Storm Shield

Today's post is about layering. Specifically, layering on a storm shield for the assault terminators. Right off the bat I'll say that some effects could be done with much fewer layers (something I intend to explore soon), but it does give a good idea of how you can use the paints to build up a final effect.
Decding which colours to use when building up the paint layers can be difficult, especially when you're not sure quite how it will turn out. This comes from experimentation and experience - and perhaps a little reasearch and ideas from what other people have done. Hence this post. So let's begin.

To start with, these are close up shots. Poor lighting still, but found a much better camera to work with, so hopefully better photos soon. Anyway, the usual black spray undercoat was applied first. The photo was actually taken a bit late, so the grey cross is a combination of Mechanicus Standard Grey (base) followed by a thin layer of Dawnstone (layer). This is the same as the Crux Terminatus from the previous post - I wanted the shield and shoulder pads to carry a similar colour theme. The eagle and skull are given a coat of Rhinox Hide (base), while the scroll is done with Rakarth Flesh (base).

Here the stonework (I'm going for a stone look) was given a wash of Nuln Oil (wash). Being a little patchy doesn't matter - it gives it some texture to look more like carved stone. The eagle is highlighted with Zamesi Desert (layer). I used a good brush and a bit of patience, but this step (and similar ones later) is probably a good candidate for drybrushing (might even be better - again, something to explore later). Karak Stone (layer) was applied to the skull, with Agrax Earthshade (wash) brushed over the scroll.

Things are starting to look better. Russ Grey (layer) was applied to the stonework, but not evenly. I tried to highlight the edges, and then blend it back towards the centre. If mistakes are made, Eshin Grey is actually a good colour to use to fix them because it's very similar to Dawnstone washed with Nuln Oil, to the point where one could simply just have used Eshin Grey to begin with. Still, the wash was good for a patchy look, and it gets into folds easier. Yriel Yellow (layer) was highlighted onto the eagle, with Ushabti Bone (layer) for the scroll, and Screaming Skull (layer) for the skull.

Fenrisian Grey (layer) gives final edge highlights to the stonework, which makes that part of the shield complete. Agrax Earthshade (wash) was applied over the skull, and Seraphim Sepia (wash) over the eagle. Final highlights with Screaming Skull (layer) for the scroll finish that part as well.

Flash Gitz Yellow (layer) for eagle highlights, and Scar White (layer) for the skull. At this point, the skull was actually too white, even if it looks ok in the photo. So the tip for future such adventures: don't use Scar White for anything but final edge highlights.
The eagle here could also be considered finished, however I find it too bright, too yellow to really give a golden impression. Looking back over the Death Company, I realised that while a brown hue is good, the missing colour was orange...

...so the final touches are Fuegan Orange (wash) on the eagle, and Agrax Earthshade (wash) to tone down the excessive white of the skull. Although the ambience is a bit dark for the photo, it hopefully shows that the eagle now looks closer to Dante's armour, but without the metallic paints.

The storm shield isn't completely finished. I'll likely give some very fine edge highlights of blue around the outermost edges to hint at a power field of some kind, and there's still the other side to do, along with something to write on the scroll. As an example of building up paint layers it's fairly good however. I might experiment with achieving similar colours on the eagle, but using less layers - I'm thinking Averland Sunset (base), some highlight of orange, Agrax Earthshade (wash) to give the brown colouring, then a final layer of Yriel Yellow. I'll see how that turns out in a future post.

-- silly painter.

Terminators 03

Today's post details some of the additional work on the shoulder pad (from Forge World), laurel wreath, and thoughts behind some of the colours chosen. First of all, let's start with colours.

The sergeant is likely going to be the focal point for all painting, with the rest of squad finished only after he is. This allows me to concentrate on the one model, and then use it as a reference for the rest. He's not too far from being done now actually, although I guess that depends how overboard I go (so...he's far from being done). At any rate, the picture above I should mention was slightly modified, purely to try and sharpen it a little. The image was a little too blurry otherwise. Anyway, I'm still attempting to go with as few metallics as possible (the claws will be metallic soon), and so tried to give a golden feel to some of the icons. I didn't really succeed there, at least not to a level I'm happy with, so I'll have to keeping trying. There needs to be either more brown, or more white, or both. Regardless, the chest plate for Blood Angels tends to have a black aquilla (or similar design) these days, but I wanted something to make the sergeant stand out a little more, so his is golden. I'll probably do something similar for the tactical squad as well: sergeants will have a more golden symbol across the chest, with squad leaders having black.

