Sons of Mortarion - Pre Heresy Death Guard

[El-Diablo]

After what seems like an eternity of waiting to get most of the parts together to start, I though it's be about time to start my Heresy era Death Guard army.

Not too sure on composition at this point but i'll be starting with a full 20 man Legion Tactical Squad before moving onto who knows what.

I've got a test figure pretty much finished apart from the base, though im thinking of something along the lines of Istvaan - it's just getting the right look thats the problem.

I realise i've overdone the chipping on the armour, but i'll probably leave the test as is - poor sod's been on the end of a few too many frag grenades I think.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/deathguardtestwip2_zpsb9d4933f.jpg

Working on another 4 of his mates, I'll try and get another wip photo up asap.

How I paint and weather the armour

• The whole figure is given two undercoats - firstly with grey all over, followed by white sprayed on at a rough 45 degree angle.
• Once the base colours are on, I use a piece of torn sponge to stipple the armour with Charadon Granite.
• The figure then gets a coat of gloss varnish.
• Once the varnish is dry, I make a 2:1 mix of brown and black oil paints, then heavily thin them with white spirit. This wash is applied to the entire figure.
• After an hour or so drying time, I use a cotton bud to wipe away the wash from the upper surfaces of the armour, leaving the wash in the recesses, and giving a dirty, streaky finish to the white armour.

[Firepower]

Yeah, pretty good aside from the over eager chipping.  There's a point where it stops looking like damage altogether, and this poor fellow's crossed it.  But some buddies will help water down the look.  

 

The bronze damage is sweet, by the way.  You can get away with that much peppering on small strips of metallic.  :tu:

[Tyrannicide]

Oh hot damn I'm a mess. 

 

Definitely will be following this, dude. I agree with you & Firepower, tone down the chipping and everything will look ace. Any ideas for the HQ slot?

[geordie]

Really nice start. I agree with toning down the weathering BUT only on the top half of the model. That level of weathering on the boots, lower legs and knees I feel is spot on. It only looks too much on the torso and helmet. The light weathering on his right arm looks fine to me. A pin line wash around the metallic on the chest/neck area and around all the details of the helmet might make the upper parts look more worn without using chipping.

 

I feel these subtle changes would take your Death Guard from 'good' to 'excellent.'

[Firepower]

Just noticed this, but the Bolter is immaculate...did he just pull it out of the box when he got to the front line? ;)

[batu]

Yeah, what the others have sad, and you have a wonderful model there my friend. I hope you will complete his other mates soon :)

[El-Diablo]

Cheers for the replies gents, much appreciated. 

 

No pic tonight, but im hoping tomorrow will bring the camera faries out of hiding. I think I might of been a bit too damage happy on the current 4 marines, they look a little too similar to the test figure. I may have to break out the white to fix a few chips on the upper body - cheers to geordie for that spot.

 

@Firepower - just noticed the boltguns myself and I think your right - they do look a little too clean for a Death Guard Marine. Might need to look into that. Think that a couple of chips of a brighter silver on the casing should do it.

[Firepower]

To reign in the damage, I would suggest concentrating it towards (but not necessarily on top of) edges of the armor plates, with lighter amounts in the middle.

[Lorenzen]

If you reduce the chipping on the top of his helm & sharpen up the edges of the pannels to reduce the camoflaging of the armour shapes it would help, some damage to the green on the backpack would help too.. As would a touch of rust imho.

 

I look forward to seeing more.

[disease]

did you use a guide to paint the armour or home brew recipe? looks good!

[Durfast Spiritwolf]

Cool, loved it on FB and love it here

[El-Diablo]

If you reduce the chipping on the top of his helm & sharpen up the edges of the pannels to reduce the camoflaging of the armour shapes it would help, some damage to the green on the backpack would help too.. As would a touch of rust imho.

I look forward to seeing more.

I knew there was something I forgot, cheers. I've added a bit of basic rust to the next batch, will get more involved with it on the larger figures and vehicles.

did you use a guide to paint the armour or home brew recipe? looks good!

