Blood Angel Intercessor

Some assembly required.

After finishing the termagants, it's time to work on another Intercessor. They're great for airbrush practice, and it's still a case of doing one at a time to experiment with various airbrush approaches.

So today it's a focus on using the airbrush.

First of all, I've finally figured proper ways to clean the airbrush both between paints, and at a final step before storage, without needing to strip it down to individual parts. A proper squeeze bottle of water, a receptacle for cleaning it into, the trick of backflow by blocking the nozzle and pumping air through it, and a jar of 1:1 cleaner/water. The latter is used after mostly cleaning the airbrush, just to try rinse out any leftover particles inside - literally dip the whole front of the airbrush in and blast away. Obviously do this inside a proper extractor hood, and while wearing a proper filter mask.
Oh, and cotton buds. I've been using them inside the cup feed with the needle still inserted and it appears to work ok.

Basically, spend a bit of time figuring out how to clean the airbrush, and you'll save a lot of effort (and time) switching paints around.

This next Intercessor was prepared in the usual way: trim from the sprue, clean surfaces, assemble the minimum for ease of painting, and then prime with black. I did cover some areas with PVA glue first, to mask them from any spray (including the primer) so that the plastic glue used for final assembly will have clean surfaces to bond together. This is a really simple trick: just paint some PVA onto appropriate areas, and peel it off at some later stage. No scratching or filing back the surface, and it doesn't seem to remove paint from anywhere else.

Wanting a more vibrant red this time around, I ended up with the following next steps:

• Spray can of Mephiston Red over the whole model.
• 1:1 Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark airbrush in shadowed areas. Mostly just point from underneath and spray around.
• Mephiston Red airbrush from above, covering most raised surfaces and trying to leave some of the previous step as appropriate.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet airbrush for smaller highlight areas. This stage works best by not giving full air flow through the airbrush, which is possible with dual-trigger variants (otherwise just adjust air pressure), giving a smaller cone of spray.

While this worked, it's still not giving enough contrast between light and dark areas for my liking. Also, the last step can create a speckled effect between transitions - not noticeable at a distance, but annoying once it's seen.
To fix these issues, the next model may introduce some slight variation again: a second coat of the shaded areas just to give some extra depth, and a final pass at the very end with Mephiston Red, possibly thinned down a little. Almost a glazing pass to try filter out some of the speckle. It might only be needed across the transition areas too, rather than the whole model. Something to explore once this Marine is finished.

The picture above also has the traditional brush step of using Carroburg Crimson in recessed areas; still an absolutely necessary step to really give definition to the whole model.

-- silly painter.

Nidrick and Friends

'Nids on the run.

Look at how they move, just like a flock of birds.

It took a bit of an effort, but the whole set of termagants is now done. To tabletop standard anyway. There is a lot more I could do to individual models, and there are mistakes that I'm ignoring, but it's a learning experience in batch painting.

Since the last time, I've tweaked a few things to either speed up the process, or because it just looks better:

• No drilling out "barrel holes"! They were often off-centre anyway, and on these models a small black dot looks just about the same.
• Wraithbone spray directly over black, no Corax White spray at all. It's better to make the first spray a bit thin and then do another later. Also, really shake a new spray can, otherwise the paint can be very thick on the model, and will ruin detail most effectively. Mostly recovered with some clever painting, but ideally I should have stripped the paint and started again.
• Pre-mixed Volupus Pink and Contrast Medium. This was done by putting each into a dropper bottle, and then measuring it out back into the original Volupus Pink bottle. This ended up as a 1:8 (pink to medium) ratio, which is much lighter than the original test, but also allows the drybrush of Wraithbone to be skipped entirely.
• Barak-Nar Burgundy for the tongues. For more important models I'll also highlight this with something, but in this case it was covering up some red tests anyway.
• Stormfang drybrush on the base. It was too dark previously, and so just a light drybrush to raise some detail makes all the difference.
• Rhinox Hide around the rim of each base. I debated leaving it as black, but after a test it was determined that a dark brown just looked that much better.

As far as lessons learned go, if I were to paint these models again (a strong possibility if I want to build and sell a tyranid army), then I would batch paint the arms separately. It makes getting into certain areas that much easier. Fortunately the left/right pairs can be grouped and put onto any model, so there's no need to track which pair of arms belongs to which particular body.

I would possibly do some initial contrast coats without the base attached, which does make holding the model more difficult, but if that's solved then it again makes accessing various areas that much easier. Easier access to areas of the model improves both speed of painting and the quality of the finished model, so it's well worth planning such things in advance, especially for large batches of models.

With batched painting I do find it easier to not actually do all the same area of every model all at once. I might do four models at a time with, say, assembly and priming. Then I'll do some initial step. Then I'll go back and assemble another four and prime them. Then I'll do the next step on the original batch of four models, followed by the first step on the next batch of four, and so on. By switching steps often, it prevents boredom from setting in too quickly. This was really the key to getting twelve termagants finished in just over a week (a very fast pace for me).

