Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part VI (Showcase)

 

Assemble!

Surprisingly shorter time to finish these models, but they now done. Matt varnished, highlighted, based.

The first piece of trivia is the edge highlights are actually the same colour as the final volume highlights through the airbrush, and so they're not very visible. I had considered mixing Gauss Blaster Green for something stronger, but the slightly satin finish of Citadel (or Warhammer) paints is enough and I didn't want the colour shift with a stronger edge highlight. Basically I think these models look just fine without much in the way of edge highlights at all.

The black turned out alright in the end. I did tone back the jump packs a good deal and the matt varnish softened things further. I think I like Basilicanum Grey over Dawnstone and might explore that with the airbrush at some future point. The weapons weren't to my liking with the same visuals, so I might just stick with something a little more subtle than Dawnstone in future, at least for the airbrushing.

Overall, despite the minimal effort and intentional limiting of colour choices, I think these turned out ok. That's partially the colour scheme itself: blue, green, turquoise, are just seemingly much easier to work with compared to reds. The sculpts lend themselves very well to airbrushing too, with the large and softly curved surfaces and relatively sparse detail.

Once I had the colours and paints picked out, everything went fairly quick. Painting in sections with a single colour throughout the day helped a lot, particularly with the metallics. It still goes quickly to get the basic armour, then very slowly filling in details, then suddenly very quick again to finalise and finish each model. It might only be tabletop standard, but I'd be proud to have a whole army painted to this level.

Onwards to the next batch of models.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part V

 

Changing the clip must be difficult.

Not a whole lot going on still with regards to painting (work + other responsibilities) but these models are getting really close to being done. Bases, varnish, final highlights mostly, although there might be more decals in selected places because why not.

The major change since last time is the metallics. Here are are few more spots of TMM Ancient Gold that I think work well with Sons of Horus more specialised troops and I think I'll continue with that going forward. The silver/steel/whatever details though are so far just:

• Iron Warriors
• Black Templar
• Iron Warriors to pick out volumes again.

I wanted specifically to go back to a wash or contrast paint because of the speed here. It's not quite as smooth as layering up various glazes, but it's fast.

Cabling in places is Screamer Pink and orange (actually Rust Orange from TTC to replace my dried out Squig Orange) mixed in for a bit of "let's see what this does". I also used the orange on the ammo counter for the pistols, but I need to darken that down again with a red wash probably.

The other point of interest is actually using Basilicanum Grey to glaze over the excessive highlights on the jump packs. I think the edge highlights are still excessive, but it toned everything down and gave a very subtle colour shift to make the "black" more visually appealing.

Short post today.

-- silly painter

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part IV

 

Overhead lights must be bright.

There are very likely going to be a few "not a whole lot done" posts in the near future because I can't get a whole lot done during the week right now. Far from being dismayed, it's simply a challenge to overcome and figure out how to keep the models moving forwards in the most efficient use of time as I can manage.

This is actually part of a broader discussion on painting motivation. I see many videos on how to paint fast, how to keep up motivation, and all of that - but the they all miss a very crucial point: humans aren't machines. Motivations change and what works one day might not work the next. Some days I feel like using a specific synthetic brush, other days a good kolinsky sable brush - and I'm using exactly the same paint for exactly the same task. Some days I want to paint metallics, others I just want to glaze and highlight volumes. Some days I just don't want to paint. Find what works for you on any given day.

The last couple of days I've been painting one part of each model at a time. Not all the metallics, but for example all the gun barrels of each in turn, then I might paint all the intake brackets on the jump packs, and so on. It's been keeping the sense of monotony at bay, and with the same paint I've been able to do one piece at a time whenever I get a few spare moments.

The metallics are going to be Iron Warriors covered with Black Templar as a base coat. This might not be as fancy as some of the dedicated layering I do, but it's fast and will give decent contrast around the details. I'll go back with Iron Warriors to neaten up later, and then it will probably be Iron Hands Steel for highlights after the varnishing stage (which shouldn't be too far off now).

Aged Metal (TTM) for the studs and some chainsword detailing gives some variety to the model - the shade for outlining, and later (post-varnish) I'll use the light version to highlight.

The black armour is an interesting story. I basically thinned down Dawnstone and shot it through an airbrush after masking the models appropriately. The masking worked, which was the main reason for this, but the use of Dawnstone was not the best. I should have at least mixed it with Corvus Black, or perhaps a dark blue. Dawnstone is too desaturated and gives too much of a broad, rounded volumetric highlight. I'll probably thin down Basilicanum Grey and glaze over it to knock back the stone look, though it might be better if I mixed in the barest hint of a blue for colour saturation.

The models are coming together nicely and I think I have all of the colour choices decided upon, so now it will just be a matter of following through with known steps to get them done. I'll be busy for a while however and no guarantees that such steps will happen quickly.

-- silly painter.

