Lamenters Gravis Captain - Part I

 

Pass the mustard.

Painting has been a little slow of late, but I have started on the last Primaris from the Dark Imperium boxed set. The captain in gravis armour I wanted to do a little different for multiple reasons and decided to give Lamenters a go.

Lamenters are predominately yellow, but more recent colour schemes for them depict more of mustard yellow rather than the brighter appearance of Imperial Fists. In painting this model I've come to the conclusion that Citadel paints don't really have much appropriate in the mustard yellow range other than Averland Sunset, which makes this a most difficult model to shade and highlight. I don't think I've done a very good job in this case, but I'm also not going to start again - all fitting with the Lamenters back story I guess.

The particular colours used are also really hard to colour balance from the camera and lighting used. Expect future photos to not match this one.

Basic armour though I tried with:

• Averland Sunset all over the armour. Multiple thin coats to get a good, even, coverage.
• Averland Sunset / Gorthor Brown (1:1) into shadowed areas. The base and layer paints here don't like mixing, and the brown wasn't the best choice in hindsight.
• Averland Sunset / Yriel Yellow (1:1) as a highlight colour. Yriel Yellow on its own is too bright.
• Averland Sunset thinned down to glaze consistency to blend the above steps together a little as needed.
• Lamenters Yellow (of course!) to saturate some raised areas very slightly. Mostly on larger surface areas. It could use a second coat of this in areas, but that might equally be too much.
  
• Seraphim Sepia used as direct recess shading. This is one colour that works well with Averland Sunset; if I were to start again I would use Seraphim Sepia through the airbrush for shading, and then Agrax Earthshade in the recesses.
• Dorn Yellow as edge highlighting. This is a very desaturated paint, very close to cream white, and worked well here.

Next steps on this model are a little annoying. The cape can't really be attached until more details are filled in, or else it gets in the way. By that time most of the model might well be done, and that's somehow demotivating. So this model might take some time, but I'll try do other models in the background to compensate.

-- silly painter.

Flesh Tearers Lieutenant - Part II (Showcase)

 

Rip. And. Tear.

With a little motivation, managed to finish the model rather quickly (for me). I skipped on a lot of the metallic highlights, mostly because I wanted them to be a more muted, a bit darker, in fitting with a Flesh Tearers disposition.

There is a little battle damage, most visible in the photo on the right kneepad, but mostly it's on the left side. I figured this was likely to see more blade scoring owing to the left hand carrying a power sword more capable of parrying and blocking blows.

The power sword itself was a simple drybrushing of Hellion Green, Skink Blue, and Etherium Blue. Power weapons are about the one thing I'm half-capable of drybrushing, and I still like the effect better than this smooth blended sheen may others use. I find the less precision of a drybrush more appealing - the weapon isn't a light-saber after all.

On the sword there's a small gem, or something. That was gradient of grey, with some contrast on top and a little white dot as a highlight point. By adjusting the usual placement of the darker edge and the white highlight point, the gem looks opaque rather than translucent. It's a small thing, but good to play with.

There was some concern that the purity seal would steal all the attention, with it being a single off-white point surrounded by darker colours, but skull icon on the helmet mostly makes up for that, so overall I'm happy enough with the end result.

I really should look into embedding a small video, or at least photos of multiple angles for the showcase posts. And maybe tweak the lighting setup for less harsh reflections.

-- silly painter.

Flesh Tearers Lieutenant - Part I

 

Possibly not fruit flesh that he likes to tear.

Just for something slightly different, because I already have Tolmeron painted in a similar pose for Blood Angels, I went with a Flesh Tearer for one of the Dark Imperium Primaris Lieutenants. I get to play with some different reds, and he still fits in with the rest of the army as a kind of bonus.

There was no airbrushing on this model. I wanted to practice highlighting armour again with a normal brush (and reminding myself why I always use an airbrush to save time), and also the weather hasn't been conducive to opening windows for better ventilation.

Following on from a black primer, the red armour is fairly straight forward:

• Khorne Red on all the red areas. Two or three thin coats to make sure it's even and smooth.
• Nuln Oil applied directly into the recessed areas.
  
• Cadian Fleshtone to highlight edges. This step is done now to give a little extra brightness to the next step along the edges. It's not visible much in the end though.
• Wazdakka Red, with a generous amount of Lahmian Medium, glazed and layered to blend highlights and smoothly as possible. This step always takes a very long time.
• Khorne Red, also with generous amounts of Lahmian Medium (or water) to glaze over any transitions that aren't quite as smooth as I'd like.

