Sanguinary Guard (Heresy Era) - Part I

 

Stab. Stab stab stab!

I normally wouldn't be posting on these models at this stage, but the assembly was noteworthy enough to warrant it. I'll start with the picture above: I messed up the pose and from that camera angle he looks a little hunched over while putting a pizza in an oven. From a lower angle it looks like he's stabbing upwards into something. I don't like it, but it's well glued together now and there's no getting around it. This bring me to point one: posing.

Arms with multiple connection points are really, really hard to pose properly. Using blu-tac (or whichever equivalent) always puts a slight spacer between the connection points and it does matter at this scale. I much prefer when there are guides to get the arms in the proper position, which can always be trimmed if not wanted. Without this then in future I'll need to look at creating my own out of paperclips. This takes time and effort, and really degrades motivation. The extra problem on this model is the fact that the arms and hands were also separate and used ball joints. Anchoring just one arm once everything is dry-fit would be great - and if all the pieces were plastic that might be an option (just drop some extra-thin cement in there), but between plastic and resin? That needs superglue. In future I'll just take the time and pin it.

The base gave me pause for a little. I wasn't sure how I wanted to base the Heresy models - something industrial or hab block related seems more appropriate: it could be on any world, it could be on Terra, it could be within a ship. That's when I remembered what I'd done on previous models: I used Sector Imperialis bases. No need for much else, just glue on the models and done. Of course there's a lot of repetition if I just use those, so later I may need to add rubble, piping, concrete debris, that sort of thing, just to differentiate them. Adding a layer of randomness makes the visuals less uniform.

As I was assembling a squad I noticed that the backpacks have enough room behind that I could just glue them onto the torso, and so I did. Then when I tested the shoulder pads I saw there was just enough room to paint those whilst attached. The arms aren't really hiding much either, so they and the weapons are all glued in position. Then looked at the helmets, looked again, and looked for a third time. There would be some difficulty, but the majority of the helmets are accessible for painting. Everything is glue together - even accessories for each. The latter will probably be the worst for accessibility to various areas, but it's worth it for motivation; I'll paint a fully assembled model much quicker compared to sub-assemblies.

The helmet and head options are from older Forgeworld kits, and while Games Workshop has done a brilliant job at compatibility, they simply aren't designed for these newer models. They just didn't sit right - too much height on the neck, or not enough. In the end there was really only the one option: trim it down a lot and use a (very) small ball of putty to make up the difference. A bit of glue and squishing the putty into place makes sure it flattens out to take up the space while giving a large contact area for adhesion and even time to make minor adjustments to sit everything in the proper place. This is all hidden by the helmet itself and won't be visible in the end.

During assembly I've gone the extra mile with scraping off mould lines and sanding things back as smooth as I could with 1200 grit sand paper. Some plastic cement in a few areas helped to seal seams shut before sanding it all back, though doubtless some areas will still be visible later. The left pauldrons in particular seem to be troublesome for that, but that's the price for the better looking armour studs. I decided to go with them because they look cool, and signifies that though they are well equipped, they're still one with the others of their legion who may not be so fortunate in their offerings from the quartermaster.

Finally, I've been preparing these models specifically to test out some new paints, but also to see how well I go with models that don't have quite so much ornate detailing. I'm hoping this will help limit the palette and make me get through the models more quickly than usual. More on the reasoning for that later.

-- silly painter.

Crimson Paladin - Part II

 

Cleaning that sash must take some effort.

Originally I thought I could paint the Crimson Paladins relatively quickly, but this first model has proven me most incorrect in that matter. It's the sub-assemblies that annoy me, but even more it's that the shoulder armour doesn't have a proper mounting location and I can't glue them in place until the arms are done, and they need to be done separately from the torso to reach certain areas without hassle. One of those spots is the sash and rings on which it hangs.

The sash itself is fairly simplistic with building up from a dirty beige to an off-white:

• Steel Legion Drab
• Zandri Dust
• Skeleton Horde (TTC)
• Screaming Skull
• Pallid Wych Flesh

The issue I still have with cloth though is making it look like material. Trying to find references is difficult because photos are always with cheap costumes using nylon: thin, slightly shiny, overly smooth. I want something heavier looking, more durable. Ancient Roman togas is the closest I can find. Even then, the scale means it shouldn't be painted realistic, but instead painted more impressionistic: take the properties and exaggerate them. Durable, thick material will have large woven fibres that can be portrayed by painting always in the same direction to build up a kind of lined grain in appearance. It doesn't always work.

Another problem here is that I'm used to glazing and smoothing between layers, which is _very_ difficult with whiter and lighter coloured paints. It leaves everything looking blotchy and messy far too frequently. Using flow improver instead of water to thin the paint does help, but actually it's simply better to use slightly thicker layers and wet blend instead. Even then it was the Pallid Wych Flesh that brought everything together in the end - it was a total mess before that.

