Dark Imperium Primaris Intercessors

Squad leader interrupted during his toilet break.

So the first five Primaris Intercessors from the Dark Imperium boxed set are done, including company and squad markings. These are decals - more on that in a moment.

There's really not too much to note painting-wise. Nothing that hasn't been written down before, but a short summary wouldn't go astray.

Utility pouches:

• Eshin Grey around the belt and drybrushed onto pouches.
• Dawnstone drybrushed onto pouches.
• Nuln Oil applied to pouches.
• Leadbelcher on the clasps.

Sidearm holster:

• Rhinox Hide
• Sylvaneth Bark drybrushed over the top.
• Lamenter's Yellow glazed over it all.
• Bloodletter glazed over that.
• Agrax Earthshade to darken it down again.
• Leadbelcher for the clasps.

Chestpiece:

• Black (duh).
• Dark Reaper along the edges of the "feathers", and the center skull.
• Russ Grey as further edge highlights.
• Nuln Oil to add some contrast back in, or darken as necessary.

Black armour & gun casing:

• Black (again, duh).
• Eshin Grey to highlight as appropriate.
• Dawnstone for very sharp edges.
• Thinned black to blend it all together as necessary (because highlighting black is hard).

Red armour:

• 50/50 mix of Mephiston Red and Dryad Bark
• Mephiston Red
• Evil Sunz Scarlet.
• Wild Rider Red for extreme edge highlights, if needed, but it was very, very rarely used here.

Eye lenses:

• Caliban Green
• Warpstone Glow
• Moot Green
• Coelia Greenshade around the edges
• Nuln Oil if it should be darker yet
• Dot of White Scar (although I may leave this out in future - it's too easy to mess up basically).

Last note is another bit of improvement to working with decals. Normally there are a couple of problems with them: creases over curved surfaces, and gloss finish that doesn't match the rest of the model. The latter is fixed somewhat with a satin varnish (i.e Purity Seal), and creases can be alleviated with a few careful cuts before soaking the transfer. It still never ends up quite proper.
So based on a bit of Internet reading, there are various products to help with transfers, in making them adhere to the model, and to make them more malleable to work with. Mostly these products are a solvent of some kind, which as it turns out is what air brush cleaner is. So I decided to apply a little bit of air brush cleaner with a paint brush and see if it would help. And it does. Creases basically disappear, the edging around the transfer (most have a kind of transparent border around them) fades away, and most of the gloss is removed as well. A spray of Purity Seal and it's basically indistinguishable from the paintwork.
I did try a bit of Lahmian Medium before adding the solvent, but that actually hinders things a little. Just have to be careful with how much solvent to use - don't want to go stripping paint off. The photo pretty much speaks for itself though - I can actually be confident in using transfers now.
I've used the word "solvent" because I'm not entirely sure of the exact chemical inside the cleaner (other than that it's really obviously toxic and flammable), but it's probably available cheaply at art & craft stores, or home hardware stores. Regardless, works really well.

-- silly painter.

Another Primaris

Hold steady, I'll just get that fly...

After a bit of a break, painting is back again. Above is a lower quality phone camera shot of Primaris #4. Still needs a sealant applied, along with the base to be done, and some small details filled in (the purity seal in particular), which will be done for all five at once, when it comes to that point.

I may paint some fewer models next, just to get more of a handle with the airbrush. This was a good experiment, but I'd like more experience with getting the right paints, mix, etc, before going back to batch painting. Just takes too long to fix up where I've made mistakes. That being said, the Ultramarine standard bearer worked nicely, so it could just be the colour really. Red is a difficult colour to work with.

Not much else to really say. Painting continues. Hopefully this squad will be done in the next week or so, and I can figure out what to do next. Probably another 30k of the Legions, just for the airbrush, and to give me time to think of what to do after that.

-- silly painter.

Some Unfinished Business

Just a couple of photos to show different things I'm working on.

Run closer, I want to hit them with my hammer.

First is the return of Karlaen. A better photo this time, and the Iron Halo (I presume that's basically what it is) was found and glued on. So that needs painting, and is close to being done.

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something...blue.

Next is what happens when there's an undercoat of black, followed by Kantor Blue, Macragge Blue, and Calgar Blue, with the Air range of course. Basically I wanted more fun with the airbrush. I could have use with a darker base (mixing black and Kantor Blue is probably something to do long term), and then maybe a very selecting and small Lothern Blue at the end would make for some great contrast in photos, but for now this is ok. Still some shading to add (Drakenhof Nightshade will be the choice), and either Lothern Blue for edge highlights, or go straight to one of the edge paints (Baharroth or Blue Horror, not sure which yet).

