The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host - Part IV (Showcase)

 

Battle plan? Just wing it.

Technically the model isn't finished yet, but enough is done to showcase the Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host. The backpack exhaust glow is yet to be done, but that's nothing visible in the photo.

Taking a lot longer than expected, there are numerous little problems with this particular sculpt. Most of that is down to finecast being finecast: rounded surfaces aren't round, little holes here and here, pieces that don't quite fit together properly. The sculpt itself is a little disproportionate in places too (pauldrons are too large for the arms, the backpack itself is at least twice the depth of the model, if not more) and honestly I didn't have the best time painting it. I do appreciate going for something different however, and the Sanguinor has certainly become an iconic character.

Strangely I don't want a plastic updated version of this. Not yet. The current styles just aren't a good fit, and some kind of horrendous to assemble model on a flimsy base would result.

As far as painting goes, I'm happy with the wings. The armour icons were highlighted up to White Scar, where as the wings never had that step. It helps to separate the two - the wings aren't actually wings, but aren't quite the same as the shoulder pad adornments either.

The halo does a fair job of framing the model without taking too much attention, the gemstone colours mix it up a bit to keep it from being boring. The chalice in particular works nicely with silver-blue edged in gold, purple gemstone around the cup and red on the base.

The sword I did a small experiment on. It was first given a type of shading with metallics to show dark/light contrast in areas, all then given a very thinned coat of Aethermatic Blue. It didn't quite work out, but I'm convinced it's worth exploring further. The "power glow" highlighting wasn't quite right, and the Aethermatic Blue was thinned a little too much, but with a bit more practice it holds some promise. I won't do the "power glow" with this method, but I'll balance somewhere between here and what was done for Mephiston.

The base could use something else, but I'm not sure what and so I'll just leave it. It's not bad, just uninteresting.

Fineliner pen on the scrolls was incredibly useful. Can't recommend that enough. I use a 0.03mm tip, and don't really want anything larger personally. Not for scrolls and purity seals at any rate. Just be sure to let it dry for about two days before covering it with a varnish; it must completely dry or it will just smear at the slightest brush pressure.

-- silly painter.

The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host - Part III

 

An excellent jump, or very, very stiff scrolls.

Before I get started on this post proper, a couple notes regarding the coming weeks and likely months. I've encountered some difficulty in time scheduling of sorts, and will have much less time to paint. This is undesirable, but I do want to continue and find a way to keep up the pace. I'm rather committed to writing something every week as motivation, but normally I would have finished this entire model by now. Only very little has been done.

Not to worry though. I see this as simply another opportunity to improve my painting skills. Traditionally I would spend a long time painting by being very careful with each stroke of the brush, or contemplating the next colour to use, how it would all match together. This means I can paint a standard Blood Angel in a few days - the contemplation is done, the method is known. Next I need to work on finding a way to actually put paint to model quicker: cut down on any time spent just staring at the work and instead just "do". This should allow me to be far more efficient in using the painting time I will have, and keep up the painting pace.

Anyway. A little progress. I've decided to glue the backpack on. Painting was rubbing off when trying to handle the main body, and just enough was painted to not get in the way later on. Everything is being done as normal (and I really should do a summary of all that in one place soon), which means the parchment isn't far from being done.

The wing icons are so far Celestra Grey, Apothecary White Contrast, and some finely placed Guilliman Blue. There are a couple steps left, probably Ulthuan Grey and some White Scar as edge highlighting.

I still need to add a little more shading in a few key areas of the golden armour, a few dots of highlight, and need to repair the halo before getting to more metallics.

Guess I'll see how much I can get done by this time next week.

-- silly painter.

The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host - Part II

 

Spread your wings and fly.

Another shorter, not much progress post. This is more of self-reflection on how a lot of time spent on something can give diminishing returns, and might not be required in the end at all.

The wings for the Sanguinor are actually ideal for Contrast paints. An appropriate base coat, a coverage of some Contrast, perhaps a directed shade or separate contrast, and then a highlight. The only part that would take any real amount of time in that approach would be the final highlight - quick, effective, additional highlights if really demands a little more.