So I still need to find my rhythm for painting cloth.

The hanging straps could be leather, or just more heavy cloth. I painted them with Steel Legion Drab,  Barak-Nar Burgundy, mixed in Warpfiend Grey in some places and The Fang in others, then gave the whole thing a coat of Black Templar (Contrast) mixed with Contrast Medium (about 1:1). I played it fast and loose with the whole thing and may still go back and add scratches and edge highlights, but I'm starting to like using purple-greys with black leather.

As for the armour trim, that's still just Castellax Bronze with a thinned Canoptek Armourshade (1:1 with flow improver) right now. I may highlight after the matt varnish stage of the model, not sure yet.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part V

Back to it.

I somehow managed to get a fair amount done on Captain Karlaen recently, although most of that will be revealed later on the front. I'm still focusing on NMM techniques, and learning quite a lot in the process; I haven't cracked cubes yet, but I'm improving on other shapes.

The gold didn't really sit with the vision of what I wanted (it's too yellow) and so I experimented with something else on the hammer. I tried more of a white-gold, but in all honesty it didn't turn out at all. I dislike it so much that I'm not even going to write down the paints used - it's simply too beige, too sandy, and so I'll go back to the prior gold colouring for the rest: the right shoulder obviously need completing, along with the Iron Halo, along with a few odds and ends. Still, when painting the wing shape on the hammer I tried to give more contrast with a darker red in the shadows. This might work if I nudged into more ochre colours, something between yellow and brown and only moving to beige on the brightest reflection points. One mistake I did correct on the fly was when I realised I was painting the red as normal volume highlights without taking into account the angle; the deeper shadows would come from ground bounce light, and given the angle of the hammer this means they spread into the outer areas of each "feather". It's an interesting effect in the end and worth that realisation even if I don't like the overall colouring.

Over the rest of the hammer I stuck mostly to an dark iron / steel, borrowing mostly from the recipe used on Azrakh, but swapping a few colours around as I felt like it. I even tried Barak-Nar Burgundy mixed with the black, but subtle as I tried, the warm colour stood out too much.

Cylindrical shapes are easy when it comes to reflection points. It's mostly a brighter line down the length of the cylinder, some brighter does on the edges at either end. Cubes though, they're harder to make interesting. If they're highly reflective they simply act as mirrors, but with the environment missing then it's hard to show that. I settled for some kind of banding, which actually works better on swords. In future I might simply paint it a single gradient for the most part, or perhaps be a lot more subtle in the gradients, with only contrasting value jumps for the edges and corners.

One of the other techniques I was trying was really to build up highlights from a mid-tone, and then shade down from that same mid-tone. This worked. NMM isn't just about where to highlight, but where to add shadow and darker areas too, and both of these are easier from the mid-tone rather than trying to build up from darkest to brightest. White dots help sell the effect too.

I still don't really like NMM in general for miniatures, but it does work if done properly. It's just very difficult to do properly such that it works from multiple viewing angles. The shoulders don't do this, which is why I stopped. The left one looks amazing from the top, but not as nice from the front or side. The haft actually takes this into account and I have multiple reflection lines with a darker area between, allowing for the effect to be seen from multiple angles. the storm bolter has this slightly, but that's only really of interest when viewed from a certain angle anyway. The shoulders I don't think will work as I originally intended, but at least I'm learning why. I understand the advice from Darren Latham when he remarked in a blog post somewhere to pretend there are four light sources, one in each corner of a square above the model. It's what makes his style work on 3d pieces.

Ultimately I understand that NMM offers contrast and definition, which are critically important for miniature painting, but I also think it's not quite as easy as that. It will look nice in photos - but this isn't a two dimensional medium and that needs to be taken into account. I also like to play with the finish, from matt, to satin, to gloss. I'm convinced that mastering metallics hasn't fully been realised yet, that contrast is still possible with them, and definition. On that note I have two sets of Vallejo's TMM range, so I'll see how that goes on another model.

-- silly painter

 

Blood Angels Champion - Part III

 

He slices, he dices...

Been a few weeks since any update because very good reasons, but I'm back at semi-regular painting again and decided to block in a few colours. There's not a whole lot of painting information really, this is just trying to get a sense of the final look of the model, which itself is often just as important.