Home-brew - mixture of zenithal undercoats, oil washes and sponge chipping.

Took all the comments on board with the last patch of 4 - limiting the chipping, weathering the weapons and the rust being the main ones. Still need to decide on the basing though.....

Excuse the terrible MSphoto montage and shoddy photography, once they are based and finished properly i'll take the glamour shots

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/group1wip_zps0d51acd9.jpg

EDIT - Seeing as the montage pic came out a bit smaller than i'd of liked, here's a couple of the rough shots before they got merged - hopefully these will be a bit bigger.

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/003_zpsc1870620.jpg

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/002_zps81a6086d.jpg

EDIT 2 - bloody hell those are terrible pics, the armour looks really washed out to my eyes. Will have to work on that with the next lot.

[batu]

Much better now. Great work ! You could paint a fine line (white or light green for the shoulder pads) under the bigger chipps tp achieve a 3d effect and make them pop a little.

 

Keep up your great work ! :)

[TRIBUN]

Awesome painting!!

[El-Diablo]

Cheers all.

 

Managed to get the first 5 figs based up tonight but I feel they are missing something. I'm looking at using pigments to weather them into the bases a bit more but I'm not sure if there's anything else they need. Any thoughts?

 

Excuse the terrible phone pic, I'll be taking some better shots at the weekend.

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/322645080c3b4c71cfafb529f32cbe9b_zps08258cde.jpg

[El-Diablo]

Still scratching away at the Death Guard of late, with 10 Tac Marines finished now. Debating whether to do the command element in the next group of 5 or another batch of line Astartes?

 

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/squad1_zps36cc8f80.jpg

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/squad15_zps2ae7d70c.jpg

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/squad12_zps0446b94e.jpg

[El-Diablo]

I finally managed to get the 20 strong Legion Tac Squad finished today with the command element and the last couple of troopers. Very pleased with how they came out in the end considering the procrastination involved while I was painting them. Did make the mistake of not taking any WIP's with them though, will make sure the Terminators get a few though ;)

 

Enough talk, more pics!

 

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/DeathGuard30thaug_zps1fe207cf.jpg

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/DeathGuardTacticalCommand_zpsab12be90-1.jpg

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/DeathGuardTacticalSergeant_zpsf0693f75.jpg

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/DeathGuardTacticalSquad_zps498ec37a.jpg

[geordie]

Great seeing the full squad together. I love the attention to detail on the weathering, especially the little streaks of rust in places. Have you tried putting this scheme on a vehicle? Will be interesting to see how it transfers to a larger model.

[Doghouse]

I think these are fantastic, superb painting all round and the bases are subtle enough not to draw the eye from the models themselves. Seriously nice work. :tu:

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Individually, they look far too weathered, but as unit it's very striking. Good work.

[Grizzly_bear]

Awesome weathering fella, really look like true death guard

[Firepower]

Delicious :)  I don't see anything that I don't love here...which takes some of the fun out of cruising the painting and modelling subforum :D

[El-Diablo]

Cheers fellas, much appreciated.

 

@geordie - Not yet, though there will be at least a Contemptor and  Predator in the near future. The Contemptor should be pretty straight forward as it's essentially a bigger marine, while the Pred will get a similar look to the DG vehicles in the Betrayal artwork.

 

Spent yesterday messing about with brass rod getting the Cataphractii squad built, I really don't fancy these falling apart. Should be fun to paint though so i'll be starting that this afternoon.

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/CataphractiiWIP1_zps3dd22e92.jpg

[shaw3029]

Looking really nice!

 

Great weathering. It really suits the death guard.

[El-Diablo]

Thanks!

 

Some progress on the Cataphractii today, though im sure if i'd not spent most of the last 2 days procrastinating i'd of been here faster. They look very rough at this stage, but the oil wash should solve most of the problems.

 

 

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y57/El-Diablo/6%20-%20Pre-Heresy%20Death%20Guard/Cataphractiiwip2_zps42c6091c.jpg