More Stormcast (continued)

Preparing for war, with all the trimmings

Painting in batches of three is definitely working much better so far. I'm progressing surprisingly fast for my normal speed, but then I'm also not doing other hobbies right now. Doesn't matter; painting motivation comes and goes in waves, just like any other hobby.

Much of the model is starting to be filled in now, and I could probably start to think about gluing the shields in place soon. The gold armour trim is:

• Retributor Armour
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss)
• Reikland Fleshshade (normal, to bring down the shine in deeper recesses)
• Liberator Gold (not yet done, but will be used as a highlight)

The tabard (basically anywhere purple) is:

• Naggaroth Night
• Druchi Nightshade
• Xereus Purple (higlight)

And I may do a little more edge highlighting in select areas, just so separate the cloth a bit. Chances are this will be:

• Daemonette Hide

The silver scales on the loincloth are fairly easy, but can be more than it might first appear. Only the first two stages are done so far, but the intent is for them to be:

• Leadbelcher
• Nuln Oil (Gloss)
• Nuln Oil (normal, only in the deeper recesses)
• Ironbreaker (highlight raised areas)
• Stormhost Silver (additional highlights on the most raised areas)

Steady progress for tabletop ready models, which will hopefully be done in another week (work pending). I've also thought about really going to town and adding some subtle blues to the silver scales, as reflections from the armour, but they're only tabletop quality and I'd rather not spend months in getting them finished. I'll save such details for character models.

-- silly painter.

More Stormcast (continued)

With such a big hammer, it's obviously going to be a big nail.

Not much to write; this is mostly for comparison purposes. Drakenhof Nightshade in the recessed areas, and Alaitoc Blue for edge highlights. It's a fair amount of work to get to this stage, but well worth it I think.

Edge highlighting is back here, after being missing from some models while I explore how it should be done. I think the answer is that I'll continue to edge highlight, but the colour used must be picked correctly. It shouldn't be so bright as to be distracting, but neither can it be simple repetition of the previous layered colour. Something to consider going forward with Blood Angels.

Next up it's time to start blocking in some base colours - the gold trims will take some time, but the airbrushing really did save a lot of time to get the basic armour into decent shape.

-- silly painter.

More Stormcast

I'm blue da ba dee.

So first off, the image above is adjusted slightly to exaggerate the highlighting done by using an airbrush. Perhaps it could use a little less contrast, a little more light, but it's still better than the original. I can see the appeal of working with raw files.

Following on from the Aggressors, I've decided that doing three models at a time seems to be my sweet spot. I'm too involved in details to be able to batch paint effectively - so squads of ten Marines at a time is probably not going to work. Mini-batch painting means the details don't get tedious, and it's still better than one at a time.

In this particular case, I wanted something to paint that wasn't red, and wasn't as detailed as Blood Angel. Stormcast offer that alternative; easy to paint, different colour, and I have references to work with (just that I didn't write down the original painting steps - oh well!).

I bought Night Lords Blue to try as a darker blue. Kantor Blue was too light as a base colour last time I tried this, but is effective as a first stage highlight. So all that's seen above is just an airbrush witih:

• Night Lords Blue (base colour)
• Kantor Blue (highlight)
• Caledor Sky (additional highlight)

This has all worked out fairly ok. The blues don't appear to spatter much either, so the transitions between colours works very well. Later on I'll use Drakenhof Nightshade in recessed areas, or to better define armour plating, and Caledor Sky again for edge highlighting. Alaitoc Blue is an alternative edge highlight colour if that doesn't really work.

At the time of writing, the heads have actually been done already, just because gluing them into place doesn't obscure anything else. The colour scheme for the helmets is quite simple:

• Celestra Grey
• Drakenhof Nightshade
• Celestra Grey (thinned down, soften shaded areas)
• Ulthuan Grey (edge highlighting)

Most have a kind of halo, which is done in typical metal style:

• Leadbelcher
• Nuln Oil
• Leadbelcher (thinned down, soften shaded area)
• Ironbreaker (highlight)
• Stormhost Silver (edge highlight)

Hopefully these can be finished quickly, just because a quick "win" would be nice.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angel Aggressors (Finished)

First note I'm going to make is that I really didn't do much in the way of edge highlighting on the red armour. I think next time I'll add a little - not much, but enough to make the edges stand out some. The edge highlight can easily be changed to match how dark or light the surrounding area is: Mephiston Red for the darker areas, Evil Sunz Scarlet for mid-range, and Wild Rider Red for the lighter areas. This will definitely take more time, but I think it would be worth it. Without this, the armour just doesn't stand out as much as I would like.

