Legion VI - Space Wolves (finished)

Scientifically proven to be a bad photo.

Before anyone complains, yes I know the shoulder pad colours aren't correct and it's missing Legion symbols, etc. Just pretend it's before their Primarch was found.

And the photo is really bad. I'm in the middle of a cleanup, the lighting isn't setup again properly, and I still don't have a decent camera to use. Which is a shame, because the model looks very flat in this photo, but actually has quite a lot of shading. No matter.

Not really that much to say. The model was painted. I tried some contrast paint for the eye lenses, but really it didn't turn out much better than normal methods. The area is just too small and requires more shading than contrast paints are capable of.

There is one cool thing I did learn, which naturally isn't shown in the picture, and that's Black Templar over Leadbelcher. A contrast paint over metallics in detail areas works rather well. It's a different kind of shading compared to using any of the washes, so can be used to help differentiate parts of the model. I tried it on some cabling on the backpack, and it works really well. I've struggled with "metal cabling" in the past, but I think this might just work ok.

-- silly painter.

Legion VI - Space Wolves

Simply because I wanted to try out the blue-grey colour scheme of the Space Wolves, a parallel project to the Aggressors is another Legion model. This colour scheme is important because I intend to use something similar (if perhaps a shade darker) when I eventually unpack some of the Adeptus Titanicus models.

Why only half the metallics are done is anyone's guess.

Initial airbrushed colours were The Fang, Russ Grey, and Fenrisian Grey. These worked fairly well, although later I used a very slight Drakenhof Nightshade through the airbrush as well, just to give some extra lighting contrast. That shade was also used with a traditional brush in the recesses later on, and to mark out areas where mistakes were made.
Mistakes happen. Battle damage is one way to hide these mistakes, if they can't be easily fixed normally, and sadly that is a problem with the airbrush sometimes. Either because of the "grain/noise" associated with using an airbrush, or because of slight colour variations, trying to touch up with a paintbrush might not quite look right. With experience, mistakes are minimal and normally close to edges that are more easily fixed with a highlight or shade, but sometimes there's sometime more serious. So in this case I'm still deciding whether it will be battle damage, or perhaps I could write runes around the right greave. Or both.
In any case, the metallics on this model are:

• Balthasar Gold
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss) (not shown in the picture here because the areas are too small)
• Sycorax Bronze
• Skullcrusher Brass

Now the last layer paint might seem an odd choice. It's a different hue than Sycorax, essentially making the final highlight a slight shift in colour as well as being a brighter edge. This ultimately works, but it's difficult to pinpoint why exactly. Perhaps it's because reflections often end up that way, with a reflected light being a different colour than reflected flooring. Certainly it helps give the appearance of directional lighting - and it might be well worth investigating this more in future, though I will probably just keep it as a subtle thing with this model.

I also got my hands on some of the new paints from Games Workshop, and decided to give them a go on a boltgun. I was particularly curious about some of the blacks, seeing as I struggle with highlighting that sometimes.

Quick edging of boltgun...

Above is Grey Seer as a base, with Black Templar (contrast paint) slathered on top. The edges really do stick out like they're highlighted, it's not just the poor lighting and photography skills. Still, on something with flat surfaces like this, it  looks like many applications of a shade. There's no sense of lighting direction, no uniform gradient,  and a somewhat blotchy appearance in areas. Edges in particular are always apparent; there's no discrimination of natural lighting, it's more like escaped visual from Tron. Above is a rare case of the photo looking much better than the actual model.

...now with more grimdark!

Corvus Black (a new base paint) thinned down  to the rescue, with the more traditional Abaddon Black on top of that. I'm unsure which was better to stick with, but the end result is effective enough. Does it compare to layered blending? Well, no, not really, or at least not yet. A bit more experience with the paints and it might. I did, however, get it done in a fraction of the time, and it's good enough for my version of tabletop quality.

So I'll continue to use contrast paints and see how well I get on. I think the potential is there with boltguns to give a basic start. Black is a very difficult colour to highlight, and this may make it easier in doing the reverse - create some definition highlights, and then darken areas down to black afterwards.