The base is very bare right now and definitely will need some attention. Rocks, scrub, a skull or two, and it should be passable, but this kind of model normally deserves something a little better. This basing is chosen to fit with the rest of the army, but Astartes are unlikely to be found in that environment without something else to indicate fortifications, enemy troops, etc; Astartes would not fight across open terrain in such a fashion. They're a surgical strike force that targets the enemy directly and would be susceptible to enemy artillery when trying to combat in the open like that. They would instead be delivered close to the enemy and strike hard and fast, and thus the bases would show signs of something: bricks, pavement, discarded items, tracks, wires, sludge, etc. I'll need to consider it for the other models in the eventual squad as well.

The armour will almost certainly have a final glazing pass after the matt varnish to help it compete against all the metallics. That will be simple enough and I think so far the idea of the airbrush only being used as a foundation to build upon is working well.

The swords will see a splash of colour later, but I do want to keep them quite dark. The brighter colours surrounding the chest and head currently draw attention that way and I'd like to keep that intact if I can.

Steel Legion Drab and Zandri Dust are very similar, especially with the latter covered in Agrax Earthshade, which is good to note for future reference. The former could probably be highlighted with the latter. Too bad both paints are in bad shape for me and will need replacing before too long. They've each lasted some 13 years though, so all things considered I'm happy with them.

The model is shaping up nicely, but I need to keep an eye on the volumes. They will make all the difference between simply good from the details, and great.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Champion - Part II

 

The chest is watching you.

The "Bladeguard" without a shield is painted enough to be fully assembled. I really wanted this done for motivational purposes, but it also helps to better guide the colour scheme, which I haven't yet fully decided upon. The photo is colour adjusted slightly because the gloss varnish reflections washed the colours out too much: the reds are perhaps slightly deeper than in actuality, but it's not too far off.

Airbrushing this model I returned to the tried & true formula of:

• Mephiston Red / Dryad Bark (1:1) base coat.
• Mephiston Red initial highlight.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet second highlight.

Knowing how to thin the paints, build up layers, and control the airbrush more than I once did, the end result was pretty inspiring, but I didn't focus on that being the final steps. I would almost certainly adjust things later with a brush anyway, so I was focused on a foundation to build upon. I went back with a paint brush to add glazes in a few places, but it was relatively minor and didn't take long. With that in mind, it was gloss varnish and shading time.

The shading I did not bother with even trying to panel line. If I'm going to clean up later, why bother? Also there's so much detail that it would've been pointless anyway: just give an overall wash and fix up later if necessary. As it turns out, with one drop of flow improver to one drop of the shade paint (Crimson Carroburg, the more Contrast-like version) and everything just kind of worked. A few minor places weren't quite how I wanted, but even they weren't bad. Using the normal acrylic versions of the airbrush paints and I had everything fixed up, re-highlighted, and even basic edge highlighted in about 20 minutes (speed painting for me).

By this stage there are three rounds of working on the red armour highlights, and yet it's still faster than before. I'm mostly working with glazes and very soft reinforcement of what is already there, and even then the primary reason for not doing everything at the end is that I want to keep the visuals with me as I paint other areas. Painting it last would mean I lose track of the mental end picture and would be making far too mistakes from trying too hard. Lean into layering and glazing to keep the model looking nice, and each subsequent step will be shorter and easier.

I've decided on my normal gold recipe for armour trim, with Castellax Bronze for the filigree and detailing. This should provide colour variation and interest without clashing colours. Cryptek Armourshade mixed with flow improver in a 1:1 ratio gives shading without going too dark. I'm not sure what to do next with that - I don't want to go too bright or colourful, but it needs something to pick out highlights and for definition. Studs are Doom Metal (TTC) with silver initial highlights, but I need to go back in there and push the highlights more while also respecting the volume of the leg. That just means the studs closer to the middle will be highlighted more brightly.

There's obviously a lot of blocking in yet to do, the base needs some attention, and more besides, but I think the pose is striking and this will become one of my nicer models in the end.

-- silly painter.

Wraithlord - Part III

 

Sparkly sword!

This model is quickly turning into a bit of an annoyance really. I've already done what I intended with it and it's mostly just going through the motions at this point.

I'm still struggling with the black armour highlights, but using Two Thin Coats paints of Trooper White and Doom Death Black I tried to see how well point highlights would work. And it works well: I managed to the right of the head to make something that looks like shiny highlight point. The only real problem is that it took so incredibly long that I couldn't justify continuing. Next I figured I would simply try drybrushing and focus on the overall highlights of the model without going into detail.

I still struggle to drybrush, but with these paints I managed...something. It's not really drybrushing, more like damp-smashing. The TTC paints have a longer drying time, so using a drybrush I loaded up some paint and initially highlighted some areas before feathering those out, before mixing in more black and kind of wet-blending it down. Think dry brushing motions to perform wet blending to smooth out the transitions. It's not terribly precise but it worked well enough to build up the overall lights and I could go back in with black to darken areas and better define certain shapes.