-- silly painter.

Nidrick

nid nid nid nid

Here is Nidrick the Termagant, finished apart from a coat of Purity Seal (which will be done when there's more to batch together). I'm also considering Rhinox Hide to edge the base in, however that considered a minor detail and will also be done in batches.

The finishing touches to Nidrick were the claws and hooves. This was a simple matter of:

• Flesh Tearers Red, which is truly an amazing contrast paint if used right.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet to add some lines and give some grain, similar to the purple carapace.

I did a small test with Cadian Fleshtone used before the Evil Sunz Scarlet (making the edges even brighter), and that's definitely something to use on more special models (Carnifex, Hive Tyrant, that kind of thing), but it's simply not worth the effort here.

The base is simple, but time consuming if done one at a time. Further models will only have it done in batches.

• Green Stuff to cover any holes in the base.
• Astrogranite everywhere. It helps to move this up to the feet in places and make it look like the termagant is pressing down into the earth beneath.
• Mechanicus Standard Grey, very watered down, to cover any black base showing through, or any Green Stuff that hasn't been covered properly. This is slightly darker than Astrogranite, but the next steps tie it all together.
• PVA glue, watered down, and spread over the base. The entire purpose of this is to prevent the texture paint from easily falling off. Paints and Purity Seal should help protect the glue from degrading later. Wait for this to fully dry before continuing.
• Drakenhof Nightshade over the entire base.
• Agrax Earthshade in patches.

And that's it. I could do more on the base, but that of course takes more time and effort - something I'm keen to avoid on such a small base, especially when it might be lost among the crowd/brood.

This is truly a tabletop quality model. I've spotted a few mistakes, fixed a couple, but others I'm not going to bother with. I'll need that mindset if I'm to get an army of these things painting relatively quickly. That being said, I'm still very pleased with how Nidrick turned out and have learned a lot more of how to use contrast paints.

Next step is to batch paint three more termagants and make sure the process is ok, before premixing paints and continuing with the rest.

-- silly painter.

Termagant (Hive Fleet Leviathan)

(Tyra)Nidrick the Termagant.

Starting off the year with a resolution: to paint and sell some Tyranids from the Deathstorm boxed set. Termagants aren't in that set, but they are in most Tyranid armies and so I bought some to test out how to paint the little buggers.

This is the start of a tabletop quality (or is that battle ready now?) army painting project. I'm not intending to go all out on the models, because the whole idea is reduce the plastic mountain I have stashed away. There is a chance that I'll become too attached to the paint job and won't want to sell the models - but then at least I'll have experience with more than just Space Marines.

I'm using contrast paints, and broadly following some online tutorials from WarhammerTV. I want something a little better quality to sell, so I've made a few tweaks to the formulae, but given the organic nature of 'nids, contrast paints seem the way to go.

So the first step on Nidrick the Termagant was a black primer spray. This isn't for colour purposes so much as that spray being an awesome primer. Over the top of that was a spray of Corax White. Only a single coat, which lets some of the black peek through in recessed areas. This helps give depth to the model later on.
Final base step was a coat of Wraithbone. I used the base paint for this, but future models I'll just grab the spray and use that instead. The time savings of using the spray will be well worth it, especially for batched painting.

Then the fun with contrast paints begins. I've put the Contrast Medium and Volupus Pink into dropper bottles to accurately remix the ratios in future.

• 4:1 ratio of Contrast Medium / Volupus Pink, applied over the whole model. This was somewhat stronger than I originally intended, but ended up in my favour.
• Wraithbone drybrushed all over the model. This tones down the strength of the first contrast coat, adds extra highlighting, and gives more of an organic texture to the 'nid.
• Wraithbone directly painted onto the eye areas (Nidrick and his weapon's eye). They will be coloured differently later, but I didn't want the pink to show through.
• Volupus Pink directly in joints, or flexible points between the exoskeleton. Also added around the mouth. Any brush with a fine point is suitable to keep it neat.
• Shyish Purple contrast liberally applied to the carapace. I had a concern it would be too dark, or too blotchy, but for this sized model (or rather, for the carapace segment sizes) it works nearly flawless. The few blotchy areas actually give the carapace a more natural feel, without being overly obvious. Very impressed by the result with that.
• Iyanden Yellow contrast applied to the eyes. Fine brush tip helps.
• Guilliman Flesh contrast applied to weapon ribbing, and to Nidrick's teeth.
• Wraithbone used to pick out the teeth. As this is only tabletop quality, I'm not willing to go much beyond that.
• Seraphim Sepia wash over the weapon "ammo". This was just to differentiate it from everything else.
• Bloodletter glaze over the weapon. Two or three layers were applied to give it enough red. This step was to make the weapon a different organism: bonded to the termagant, but not the same creature. Bloodletter because red is the typical Hive Fleet Leviathan colour for weapons. I had considered a dark red, but ultimately I thought that didn't reflect how closely the weapon is bonded to the termagant. Considering that Bloodletter is no longer available, my next choice would be incredibly thinned Blood Angels Red contrast.
• Xereus Purple applied in fast stripe motions to the carapace edges.
• Genestealer Purple applied in fast stripe motions again, covering about half of the previous step. More important models may have additional carapace highlighting with an edge paint, but considering the numbers of termagants I'll have to paint up, I didn't think it was worth it in this case.