Of course, that's not what I did. Mostly because I don't have suitable Contrast paints.

Instead, I used the traditional base, layer, wash, layer layer layer approach. It was incredibly tedious and took a week to get done. I'm still not finished - I might add some pure white highlights later on down the line, if the wings look darker than they should.

The most time consuming part was painting each individual "feather" one at a time. The smaller ones are ok, but getting the blending right on the larger ones takes multiple very thin layers of each paint. Recipe in the end:

• The Fang as a base layer over all feathers.
• Nuln Oil liberally covering the entire area next.
• The Fang to neaten up from the previous step.
• Russ Grey over most of each feather next. Only really the base of each feather, and the immediate "outline" of each was left from the base coat.
• Fenrisian Grey next, same approach but leaving a little of the Russ Grey showing. For the smaller feathers this was barely anything at all.
• Ulthuan Grey follows, and this step really took a long time. Being very bright, very desaturated, it needs applying in multiple thin coats - four or five for the larger feathers, only a couple for the smaller ones.

If the above ends up not being quite bright enough, then White Scar will be added later on. I don't intend to fully blend that into the larger feathers, instead applying it in thin lines to make them look more organic.

I'm happy with the colours. Nuln Oil over a white just never quite sits right - it ends up being too grey, and is far too unnatural for feathers. A hint of blue, or blue-grey is far more suitable, and the "Space Wolf" paints works nicely enough for this purpose. Just took far too long, and if I had to do this more often I would definitely look into more Contrast paints instead.

-- silly painter.

 

Bloodletters (Showcase)

They're all running from Smelly Armpit in the back.

For no other reason than to give the airbrush a go with different reds, and to try out some of the crackle paint with a fire effect around feed, I've painted up some Bloodletters. I opted not to use banners, horns, or any such extras and instead just keep them reasonably simple.

With the exception of one. The leader was painted some time ago and is slightly darker than the rest, but in a group like shown it's not really that noticeable.

Wonder how many times it bites its own tongue.

To paint these models I decided to make the underneath lighter. This would kind of show as light from whatever warp taint is affecting the ground underneath them, and perhaps give the impression that their backs were somewhat more hardened - this is not a Bloodletter thing, but was a good excuse to practice such an apperance.

Basics from the airbrush, after a black primer, are:

• Averland Sunset directed from underneath, with a little more on the face as well; the face is a focal point and I wanted it to stand out.
• Khorne Red (obviously) over the entire model. Don't be too heavy on this step or the previous won't show through.
• Calth Blue (Clear) on the back. I wasn't sure about this step - it may have been a little too dark, but I was betting on later steps of drybrushing to lighten things again.

And that was really it for the airbrush. The next step was attempting to use some Astorath Red to drybrush the bumps on their backs, but this didn't work as I wanted. So instead, Wazdakka Red was dotted on each bump. Each. And. Every. Bump. In hindsight I would skip the last airbrush step, drybrush the bumps, and then use Drakenhof Nightshade to clean up.

Wazdakka Red was also used for some highlights on the faces, followed by a little Pink Horror. This was also applied to the...stripe, fur, thing, down their backs. A little Corax White on the eyes for dots, followed by the Iyanden Yellow Contrast to give them an even more demonic appearance, and simple Morghast Bone and Skeleton Horde for the teeth and various claws. The tongue was Phoenician Purple, Warp Fiend Grey, and Druchii Violet.

The horns were Morghast Bone, over which was a slightly thinned (not enough) Wyldwood Contrast was applied. Black Templar Contrast was then thinned and applied to about 2/3 of the horns. I'm convinced this could work in future, but the Wyldwood needs to be thinned much more.

Runelord Brass, Agrax Earthshade (Nuln Oil on the handle, gloss variants of course), and some Skullcrusher Brass for the metallic bits. The brasses don't quite match, and actually I did this on purpose. Sometimes using colours or paints that don't quite fit together make something different - in this case I wanted the weapons to seem a little "wrong", and this was my way of doing so. The blades were black (Black Templar was used, it was sufficient for the first step) and then edged with Warpstone Glow. Following this a thinned coat of Black Templar Contrast was added to blend in the green a little, with some touch-ups done again later where it was too dark. Red, orange, yellow, just would have stuck out too much, and I find this far more interesting.