If I really wanted to make any edges pop a bit more, I would mix Cadian Fleshtone with Wazdakka Red. I wouldn't use the former straight, just personal preference. For this model I think it would be too much however, so I'm leaving the final edge highlight step out.

Black armour is actually very similar to Horus, with one slight change because Corvus Black is much easier to highlight from:

• Corvus Black over all black armour.
• Dark Reaper with Lahmian Medium to glaze highlights as appropriate.
• Russ Grey for edge highlights.
• Corvus Black thinned down to glaze over any transitions that need to be smoothed out more.
• Abaddon Black thinned down to help outline armour areas, or add a bit more depth to shadowed areas.

The bolt pistol casing was essentially the same, but with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone as the highlight colours. This was done just to add a little variation to the black everywhere.

The base hasn't really worked out as I wanted, which was a black marbling effect. I guess I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. In any case, I doubt I'll work on it much more - can't really think of what else to do on the base, and I don't want to get bogged down on the model.

Obviously a few details yet to go, and I'll have to freehand the chapter icon. That'll be fun.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part X

 

I see black.

I was going to post this another day, but...here he is. Spent some time on Horus' head after really wanting a bit more completion of the model before having a break. Seeing this empty suit of armour was just annoying, and so now there's more completed.

First note about the face is the eyes. I wanted them pure black, no whites, as subtle effect to show Horus turning sinister. From a distance it's not really noticeable, but closer up he takes on a different feel, which from a character perspective really suits what I was going for.

The whole face took about three hours. Very slow, very careful, on a highly detailed sculpt. I wanted to do it justice.

Someone gave him a couple of black eyes.

There wasn't really one particular method to follow, even if I will jot down the basic approach. A wet palette is essential when working on something like this, and it allows a lot of back & forth between colours, mixing paints together to get just the right tone, and fixing mistakes, and generally just working the model. A good brush helps too.

• First step was to paint White Scar onto the highlighted areas. This is mainly to help them show up later.
• For similar reasons, Nightlords Blue was painted into darker areas, and those that would receive some red light from the light source in the armour's collar.
• The eyes were painted with pure Abaddon Black. While I did have to fix this up on occasion, that's all that was done for the eyes.
  
• Ratskin Flesh mixed with Ionrach Skin was then glazed over the head. This step involved multiple glazes, adding a little more Ionrach Skin where I felt the Ratskin Flesh was too potent. The idea was for the skin to tend more towards the blue end of the spectrum, but a little red or brown tones are needed.
• Deepkin Flesh added to this mix to further highlight some areas - forehead ridges, nose, upper lip, cheeks, etc.
• Barak-Nar Burgundy mixed with previous steps and glazed underneath the cheeks, chin, nose, eyebrows, as the first step of lighting from underneath. A lot of glazing, mixing, moving colours about to get this right. Slight Nightlords Blue mixed in for a deeper purple that was applied to the lips as well.
  
• Wazdakka Red then mixed in or directly glazed to give the underneath light reflection a brighter tone, and shift it slightly more into red. Glazing is key. I could have pushed this step more, but didn't want the light to dominate the face and so left it as seen in the photos.

Very tiring on the eyes to paint, but well worth the results. I may give this model a break for a little bit before turning attention to the base and finalising everything.

-- silly painter.

Dark Angels Tactical Squad - Part II (Showcase)

 

Sergeant and the "rave dance pose".

Here are the finished models of the Sturm der Vergeltung tactical squad. The other five were done long ago, but these five now join them.

This is pretty much my expected tabletop quality now for anything which isn't Blood Angels, for whom I have a method to stick with already. As noted before, the bases are not done so that eventually, one day, whenever I finish all models and sell them, someone can fit them together with the appearance of an existing army. Personally I would go with a red tinted base of some kind - Martian desert for example, or perhaps something a little less vibrant.

The head of the sergeant presented an opportunity to do something a little different than previous models I've painted: a darker skin tone. Nothing particularly fancy:

• Dryad Bark as a base coat.
  
• Druchii Violet washed over the entire head.
  
• Gorthor Brown first stage highlight.
• Cadian Flesh Tone as a very, very thin highlight, most prominently on the nose and cheek bones.
• Mixed Dryad Bark with choose your black (Abaddon Black was on the palette at the time) and given glaze consistency to cover the top of the head, indicating a close-cropped haircut.