The head, or helm, is Typhon Ash (from Citadel) airbrushed on to build up a solid layer and then a few sepia tones to add shading. I originally went with Skeleton Horde, but that was far too soft (possibly because I used too much thinner) and so then went with Darkoath Flesh. I wasn't being careful, the airbrush pressure was too high and there was water mixed in - basically poor glazing and some speckling on there, but this is actually something I wanted. Ulthwé are bone and black, but bone here wouldn't really be ultra-smooth so I wanted some texture to show through. A thin airbrushed glaze of Typhon Ash again across the "face" and that's about all. I'll either need to freehand or use a decal at some point to add the Ulthwé symbol.

The loincloth or whatever it is, I used an old brush to kind of stab the paint on to build up texture. Again, I didn't want smooth: I wanted texture to separate it from the armour. I built up from Doombull Brown covering all of the cloth, then XV-88 (at this point it really looked like flayed skin, must remember that for Nightlords) and then Balor Brown, each step covering less than before to keep shadows along folds. This was still too stark for my liking, so I then used Typhon Ash to glaze over pretty much all of it - enough to lighten to more of an off-white cloth, but not enough to hide the underlying texture or shadows completely.

The blade I purely mucking around. Trooper White across all of it, but too little to build up a solid layer. Typhon Ash to strengthen the colour, but it was too thin and spidered across areas. Magenta ink glazed across the base, then transitioning to Aethermatic Blue, leaving the end off-white. I was going for a crystal look, and it works here more for the contrast against the desaturated colours of the rest of the model.

No idea yet on how to paint up the rest of the model, but I'll keep at it as and when I feel motivated and see where I end up I suppose.

-- silly painter

Crimson Paladin - Part I

 

Fear the Filigree

While starting on the Champion, I also was inspired to assemble a test model for the Crimson Paladins, mostly because they look awesome and I'm convinced I could convert the new Cataphractii into something similar with a moderate amount of effort. I also want to paint up the older models before the new ones make them look out of scale, so there is some time pressure involved.

I originally decided to make the test model the one carrying an assault cannon. The idea here was to avoid sub-assemblies. That didn't exactly go according to plan. The arms do make some places much harder to reach, and it was with great difficulty that I decided it was going to make for a much better finished piece if I painted the arms separately. It got worse from there, because the upper pauldrons don't have anywhere to sit properly on the arms. I will need to use a small ball of putty to get proper surface area for glue to adhere to, but without somewhere to align them this can only be done after the main arm is attached to the body. This probably means I'll need to paint those pauldrons separately as well, and only glue them into place after the arms are, which is going to make aligning highlights a real pain.

After some reflection about the bases, I remembered old Citadel base toppers and how I had created a mould of one. Mixing green-stuff and Milliput because I wanted to see how that would perform, I cast directly on top of a base...and made it far too high! Oops. Maybe this guy is standing on a small mound. Next bases I might simply try to create textured rubble out of the putty mix, push in stones and small cabling for visual interest, along with pieces out of the bits box just to spice things up a little.

I used a very small strip of green-stuff under the feet to better secure the model to the base. Just like how I'll need to attach the pauldrons, this gives great surface area for glue and gives a much more solid connection without the need to pin it in place. Even so, I used too much green-stuff and then had to pad around the feet with texture paint to connect the model with the environment more. In future I might simply push feet into the curing putty for the same effect.

The green-stuff / Milliput mix worked quite well. It definitely gives sharper edges than pure green-stuff, but also a longer curing time and less "rubbery" finish. Sanding is obviously somewhere between the two, and while water can smooth it out the surface it's far less prone to simply liquefying by accident. Green-stuff is still my go-to for the underlying volume, but this mixture will be excellent to sculpt greater detail on top.

Moving on, I finally found time to get out the airbrush and rotate back to my old recipe for red armour, but with the benefit of knowing how to properly thin the paints and build up layers. This definitely shows. The photo absolutely does not properly display the saturation and vibrancy of the model. Even so, I still treated the airbrush as a foundation to build upon and went back over it with a brush to further refine the highlights. This didn't take too long and is better performed before I apply a varnish so that the glazes settle into the grain of the surface and blend more easily.

Next steps will be a gloss varnish and wash to define the shapes, and I'm considering a mix of flow improver and Contrast medium to make that happen, or simply Contrast medium and a damp brush to remove paint from where I don't want it. There's a lot of detail here and panel lining everything doesn't feel like the best approach - that might work for something with larger, clean surfaces, but not where there's very few unbroken panels. The trick will be to shade darker in lower areas, maybe with purple mixed into the usual colour, and then simply a thinner version of the original as I go up the model. I've made a conscious choice to try make the upper model brighter and it would be a shame to ruin that with the shading.

-- silly painter.