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.

Blood Angels Champion - Part I

 

Looks this pissed without the Black Rage.

I've been assembling a couple of models in the background, having finally decided to get started on some of my "Bladeguard" stand-ins. I don't see the official models as particularly evoking the aesthetic taste of Blood Angels; the official models are simply too generic and lacking the detailing that Blood Angels would surely include on their armour. So I decided to look around for a way to improve upon that and stumbled across the Seraphim Knights from Kromlech. I also bought some shields from Kromlech as they also seemed more ornate than hunting down more official variants. The result is that I have five main bodies, but only three shields. I'd have to do something with a couple of them.

I struck upon the idea of a Champion, dual wielding power swords, striding forward to engage his next target. The body and shoulder pads are from Kromlech, with the left arm from a Primaris upgrade sprue. It has a vial attached with rope that was at the wrong angle for how I positioned the arm, so the vial needed to be removed and reattached, with a little green-stuff to blend it back into the model. It's not visible in the photo above.

The backpack is very plain for now, and I intend to hand paint some filigree there later. I could try sculpt more, but lacking time for such things right now I just wanted to get the model started. I did need to fill in the attachment point of the backpack just because the back of the Kromlech model is a smooth surface and there wouldn't otherwise be anywhere for glue to find purchase. I might need to pin things later anyway as superglue doesn't seem to stick very well to whatever resin Kromlech use.

The helmet in the photo is a stand-in. I'll be using a plain one instead, leaving the squad leader marking for another model.

The right arm ended up being a little more tricky than everything else combined. I found an arm from spares that had roughly the right angle and trimmed away the boltgun and hand. I then found a hand from another spare arm which was holding a knife, which is more suitable to the handling of a sword. There was a lot of careful cutting away to preserve that hand. I then took the power sword from a terminator arm on the Primaris upgrade sprue (which really took a lot of very careful cutting) and glued in place on the hand. Next the bottom of the sword was added, with a small amount of green-stuff to fill gaps and solidify the connection. Next the hand was pinned to the arm at a slight angle to better position the sword how I wanted, and some green-stuff ribbing used to fill the gap. More green-stuff was used together with super-glue to attach the arms to the torso.

The shoulder pads were also attached by using a small amount of green-stuff to give better surface contact for the glue. I was a little impatient in doing this so not everything is perfect, but it's good enough. While I was using green-stuff, I also padded under the feet ever so slightly to give room on the base for later adding texture paints. This avoids trying to keep the texture paint free of the feet to not "bury" them, while allowing for a better connection to the base and more stability on the painting handles. The downside is that I need to be more careful painting the bases themselves, but it will probably be worth the tradeoff.

Now that everything is primed, I'm probably going back to an airbrush soon with my old forumla of painting red (without Contrast) to build up the initial highlights. The photo above will serve as a reference for that, but I'm expecting to need a few manual tweaks later as well. The intent of the airbrushing before was to get the volume highlighting entirely done, but now I'm starting to see it as an initial basis to build upon. this should let me be more free with the airbrushing stage, but I'll want to match paints better so I'll stick to the normal and air ranges of Citadel for that.

-- silly painter

Blood Angels Legion Terminator Praetor - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Fighting in style.

This won't be a long post, mostly because there wasn't a whole lot extra after the last photo and the model is now "done". As always, there's more I could do. I could highlight some of the armour more, make certain edges more apparent, that sort of thing, but also that runs the risk of overdoing it. Enough is done to serve as the basis for other 30k Blood Angels characters.

The metallics I think turned out as I hoped. NMM can be overwhelming on occasion, particularly with gold, but the muted colours here don't overtake the red while still allowing me to add some contrast (see the gorget for example).

Focus is firmly on the head, but the eye can wander and appreciate some of the detail. I also like the power sword using Omega Blue (TTC) to edge highlight. I feel there's more to play around with that yet.

The base worked as intended, even if that particular photo angle doesn't show it. The extra highlighting on the "wings" makes them stand out more than just black, and the Retributor Armour over a golden decal on the right pauldron fits by use of a different golden tint to the rest of the armour.

