Warmaster Horus

Just in pieces over the Heresy.

So I've finally started on the main model of Horus. This is going to take some time to get done.

The model is incredibly detailed, and I had to take quite a bit of time removing flash, mould lines, and generally tidying it up in preparation for priming. Owing to the feet attached to inserts that slot into the base itself, I've decided to leave the main body on the resin block from production, at least for now. It's easy to hold. I may change my mind and find a way to attach everything to a miniature handle, but I'll see how I get on with the painting first.

Although black is a better primer, I went with Corax White this time. The white might make some areas brighter than they should be, but it also make it much easier to pick out detail - and I'm going to need all the help I can get for that.

In terms of colour planning, the current thinking is for the main armour to be a base of black, highlighted up to a blue hinted grey (which basically means layering using Dark Reaper and Fenrisian Grey). This is intended to give things a bit of a (temperature) cool look. The character was not given over to emotional outbursts, so something more cold, calculating, and yet clean, seems to fit.
Filigree and edging will be more of a bronze than gold. Gold edges towards yellow more, and runs the risk of distracting from the darker and somewhat sinister nature that Horus' character had become. Bronze is a somewhat earthier colour and shouldn't "brighten" the model too much, but still offers quite a range of saturation that can be used to shade and hightlight the details.

There will of course be red lighting coming from within the armour itself, which will take some effort to show in the face properly. The face is definitely a focal point of the whole model - surrounded by black armour, well above the lighter tones of the base, it's the face that will prove most difficult to get right. It can't be too stark in contrast to the armour or it will look like a floating head, but too dark and it doesn't stand out. More planning required there.

Looking around, the shoulders are often depicted by others with some level of green as a nod towards the colours of the Sons of Horus. Although it's somewhat of a copy-cat move, it's still a great idea and one that I'll follow.

The cape I'm a little torn on. Purple might be nice, and I've seen it being pulled off well elsewhere, but I have the feeling that a red velvet might tie in better to the base. I'll keep an open mind on that a bit longer.

As for where to go from here: probably start blacking in armour, firstly around those areas that would be hard to reach fully assembled. Painting will proceed with that in mind: get enough done to assemble each piece, and then complete the model once everything is attached.

-- silly painter.

Rhino

vroom vroom

The rhino is officially complete, although some decals may be added later, and some freehand on roof hatch might be done at some point too.

This was the first model really started with an airbrush, and it turned out rather well when not in a photo. The shading in particular helps define areas, so much so that there was little need to edge highlight anything.

Actually in general I've been doing less edge highlights of late, and trying to make them less bright when I want to. Shading and blending work better in my opinion, with edge highlights helping make something in particular stand out rather than being used to define every edge of armour plating.

There aren't any new techniques that haven't been covered before, so there's really not much more to say about this model. The name scroll was done with pencil, black, and Lahmian Medium, as noted in a previous post. Look closely on the actual model and some of the pencil is visible still - something to look into getting rid of on future models.

All in all, I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. I didn't go overboard on the vehicle, but decals and shading keep it looking interesting anyway. I'll save going overboard for something....bigger.

-- silly painter.

Imperial Fist

Say hello to my little friend.

Another test model, mostly as an excuse to try out some colours with the airbrush. In this case, the following:

• Averland Sunset (air)
• Flash Gitz Yellow (air)
• Angron Red (Forgeworld Clear)
• Phalanx Yellow (Forgeworld)

It's a shame that Forgeworld have stopped their airbrush range. I was just getting into it, and the quality of them is far superior to the GW range. Especially the clear paints - they are just brilliant! But, have to make do with the GW range now I guess.
A few problems in working with yellow here - mainly the speckling from an airbrush is very apparent. This could perhaps be covered with a bit more clever airbrushing in future - namely use the base colour over the shade and highlight colours to help blend it all together. So long as the base colour is kept thin, this should work. Picking a proper base colour is key, so if I were to do the same I might do something like:

• Averland Sunset
• Red (of some kind) for shading
• Phalanx Yellow for highlights
• Flash Gitz Yellow all over to blend everything together.