The rope has a thin layer of Ushabti Bone over it, just because it was too yellow before. Perhaps it still is. I may look into rope more in future.

Incubi Darkness for some of the rear cabling, with a wash of Nuln Oil. I didn't want anything fancy for those cables, feeling it would distract from the rest of model if I made them too bright, or even too dark.

The rear fuel tanks are golden/brass, as with the flamer cowling, just because silver would have been too boring. Perhaps it brings too much focus to then when viewed from behind, but that's ok.

Corax Black is my new favourite base paint for weapons. It's ever so slightly grey, which allows Eshin Grey to highlight against it much easier, and Dawnstone for edging. Nuln Oil, or even the more traditional black thinned down, then gives shading as appropriate. The slight hint of grey just gives something to work from; pure black or white give almost nothing to work from.

The Sergeant has a blood vial attached on the left pauldron, so I figured the best colour to use would be Blood for the Blood God. It's a deep red with a gloss finish, so fairly ideal for this purpose. A little Hoeth Blue parallel to the ground to give the impression of a liquid in a jar, some Carroburg Crimson wash, spot white reflections, and finally 'Ardcoat to restore the gloss. It looks to work rather well, so I'll likely repeat that for future vials.

Not much else to say really. Everything was based off prior work, and going back through these posts saved me a lot of effort in figuring out what I previously done.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angel Aggressors (WIP)

My, what...

...big hands...

...you have.

Work in progress when I'm not busy with Horus. Nothing much since the last update on these guys, but the flamer cowling is of something new:

• Balthasar Gold
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss)
• Agrax Earthshade (Gloss), just underneath to match the lighting, but Agrax really works well with this sort of thing.
• Hashut Copper, initial highlight and to tone back shade pooling.
• Fulgrim Copper, as additional highlighting.
• Stormhost Silver, for edge highlighting.
• Nuln Oil, just in the cowling holes.

For the Sergeant on his left pauldron, in keeping with Blood Angel army colours:

• Averland Sunset
• Casendora Yellow
• Fuegan Orange, spot shading in the most recessed areas.
• Phalanx Yellow, for initial highlight.
• Dorn Yellow, for edge highlights.

This is slightly different from the original paints used, and was mostly an excuse to try out Phalanx Yellow more. Unfortunately it's too close to the rope for my liking, so I will likely touch up the rope a bit more later on, possibly with a soft beige layer of some kind.

Might continue on these guys a little bit longer before returning attention to Horus.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal (WIP)

Damn it, hurry up and paint me.

Only a very short post with a better picture. Same lighting as before, but a better camera. Some of the easily spotted mistakes on the model have already been fixed.

Just to draw attention to the Luna Wolf icon on his left pauldron, that was simply Gree Seer (base), over which was laid some Black Templar (contrast). A bit of Wazdakka Red for the eye, and done. This is a really good example of where contrast paints shine. It would have taken me an awful lot longer to highlight that wolf head icon, but I don't feel the need to touch it any further now - except to fix the odd mistake, of course.

Gold trim is coming along, and should be done relatively soon. All the same as before, although it's not a good idea to paint tired. Eyes have trouble focusing.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal (WIP)

Starting to look....jaded. Yeeeeaaaaaahh.

Slow progress on Horus. The chest plate metallics have been filled in, though I might still go back over some areas with Reikland again to really bring out the contrast some more.
I did play around with a tiny bit of Skullcrusher Brass to add some colour variation (it really can't be seen in the photo), which is something I intend to introduce some more on the legs and arms. I want to make the engravings ever so slightly different from the trim in areas, just to avoid overdoing the same exact colours. I'm not sure it will ultimately matter.
The shoulder pads are green as a hat-tip towards the Sons of Horus primary colour scheme. No Primarch would be entirely different from their army colours, so it was important to have this present on the model. I picked this up from the Forgeworld paint work, and it really does make sense. In order:

• Lupercal Green (base)
• Sons of Horus Green (layer)
• Athonian Camoshade (wash)
• Lamenter's Yellow (glaze)

The last step was perhaps a little too far. I've pulled it back with the layer, but might glaze it with Lupercal Green later if I feel that's not enough. Depends how it looks once the trim and details are filled in.

-- silly painter.