Eye of Horus

 

Eye is watching you

I've been having some work and health troubles and so no real painting of late, but I did manage to get out the oils again and paint up the Eye of Horus, symbol for the Sons of Horus.

Oil painting has some applications to miniature painting, at least in the style I'm adopting. I don't really paint oils in one go, but instead plan them and paint in stages. Taking this example the first steps were to paint in the background (a green or turquoise for Sons of Horus) and then the central eye insignia. Black would be overlaid on top later and it's generally better to paint from background to foreground. Even the eye itself was first a mix of red and orange, then when that was fully dry (cured) I went back and added blended in the highlights up to yellow in the middle.

The black was actually a mixture of black, burnt sienna, white, even cadmium red. I wanted some depth to the surrounding shape, which black alone wouldn't give, and what you see is purely playing around for 15 minutes in the one spare moment I had. I'm not happy with the result, I know I can do better, but I'm not entirely unhappy either. It's not just greys, it's not plain black, and I figured how to mix on the fly better.

Working with acrylics I get used to layering a lot. Here it's different to a degree because the layers take a very long time to dry. It's better to mix the base colours and apply them with a rough outline and then later go back in and blend things together.

When working with acrylics I tend to mix colours on the palette first and then glaze and layer them up on the model. Here I was mixing white into the "black" on the palette but then when applied it would mix with the wet paint and be barely noticeable. Of course. So I mixed it directly on the painting itself. Oils are brilliant with blending, but therein lies the trick: figuring out when, where, and what to blend. It's also great to lean into that to work with the colours and move them around while there's time.

The long curing time of oil paints is something I am very much appreciating. Yes it means I generally can't sit and paint from start to finish in one go (possible with oils for someone more experienced than I), but also it's possible to simply have multiple paintings on the go, switching between them each day.

Oils for miniature painting isn't really my thing, but oils on canvas most certainly is. It helps me to think of the colours in a new way which is applicable to any sort of artistic endeavour.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part III

 

Crazy Eyes

This probably isn't really worthy of a post, but I've not had much time lately to write things down and so I'm going to try get through it quickly.

I filled in the eye lenses of the squad, deciding that the reflection point was nice but perhaps overkill if I was trying to be less exacting when painting these models. I also thought that something else could give a crazier look, showcasing the descent of the Sons of Horus into madness.

To that end I started with Jokaero Orange, using some off-white on the palette to brighten it because I couldn't be bothered reaching for a yellow, and then....stopped. Something wasn't right. I carried on with Blood Angels Red (happened to be on the palette) to make a darker orange towards the back of the lenses, and to give an outline in the recesses. Not a whole lot of colours, and it certainly would look nicer with the lens on a prior Luna Wolf, but that's when it occurred to me what was wrong: the lenses are far too bright compared to the rest of the model. It's the same base orange, but a Luna Wolf is much lighter (very much a light grey / light ash tone) so while the colour stands out, the value jump doesn't. This was too much and I ended up dialling it back with another glaze of red.

I think in future I'll just stick with what I did on the Luna Wolf. It takes eyes that aren't tired, but it's worth the end result.

Next up is more leather. Thondia Brown, Skrag Brown, Deathclaw Brown. This gives a nice, warm brown tone to work with, but leather gets quite dark when rubbed in a lot, so I then mixed Agrax Earthshade with Drakenhof Nightshade (about 1:1) and shaded the whole holster. I'm going to try reduce reliance on just reaching for a black and instead go with "very close to black" (dark blue, purple, green) instead, which should hold up better with saturation. I also played with an off-white and then glazing a mix of Corvus Black and Thondia Brown over the top to give that shiny impression worn leather can sometimes give off. This worked out very well on small details and I'll need to try my hand with it on something larger soon.

I have more to say on the subject of leather, hopefully soon.

-- silly painter

Custodian Wardens - Part I

 

Probably buried his head in the sand.

Rather unfortunately, I had assembled some Custodian Wardens earlier in the year and was always planning to paint them alongside some of the 30k models. Or maybe fortunately: I wouldn't be painting them at all with the crass bullshit being delivered in 30k Custodes.

I'll not go much into it other than: the way it was handled was pathetic, and the new designs with boob armour are again taking away choice. Give people head swap options, don't force specific ideologies onto everyone. I'll grab that dreadnought probably, heavily convert it, but the agenda driven troops have turned me right off the whole faction. On a side note, I'd been eyeing off Daughters of Khaine and now they're going the prude route and destroying the entire character of the faction.