The only real issue I have with the model is that the cast was so detailed that the layer lines from whatever milling machine was used (I doubt this came from a 3D print) are visible up close. It's really the only time I've seen it on Forgeworld resin. I suspect the model was rushed a bit, even if it's a nice design that really fits thematically with the Blood Angels.

Now I'm off for a little, and when back I need to decide what I'll be working on next. Unlikely to be a new model - I really should try clear my works in progress before I start too many more.

-- silly painter.

Captain Karlaen Kitbash - Part IV

 

Fear me, for I have a big hammer.

In the background I've been working on the Karlaen kitbash, just as I feel like it. I was originally going to paint metallics, but decided to try NMM on this model as well just for the fun of it.

The recipes are no different from more recent explanations, so I won't bother going over them again here. The gold is a little different on the actual model; colour balancing of the photo isn't quite right, and the reflection points are brighter and more white. Even so, the gold trim is probably a little too yellow. I use a base of Balthasar Gold with metallics for a reason: I like the darker gold it gives. I'll probably keep going with this for now though, at least on the armour. I may switch it up for the Thunder Hammer, to try replicate the colours of the metallics there.

I really should have left Karlaen off the base until at least the underside of the cape was painted. That's going to be a bit of a nightmare to get to now.

Obviously a lot to go on this model still. I'm not trying to paint it as my "primary" model, but may have to pick up the pace and get it finished by the end of the year, before I lose interest entirely. Better to have the model finished and be slightly unhappy with it, then sitting unfinished and be very unhappy with it.

-- silly painter.

The White Dwarf - Part III (Showcase)

For such a dented axe, it's very clean.

 Before anything else, yes I know an axe like that wouldn't be so bright and shiny and clean. I just wanted to practice NMM and make the blade different to everything else. Also I can't be bothered to proof read this, so apologies for all the spelling & grammar mistakes which no doubt exist.

There's not a whole lot to say really - most of the finishing touches were NMM in some fashion or other, but before that I'll mention the base: Mechanicus Standard Grey (one of my favourite Citadel colours for anything grey) and then just random browns from the palette to make a stone tiled floor. I was originally intending to go with a green base in honour of the time period from which this model comes, but as a dwarf I thought that stone halls in the mountains was a more suitable setting, or some tavern, really anything but fields of grass.

The beard ornamentation uses the same gold as recently tried on the cape of the Blood Angels Praetor, just on a much smaller scale. maybe it's too bright compared to the rest of the model, maybe it attracts too much attention, and yet I think it still fits. It does help draw the eye to the base and view the detail there, giving rise to the scene and story I was going for. Given the overall cooler tones of the beard, and to contrast with the warmer gold, then blue gemstones was really the only option there. Kantor Blue, and then again just whatever was on the palette (I write that a lot, but it's incredibly freeing as a painter to just paint instead of trying to hunt down the "proper" colour to use).

That cloak really would get dirty.

The axe was painted initially with The Fang, and I debated for a while how I would go about shining it up. There were purples at one point (which are faintly visible still), some blues, but in the end I went with....Stegadon Scale Green. Another good choice would be Incubi Darkness, but I was following a recipe from Ph3lan's Miniatures on this one.

• Stegadon Scale Green
• Dawnstone
• Administratum Grey
• White Star (TTC)

There is an awful lot of back & forth with all of that. A lot of glazing, blending, darkening, brightening, mixing, shifting bright spots around.

I looked at Conan the Barbarian artwork to get an idea of how to paint an axe. I figured those people know a lot about light placement, and I could learn from it. One feature I noted was that the edge of the blade wasn't the widest point of bright reflection, but instead the base of the blade. This makes sense as the blade is angled, which makes a natural darker line around it.

The other thought that occurred to me was that instead of placing just bright reflection points, I should consider the metal as bright and consider where to place darker areas. Or maybe a mixture of both. I have more of an understanding of shape in any case, so victory even if not everything NMM lines up properly how the eye would expect.

Also, it really (really!) helps to not try and blend until the basic sketch is done first.

-- silly painter