Salvete fratres! 

 

I'm just shy of 10 hours elapsed in my 20-Tzaangor project. You can also track my progress on my WIP thread here, where I originally posted the following in two parts.  

 

 

 

Here's a family photo taken shortly into my first airbrush painting session.

Blues are based with Citadel Thousand Sons Blue. Yellows are Vallejo Sun Yellow, Reds are Two Thin Coats Demon Red, Pink was based with Vallejo Deep Magenta. All are sprayed with Citadel Druuchi Violet wash from a lower angle to give some darkness to shadows. Belts, loincloths, cuisses, and feathers/tentacles/hair are all Vallejo Deep Magenta. 

 

 

Blue, pink, and yellow are the (entirely traditional) colour focus of my Thousand Sons army. Red should fit in nicely, but truth be told I've just been wanting to paint some red Tzaangors. 

 

 

On the left is a blue after the Druuchi Violet, on the right is a blue after a spray from above (not quite a zenithal, but close) with Citadel Ahriman Blue to add some brightness to the upwards facing parts of the model. I love the airbrush's ability to quickly give lighting like this! Yellows were not given an above spray, Purple was given a mix of Deep Magenta and Citadel Pink Horror, Reds were given an orange I mixed in-cup with Demon Red and Sun Yellow. This step was particularly important for cleaning up their backs after the purple feather/tentacle spray. 

 

 

I sprayed Vallejo Toxic Yellow onto the tips of the horns, trying to achieve a quick blend. I have started doing metallics, such as sword blades, guns, and chainmail skirts with Vallejo Natural Steel. 

 

 

 

I enjoy how gritty the yellows turned out from the Druuchi spray so I decided not to clean them up yet, it gives them an element of actively changing/mutating and the contrast really pops. Interested to see if I can develop this idea further. 

 

 

Total airbrush time: 3.75 hours. 45 minutes of airbrush troubleshooting not included! 

 

I'd guess that this is about 10x faster than if I had used the brush for all this work. I had a moment while doing the metallics that I was murmuring to myself, "this is the best ever!" Getting 20 dudes base coated with some colour value and gradients, in what will probably be around four hours has been 10/10 amazing fun.

 

Brush work from here forth -

 

First thing with the brush was to get some more of the metallics done. I used Army Painter Fanatic's Cobalt Metal on any of birds' faceguards and the blades of their daggers. Absolutely love this paint, terrific coverage with one single coat, easy to thin and work with, looks great. Second step was to do the gold trim, both the bane and joy of Thousand Sons painting. I had thought about trying to drybrush this for speed, but ended up doing it with the same brush I used for the Cobalt. The paint was Pro Acryl's Bright Gold, which I bought about 45 minutes before applying to these dudes. Great coverage, comes out of the bottle very thin so hardly any thinning required. Love the colour, but found that it dries on my brush very quickly. I really enjoy picking out the tiny details like this and I averaged about 9 minutes per model. 

 

 

(still gotta do this guy's gun)

 

The last couple of painting sessions have been working on colour for my blues. 

 

Tzaangors may get a bad rap from TSons players for being over-pushed and serving as the bulk of the Combat Patrol, but IMO they've been terrific fun to paint

 

Pro Acryl Turquoise - highlights on the hands, legs and as the principal colour for highlighting the head. Thinned down a lot to fill in the gun runes

Two Thin Coats Elysium Blue (most noticeable in the cheeks of the 3rd pic here) - gives a nice accent when building colour on the faces and necks.

Two Thin Coats Doom Death Black -The beaks and hoofs/talons

Two Thin Coats Trooper White - chest feathers and the eye spots.

Two Thin Coats Demon Red - eyes

Two Thin Coats Cuirass Leather - faceguard straps

Army Painter Fanatic Marine Mist - Shoulder feathers and topmost highlights on heads 

 

My colour choices were inspired by the Blue Jay, a common and popular North American bird that I never actually see outside. They're also an exceptionally mediocre baseball team that my grandfather used to fall asleep while watching, which I think is somewhat indicative of what I'll accomplish with Tzaangor's in game (heh). I was hoping that I'd get a bit closer to the actual bird colouration than I did, it's not readily apparent at all, but I would have had to make some fairly dramatic alterations to the basecoating to really get it to work. Oh well, perhaps that will be a project for some Tzaangor Enlightened or a Shaman! 

 

Family progress shot.

 

Still have four more blues left to do, plus my reds, yellows, and the pink. Everyone will need some colour on the dagger and chainsword handles and pommels, some texture and highlights on their skirts, plus basing of course, before I consider them finished. Total time spent painting so far is just shy of 10 hours. Based on my current rate of progress, I consider my goal of sub-20 hours to be well within reach and I'm very pleased with how they look. All hail the power of the airbrush!