I managed to get enough for a thin layer or two. Predictably this tinted everything towards a very unusual flesh tone, and so I mixed in Karak Stone (with a subtle amount of white from palette) to again build up a kind of sandstone colour. It's the mixing of these colours, along with random impurities from the palette, that give depth and subtle variation to the final result: don't try to be too perfect or it looks flat, dull, and uninteresting.

Agrax Earthshade around deeper recessed areas and across rubble, then Seraphim Sepia to bring some random colour onto the stone areas, and it's actually at that point when I decided completely to skip any sort of marbling. I pondered whether I should fill in the tile designs with something else, but the return on investment there just wasn't going to make it worthwhile. A final edge highlight and "dusting" with Ushabti Bone and the base is just about done. I still need to paint the rim, which I'm thinking to make a dark brown or ochre. Black just seems too stark of a contrast.

The base itself was made from green-stuff and a texture roller, with texture paint to fill in a few places that didn't turn out properly and give it a damaged look. The cracks in the stone are simple carving into the green-stuff for fun - although next time I should do that before the green-stuff has fully cured.

And there we have it, a simple but effective base with character and very little effort required to paint. It still needs magnetising before I glue the Praetor on top; I'm still deciding whether I should just glue the feet down, or pin the model in place. Pinning would certainly give more solid contact, but could interfere with the magnets.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part III

 

Hope the bionics don't weigh that much.

Before anything else, the picture above is not correctly colour balanced. The real skin tones aren't quite so unhealthy looking.

With that out of the way, painting has been abysmally slow of late. There's virtually no time throughout each day for anything. I'm going to try and counter this by painting small details on random models - anything that only needs three or four paints that I can put onto the palette and get done in 15 minutes. This idea was tested recently by painting Karlaen's head, which was taken from the Blood Angels upgrade sprue. I didn't want a shouting expression and needed the bionic eye to be on the right, and this particular head seemed to fit perfectly.

I used the Zorn Palette again here, or close enough to it. Bestigor Flesh, Incubi Darkness, Mephiston Red / Rhinox Hide mix, and Ulthuan Grey for the eye. There was blue on the palette that I used to dot in the iris as well. This particular time around it didn't turn out quite as well as I was hoping, but I still think the general idea is worth continuing to experiment with.

The NMM on the bionics was just some playing around that turned out a lot better than I was expecting. It's simply Incubi Darkness and Ulthuan Grey in varying mixes and glazes. I think a small amount of black might help to punch the contrast even more, but even so I quite like the result. I have no intention to use metallics there: the contrast of metallics elsewhere and NMM on the face will help keep the face as a focal point.

The hair I followed from a Warhammer youtube video:

• Zandri Dust.
• Ushabti Bone highlight, mixed lightly with Zandri Dust.
• Seraphim Sepia wash.
• Pallid Wych Flesh final highlight, although this was mixed with prior colours to keep it from being too overpowering.

And that's really it, the head is done and glued into place. The model is obviously far from being done, but it's actually fully assembled now. There are a plethora of details left to go and I'm not entirely sure how I'll get to all the cape's surfaces, or even what colours to use for it, but now the fun part starts as I get to see every brush stroke contribute to the final piece. Even as it stands I think I've managed to portray Karlaen well with this kitbash and it's definitely been worth the effort.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part II

 

Looks cool on the battlefield because he can.

A delay in posting because reasons, but I'm back at painting again. Not sure how regularly throughout the week, but I'm planning to do a little across a range of models in one step: painting with the one colour is much easier to keep on standby and get something done whenever there's five minutes spare.

The Praetor I've continued to base coat details without moving into any shading or highlights. The head was done before assembly, but I needed to wait for the proper time to remove the masking tack and see how it matches up against everything else. The first thing to notice is that the helmet is much brighter than the rest of the model. This was to be expected: I'm still having some trouble with getting the reds bright enough through the airbrush. The head also has final highlights applied and hasn't been gloss varnished, both of which alter how it shows up in a photo. I think it will match more at the end, and if it's still brighter then it's not too bad as it will just keep attention on the "face".