Lastly, Corvus Black has definite potential. It's ever so slightly more light, perhaps with just a hint of grey, or blue-grey. It's not much, but in having that to work from it makes it such a better base to use for highlighting from. I will have to try it out on the shoulder pad trim for the Aggressors. All in all, I believe the new paints from Games Workshop are well thought out. Not just the contrast paints, but new base and layers fill niches that have been missing for a while. And bringing the Forgeworld paints back, and indeed making it a part of the standard range, is excellent to see. I look forward to many more Legion models to try all these paints out on.

-- silly painter.

Contrast Paints (early impression)

Down at the local GW store (or Warhammer store), I managed to play around with the new contrast paints for all of 5 minutes. Not much time to see what they can really do, but enough to get an impression of them.

They're definitely something different.

I've seen the term "thick wash" bandied about a little bit. Is that accurate? Well, yes and no. Contrast paints do share some of the properties of a wash (shade) paint: the contrast paint will pool more in recesses, leaving raised areas with a thinner application. They are more translucent than a base, or even layer, paint, and do appear to work best going from light to dark (e.g are best applied over a lighter colour rather than a darker one).
Where a wash is close to the flow properties of water however, a contrast paint is more like a gel. It doesn't pool in recesses so much as the pigment seems to get drawn into them as the paint drys. I'm not sure it should be applied either as heavily as some apply a wash, or if it should be applied more. The tagline is "one thick coat", and I didn't really play around with that aspect much - too used to the multiple thinner coats to do much else. Contrast paint is also designed to be applied everywhere, whereas a wash is more for applying in select areas.

I'll be honest. I don't think contrast fits well with Space Marines. The armour plating is too smooth and large of an area, and the contrast paint can easily leave "tide marks" behind. A bit of experience will help with that, but it's still very difficult to get an even application over a larger smooth surface. The end result is a lot of samples look blotchy. I personally think traditional layer paints will give a much smoother finish on the armour.

It's not all bad though. Perhaps some of the browns (or whichever colour) can be used to dirty around the feet some, tying the model more in with the base. Where a contrast paint really shines however, is anything organic. Skins tones, perhaps fur, parchment, cloth, skeletons, rope, etc. I can see it being extremely useful in those cases. Lizardmen especially are likely going to benefit from these paints, and Orks. Even Eldar (or Aeldari now I suppose) where there is something closer to fabric between their armour plating. An Avatar would look pretty nice.

So I don't see the paints as the answer to everything. They're another tool to be used - good in some areas, not in others. I personally will see how well the black works with boltguns as well - initial impression with that shows promise, but it will take some experimentation to get right.

Sadly, the local store was unable to order any for me (everything sold out already - though quite how that should happen with a pre-order I don't know). I suspect it will be a few weeks before I can get my hands on some.

Last note: Grey Knights Steel base paint. The airbrush variant is a very nice colour indeed, and I'm glad to see it coming to the traditional brush.

-- silly painter

P.S - photos of slow works in progress coming soon. I hope.

Ultramarine Legion Herald

Biggus Stickus

So finished the Herald. Mostly stuck to the cover picture from the blister pack, so I didn't go completely overboard with the painting. Mostly it was an excuse to use blue with the airbrush originally, but I also explored some more highlighting beyond just the base armour colour. So most trimming, symbols, etc, has some directional highlighting applied as well.

As far as the model goes, I have a few issues with it. Some of that is down to manufacturing processes: there's excess on the standard that I couldn't trim down without breaking it. Those imperfections are annoying (and are something I would fix on Blood Angels), but I really do want to speed up getting some of my models painted, so it'll have to be classified as battle damage.

Actually the base has some more colour variation to it, but the lighting washed it out. Next time I'll have to remember that and exaggerate the variation more.

Lessons learned will be used on other models, including Horus. A combination of Mournfang Brown, Wazdakka Red, and Agrax Earthshade (or perhaps Carroburg Crimson, or both) I've decided will look good for pteruges. And next time I do eyes, I may well use Celestra Grey instead of white; a solid white can stand out too much on the face sometimes.

-- silly painter.

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.