T̶w̶o̶ Three legios and a knight household

[Rabenga]

GOLD! Like the golden God's they are!

[Fajita Fan]

I waver on them, I’m not totally sold on the idea of adding the red because the book only said the Emperor’s titans were gold plated. I wanted the color to break up the gold but I’m half (more than half) tempted to block in the rest of the panels red and try to shift them to another legio. Dunno.

[Xanthier]

They're certainly striking as they are. If you wanted to block in more panels though go for it if you feel you'd enjoy them better. Overall it'd be great to see them completed regardless of if you change the scheme or not.

[Fajita Fan]

Are you drybrushing your exoskeleton highlights? I glued on a bunch of panels so I’ll have to edge highlight mine.

[Xanthier]

Yeah, used a bunch of drybrushing and washes when most of the panels were off. Just made things so much simpler.

[Fajita Fan]

Finishing the exoskeletons would've made a bunch of sense but I'm probably going to dirty up the panels so maybe have darker frames wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Fajita Fan]

Well my hand is cramping terribly and my back hurts from terrible painting posture but the last couple of days off work have seen some layers of Grey Seer on my traitor Reavers and a few of the massive backlog of guns I have to paint. Grey Seer is an awesome color and will serve as the principle color of my white/gold scheme with actual white just being glazed on at the end.

 

Today was a bunch of trim; my first Warlord test panel from last year (we’re talking one shoulder plate of edging and cleaning up) took almost two hours which has scared me from trying to finish 3 Warlords and 2 Reavers by mid April. I decided to try painting gold on just the top faces of the trim and let Agarax do the edges perpendicular to the plate. There’s no way I can do a full Legio with trying paint those tiny bits gold and keep cleaning up the white only to wash all the recesses anyway. 
 

 

 

Also made a bit of progress on the Warlord weapons, the metal is just bright aluminum primer shaded with contrast gray but that’s now like 3 thin layers of Grey Seer and just one coat of gold. Still a ton of detail work to do...

 

So one Reaver is pretty well blocked out but just the legs of my brawler are done. Decision time: should I cut off the brawler’s chain fist and do a magnetized joint so he has the option of a gun arm? I also want to replace his head with the cool one from the second weapon sprue but I don’t know when I can spray again. I also risk gooning up my paint job so far with Dremeling and gluing in magnets. These are the kind of annoying indecisions that slow me down. Regardless after some highlighting and shading the panels I should have one shooty Reaver done soon. 

 

 

 

[Mandragola]

This is good progress. One approach you might use, especially if you’re painting Grey Seer on, is to do the edges first. Then you can just splodge on the gold and paint the grey on to fill the panel. Personally I find that much easier than doing the edges, but YMMV.

[Fajita Fan]

I had trouble cutting in the edges with white and not getting on the gold but yes, I think your method is probably the best. I’m hoping that Agarax in the recesses will help cover up my mistakes. It’s hard because I glued all of those panels onto the Reaver so it’s hard to hold steady (because I’m dumb).

[Brother Captain Arkley]

I am in some ways dreading getting to my Warlord.

  so far thou man great stuff:)

[Fajita Fan]

Trimapalooza 2020 continues. Nothing too dramatic tonight, just trying to be clean as I worked on unexciting things like knee and crotch plates. The most dramatic thing this evening was using 4:1 medium to Talasar blue contrast paint over the bare aluminum primer to start my plasma glows, two are done. Next up will be very tiny white highlights, I might then do a 6:1 pass of blue over that. 

 

One Reaver is basically ready for gold shading and plate glazing. After that will be Word Bearers style gibberish script and a little effect I mentioned a few pages back to dedicate him to Khorne... 

 

The other Reaver needs his torso trim gilded before he gets the same treatment. I think I’m going to leave him glued together as a brawler but maybe cut his head off in the spring to replace with the angrier looking variant. Aaaaaaand then comes 3 Warlords and all the guns.  This isn’t even everything assembled and primed. 

 

[Fajita Fan]

My goal is to get one hour of painting in minimum per day to try clearing some projects.  I got home from work really late so tonight was just little bits of trim and painting/shading the bodies of some guns.  I don't know which box my plastic melta cannons are in so I'm painting a couple of 3d printed pieces I made before the alternate sprues were released. 

[Captain Semper]

I’m on the same boat. I had left my Reaver on the painting station for many months along with some SoH and Word Bearers and of course some 40k DAs. I’m now on a crusade to bring the pipeline down...

 

I really like the work on the plasma coils - it looks amazing! Is it just thinned down Thalassar over a metallic? That’s very effective!

