Pre Heresy - Sons of Horus - Catulan Reavers

After I finished up with my Sons of Horus test mini where I used the glaze / wash  technique I was unhappy with the outcome but a thought popped into my head about repainting the model as a Catulan Reaver. I had seen the above Forgeworld picture alongside the others I used for research and instantly liked the scheme. This was the ideal opportunity to paint one up using my unsuccessful test subject.

I thought about sculpting the shoulder pad icon with greenstuff but decided to freehand it instead.

I first made a  sketch of the icon using a grid method. Basically a big square divided into 4 small squares with the design drawn inside. This would help me later when it cam time to paint the design onto the model.

The next thing I did was to paint over the green with my custom metallic black mix I use for my Blood Angels - Knights of Blood models. Then I painted the red shoulder pad and various s details leaving the lower portion of the helmet the original green.

I added some battle damage with a light drybrush of boltgun metal and used some pigment for dust and dirt accumulation.

Below you can see the original green on the helmet.

Lastly the shoulder pad icon. Painting two straight lines proved quite difficult actually!

 

I am very happy with how this guy came out. I think the Catulan Reaver scheme is pretty badass and can imagine a full army, painted up nicely, looking just awesome on the table. 

Vitor

Pre Heresy - World Eaters - Dirt and Grime

Adding some weathering or dirt and grime is the last little addition to making your potentially bland colour scheme stand out a bit more.

As with the battle damage 'less is more' is probably the best way to go so with that thought in mind I watered down some Agrax Earthshade wash and carefully applied it to the recesses of the white parts of the armour where I thought dirt and grime may collect.

This wash wont really show on the Blue armour so I used a Rust pigment from Secret Weapon and also applied it carefully to the recesses of the backpack and shoulder pads. After a short wait to let the dust settle (joke) I wiped off the excess with a dry cloth and Voila! a nice looking mini that started off as a tabletop paint job only.

 

 



Hope you enjoyed the mini series.

Vitor

Aurelius Legion - Weathering Test - Pigments

So onto the application of pigments or weathering powders, I used the Secret Weapon Rust Red as seen in the picture above. First off let me say that when I looked at models ( I am talking about Ron at From the Warp) that have pigments applied they look like they are applied sparingly and with precision. A feat which I thought could be easily achieved, a bit like painting. Well I was wrong!! applying pigments is pretty difficult to do if you want precision as its a powder and does not flow like a paint would onto a surface. Guess that's why we do these trials so we can learn new things. Its also very messy so do this over a sheet of clean paper so you can pour the mess back into your pot.

Another problem I found was that after two or three dips of your nicely pointed brush into the pigments, the powder gets under the bristles and turns your point into a broom. Below are some pictures of the powders applied to what is supposed to be the recesses only!! Pretty messy.

The best I was hoping for after applying the powders to the entire squad was that most of the stuff was going to come off when I wiped them down and applied the alcohol to set them in place. At least that part worked out as hoped for in part at least. Here are some pictures of the models wiped down as much as possible. This stuff is pretty sticky actually!

 The other major problem is the colour of powder compared to the colour of the model, what do I mean? well applying a light powder over a dark colour is like adding a highlight so if its in a shaded part of the model that is a problem. See the picture below. The powder has ruined the shading of the shoulder pad. So be careful where you apply the stuff. In the end I did not apply the alcohol.

All in all this was a very frustrating and rewarding experience all at the same time. The squad looks pretty good after the initial bad start but I am not sure if I am going to carry this over to the rest of my army.

I leave you with some pictures of the final result although my decent camera was not working at that time so had to take them with my phone so forgive me for the lower quality pictures.

 

Hope you enjoyed this series and let me know what you think of these guys.

Vitor

Aurelius Legion - Weathering Test - Battle Damage

Having never painted battle damage and dirt on a miniature before made this exercise interesting indeed. This whole idea began with several posts by Ron at From the Warp where he delved deeply into the weathering subject and is by now an expert. I was inspired by his results and wanted to try my hand at it. The tools I used to apply the dirt and battle damage are seen in the picture below, an eyelash thingy (ask your babe) and a piece of sponge.

So what did I do, first off I used the sponge and dipped it into Scorched Brown lightly, removing most of the paint onto some tissue before dabbing lightly onto the areas I thought would be dirty, like the lower legs, around the shoulder pads and arms also a little bit on the head (it may be a good idea to do this on some paper to see the effect before going to the model). Just a few dabs produces a lot of speckles of paint on the miniature so if you want that minimalist look then don't use this technique. Next I repeated the process with Boltgun Metal for the damaged paint of the armour, basically going over the dirt but concentrating more on the armour edges where the wear and tear would occur. Finally I used a brush with Boltgun Metal to do some edge highlighting on the armour plates.

Now for some this is way toooooo much but for me I want my marines to look like they are regular visitors to hell and are on a first name basis with the devil. Go Marines!! be all you can be!!  (I am not even an American) Moving on, keep in mind that these pictures are magnified and the actual scale miniature looks much better.

Next up is the application of the weathering powder/pigment. Stay tuned.

Vitor.

Aurelius Legion - Weathering Test Continued

My own Space Marine Chapter has been neglected for some time now, mostly due to me still not being happy with the colour scheme. The last I did on them (several months ago now) was to improve the shading around the shoulder pads and joints in the armour of a single marine as per Ron at From The Warps suggestions, see picture above.

This small detail made a big difference to the end result  and the picture below is of the full squad before the shading was applied.

The pictures below are of the full squad after the shading was applied.

This small detail changed the entire look of the squad and I prefer it to the brown shading I used before.

The next step in my weathering process was to add the battle damage and then finally try out some weathering pigments/powders.

Stay tuned its coming up in the next post.

Vitor

Aurelius Legion - Rhino - Finished

This is it, the final part of painting and weathering my own Space Marine Chapter Rhino. In the last post I completed the bottom section of the Rhino, now it was time to tackle the top section.

I liberally applied the weathering pigment to all the recessed areas where dust and dirt would accumulate. (apologies for the poor close up pictures).

  

  

 

As you can see  I found it quite difficult to be neat about applying this stuff. I knew from the lower section that a lot of the pigment was going to be wiped off later so it was not such a big deal.

 

 

Now it was time to take my hard stippling brush and remove as much of the pigment as possible. I also used a cloth to wipe away whatever the brush could not get to. I did not use the alcohol to set the pigment as I did not want a repeat of the white frosting situation I encountered on the lower section.

Here are some pictures of the completed model. All in all it came out pretty well. I really like the dusty look of the pigments on the model. One thing to note is that light pigments applied on a light colour that is shaded with a darker colour do not work well (gibberish!!!!!) What I mean is that I found the pigment negated the brown wash I applied to the recesses of my yellow areas on the model.

 

 

Hope you like the way it came out and I recommend everyone have a go at this.

Vitor.