Moving on, some paintbrush application of Casandora Yellow (shade) to give better definition to a few areas, a tiny bit of Fuegan Orange (shade) where I wanted that definition even darker, and a sparing edge highlight with Dorn Yellow, and the armour is done.
It's probably worth noting that I messed up on the angle of shading on the shoulder pads. I'm leaving this as it is, as a reminder to do better in future. Proper planning should have solved this, but obviously I didn't think through the final pose.

Not much more to say on the marine. The eye lenses are Mephiston Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, Carroburg Crimson, Nuln Oil, and a dot of White Scar.

The base is entirely freehand. Just playing with shades of blue and purple. Seemed to fit the feel of Imperial Fists, and was a great excuse to play with more marbling effects.

Also, this model was done very quickly compared to most. Yay.

-- silly painter.

Lieutenant Tolmeron

Or, as I prefer to call him, Lt. Toblerone.

Run closer, I want to hit them with my sword!

So this guy has been done relatively quickly, at least for me. The reason is actually quite simple: this was the first model to really build on all the notes used previously on how to paint each component. In essence, the first production model!

After much thinking, the sword was done by drybrushing instead of adding a pigment colour to one of the metallics. The deciding factor was wanting it to look similar to the Sanguinary Guard.

The helmet was coloured gold for veteran status, and done the same as the Sanguinary Guard. The sword hilt was:

• Screaming Bell
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss)
• Hashut Copper
• Fulgurite Copper (edge highlight)

I wanted more of a reddish colour for the hilt - almost red gold, and distinct from the helmet.
The rest of the gold was more like that done on the recent Chaplain, with a wash of Druchii Violet to make things a little bit darker.

The armour itself was done with an airbrush, and tidied up afterwards. It's certainly faster for basic highlighting, but less controlled than a paintbrush. It should work fine for Primaris marines, at least until I'm better with the airbrush and can move back down to smaller models.

-- silly painter.

Grey Knights (Finished)

One has gone ahead, we're the backup.

So, they're done now. Only the recently completed models are shown here - the first painted has a different base, and while I could rebase that particular model, the armour was also painted differently. So that squad member is obviously ranging ahead, teleported slightly further away and is busy fighting his way back, or is on deployment elsewhere.

Not really too much of note. The hammer didn't quite turn out right, so I ended up drybrushing with Hoeth Blue, Lucius Lilac, and Praxeti White over the ends. It's not the same as with power weapons to try give the essence that psychic energy, power from the warp, is flowing through it.

With some of the finer details, I'm finding myself heading back to using flow improvers more (so basically Lahmian Medium). Using water has a habit of drying out the paint too quickly on the tip of the brush, and can flow too easily where you don't intend.

The blades I may have rushed a little, but didn't know what else to really try. Something more detailed would probably be better, but for now....they're done.

-- silly painter.

Grey Knight WIP#3

A little more progress. Perhaps not initially visible much, but it's detail progress - it's on more apparent once you look into the model in more, well, detail.

Still got a pointy stick.

There's not much going on into terms of painting schemes. Retributor Armour, Reikland Fleshshader, Liberator gold, and a the usual mix of silvers is all that was done on the storm bolter's detail. Switching between golds helps to keep the colours interesting, but still uniform. There's actually a small dot of Spiritstone Red around the "belt buckle", and it works so well there that I didn't feel the need to do anything fancy with it.
I'm actually having trouble with what to write across the scrollwork on the chest, so for now it remains blank. The central icon would only obscure anything anyway, so not all of the word would be seen. So the writing and central icon are now one: a capital 'I' from the sigil for the Sigillite.
The face has only just been started. Being without helmet, I've left this to almost last. Still the blade to stylise as well. Still, the base coat used is Bugman's Glow. I would really like to do a more dark skinned face at some point to expand my skills a little, but for this model needs a lighter face to balance out the white cloth and book pages vertically. I'll keep it in mind for the Custodes though - different skin tones for them to represent their individual nature.