Anyway, onto painting. There's not a whole lot done so I'll try be quick about it (note: glossy armour doesn't show up nicely in the photos I take, but the actual model does look much better). The first few layers use an airbrush:

• Dryad Bark Air to cover the entire model. This will serve as the basic shadow colour, but also helps give a richer gold tone rather than applying the gold direct over a black primer.
• Balthasar Gold Air over most of the model, leaving only the direct downward facing surfaces as Dryad Bark. The gold is best thinned and applied in multiple layers - which goes the same for everything following.
• Valdor Gold Air as a mostly Zenithal coat. This isn't entirely apparent, more or less makes the model a little more desaturated, but it still helps the next layers.
• Thallax Gold Air mostly covering the Zenithal, but letting it bleed into other areas if they were missed before. Thin coats is still the name of the game. This colour in particular really gives a rich golden colour to work with.
• Imperial Gold Shade (Vallejo TMM), applied with a brush. This paint helps give definition but does shift the colour very slightly. It works best when covering an entire surface but then encouraging the pigment towards recesses. It can be feathered off larger surfaces if necessary.
• Cryptek Armourshade Gloss, thinned at least 1:1 (if not more) with acrylic flow improver and then used to further define some of the shapes. I mostly guided this around recesses considered to be "underneath". Try not to let this pool too heavily because the gloss nature of the paint will be at odds for a shadow area. I may try to use Warplock Bronze for wing designs to give darker contrast to recessed parts without the extreme gloss of the shade, and then build that up through the gold layers. I'll think on that one.
• Thallax Gold Air / Liberator Gold mixed roughly 1:1 and glazed for initial highlights. I intend to work up to pure Liberator Gold at a later stage, but haven't done that yet.

The cloth is for the moment just Barak-Nar Burgundy, which will be the shadow colour and I'll highlight up to a red afterwards. Even this colour could perhaps be mixed with black to really deepen the folds - something to explore.

And that's really it. The shading and glazed highlight stages take quite a long time and so most of the rest of the squad are still waiting on those steps.

I played with feeding Omega Blue (TTC range metallic) through the airbrush with thinner and learned that while it does work, don't just use thinner. Use at least equal amounts of flow improver to stop it being so watery. While yes this did work and would be great for essentially airbrush glazing (I do have some ideas of where to take that), it took a few layers to build up a strong base colour. If doing that, just use a brush.

That's about all for now. For reasons, I won't be able to post for another two, possibly three weeks and then it'll be probably back to Sons of Horus assault troops.

-- silly painter.

Sons of Horus MkVI Assault Squad - Part II

 

This is exhausting.

The next set of models are well into the initial base colour stages and I'm almost at the "paint by numbers" stage with them, but the jump pack remained somewhat of an unknown. Fortunately there are some good references available for Sons of Horus, so I've mostly tried to follow that.

Before anything else was done, I coated all the metal areas and weapons with Black Legion. This covers very well over the gloss and returns to a solid, satin, black layer to build upon. This is very important for metalllic paints to look their best. There's no need to be subtle with Contrast paints in this style: just give it a good single coat and about thirty minutes to dry (if not more).

The jump packs themselves I knew I wanted to paint some burn marks, soot, or general metal discolouration. I explicitly didn't do this for the Sanguinary Guard (or Blood Angels in general) as I figured of all the Legions, it would be the IXth that produced and maintained the best and most efficient jump packs, and kept them clean.

For the Sons of Horus though, step one is to give the exhaust areas a shiny metallic gleam. This is one occasion where I wanted polished steel and so base coated with Iron Hands Steel. This needed two thin coats for the best coverage, but gives a very smooth finish if done properly. It's well worth the time to do this, so it bears repeating: give it one thin coat, let it fully dry, then do another. Possibly a third in places if the paint is thinned a little more. I then applied Ironbreaker as a highlight, but I'm not sure this is really visible. It was thinned with flow improver, more glazed than layered, and I might just save this for a post-varnish step in future.

Next step is actually using a lighter gold tone for initial discolouration. I had Imperial Gold (TMM range, the layer/highlight paint) on the palette and glazed that around the central exhaust area. I didn't do it on the sides, but should have - something to correct for the next model. This was followed with Seraphim Sepia further down, but I did use it too heavily and needed to correct that. In general there is substantial correction with the base coat when necessary. Snakebite Leather mixed with Ratling Grime is next, further to the nozzle, and then just plain Ratling Grime on the very edges. There's no particular ratios here - mix and glaze, mix and glaze, adjust and push around the pigment until you're happy with the result. I will probably drop Nuln Oil into the side vents later, or could go with Black Legion if I really wanted it dark.

Aside from the jump pack, the other major addition is the decal on the right pauldron. 'Ardcoat is a thicker gloss varnish compared to what I use through the airbrush, but it seems to smooth itself out nicer as a result and so I much prefer to use that to prepare a surface for decals. The decal itself I should have cut some slices into just under the "eye" to allow the transparent film to slide over itself instead of crinkling up; it took two heavy coats of decal softener to really make that decal conform to the surface. Stormshield provides protection and satin finish afterwards. There will of course be a matt varnish later anyway, but this protects everything and lets me see how it will look until then.

The rest of the squad are in various stages of the above steps (the past week has been busy, I've not had time to do much painting) but in general the squad will proceed slowly because it's an entire squad. There's also travel coming up soon which means even if I manage to get into the zone for painting, there will be an enforced break.

-- silly painter.