At this point, the terminator has too many harmonious colours. I wanted to add something a little contrasting just to break it up a bit: enter the laurels on each glove. They're perfect for some small detail in a contrasting colour to attract the eye to them, giving the whole suit of armour a more ornate feel. The wreath is not painted quite the same as with Dante, however I like this way better.

• Caliban Green (base)
• Moot Green (highlight edges of each leaf)
• Drakenhof Nightshade (wash - and yes, a blue wash!)
• Sybarite Green (highlight tips of each leaf).

As usual, the photo doesn't do things justice, but Sybarite Green does give a good leafy green, and really makes the laurels "pop". Just need to have a very fine brush tip to be working with, and a little patience.

The Crux Terminatus I decided to give a stone look. I debated making the skull white, or giving it a bone feel, but decided that it would look more impressive to wear carved stone into battle rather than something that could be mistaken for plaster (fear me, for I am your exterior decorator). Being a Forge World shoulder pad, the resin is highly detailed, and presents quite the challenge to paint. I dare not use more than a spray undercoat on them lest the detail be obscured. Even so, the layers of paint had to mimic in places the original design, but it turned out ok. Just be sure to use very thin layers when working with such items!

• Mechanicus Grey (base)
• Dawnstone (highlight, very thin)
• Nuln Oil (wash)
• Russ Grey (highlight)
• Fenrisian Grey (highlight, skull only)

The skull was the tricky part. The creases on the forehead are extremely difficult to not obscure, and in the the end they were the part mostly mimicked via highlighting. I used two layers of Nuln Oil there in the end; one wash to catch the creases, the second to bring them back from overly ambitious highlighting. Even then, the last highlight was touched up in places because of the second wash. Drybrushing might work, but the creases are very shallow, so just patience and a steady hand are probably better.
The skull I also wanted to stand out more; the skull should be the focal point. To this end, Fenrisian Grey was used to brighten it up somewhat, subtly setting it apart from the background, but still maintaining the same overall colour scheme. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out, but I have to repeat it yet across four more. That won't be so easy.

Next time I might actually have the second shoulder pad attached. At the very least, it's about time for some metal colours now.

-- silly painter.

Terminators 02

A shorter post today to summarise a few things. Not much in the way of pictures (really need to get a proper camera one day...), but there isn't much of a need I suppose.

First off, terminator helmets continued. I went with blue lenses just to set them apart from the green lenses of tactical marines, and to hint that the internals of terminator armour is a little different. As I noted before, the lenses on terminator helmets are actually raised instead of sunk in slightly, but they're also a little smaller, so a very fine brush is essential here.
In the end, the lenses were done with:

• Genestealer Purple (base). This just makes them a little lighter when building up the layers. It's not essential, and was more me playing around, but regardless the base colour should not be black.
• Alaitoc Blue (thin layer). Mostly as a darkening step, but only a thin layer to give colour. 
• Lothern Blue (layer highlight). This was applied along the bottom of the lens, trying to be careful to leave a slightly darker line along the top. I didn't really succeed too well with that, but if done right it looks good. Highlighting too high I find can give the terminator a impression of being amused.
• White Scar (highlight dot). Just a very small dot was applied to the back of each lens. It can be seen in the above photo, and really gives that reflective material appearance.

Note that I haven't applied a wash, but darker blue would be my choice if I felt it was needed. I judged that the existing shading was sufficient, however, so was just very careful with the highlighting.

The muzzle was a bit simpler. I didn't want to use a metallic paint, mostly because I felt that it was too easy to just use that and I wanted to do something different, but also because the metallic paints might be too shiny and draw attention away from the lenses. I do appear to be painting things rather darker than bright, but then these are engineered warriors going into battle, not a carnival parade. So, the muzzle:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey (base). This is the same as applied to the joints on Dante.
• Nuln Oil (wash). Same as with the joints.
• Eshin Grey (layer). Only needed if the wash is a little heavy, or you feel that it's just a little too dark. 
• Russ Grey (layer highlight). Edges and raised areas.

I'm overall happy with the result, even if it doesn't truly look metallic. I actually tried Fenrisian Grey as the final highlight at first, but it was simply too bright and the muzzle stood out more than the lenses, so had to pull it back with Eshin on my first attempt. It also could be used as a colour scheme for rock, but as a replacement for metallic paints I think it's a good start.