Definitely want more experience with painting various skin tones.

The only other item of real note is again on the sergeant, with the ornament on his backpack. The wings were done with:

• Iron Warriors base.
• Nuln Oil wash.
• Grey Knights Steel thinned a little and painted along raised edges.
• Runefang Steel as a final edge highlight.

This gives the wings a slight blue tint, differentiating them from the sword.

These models have been a good experience with darker green, which certainly a more forgiving colour than red. 

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part IX

 

Horus the Headless

Not much to say about painting this time, other than a few minor details filled in while it was easier to have the model not attached to the base. Even then, the photo won't show all of it: the skulls on chains are on the rear of the miniature.

Finally, however, it's time to assemble everything on the base, with the head probably being done next. I really wanted this assembly stage to get a feel of how it would all tie together, and see the result of planning some four years ago.

Overall, I think the ideas put into the colours and how it would all balance has worked out well. The eagle might dominate a little too much at the moment, but Horus' face will fix that, and there's still much work to be done on the rubble about the base that will also change the framing slightly. Ultimately it doesn't feel like any one piece stands out and forces all else to be ignored, and I think that does justice to the incredible sculpt; it's not just a single character, it's an entire scene that can be taken in.

I've yet to decide if I'll power on with more, or take a short break and get some other models done first, but either way motivation will come easier now.

-- silly painter.

Horus Lupercal - Part VIII

 

Wolf goes om nom nom.

The further this model is towards being finished, the more motivation to paint it, so it's no surprise that I was inspired to do more recently. I'm really wanting to move to the point of attaching Horus to his base, but still need to do a little more.

The focus of this next step is really the wolf pelt, but the "hood" has also received some attention.

The pelt I didn't want black. that's too close to the armour, and wouldn't really fit. Brown is also unsuitable given the pteruges, gold, brass, and reds. Grey on the other hand balances nicely against the talons of the right hand, so this is what I went with:

• Grey Seer base over the entire pelt. This was easy enough because the spray primer was a white anyway.
• Apothecary White (Contrast) covering the entire pelt. This is actually subtle colour shift mostly intended to give depth and help bring out the detail in the lighter areas.
• Basilicanum Grey (Contrast) thinned down, sometimes with water, and applied to the upper areas (flanks and back of a wolf). Multiple layers were used where I felt like it, and a little more added under some of the overlapping sections (the sculpt has large sections that look to overlap, it's just something that can appear on fur).
• Black Templar (Contrast) really thinned down, against sometimes with water, and mostly along the back and spine of the pelt. Normal (not thinned) was also applied over the nose.
• Nuln Oil in a few key areas, just to give much greater depth.

The pelt had no highlights applied - instead it was an exercise in darkening. The Contrast range really helped with this, but anything wash consistency would equally do the trick. This is mostly because the model is a really good sculpt and is extremely easy to work with in this regard.

The eyes are a basic pick-your-red (Flesh Tearers Red was on hand at the time) around the edges, black in the middle, and a dot of 'Ard Coat. I went with the black middle to make it stand out a little less, lest it take attention away from Horus' face (when I get that done).

Lips are some Volupus Pink, carefully applied, with Morghast Bone and Screaming Skull across the teeth.

The claws of the pelt are brown covered in greys. No particular method for this - Gorthor Brown was used, Skavenblight Dinge, Stormvermin Fur. I might add an extra highlight at some point.

Back must get chilly, needs a fur to keep it warm.

The "hood" on the armour is painted much the same as the rest. It's mostly black, but I felt it needed something extra and so put a thin brass line around an inner edge. I might brighten that some more still, but I'll wait and see how it goes once the head is done.

The glow effect can't really be seen in the photo, but this was done with Flesh Tearers Red in small amounts, multiple layers, a little Blood Angels Red, and some Mephiston Red for select edges. Keeping a bit of Screaming Skull around to mix with any red doesn't hurt either, if a bit more punch is wanted. I also used a bit of Bloodletter around the inside of the collar (again, can't be seen in the photo). I haven't gone very bright with the glow effect - I've intended it to be visible, but not overpowering. Keeping it as a dark glow reinforces the idea of Horus being evil at this point, and also doesn't look like it's blinding him.

Still various small details to get done, but they'll start to be less obvious between photos - which means it's really not long until he's finished.

-- silly painter.