The helmet is slightly raised on a blob of putty compared to how it's normally assembled. I felt that it was too sunken inside the armour before and slightly raised seemed to fit the proportions better. I perhaps should've adjusted angle of where he's looking, but maybe he's still bringing the storm bolter to bear on a target or otherwise shifting the weapon out of his way to get a better view for a moment.

I've not readied a base yet, however the putty is currently curing. I'm intending to cut up some pieces to create something like cathedral flooring that's been damaged in the fighting. I'm not convinced that I'll do a great job of it, but it's all experience. If I wanted I could design the base around where he should stand, but that seems like effort.

While I'm copying the box art closely, I'm also simplifying it in places. The model is busy enough and I think I've achieved a good balance with the basic colours blocked in. The metallics will of course need to wait until after the matt varnish, but I think it gives a very good impression of how the final result will be. There's still a cape to go too: the model looks imposing as he is, and while I'm not always keen on them I think a cape would really add to the level of authority he should carry. A blue tinted grey that's near white is what I'm likely to go for, bringing out the airbrush to see how easy it will be.

Back to the helmet, I debated a while if the face-plate should be red, black, gold, and again what the rest of the helmet should be. I've seen just about all combinations, and they work well. I ended up going for a black faceplate to match the jetbike squadron, red on the rest, and framing it all in black. I also went for glowing eye lenses in a departure from my normal reflective dot look, and put a thin layer of OSL around them. I think it really sells the menacing look and I might try keep that for other Terminators from the 30k setting.

-- silly painter

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part II

 

That Carnifex is....hammered.

Continuing to paint up various works in progress as I'm inspired as resulted in some paint applied to the Captain Karlaen kitbashing effort. The red I airbrushed at the same time, and in the same manner, as the recent Praetor - mostly to avoid wasting too much paint, but also to confirm the result with a second model. Not much to say about the result which hasn't already been covered. Then I was watching a random YouTube video, by The Feral Painter if I remember rightly, and was inspired to paint the head of the vanquished Carnifex.

Painting the base would allow me to attach the model completely and keep it on the painting handle, but I'll mention now that I could have waited longer to get the cape finished first. It will be more difficult to access that now, but I figured difficult doesn't mean impossible, and with the top icon having snapped off twice already then I was eager to get the model assembled and more easily handled.

Back to the base, the initial black primer was done before adding Armageddon Dust around the edge, and then a quick dusting with Wraithbone primer gave what I thought was a solid foundational colour for just about everything. I then used a simple base coat of Wraithbone out of the pot to give more even coverage over the Carnifex head. One thing I have noticed: the pot version is a very subtly different colour, a little more saturated compared to the spray primer.

In the most basic overview for the fleshy areas:

• Wraithbone over everything.
• Baneblade Brown painted into shaded areas, mixed with the previous colour to blend as necessary.
• Druchii Violet thinned with flow improver (or Lahmian Medium, or just water) and glazed over everything. Try to avoid it pooling too much, and use a second pass in the deeper recessed areas.
• Volupus Pink thinned with Contrast Medium and glazed over the lips, some of the prominent fleshy sections, and any apparent wounds.
• Wraithbone layered to highlight areas again as necessary. I used much more on the rib-cage in the hopes of giving a more rigid look compared to the varied browns, pinks, and violets on the head.

The carapace in turn is:

• Naggaroth Night / Black (1:1 ratio) over the carapace. I did leave some places with only one coat to give variation, but for the most part two coats.
• Naggaroth Night thinned and layered to build up basic highlights. None of the typical carapace lines are done yet, this instead informs where they might go later.
• Naggaroth Night / Dechala Lilac (1:1 ratio) to start edge highlights and building up some of those carapace lines.
• Dechala Lilac to build up extreme highlight points, and make some of the carapace lines more prominent. A little water goes a long way to build this up in layers and blend it together.

The usual disclaimer applies to all of this: there's a lot of going between the stages to fix, blend, rework, and adjust while painting. It's not a one step, then another, then another, then done approach: everything was on the wet palette and I pick and mixed as I wanted.