A final note is the power cabling with assault terminators. There are cables running to thunder hammers, storm shields, and lightning claws, and again I didn't want a metallic paint. I wanted something that looked like it might have some kind of electrical shielding, reasoning that beneath the outer insulation would be armour or additional protective shields that might also serve as grounding wires.

• Black. With this, there's really no need for a wash later.
• Dark Reaper (layer). Applied to raised areas, but leaving black in the grooves.
• Thunderhawk Blue (layer highlight). Not applied to the entire cable circumference, but more used to give a slight, if muted, shine.

And that's it.

Final note: the helmet of Lemartes (yes, still painting him in very small sections at a time) has a similar scheme the terminator helmet muzzle. The back reinforcements of Lemartes' helmet were given a more metallic look by using Mechanicus, Nuln Oil, Dawnstone (very thin), then Fenrisian Grey as a final edge highlight. The photo turned out poorly, so it's not attached, but it worked very well. The lighter colours were more suitable due to the white of the skull mask, and do give a more metal appearance.

-- silly painter.

Terminators 01

Well, it's been a little bit since I had a chance to take up the brush regularly again. Post-Christmas work can be time consuming. At any rate, a squad of Terminators are base coated, and I've finished the initial armour highlights. There's not much to say so far; the first phase is very similar to normal tactical marines, so I've not included any pictures.

The main item of note is actually the lens eyes of Terminators. They're raised, not lowered into the helmet as with normal power armour. It makes it a little more interesting where to choose the highlight and shaded areas. I'm going for a blue colour this time, just to make them different from the green favoured normally with Blood Angels. Even typing this I've had inspiration for something different, so perhaps photo will be coming soon.

I'm also a little stuck with the colouring of storm shield outer trim, but think I'll go with black in the end, and highlight it with very light blue, up to white, just to simulate the energy field.

Something else I'm getting into is actually using less metallic paint. I'm reserving that mostly for weapons with the Terminators. I could come up with some reason for it, but it's mostly just to force myself to get grey colouring right. Be that as it may, it also does help to add variety to the model a bit, which will add to the overall finish.

Last note: the helmets I managed to do without applying any wash, and also used the spray paint. They look no different to the rest of the armour, so I'm taking that as a sign that I'm starting to get the hang of layering a bit.

-- silly painter

Lemartes Shoulder Pad

Although this article applies to Lemarte's right shoulder pad (a large skull icon), it can equally apply to his helmet, or any skull iconography in general. It's a fairly involved process, so probably best suited to those particularly special models.

Up until now, I've been mostly starting skull icons with a fairly light base colour, typically Rakarth Flesh. I am starting to appreciate building up from a darker base however, as it seems easier to blend up to a lighter tone than down to a darker one. So with that in mind, Rhinox Hide was used to give the shoulder pad its base coat. Do note that the model, as usual now, was given a coat of Chaos Black spray first.

Rhinox Hide base coat.

I should point out that I'd already painted some of the helmet by now, but the photos didn't turn out quite as nice as I wanted. Wanting to use a few layers to gradually build up, but I next used Baneblade Brown as a first stage highlight.

Baneblade Brown layer.

Due to the poor lighting (as anyone reading any of my posts will know, I don't have the greatest camera or lighting conditions for taking these sorts of photos) it appears here a little lighter than it should. I was a little concerned about Baneblade Brown being too light actually, but as the next step are some washes, they tend to darken it back a little, so the layer I feel was a good choice.
Next up, the washes. I actually used two this time around, based on a small excerpt from here. The idea is not to use only brown colours - blue, purple, red, something else for the shaded areas. I've toyed with something similar before when using different layer colours on purity seals than the base colour. It just gives everything a whole different texture, and I recommend people to experiment for themselves just to see what effects they can achieve. Back on track, I used first a wash of Drakenhof Nightshade, and then Druchii Violet. I ended up with two because the first made it dark, and then I realised I wanted a hint of red or purple in there, just to make it more menacing and less cold.

Drakenhof Nightshade and Druchii Violet washes.

I think most people would agree that it does look more impressive than with just using simple earth tones. The next step I messed up a little, and had to go back into the shaded areas with very, very thin layers of purple and blue, which I mention as something else that can be done. One doesn't always paint it exactly right on the first go, so often touch ups must be done along the way. If a layer becomes too light, go back and use a (very) thin layer to darken it again. Just remember that very thin layers is the key - it really allows you to work the highlighting, fixing, changing, adjusting as you go. Don't be afraid darken and re-highlight as needed.
At any rate, the next step was further highlighting with Ushabti Bone. The helmet used Karak Stone instead, but I just wanted to see the difference. I think I personally prefer Karak Stone, but either can be worked with. Unfortunately, the photo really didn't show up properly at all, so the next image combines also the following step of Screaming Skull highlights along select edges.

Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull highlights.

I've also done some additional layering of White Scar to again really make it stand out as a skull, though I can't remember if the photo above included that or not. It doesn't really look like it, but that could just be the lighting, so I'll say it's not. Either way, the above looks how it did without the final layer of white, so I'll just leave it at that.

I'm happy with how the pieces of Lemartes are turning out so far. I'm not painting this model all in one go, but rather little details one at a time. So I won't be finished for quite a while, but the model is such a great looking one that it deserves no less than my best effort for every part of it.

To wrap up this post, I'll mention a little about painting styles. The final layers of the shoulder pad started to look a little rough, and it's something I've mostly kept with. Photos from Games Workshop normally show a nice, smooth finish to the painting, which most people try to emulate. It looks better in photography. They also typically use hard edges to various highlighting stages - something I've actively tried to avoid in this case, preferring to try blend everything together. I decided that the rougher appearance had a more used feel to it, grittier, and more in line with who Lemartes is. The point I'm trying to make is: don't simply copy from photos of how a model "should" look (and I don't just mean the colours). Develop your own style as you improve your painting skills, and don't be afraid to experiment. It's more fun that way.

-- silly painter.

Tactical Squad Finished (mostly)

Well, strictly speaking, it's a 5-man combat squad, but they're still tactical marines. Mostly finished, they only require some lettering where appropriate. Still thinking of what to write there.

They also require the company markings on the right shoulder pad. That will most likely be decals.

I'm still deciding about the insignia. Blood Angels have black primarily - it's part of the Chapter's colours - but adorning with artwork and intricate details is also very much part of them. So I don't want them all to be the same. I will try paint some in black later, just to break it up a bit. This particular combat squad took part in some notable actions and are allowed something more inspirational for the duration of the campaign.

The bases have some tuft on them. Not much to say there - just pva glue and that's that. I will try something else later, whenever I next drop by a hobby shop.

The boltguns all have a little bit of Wild Rider Red on the boltgun targeters, just because, and I ended up using a metallic gold colour scheme on the boltgun adornments. This was partially laziness, but also because I didn't want all skulls and wings to always look the same.

Anyway, I'm rather pleased with the end result. The next combat squad will need preparing now, and I'm also going to start on Terminators. I had thought tactical marines might be more stock standard, simpler, and faster painted. It turns out, they're not - every Blood Angel will likely be painted to at least the same standard. Not sure I know how to do anything different now.

-- silly painter

Tactical Squad Continued

Despite busy schedules, I've still been finding small amounts of time for more painting, and taking a couple of really bad photos. As usual, they don't do the actual model justice, but they do give a sense of how things are shaping up.

Since the last post, the backpacks have been sprayed and highlighted and just need some final detail work to polish them off. They didn't require any shading steps in the end, but I was very careful with the layering stages. So the next batch of models will most likely use less of the Carroburg Crimson wash: it will be used more selectively in future, and not applied quite so liberally.

I ended up continuing on through one model to get him mostly assembled, just to serve as inspiration for getting the others done too. Small items such as grenades, pouches, combat knives, or purity seals may be added later. In particular, the left pauldron needs something to cover up a defect (it was one of the original ones made).

There's not too much to say on the current state of the model that hasn't been covered before. A couple of things to mention however are that the Agrax over the cord on right vambrace provides kind of "self shadowing" and edge definition that makes it stand out against the armour quite well. The other note is on the boltgun strap.

The boltgun strap I didn't want to be just brown, although that should definitely be its base colour. The problem with using only brown shades though is that I didn't think it would fit the type of material a strap should be. So in the end:

• Rhinox Hide (base)
• Screamer Pink (layer) (just to give that hint of shiny leather look)
• Agrax Earthshade (wash)
• Gorthor Brown (layer highlight - very fine lines along the edges)
• Lamentor's Yellow (glaze)

The final glaze is only a very subtle effect, barely noticeable, and was only done for an experiment, but the end result is good enough that I'll probably stick to it in future.

The next post, whenever it may be, will probably feature the finished 5-man squad. So it could be a little while.

-- silly painter.