The bases were surprisingly simple. The key is to paint them a bright colour first, Averland Sunset in this case. A thin layer of PVA glue (or wood glue, however it's called) and then Martian Ironearth over the top of that. When it's completely dry, glue the model in place, and then start to cover the outer edges with Black Templar Contrast. Spreading out the Contrast paint naturally reduces what's on the brush, until it can be sort of "drybrushed" closer to the feed. It's hard to describe but this effectively fades the black into more of a red, and then from there to yellow of the underlying Averland Sunset. Rhinox Hide for the trim seemed better than black, just to give it an outline. I'm happy enough with the result and could easily imagine a larger diorama done this way, with prior footsteps visible as they fade away.

The fire around feet could also be explored more on a special model with a larger base, something like an Avatar of Khaine. Additional scenery, like plants or rocks, could be darkened and given a burnt appearance to show the heat being given off. Something to think about.

Anyway, that's basically it for these models. They were done as a bit of an exploration and I don't intend to keep them, so tabletop quality is sufficient.

-- silly painter.

The Sanguinor, Exemplar of the Host - Part I

 

Chest bump!

It's possibly not yet time for another post, but I wanted to record what I'd done to start with for the Sanguinor. This may end up leading into armour for Sanguinius, or tweaked for Adeptus Custodes, so it's worth noting it down.

Most of the work so far is with an airbrush:

• Balthasar Gold (Air). Either the paint was a bit thin, the nozzle was too close to the model, or there was moisture in the line because this needed a the base paint version to clean up a few places afterwards.
• Agrax Earthshade (Gloss) in recessed areas. This was just to make them darker, and the gloss version used for surface tension properties (or lack thereof) - the gloss finish itself doesn't matter as more metallic paint steps follow.
  
• Relictor Gold (Air). This is a good yellow gold, and highlights well over the previous step. It's a little more yellow than Gehenna's Gold, perhaps a mix of that and Auric Armour Gold. This was applied mostly from above and the sides.
  
• Thallax Gold (Air) mostly from above. This is a very nice gold, and close perhaps to Auric Armour Gold. It has a very yellow finish, and is one of the better paints I've used through an airbrush. Extra focus on the face, hair, and chest area.
• Reikland Fleshshade (Gloss) back over recessed areas. I may have gone a little too heavy with this step, but wanted the definition of various areas so needed it. Later steps will very likely add a hefty amount of white and might fade out armour detail by comparison without such contrast.

It's well worth noting at this point that during the airbrushing I was doing metallics of another model and had some blowback - and thankfully I was wearing a respirator mask. The paint is bad enough if it enters the lungs without metal flakes in it as well. The extractor hood I use is fairly effective normally, but this had visibly escaped. Always wear an effective mask when airbrushing.

There are obviously a good amount of details to fill in with this model, and a bit of the halo needs some repair. The "hair" I intend to highlight with a very bright gold, or a silver, and of course the wings need to be figured out. Another problem for this model is the spray varnish step, which would dull the metallics unacceptably. I may therefore have to skip that step and instead stick to applying varnish to select areas with a paintbrush.

-- silly painter.

Wight King (Showcase)

 

Really wanted to be an opera singer.

This model was very fun to paint. Lots of character, not too difficult, detailed enough to stand out, and can fit nicely within my Hero Quest side project.

Models such as this are where Contrast paints really come into their own. The usual black primer was followed by a kind of zenithal coat of Wraithbone spray from above. It was perhaps heavier than I intended, but worked well enough.

The cloak is just Nighthaunt Gloom. The red clothing is Blood Angels Red, with a little bit of Wraithbone mixed into a red on the palette for additional highlighting purposes. The fur is Gore-Grunta Fur, with a little Agrax Earthshade in a few places, and a bit of Skag Brown mixed with Wraithbone to drybrush over the top.

The chainmail is a mix of browns, blacks, reds, whatever was hanging about to give some non-uniform appearance, then drybrushed with Iron Warriors, and a bit of Stormhost Silver after the usual varnish step.