The blood and entrails I used Flesh Tearer's Red for, but I'm not sure it's quite suitable. I might adjust the colour with a little more purple later. Carroburg Crimson in the eye to outline that, however it still looks partially alive. I might use a blue to darken it later.

I'm not done with the base yet. There are details such as the teeth to fill in yet, and the ferrocrete (or whatever it is) could use some more attention. So far I'm happy with how this model is turning out, and I do have a spare Tyranid model somewhere that I could practice this scheme on - just that I'm not in any particular hurry to start on that model. Yet. Cheers to The Feral Painter for the ideas here.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part I

 

The new turnip-head helmet design.

To start the year off I thought I'd go with a model that's been sitting in the background for a while. I've actually already painted up the head because it's difficult (nearly impossible) to put in place once the body is fully assembled, but painting the body before full assembly would leave gaps. The solution was therefore to paint the head, glue that in place, glue the body together, and then mask around the head with a lump of blu-tac. Touching up around the head will need to be done later but should be relatively easy to do.

I was originally thinking I would paint this model up by hand instead of using the airbrush, but while that would most definitely look amazing, I eventually decided the time was better spent on experimenting on how to use the airbrush to give brighter highlights for Blood Angels. That's been a problem I've had for some time: there's not been enough difference between shadow and highlight regions and the models look kind of flat.

To start with I applied the usual base coat of Dryad Bark and Mephiston Red in a 1:1 ratio. Following that was pure Mephiston Red, and then Averland Sunset. I probably overdid the Averland Sunset too much and at least here it makes the pure Mephiston Red step a waste of time. I built up the Averland Sunset in a few layers to give smoother transitions and prevent overt speckling, but it also meant I covered up all of the pure Mephiston Red by accident.

I could alternatively have gone back to Evil Sunz Scarlett here, but using Averland Sunset has a particular benefit: I can see where the highlights will be before everything is unified. I can get lost in the transitions too easily when sticking to reds and that's part of what makes me lose track of the difference between shadow and highlight. I'll revisit this again one day when I'm more comfortable with trusting the process.

Wait, aren't I supposed to be red?

Knowing that the later filter will pull back the brightness, I decided that Averland Sunset wasn't high enough in value. I didn't want to add a brighter yellow as that would just look orange. Instead I had the cunning plan of adding another colour to brighten and desaturate the Averland Sunset while still staying clear of being too close to white. I've been using Typhon Ash recently and was familiar with its properties, so I ended mixing that with Averland Sunset in a 1:1 ratio and applying to make a few areas just that more bright. It's probably worth keeping the previous Averland Sunset step, however it's also likely a good idea to experiment with building up layers of this mix directly. Fewer steps means a faster turnaround time on the base coat and highlighting process, and that would benefit painting up squads.

Ah, that's more like it.

Using Blood Angels Red (Contrast) through the airbrush in multiple thin glazes gives a very saturated end result that I think is overall an improvement. There is of course a gloss varnish to help with recess shading, and when the matt varnish is applied there will be some loss of vibrancy, but I'm hoping edge highlighting will help trick the eye into restoring some of that. Evil Sunz Scarlett is still ever so slightly more vibrant, so I guess the next test might want to increase that pre-glazing highlight level even more to compensate.

There are enough other models in the works that I should find a test subject for all that I've learned here. As for this one, it's time to think of getting a base sorted before I proceed too much further.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part I

 

New armour, same hammer.

I wasn't intending to start any new little projects, but the Combat Patrol magazine has resulted in quite a few of the Leviathan Terminator Captain models around the place, and I grabbed one. I like the model, it was cheap, why not. I'm also going through a lot of furniture and "stuff" reorganisation (again...) and so at the same time as this new model I also happened to be looking at Captain Karlaen. I like the old sculpt, it works well, but the proportions of the newer Terminator sculpts are much better. Why not give some kitbashing a go?

The first thing was basic eyeballing to see if it might even work in theory. The belt buckle and tassels are a fairly unique part to Karlaen and I wanted them - they even flow in the same direction as the cape. I also looked around the Internet for inspiration: if someone else has done the hard work to prove it will fit, then it would certainly make things easier for me. I also basically copied someone else with the model's left tilting shield.

