Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

Low hanging jewels.

Diving right into it, the cloak I wanted to have some kind of texture. It shouldn't be too bright, shouldn't have hard edges, and should be a little dirty in places (the predilection for "my" Blood Angels to not have dirty armour in the middle of a battle does not extend to their cloaks). I also wanted to play with contrast paints some more. So ultimately, the red cloth is as follows:

• Grey Seer (base)
• Blood Angels Red (contrast)
• Agrax Earthshade / Lahmian Medium (1:1 mix, mostly in recessed areas)
• Astorath Red (dry, concentrating on raised areas, or where armour is directly pushing against the cloak)
• Sylvaneth Bark (dry, around the hem)

And that's really it. The last stage doesn't really show too well in the picture, but it gives the appearance of the cloak having been brushed against the ground quite heavily, and not just freshly back from steam cleaning.

Armour is even easier:

• Corax White (base)
• Apothecary White (contrast)

There are more stages to go as well. I may use some thinned Nuln Oil in deeper recesses, and I'm uncertain whether to use Ulthuan Grey or White Scar to highlight with at this stage. I'll pick an area for the former, to see if it's actually lighter than how the armour already appears or not. Overall though, I'm quite happy without how Apothecary White works for white armour, even if it's not something I paint much of.

I'm experimenting with my lighting setup a little. Once I have that organised, I should be able to better white balance and take much nicer photos.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal (WIP), Sanguinary Priest (WIP)

One eye is colour blind.

Still having some trouble with getting the lighting just right, but it's late and I wanted to get something written out. So the above picture will have to do.

Small progress on Horus after a bit of a break. Mostly just filling out the belt and remaining torso armour plating. Nothing new in terms of colours, so far it's just a continuation of the same I've used before.

I've been thinking for a while about how to paint the studs, for example those seen on the pauldrons. Most variations of Horus have them as silver, however I'm slightly concerned that it will be too bright and take focus away from the rest of the model. On the other hand, the rest of the model isn't really there yet, so it could actually balance out once the model is finished. Perhaps it's worth seeing if Leadbelcher can mix well with black, or otherwise blob some contrast over the top to tone it down somewhat.

I'm also still deciding on the colours for the mace (Worldbreaker). I could strictly speaking glue one of the arms on now, but I'll wait longer until the mace is nearly finished, and perhaps more of the left leg, for reasons of ease of brush access.

Hanging pretty low there.

Purely for additional experimentation with Contrast paints, I've also started on a Sanguinary Priest. It's the white armour that I'm interested in. The above is a test on areas that are actually hidden behind robes, so they're intentionally a little darker than normal.
The armour is:

• Corax White (primer, and then base paint for a smooth finish).
• Apothecary White (contrast paint)
• Basilicanum Grey / Contrast Medium (1:1)

That's really it. The recesses where shaded naturally from the paint. It's somewhat more grey than exposed armour should be, so future steps will just use Apothecary White, and then some white or light grey (perhaps Ulthuan Grey, or White Scar in a pinch) for edge highlights.
The robe seen here is:

• Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Blood Angels Red (Contrast)
• Druchii Violet (Shade)
• Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1) for edge highlights

Actually the last step is Mephiston Red with some pigment added in, but the pure pigments can't be bought anymore, so the equivalent now would be to mix in Dryad Bark (something I've done for the airbrush paints). On the outer garments I'll probably just drybrush Mephiston Red directly for the last step, both to change the texture and make it a little brighter.

Choosing the right base prior to applying Contrast does make a noticeable difference, so it's important to get that right. I may use something slightly brighter for the outer garments, and the outer garments should be done before the armour. Otherwise it's going to make fixing mistakes very difficult; white is an unforgiving colour if mistakes are made in red.

-- silly painter.

More Stormcast (finished)

Sir Glowhammer

There's actually three done, but they do look very similar. Three at at time is basically confirmed to be best for me at this point. It just seems to be easiest to manage.

Weapon handles are a surprisingly simple formula:

• Mournfang Brown
• Tuskgor Fur (edge highlight)
• Agrax Earthshade

The short sword scabbard I was hazy on some details about from before (because they weren't written down properly - shame!) so instead I chose to experiment with some new purchases. I didn't want the same as Blood Angel armour, so the result in this case is:

• Gal Vorbak Red
• Carroburg Crimson
• Word Bearers Red 
• Wazdakka Red (edge highlight)

Seems to work ok in the end, so it will probably be the basis for whenever I paint a red Word Bearers legionnaire.

The shield deviates from the last batch of Stormcast by using Grey Knights Steel for the lightning bolts. It's a subtle thing, but worth it. The hammer is a mix of Leadbelcher, Ironbreaker, Nuln Oil, and Liberator Gold in places. The clouds I'm not entirely happy with this time, but the basic approach is do drybrush colours together, going darker in the process instead of lighter:

• Celestra Grey
• Administratum Grey
• Eshin Grey

I did go back over some areas with mixes of colours to make starker edges, or blend it together slightly. More practice needed, but ultimately I still think something on the bottom of the shield helps to balance out the model.

Hammer glow was drybrushed, but I couldn't remember what I had used last time. Again, always write this down - that was the whole purpose of this blog! I don't know if this is better than before. It's certainly different; not better or worse, just different:

• Imrik Blue
• Skink Blue
• Wrack White
• Grey Knights Steel (to blend back into the hammer head)

The last paint was not drybrushed, but I figured thinned down it might help to soften a few edges. High pigment opacity with that paint though, so be careful trying this.

The white cloth next to the short sword is standard purity seal parchment detailed before for Blood Angels, so I won't bother recounting that here.

Using some spare bases from the shattered realms set, these were first primed with Corax White from a spray can, and then covered in Basilicum Grey in selected areas. That didn't have quite the hue I wanted, so pulling out the old Guilliman Blue glaze helped give it just the right colour. A more pure grey just stood out too much, so the subtle blue helps tie things together more. The "earth" in between was Gore-Grunta Fur and Agrax Earthshade. It's a little too red, but I don't have many contrast paints to play with right now, and I wanted to see how it worked. Thinned contrast paints do work well as glaze replacements.

The painting speed of these models has definitely improved. Mostly that's just experience: I know what colours to use, and how I want the model to look. The airbrush also saved a good deal of time, and I'm starting to get the hang using one (at least with blue).

-- silly painter.

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.