Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard

After several years of waiting, Fulgrim now has his Phoenix Guard body guard squad. It took me a lot of time to jump back in and paint EC's but now that I have I think I have enough momentum to keep painting them. The hard point was figuring out my original paint recipe. With that down, I am free to have some fun again.

The last photo is my favorite. It isn't much of an army so far, but it will grow.

Emperor's Children Phoenix Guard

I've had these guys since they came out, and delayed painting them due to loads of defects on the models. To make thinks worse, I had forgotten the painting recipe for my EC purple. So with defective models, and little chance at replicating the color scheme, I dove right in with limited expectations and no stress. Somehow,  I got the scheme right. I don't know what painting gods decided to help me out, but thanks. There is a lot of shading work to do now, but I am happy with the progress so far.

Oh.. and the colors used so far:

Vallejo MC Violet
Vallejo MC Royal Purple
Secret Weapon Miniatures Soft Bodied Black

At least I hope those were the colors!

Emperor's Children Loyalist Rhino

The havoc launcher is not complete, but enough of the tank is weathered and rain streaked that it was time for a progress shot. Well into painting I was surprised by some GW purity seal frosting the model. The entire top section turned white! A quick coat of gloss varnish restored the color, and then matte removed the gloss. I think this model has more varnish on it than paint!

I hope I managed to bring some realism to what is a purple tank for giant post-human warriors firm in the belief that visibility play no role on the battlefield.

Emperors Children Test Rhino

Sometimes you just have to jump feet first. I do not like how this rhino is turning out, and I have struggled with nearly every step. On the other hand, I am committed to completing the model, and seeing if success if layers of weathering, streaks, and powders is enough to bring it back in line with my other pre-heresy work.

One of the many surprises while painting this model was the behavior of vallejo paint with their airbrush thinner. Until now I have used liquitex airbrush medium instead, and I developed good control with how the paint game out using it. However a quick jaunt to Amazon left me with Vallajo's airbrush thinner. The bottle says that it improves flow. They are not kidding. The velocity of the paint leaving the airbrush is much higher, and the paint dries much slower. This rhino has fingerprints all over it where I was surprised to find out that the paint hat not dried. I think the Vallejo product will help in the long term, but right now it makes my airbrush behave in surprising ways.

So, keep calm and carry on. There is always a vat of simple green over the next hill.

Emperor's Children Rhino Paint Test

My Sons of Horus army was originally just intended to be an ally force for the Emperors Children force I have been preparing. As such it is time to finally paint some more Emperor's Children. As is standard for me these days (and I highly recommend it for everyone!) I picked up some spare parts and painted a test piece. I had a couple of goals:

• Figure out if I can remember the paint scheme (Royal Purple, and Violet Red tried here)
• See how AK Interactive dark brown oil wash and streaking grime would look.
• Try out sponge weathering to see if it would improve both armies
• See if Steel Legion Drab paint and Green Earth weathering powders would unify the model.

I am on the fence about this. I've been watching a bunch of Mig Jimenez videos and reading his books and I think I might be falling back on well known techniques rather than really pushing my painting.

There are a few things that would be different on a real and not test piece. The insets would likely be painted in the white-grey color on my SoH pieces, and there would be gold detailing as befits a vehicle from the Emperor's Children. The while would help show off the weathering, and the gold would provide the purple<->yellow contrast providing visual interest. 

Istavaan III Ruined Concrete Bases

After a long stressful week, I decided it was time to put some more love into my Pre-Heresy Emperors Children. The thing is, after painting up a dreadnought for the Sons of Horus, I kind of want to do a squad of SoH. All of the basing will be similar across the SoH and ECs, so the bases could be used for either. They were to be used for my Phoenix Guard terminators. The relative lack of ornamentation will not draw the eye too much from those overly fancy models. The recipe for these bases is pretty simple.

1. Take a sheet of plaster and crack it over the top of a base. 
2. Texture paint the cracks and crevices so the slabs are sitting on something
3. Cover base in a couple thin coats of diluted white glue
4. Prime Black, airbrush on grays followed by graveyard earth around the edges. 
5. Wash of SecreteWeapon miniatures concrete wash (forgotten here but used on Fulgrim's base)
6. Wash of Secret Weapon miniatures green earth weathering powder. 

The browns can be toned down substantially, but I like the dirty look.