 

i may try a green or purple version of it.

[Mendi Warrior]

I love your work, really nice. Love the plasma coils in particular. Very cool! I'll make a note of your recipe.

[Brother Captain Arkley]

Looking forward to more progress :)

[Fajita Fan]

Thanks guys, I'm trying to stay motivated so feel free to badger or insult me in any way if I go more than a day without updates.

 

I’m on the same boat. I had left my Reaver on the painting station for many months along with some SoH and Word Bearers and of course some 40k DAs. I’m now on a crusade to bring the pipeline down...

 

I really like the work on the plasma coils - it looks amazing! Is it just thinned down Thalassar over a metallic? That’s very effective!

 

i may try a green or purple version of it.

Absolutely.  Contrasts work by contrasting (*gasp*) with the undercoat and the pigments are drawn to recesses while the medium tries to stay along the flats.  It's a neat effect that the previous GW glazes didn't really do.  I used thinned contrast gray on the body of the gun while avoiding the coils and just ran the 4:1 mix over them while pushing into the recesses front and back to very simply cast the OSL glow.  I also did the lip of the rim just gently, not too much.

 

Edit: a closeup, I think it needs some highlighting but this is soooo much easier than multiple glazes of layer paints.

 

 

 

Now I can go over that very tips of the coils in white and if I do another heavily thinned pass it'll just tint the white down a tad and a little of the pigments will drop into the valleys to further add contrast.  The other thing to try would be to edge highlight the coils first and then do just one thinned pass of contrast blue (or whatever) so it tints the metal and white differently.  I don't want the recesses too dark and contrasts get dark FAST so be careful.

 

Warp lighting is a great color, so is BA red.  Be careful with the purples, Magos purple looks more magenta to me and Shyish purple is DAARK.  You need to heavily thin that stuff and not load your brush too much because the few tries I've played with have gotten REALLY dark fast.  The pigment in that is pretty powerful so for a weapon glow you might go with Magos.  Aktelian Blue (spelling?) is also a really gorgeous aqua that would make a cool glow too.  I would not use the Grphy Orange contrast for a glow, in the recesses it turns brown and I think a 2:1 or 3:1 mix of Iyanden yellow to BA red makes a better orange.  You still have to thin that with medium to get a glow.

Edited January 23, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Captain Semper]

All good advice there. Yes, Shyish is probably out of the question... But Akelian is a very good candidate. 

 

I really like this effects as is, so much so, that I'd avoid further highlighting - mostly out of fear of ruining it... But if you're brave, go ahead and share the result! (better you than me really...)

[Fajita Fan]

I tried the white over the coils and it didn’t come out great. I’ll need to give it another layer of contrast. 
 

Got some more gold trim done, both Reavers have been trimmed but they need more skeleton and trim shading before I can start glazing white. I also shaded the gold on some warlord guns. 
 

I started glazing some white on the claw and head.

 

My brushwork sucks and I’m using a tiny brush so I don’t get white on the gold. Damned if I do, damned if I don’t. 
 

On a side note I think the volcano looks nice in white and gold. 
 

 

[Mandragola]

Looking good. Everyone dreads painting white but I think your end results will be worth it. I've got to do some white bits for my Mortis titans and I'm not looking forward to it.

[Fajita Fan]

I'm thinking of using Vallejo white to glaze on the small pieces like the claws and heads for better contrast but Ulthuan for the big plates so it's not too stark.

[Fajita Fan]

Shading the trim is causing a lot of holidays but I guess that’s a necessary evil unless I use a tiny brush. My glazing isn’t going smooth at all, I’m going to have to rethink this on the bigger Warlord plates.

 

I’m learning that the finish of contrast paints is not durable at all. These will need to be varnished soon as I finish them.

[Fajita Fan]

Highlighted some gold trim with Scale75 Elven gold, it’s makes Auric Armor, the similar shade from GW feel very translucent and runny by comparison. Also I finally got around to one of the finishing touches for my traitors who are falling to Khorne: blood weeping from their hydraulics and eyes. 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by Fajita Fan

[Mandragola]

The bleeding eyes are an awesome idea. They are kind of subtle but also horrifying and perfect on the white background. That gold also looks great.

[Mendi Warrior]

Sublime! Excellent work

[Fajita Fan]

Thanks, my white is very messy and I can't get a clean line where the wash is.  I think I need to use a much smaller brush for washes because they're going all over the place and my hands are too shaky to go in and get it tight.  

 

Hopefully from the eye's distance to the table they'll look okay.