Likes to be in the spotlight.

Above is another model simply for reference purposes. He still needs fair amount of detail work, but the eye lenses have been done. I couldn't remember the exact method I used on the original Grey Knight (which looks better honestly), so I've settled on the following:

• Lothern Blue.
• Drakenhof Nightshade around the edges.
• Baharroth Blue highlight in the middle.
• White Scar for a further highlight.
• Guilliman Blue to pull back any mistakes.

The last step can also help keep one of the lenses less white, to keep in line with directional lighting. It might be worth using Drakenhof again as the last step though, to darken around the edges some more. I'll see.

-- silly painter.

Grey Knight WIP#2

Still plugging away at the Grey Knights. This is mostly a post to remember what details were done how.

Showing off a pointy stick.

First off, it took a while to figure out the shaft of the force halberd. The usual black highlighting seemed insufficient, and yet black as a base colour works well with the rest of the model. Ultimately, I decided that as a force weapon, it should have something more to indicate this. Hand drawn runes would be a bit much, and possibly distract from the rest of the model, but a kind of glow along edges might seem as though the Grey Knight is channelling power through it. So a bit of Sotek Green to the rescue. That's all actually - just trying to blend it towards edges, with a stronger accent on said edges. Definitely makes the weapon more interesting, while the aqua offsets against the golds and red nicely.

The weapon head, beneath the blade, is metallics of course. I didn't want gold, simply because enough of that is on the armour, but a metal of some kind to give it an old yet practical feel. With inspiration from steampunk (no, really) I settled on more of a brass or bronze feel. In the end:

• Balthasar Gold
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss)
• Runelord Brass
• Sycorax Bronze

A bit of Nuln Oil (Gloss) on the blade was applied as well. The gloss shades are good for metallic paints, but care has to be taken with them: they have a nasty habit of pooling in the deeper creases and ending up very shiny. Might have to investigate ways of lessening that in future.

Most of the books are done simply enough with Mournfang Brown on the "cover", with Wazdakka Red on the corners. Most of the books are so small with very little of the cover showing that no highlighting or shading is necessary there.
The pages are:

• Rakarth Flesh
• Agrax Earthshade
• Screaming Skull
• Pallid Wych Flesh

Edging of the besagew is:

• Balthasar Gold
• Gehenna's Gold
• Auric Armour Gold

What I classify as a bit of a oldie (from having used it on the Sanguinary Guard), but effective. It can be good to not use the same gold on everything. Not shown above (not that that model in particular has this anyway), but the besagew pattern is replicated in gold and black on the right shoulder pad. Same gold is used there. However, for the besagew itself, the white area is:

• Celestra Grey
• Nuln Oil
• Ulthuan Grey

with the red area:

• Mephiston Red
• Carroburg Crimson
• Wazdakka Red

I purposefully use subtle different reds here just to keep things distinct from the Blood Angels.

The black casing of the storm bolters will probably have highlights using Skavenblight Dinge and Stormvermin Fur, and is likely to be done next. Blades behind books will be standard silvers, with possibly a Liberator Gold pommel. Otherwise, there's a lot of details to be sorted out across the Grey Knights. Wonderful sculpts, but it takes time to consider how each individual piece of detail is going to be done.

A few other random notes:

Fulgrum Pink was bought and used as very tiny spot highlights on purity seals. It just makes the "wax" stand out some more, and helps it look glossy.

I rather suspect that given enough time, the springs inside of the Citadel painting  handles will stretch. I don't take the models out much, but they definitely have loosed up a little when I do. Still, it hasn't affected how well it holds the models so far.

Layer brushes have been tweaked a little bit. They hold water much better somehow now, and have much more pointed tips than the last time I looked (which has been a little while). My old small layer brush is starting to look a little worse for wear, and isn't as effective for details anymore. It has lasted amazingly well though, and I do still use it for some areas.

Guess that's about all for now. Hoping to have the Grey Knights done within a week. Just want to get the finished really.

-- silly painter.