Shadowsword Powdered

I just added the first layer of forgeworld powders to the shadowsword. So far I have added the rust colored powder as a wash to the tracks, around random bits of machinery, and as streaks from whatever those circular things are on the side skirts. To make the wash I mixed FG rust powder into a large amount of Tamiya X20A thinner. Once the thinner had evaporated I dry-brushed very light deheneb stone over the whole tank. I think my next step will be to use the ash colored powder as a dust around the tracks and the side skirts of the model.

I've been having trouble getting good shots of the tank, but I think you get the general idea. In the future I think I need to use more of a contract on the camouflage colors, so the heavy weathering has something to play off of. I've noticed that grey-blue tanks, look fantastic with rust colored patches. This guy is a bit monotone, but I am enjoying it again. That whole dull coat incident really burned out my painting desire for a while.

I wish I had reason to use this guy in a game. I've never played an apocalypse game, but think that might be my best chance. I don't have a gaming group here in DC, so I just rely on the GW springfield store. All this talk of narrative games has me itching to get involved in one. Imagine a strong narrative game where painting and modeling are part of the process. History could be added to each model as the game progressed. Units that had done well could have new battle damage, more weathering, battle honors etc.

Genestealer Step By Step

So a while back I won a painting competition with a genestealer. I have put off writing the step by step until now. Rather than follow my original steps I decided to try the process using only water, white primer, and gw paints. The missing ingredient in this is Tamiya X-20A acrylic paint thinner. The process definitely works better with paint thinner if you have it but it still does ok with water. The key thing with this whole process is very thinned paints, followed by targeted washes.

1. Prime White
2. Mix Scorpion Green with a lot of water. It should be soupy and naturally shade the mini. It is best made using a few drops of paint thinner rather than water, but I used water here. Whatever you do, do not use an airbrush for this step. The goal is to not have any even dispersal of paint!
3. Paint the whole mini except claws.
4. Wash the full mini with Gryphonne Sepia. The key here is to add a little thinner so the surface tension of the wash is broken. Again I used water here to see what would happen.
5. Once that was is essentially dry, use washes of Levian purple around the base of each claw. I also added some wash to the face detail on the mini, and a few random spots. The purple is key because it really pulls out the detail. I would not put too much on though.
6. Dry brush the whole miniature with some light color. I used bleached bone on one of these, and will probably use the deheneb stone foundation paint on a different on. The goal here is to hit the top of the head, the hands, and boney protrusions. Be careful not to add too much.
7. Paint the tongue red
8. Make a bleached bone wash and hit the tips of the claws and hooves. Finish this by adding some white to the wash to highlight just the tips.
9. rinse and repeat. I like to vary the colors just a bit from model to model so the bugs do not look like carbon copies of each other.

These take me almost no time at all to paint. I basically did them interspersed while doing other tasks. A careful approach to the washes will yield better results. Paint thinner really shines when doing work like this, but I know many people do not have it.

The Shadowsword Lives

So post terrible frosting mishap, a green stuff scrubbing and some resprays, the shadowsword is looking ok. I really think I had something cool before, but at least this thin is salvageable. I really dislike thick gloppy paint, but unfortunately this guy has it in patches. I believe the testors dull coat caused the problem by drying and contracting the light coat of paint on the surface. It was an interesting effect on areas that were not totally whited out. This guy is due for a dunk in the delvin mud bath, maybe that will tighten things up a bit.

Testors Dullcote = Massive Frosting

These were supposed to be work in progress shots of my shadowsword. I did not expect them to the the last shots of it. Testors dullcote ruined the thing. The kit is entirely destroyed. I am so mad right now. I was very happy with the progress on this vehicle, and now it looks like total crap.

These posts are pre-washing, pre weathering, pre shading. The dull coat also made the paint crack as it dried, producing a completely cracked look. Just after it happened I grabbed the tank ran to the sink and dumped simple green on it to see if I could clean off the frosting. It seemed to work, but there are now large black spots where all the paint is gone. I think I will just weather the damn thing as if nothing happened as a way to test out techniques. I really had not planned on painting more than one of these, and I had hoped it would be a good center piece for the army. I don't play apocalypse so this was not going to be a gaming piece.

New ONI rating for testors dullcoat: NO AQUILLAS!

Testors Dullcote and Vallejo Paints

So a wonderful package arrived today, 4 cans of Dullcote and a whole slew of Vallejo Model Color paints. So far I am thrilled by the dullcote. It is not perfect, but it did take the shine off of my Plague Bearer, so it receives an ONI rating of 3 out of 5 aquillas! I have not experimented much with the paints, but so far I love earth tone colors.

So if playing with new paint were not enough, I built a shadowsword. Yep, that is it. I finally built the damn thing. It is sitting right now in my airbrush box with its black coat of primer. I am really excited to paint it up, though I am deviating from my white primer preference. I am not sure if I should paint it up to match my other tanks posted here, or go with a Voystroyan theme, or go with something totally different like warlock purple.

Servitors

Servitors are 40k to me. They represent the dehumanization of the 40k dystopia perfectly. The horror of people being lobotomized and turned into meat robots is terrifying. I suppose it is just another form of social recycling. I speed painted these guys again.

I am not sure why I am speed painting so much these days, but it might just be a way to practice. I am out of practice using black primer. I really think grey primer or white primer is the way to go. The way paint flows over the black primer is much nicer given the smoother surface, but working with details is much more difficult.

Inquisitor and Daemons

I did a few more washes on the Plague Daemons, and while waiting for them to dry painted up an inquisitor I have had lying around for some time. I added a few colors from my IG army to help him blend in. I am not sure about the green, but he does not look out of place next to one of my platoons. I have a bowl of soapy water soaking one of the Hector Rexx kits from forge world, so maybe this guy will end up an an Inquisitional henchman. I know I have said it before, but I really do not like working with metal after handling the FW resin first hand. At some point I am going to have to paint some of it up, rather than simply hoarding it until my skills are better!

Purity Seal Gone Wrong

I have based my Imperial Guard Vets and am not totally out of good bases. The base production line I setup a year ago probably spurred me on t paint more because I did not have to worry about the last finishing part of the model. There is one step that is not complete for these guys and a bunch of the blood angels I have recently done. Transfers. The thing about transfers is that they add so much visual look, but they require a matte coat of purity seal at the end, both to hold them on, and to remove the gloss finish they impart. My purity seal appears to leave a gloss coat. Last week I tried the new can out on one of my chimera's and I assumed it was the weathering powders that had interfered with the seal. However, having just sealed a batch of Plague Bringers. All this talk of Nurgle led me to order some from GW--the even arrived in two days! As you can see from the photo, the purity seal added a slight gloss to the miniatures, which ruins their appearance. Most of the shading is now lost. Should I just buy another can and try again? What is it that causes the seal to gloss up like this? Am I using too much purity seal? I might have to go on a purity seal hiatus, since everything I spray ends up frosted or shiny!