The model isn't quite finished. I'll add an iris to the weapon's eye, and I've yet to do the claws and hooves. Need to grab an extra paint from the local Warhammer store, or else I'd have this model completed within a single day. Which is awesome.

To be honest, I'm not sure I could do a better job with more traditional methods of painting Tyranids. The same result, sure, but using the contrast paints has most definitely sped up the process dramatically while maintaining a high standard.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angel Intercessor (again)

Told apart from his twin by looking another way.

Another Intercessor from the Dark Imperium boxed set. Still another three in the squad to go, but I'm definitely getting faster at having these guys painted. The practice on this model was just to use some more airbrush.

I've been having some trouble with getting a bright enough red out of the airbrush right now. Seemingly the air reds are a little thinner, and so might take a couple of coats to show through. In this case it was the usual:

• Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1)
• Mephiston Red
• Evil Sunz Scarlet

Some sharper edge highlighting has been skipped on this model, now that I look back at it. I've been reserving that for special characters and trying to keep everything to a table-top standard, though I think just a little extra Evil Sunz Scarlet in this case would have been useful on the arm. The helmet has received the bulk of brush highlighting, seeing as that would be the natural focus of the model.

Next time I might try a more prominent base coat of Mephiston Red to start with (still have an old spray can of that stuff), darken it in shaded areas with the 1:1 mix, fix again with a thin Mephiston Red, and then finally Evil Sunz Scarlet. I'm hoping for a less desaturated red result. So that's for the next Intercessor, which owing to the holiday season means it won't be for another 4 - 6 weeks.

Still, it has been fun "speed" painting (for me at least) one at a time. It gives me a chance to get airbrush practice in more frequently, and has been a real boost to motivation.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angel Intercessor

Here's looking at you.

Not much of a painting update, but rather proof that I can complete a single Blood Angel in four days. This is incredibly fast for myself, and hopefully I can continue on this to clear off some of my pending models.

The relative fast speed is a combination of experience in knowing what colours to use, how they combine, nice brushes, and a wet palette. Not having to spend a long time considering which colours, in what order, really made all the difference though.

I originally airbrushed the model, but that didn't turn out properly. Poor mixing of the paint I suspect, but regardless I had to fix up everything with tried & true paintbrush. This is where the wet palette came in handy - the paints were ready at my disposal, easily thinned, and easily used to correct mistakes. Not having to constantly switch paint bottles saved a lot of time, particularly with the reds.

I did end up using Corax Black for all the of the initial black areas, highlighting with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone, and later going back over it with thinned down with the more traditional black. This works quite well to get the highlighting right, so I'll be following this pattern going forwards.

The eye lenses were also a simple Wraithbone and Waywatcher Green glaze, but despite the menacing look of a Blood Angel clearly starting to fall under the influence of the Rage, I'll switch back to my normal method in future. More tricky, but a better result.

Forwards! To find my head!

Couldn't help myself, and when the opportunity arose to get the Space Marine Heroes 2 set, I did. Also really wanted to play with one while motivation is high. This is imply an initial airbrush highlight, and I'll be going back over the armour to really make it "pop" later on. Of far more immediate interest is the Barak-Nar Burgundy being used on the baltea. I strongly suspect this will soon become a default for baltea, once I've figured out beyond the base colour.

-- silly painter.

Sanguinary Priest (finished)

Care for a drink?

Espresso machine. Or beer fridge.

There's really not too much to say, this is mostly a showcase of the finished model. Face and hair are largely the same as can be seen with the Aggressor Sergeant, and is something I picked up from a White Dwarf once upon a time. I should perhaps detail what was used one day, perhaps a special on painting faces (though I still can't do them right).
Two things I'm trying however are: don't use pure white for the eye (Grey Seer was used in this case), and use something other than black for the iris. I'm not actually sure what was used here - simply something from the palette, perhaps left over Dark Reaper from some Horus work.

Side note: lighting is a little better for these photos, so the red appears different to previous, but nothing was actually done.

Rear view shows the vials, and how a little brighter line makes them look partially filled. A little 'ardcoat over the top makes them look more like glass as well, but does mute that line (especially on the red).

Yellow cabling was Averland Sunset, a little Agrax Earthshade, and then some Bestigor Flesh. I didn't want a bright yellow, so was looking for other colours and that just seemed to work. I'm not entirely happy with the result, but it's close to what I wanted.

Random note: old Finecast models are horrible to prepare.

-- silly painter.