Another Primaris Blood Angel is assembled, so moving onto the 3rd of that squad soon as well.

-- silly painter.

Primaris Blood Angel (Continued)

Not much further done on Horus yet, and very little painting in general, but one out of the five Primaris Marines is painted enough to be fully assembled. Still a lot to go, but moving onto the second now. Just painting each enough to fully assemble, then finish all five at once.

Looking at something interesting.

The snap together models (well, non-posable at any rate) have given the designers a chance to make some very good poses and action stances for these models. Some chapter icons would have been nice, but maybe they're very new.

A proper camera definitely helps in taking photos. The colours show much better, though I'm still trying to get the focus right.

Chest eagle is the usual now for "black" wings: Black, Dark Reaper, Russ Grey. Shoulder pad trim only has a thin Eshin Grey edge highlight, though I'll add Dawnstone at a later date more selectively. The same goes for the gun casing. Not shown, but pouches attached to the belt also have Eshin Grey highlights, but that's given in a drybrush style to make it look more like worn leather rather than hard armour plating.

There's not enough contrast on the armour highlights, so I'll look to increase that with the next one. This guy is obviously more in shadow than the others will be.

Overall though, Primaris Marines are definitely much easier to work with, mostly due to their increased size. Hopefully this will allow me to move back to "old" marines much easier later on once I'm more experienced with the airbrush.

-- silly painter.

Warmaster Horus Test, Primaris Blood Angel

Raise your hand if you're Horus.

Started some initial testing for Horus. I was fairly certain on going a for a blue hue to the armour, and that's turned out "ok". I'm not entirely happy yet, but I think it's enough to do more and see how it goes. I think so far there's not enough shine maybe, or not enough contrast. So it looks actually more blue than black. This may change later - I think more of the model is required to really know.

The plan if it does look too blue is to grab a dark grey and desaturate the colours with some glazing.

So far the armour is a base of Black (several thin coats to get it nice and even), followed by Dark Reaper for initial highlights, and then Russ Grey for edges. A little more Russ Grey is still needed in some parts.

The trim is Balthasar Gold washed with Reikland Fleshshade, highlighted with Sycorax Bronze and edge highlighted with Runelord Brass. This is similar to the Grey Knight weapons on purpose: Grey Knights use pyschic powers and force weapons, and Horus' armour was supposed to offer psychic shielding. So this basic brass theme has now become the go-to for (Imperial technology base) metals related to pyschic uses.

I did try a Warplock Bronze base on one small part of armour trim, but it was a little too dark for my liking.

Overall though, the armour does offer colours reminiscent of Solar Auxillia. This kind of fits in with Horus seeing himself as the proper leader of Imperial forces. Horus should look evil, no doubt there, but if I can put in hints that he didn't see himself as evil and corrupted, then it might give that much more character.

Bedknobs & Broomsticks, 40k style.

Above is part of a side project to Horus. One of five primaris marines. I've adjusted the colour slightly, but it's made the top look orange - it doesn't look that way in reality, just in the photo.

This model is the first play test with some different approach to airbrushing. Basically a mix of Mephiston Red and Rhinox Hide, overlaid with Averland Sunset for highlights. Over that goes Mephiston Red, and over that goes Evil Sunz Scarlet.

The Averland Sunset didn't really show through, and I messed up the last layer - the paint was far too thin and I couldn't apply it proper. Also the compressor on the airbrush is basically gone, as it keeps kicking in and getting extremely hot. So I'm having to fix up again with a paintbrush. The photo doesn't do things justice sadly (the camera just doesn't capture the gradient), but I am getting better at the red.

At any rate, once the current lot of marines are done, the next batch will be:

• Rhinox Hide (all of the model)
• 50/50 Rhinox Hide / Mephiston Red (most of the model, try leave the deepest recesses)
• Mephiston Red (less of the model, mostly mid range highlights)
• 50/50 Mephiston Red / Evil Sunz Scarlet (less still, highlighted areas only)
• Evil Sunz Scarlet (less of the highlighted areas, if it's needed)

Wanting to do more airbrushing will hopefully motivate to get this lot done relatively quickly, and I do have Tolmeron to use as a reference for colours too.

-- silly painter.

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.