Cheap Win

Felt like the need for a "cheap win"; wanted a model that could be done quickly instead of spending weeks on it. To that end, the Tomb Banshee looked like it might do the trick.

Somehow reminds me of The I.T Crowd

Really simple model to paint, particularly the flowing dress. Just Hexwraith Flame over white. I did try a thin layer of Hexwraith first, and built it up, but had some trouble with that. It's a paint that would take some getting used to, however would be well worth it for any Undead army. Nighthaunt Gloom was layered over white for the "skin", and worked rather well. Those are very good paints for what they do.

The eyes were simple enough: white, with Carroburg Crimson surrounding them. I figured the red would make her look more malevolent. The hair was built up from Jokaero Orange, Squig Orange, Wild Rider Red, Flash Gitz Yellow, Bloodletter (glaze), and Carroburg Crimson. It might have been better to go for a deeper red for the hair, but basically I paint so much red for Blood Angels that I wanted something subtly different. The vest was a mix of purples: Naggaroth Night, Xereus Purple, and some Warpfiend Grey.

Other than a silver dagger, that's really it. Not much to it, but it still took a full afternoon from sprue to finished model. The white paint (Ceramite White) was, as is typical for that paint, fairly wrecked. So the end base coat was a little tacky, and picked up some dust which is visible on the back of the model. Most annoying. Purity Seal should stop it gathering more so easily, but as far as quick & easy goes, I'll just deal with it. Tabletop quality, finished in a single day, I'll take the cheap win and know that I'm able to do it if I really want.

Before moving back to the Aggressors, a little more of the 30k Ultramarine Standard Bearer.

If taken into battle, one wonders how much damage the highly visible standard normally suffers.

Slowly filling in detail for this model. Just want to get it finished really, so I'll probably keep at it before returning to the Aggressors. Might do the cape (not shown) with the airbrush, just for the fun of it.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angel Aggressors

It's been a while since the last post, mostly because of personal items of interest claiming spare time, but finally a bit more painting done. I do seem to be bunny hopping from project to project, but that's ok - it keeps motivation higher sometimes. I still have Horus as a long standing project, then there's a Ultramarine Legion standard bearer, and now the Aggressors.

The aggros go marching one by one...

These were picked just because large surface areas, which is ideal for some quick airbrush experience. And they have helped in that regard. I'm still getting used to what works best for me, but a three stage approach seems to be working ok so far. After priming, there's a dark base coat, then highlight with the "true" base coat, then finish with a highlight.

Airbrushing is must less precise than a paint brush, so I'm trying to adapt highlighting techniques to match. Directional highlighting is easy, but less interesting sometimes, so I'm going for "patched highlighting". Basically pick an area and highlight as an entire patch, regardless of detail or corners. I'll go back over it later with a shade or some fine-tuned highlights to soften up patch and harmonise everything together. If that makes sense.

Aggressors have the unfortunate attribute of needing to glue the heads in place during torso assembly. So in this case, the heads and inside cowling was painted first and then assembled. Some blu-tac was used to cover up the area prior to priming the (mostly) assembled model and during airbrushing. This seems to have worked rather well, so now it's time to start filling in details and bringing these guys to life.

Oh, and the picture doesn't do them justice as always. Still need to source another proper camera.

-- silly painter.

Legion III - Emperor's Children (finished)

Careful of the edge there.

Despite a few mistakes and back to bad quality pictures (which the Purity Seal seems to make even worse), but here is what I consider to my first "tabletop quality" model, by which I mean the standard isn't quite up to the other models I've done. And that's ok, because I do want to learn how to get an army painted much quicker.

Firstly, the airbrush highlighting doesn't show in the picture, but it is acceptable on the model. I've tried to use it more for a natural light/shadow effect, and there's been no purple edge highlighting of armour plates, other than a very small amount on the helmet. I think the Blood Angels will have to continue to receive that step, if for no other reason than to tie it in with the models already done, but keeping it minimal.

Also, it seems that Hashut Copper and Fulgurite Copper are incredibly similar. I thought the latter might be a bit brigher, but there doesn't actually appear to be much difference between the two, at least with my paint bottles. Could just be the mix. So if I was to highlight again, I might go for one of the brass metallics for edging instead.

Pinning the arms didn't really work. They're not at quite the right angle; the gun tilts away from the body a bit. So back to blu-tac it is in future, but I'll stick to base coat one colour with the airbrush, then assemble as much as I can for the highlighting steps, before back into pieces for easier brush access.

The model isn't centred on the base properly. Drilled a hold for pinning in the wrong location, and the glue was pulling off too much of the base, so the model is stuck there now. This is something I'm going to work on: glue can pull off the texture paints, so the model doesn't stick to the base as well as it should. I'm looking at pinning to help in this by achoring the model a bit more with a metal hook of sorts. Otherwise in this case I went for a light coloured base to contrast the darker nature of the model. Apparently it's a bit of "mountainous mud covered in snow" battlefield.

Still, the idea behind this model was airbrush practice, and that worked well.

-- silly painter.

Legion III - Emperor's Children WIP#1

Darkwing Duck

Another entry in my Legion series. Just felt like working with purple really - it's one colour I get to use very rarely (seeing as there aren't any Tyranids on the completed shelf yet). So basically why not.

The colour scheme for Emperor's Children (pre-Heresy) is purple and gold, though some silver is often mixed in there. Going by some of the artwork, a gold face mask is often present, but I felt that the purple helmet should stay. They helmet should reflect Legion colours, and though the artwork often depicts a silver helmet, I've opted for purple here.

The main body is based coated, but otherwise not much done yet, so that's a post for another day.

Colouring for the base:

• Chemos (Forgworld Airbrush range)
• Genestealer Purple (Air range, highlight)
• Genestealer Purple, White Scar (Air range, 50/50 mix, highlight)
• Nuln Oil (wash, but used with the airbrush, shading)

A few comments here. The Nuln Oil is very thin, even for an airbrush, but has a similar effect to the Forgeworld Deathshroud "clear" paint. It just makes things darker really. Considering Forgeworld discontinued their airbrush range, that's going to be a big help in the future. Thanks to the local GW staff for that tip!
The mix with White Scar was just experimental. I wanted an extra highlight on top, and it did work rather well. The catch is that using white tends to desaturate the colour somewhat, so if I do that in future it will only be for very small, final highlights.
Lastly (or first, I suppose), the Chemos is a good base colour. Pity to see that go, but maybe Naggaroth Night can be thinned and fed into an airbrush as a replacement. Or maybe the Air range will be expanded.

Moving on, a final edge on very select edges of a thin application of Dechala Lilac (Edge paint), and some Druchii Violet (wash) in recesses rounded off the base stage.

The faceplate is:

• Balthasar Gold
• Hashut Copper
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss)
• Fulgurite Copper

The eyes took a bit of doing, as I wanted something closer to an aqua colour for them. Using a very small brush:

• Incubi Darkness
• Sotek Green (first highlight)
• Temple Guard Blue (second highlight)
• Drakenhof Nightshade (around the edges)
• Waywatcher Green (glaze)

A bit fiddly, but it got the job done.

Last note: the airbrushing is easier when the model is perched on something that can hold it assembled. Paperclips help for this, and some have been inserted into holes drilled around the model (a photo for next time). 0.85mm drill bit seems the most suitable to use, although it can be a bit loose. 0.8mm might work better if the paperclip should be there more permanently. This might be refined a little more over future models, but an assembled model is easier to highlight rather than trying to do it in parts, but being able to take the model apart again afterwards helps get the brush around various areas.

-- silly painter.

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.