The armour plates started off with Runelord Brass, and then shaded or highlighted as necessary with Iron Warriors in a kind of dabbing motion with an old brush. This was followed by Ironbreaker in some areas, with edges given over to Canoptek Alloy. A few dots of Skeleton Horde Contrast (which of course was also used on the skeletal areas) for rust, and pretty much done.

The sword, which isn't very well seen in the photo, started as a base of Iron Warriors, with some Leadbelcher over that to help define shape. Typhus Corrosion was then dabbed on, followed by Leadbelcher (again in a dabbing motion), and finally Stormhost Silver using the same technique. By making the dabbing random and overlapping it gives a worn, rusted appearance. This particular effect is something I very much want to explore further - it was incredibly simple to do, but gives an impressive result in this case.

Side note: Aethermatic Blue over Runelord Brass looks very similar to Nihilakh Oxide following the varnish step. A bit of the Canoptek Alloy over the top in a few places restores the metallic look. This was used on the sword hilt.

Last mention for this post is actually something else for stone. On the base, after a zenithal highlight, Basilicanum Grey and then drybrushed with Longbeard Grey. It may be another case of simply the small size of the area on which this was done, but for darker stone carvings I'd like to explore this further as well.

-- silly painter.

Blood Angels Standard Bearer (Showcase)

 

Banner Man.

The last of the Primaris from the Dark Imperium boxed set, a couple of first points: the writing on the banner is terrible (more on that in a moment), and I can't really understand Blood Angels, with Dante as Chapter Master, calling these guys an "Ancient". So I'm sticking with Standard Bearer.

The banner itself is the most interesting part, painting-wise, of the model. There's a lot going on there, and quite a few new things on my part. The background yellow is essentially the same as for the Lamenters Gravis Captain, but I used stippling a little to create some highlights. They were smoothed over later, but enough shows through to give that cloth impression. There's also some Casandora Yellow around edges just for definition.

The edge box and halo were done with an NMM style approach as this fits with a banner: it's some kind of embroidered pattern, but the artistry behind it would lend naturally to NMM techniques. This was in the end:

• Dark Reaper as a first step. This is a layer paint, so multiple layers will be needed.
• Thunderhawk Blue as first stage highlight.
• Fenrisian Grey as second stage highlight.
• Nuln Oil in a few key places to give some more contrast.

Happy enough with the results for that, and may well keep it in mind for future NMM, perhaps with an edge paint to punch the contrast a little more if necessary.

The lower panels of the banner were helped along greatly with some decals. 2nd Company, and so a number 2 is shown. I added a little filigree to outline the panel, which thanks to a size 000 Windsor & Newton brush worked out rather well.

Scribbling on the purity seals and banner were done with a fineliner pen, and of course coated with (spray) varnish to seal it and give a matt finish. As can be seen, it gives excellent results for small writing, but doesn't scale very well. In future I will rectify that problem by using more ornate writing, but I guess I was just in a rush this time around. With a bit of planning though, and a decent font, I'm convinced it could be greatly improved upon and still look just as effective as though a brush were used.

On the subject of the fineliner, one new approach that works rather well on larger scrollwork where mistakes are far more visible is to first coat it with a varnish of some kind. I used Stormshield, but any varnish is fine. If a mistake is made, a little bit of cleaner (I'm still using airbrush cleaner) and a cotton bud can be used to wipe it clean without damaging the underlying paint. I actually did just that on this model - wiped off and rewrote the word "blood", something I wouldn't have found quite so easy with just paint.

Not seen in the photo, I didn't wait long enough for the decal on the left pauldron to completely dry before the spray varnish step, so it has some little bumps similar to on the Gravis Captain. It's not readily seen, and there's no frosting again, so it's not all that bad. Also not seen in the photo, the left hand is painted black in homage to the old Terminator style. It just seemed to fit.

Finally, the banner keeps breaking off this model. It's a little frustrating, and the connection points are small and thin enough that pinning wasn't something I was willing to tempt. Have to remember this when handling this model in future.

-- silly painter.