Emperors's Children Basing

 

I wanted my EC Contemptor Dreadnought to be wading forward under a volley of fire across the ruined cityscape of Istavaan III. With all the purple on the dreadnought, I needed to work in a Sons of Horus marine in pale green. I wanted this to look like he was killed facing the same front as the honorable dreadnought. I like to think that the weight of the marine's body broke the cement as he was flung backwards.  I imagine these guys fighting on, honoring their oaths to the emperor, but feeling the crushing betrayal of their Primarch fathers and legion brothers. I am really getting into the story behind these purple and green loyalists. I think there are a host of modeling opportunities of the loyal remnants helping each other out. I am already planning a mini joint command squad. I think an EC medic helping a SoH veteran would look really cool. 

So. Is the base too bland, or does it complement the vastly too detailed dread?

Loyalist Emperor's Children Dreadnought Brother Argos WIP 1

I thought I should show you some updates with dull coat on the mini. It helps dramatically! There are areas where I missed the opportunity to remove some of the oil wash with thinner, but since this model represents a loyalist, I think the damage and stains will just add more character.

I wanted another entry for the NOVA OPEN painting competition, so I started working on a loyalist EC dreadnought. The model is glossy right now to make the oil wash flow better. Recently I've been experimenting with historical model painting techniques, and oil washes are one of my favorite finds. Tomorrow when the washes are dry, I'll dull coat the miniature and do the final blends and chipping. The arm segments are magnetized so the shoulders and elbows can be reposed. His head is loose, but I wanted a glimpse of the final model. It really is nice to be finally painting this FW stuff I've been hoarding. Rather than force myself to paint troops first, I decided I would just paint the cool stuff first.

There is a lot of work to go no this guy, but I think I can get him ready by Friday.

Fulgrim With Standard

I painted the III legion standard this morning to see how it would look on the base, but the closer I got to finishing it the less I liked it. My inclination now is to remove it from the base, since it draws attention away from Fulgrim himself. The other issue is that the casting of the standard is poor. Weathering powders could make it look realistically damaged. What do you think? Should I just remove the legion standard? I could always add it to an actual standard bearer. I've already decided not to paint up Fulgrim's gun because it looks cumbersome, but it feels weird to be editing off parts of a forge world model. Maybe I have too much forge world respect.

The last thing to do for this model is select a rim color for the base. It was suggested that I go with a darker brown, which I think makes sense. My first choice of black, may distract too much.

I have a painting marathon head of me this weekend. I need to paint more Ultramarine troops for the NOVA narrative campaign, as well as complete a few more entries to the crystal brush.

Fulgrim WIP2 Updated

Older photos below

I pushed through the day and now have the beginnings of a base for Fulgrim! Tomorrow morning I will seal the base and put Sons of Horus transfers on the dead marines. After that comes chipping, and then weathering powders. I was thinking of adding grime streaks to the marines to make it clear that they were on Istavan III during the world eater virus, but that might be too much. I really can't wait to paint up some live SoH troops now that I have recipe I like.

The photos with the unpainted base are truer to color than the ones I took tonight. The hazards of painting all day.

What do you think? Could this mini be entered into the NOVA crystal brush? I see lots of imperfections personally, but I just really love the model and how it is turning out. What do you think?

Fulgrim Primarch of the Emperor's Children

After a pleasant day dropping the Redemption of the Fallen miniatures off at Brandt's place, I decided I needed to break the ice on one of the more intimidating project's I've been putting off. So far I've spent half the day painting, and all I've managed to do is give myself a nightmare amount of cleanup work around the gold filigree. The model is wonderful, and I think it will look great as part of the force, but the metal filigree is just too small. That said, I am happy to have started something challenging. I plan to surround the base with Sons of Horus wounded, since light green would go really well with the purple.

Emperor's Children Test Mini #2

Using the same miniature from the last post, I decided to try out adding pink. This is a test mini after all, and is destined for a bath in simple green before too long, so why not try out everything. I created a glaze out of GW screamer pink and spread it around really carefully around the armor plates. I tried to make the paint act like a tint rather than a full blown layer. The previously highlighted purple stayed light, and the darker purple turned a bit more red. I finished the model off by adding some line highlights of EC pink. While some of the previous blending was lost, overall the tinting process seems to work. I am not sure I could control this on a whole army's worth of models, but I like this version of the EC better. Imagine rich red cloaks on all of the special characters. I think the tint warms up the base enough so it would look good.

How does this version compare to the last?