I decided early on that I wouldn't bother with the chain around his torso and across the cape. It would be relatively easy to use jewellery chain for this, but I was concerned it might clutter the model too much, and I also didn't want to be spending any more money.

The pauldrons aren't easily swapped out, and so I've kept the originals in place. The intent is to simply paint the right one in a similar fashion to the older model's sculpted version. This does leave a bit of a problem: no Blood Angel would march into battle without the Chapter's insignia. If this wasn't going to be on the pauldron, then I would need to convert the chestpiece to display it instead. I used a Dremel to carve out the skull, and a spare blood drop symbol (actually from an Aggressor pauldron) to fill it in. This didn't work quite as well as I'd hoped: the engraving bit was slightly too large, and the blood drop symbol wasn't flat - I had to very carefully try and carve off the back. I probably should have made a green-stuff version instead. I'm sure it will look nicer once painted.

The Dremel was again used on the belt buckle. I carved out the old hanging scrolls, and used a jewellers saw to cut off the belt buckle as cleanly as I could (I might actually be able to use the rest of the Karlaen torso somewhere else one day). I needed to snip off the bullet bling to fit at the proper angle, and very slightly trim one of the tassels to fit better against the leg. I had intended to fill a small gap there with green stuff, but forgot to. I then needed to Dremel out a lot of the back of the belt buckle to fit flush against the new model. It might not be perfect, but I'm pleased enough with the end result. It doesn't stick out too much, it's more or less centered, and the bullet bling helps cover up the other side.

The symbol on top was fairly straight forward: snip off the old one, glue on Karlaen's. It's not perfectly in the middle, but not so bad. I did use a very small amount of green stuff to pad out the join on the back because it wasn't a perfect fit and I wanted more stability to the join.

The hands I thought about for a long time: keep the new model's, or try and use the older model's? There's no particular reason not to keep the new model's unless some of the blood drops want to be included, and would have made it much more difficult. Ease won the day (it's a kitbash, not a total conversion). The storm bolter is all original except for moving the targeter from the older model.

Now for the thunder hammer. I spent a few days considering the best approach. I wondered if I should trim off the power cable just to make everything easier, but that would mean the grip wouldn't match up. I don't have an appropriate replacement haft and couldn't do a simple swap of the head of the hammer. So I would need to keep the cable, and all of the thunder hammer itself (hilt included). The older model's sculpt isn't the best to trim away only the hand, so I'd have to cut around that: only the hammer. The power cables don't have anywhere to connect on the new model however, and the cables from Karlaen aren't great fit to replace. Instead I figured something on the forearm would be added to split the power supply from the armour on the newer model, and I'd simply have to try and green stuff that in. It's hidden in the photo, but it ended up much simpler than I'm making it out. I used a jewellery saw again to carefully cut away the hammer and the forearm cable housing, and trimmed the latter back until it mostly fit the new model. It wasn't a perfect fit against the new hand, so I pinned the hammer and put some green stuff around that to extend the haft very slightly. More green stuff to fill out the forearm cable housing and harmonise it with the cabling, and that's pretty much it.

The tilting shields are simple: trim off the old, glue on the new, trimming and filing back as necessary to get a clean fit. The head cowling had a push fit nub which I cut off and then used the Dremel to smooth back. It's a little rough, but will be hidden by a head when that's ready.

The head I again thought about for a while. I don't have any spares that I thought were appropriate, and I didn't want the shouting expression of Karlaen's. It just doesn't seem to fit the post of the rest of the model. Fortunately there is a new Blood Angels upgrade sprue on the way at some point in the future, and one of the heads in there looks almost exactly like what I'm after. With that not yet available though, I'm likely to leave off doing any painting until it is. The motivation was the kitbashing, not the painting, and I really need to get back onto some other projects next, especially now that I've readied a painting area again.

I think the efforts have paid off in the kitbashing. It's all gone relatively smoothly, and nothing looks too out of place. The silhouette is still obviously of the Leviathan model, but as I'm unlikely to get another one anytime soon then it's still going to be fairly unique within my collection.

-- silly painter.