Night Lords 18th Battle Company (Treadhead)

[Dan The Deamon]

I love how your paintjob has a very soft, smooth tone to it. The colors seem very natural and I'm curious as to how you achieve that. Paintbrush, airbrush, thinned paints, or ?

 

Well I used the citadel spray gun on my wraiths after i frosted them with white primer. I guess i got lucky and the damage largely disappeared once i started getting layers on paint on there, but man was i pissed. I pretty much drop every paint i'm working with onto a well pallet and add some water. I even use a wet pallet when using the colors straight from the bottle. I find that they don't go on chalky and streaky, and instead of adding water to the pot it's easier to just add it to the drop or two of paint I'm working with.

 

Short answer? Add water, use a wet pallet.

 

Hope that helps ;)

Dan

[Brother_Kaelgrim]

Ah I see, thats one reason I've stuck with metallics and washes due to metallics going on very evenly and smoothly straight out of the pot while my other colors are either too thin and don't cover evenly or glop on terribly.

[Lexington]

I cannot praise this army enough. Amazing work, with tons of imagination and character. Hats off!

[Dan The Deamon]

Try a wet pallet if you never have. I watched some 'eavy metal woman in Baltimore last year use a dixie plastic plate, paper towels, and parchment paper. I pretty much threw one together and used the same set up for about 8 months with pretty good success. It's cheap, easy, and the learning curve is small. My personal experience is to leave metallics alone, once you start adding some water after a couple of minutes the metal fragments start to separate from the pigment, and the water, and you just have this inconsistent blob of stuff on your plate. I leave metallics alone, and on some occasions i mix up washes, the wraiths were washed with some weird mix i made on the pallet.

 

For your colors being too thin, it's pretty crucial to build up your colors otherwise you'll see the streaks that even go on when you thin your paints. Thinning your paints ensures smooth coverage, but there's still some color inconsistencies. Putting three or four layers on with thinned paints ensures a very clean smooth color. The skull helms on one of my squads had to be taken from bestial, calthan brown, kommando khaki, then about 5 layers of thinned bleach bone until I was happy with them.

 

Too all you guys who replied about my paint scheme and it's highlighting/coloring thanks. you gave me some good insight and probably told me what I needed to hear. More updates soon.

Dan

[Brother_Kaelgrim]

Ya metallics seem to work fine for me straight out of the pot, maybe with a drop of water mixed in with a brush if it gets globby. Looks like wet pallet for NM and pot for Metallic?

 

As to your models, I like the darker scheme but it makes the model seem a little....uniform if that makes sense. Like there are a few areas that could use just a tad lighter tone to make them stand out a bit more, unless your going to for the dark shadowy figure (Which is perfectly fitting for a Night Lord)

 

Keep up the good work man!

[Dan The Deamon]

Hey guys, just a quick PIP update on my count as zerks. They're coming along quite nicely and I'm really happy with the depth I've taken the blue. I ran out of some paints so i haven't been able to finish the last model or start some of the stuff on this guy. I find I'm pretty consistent when painting one model at a time, i don't know why, but it works.

Criticism is most welcome you guys, don't be afraid to pipe up!

Dan

[Brother Nihm]

Excellent blues!

 

From what I can tell the red appears to lack definition/highlights & shadows. The metal bands on his weapon could also do with shading. I struggle with silvers myself in that I always start too light. I've been told before that mixing Boltgun Metal with a touch of Chaos Black is a good start, I haven't gotten around to try it yet though.

 

Aside from that, them skulls - them skulls.

[Dan The Deamon]

Yeah I really struggle with my reds in contrast to my blues. my old bat wings used to go from red gore, blood red, through blazing orange, with some wash, but they always looked way too bright, like they were on fire. I think my problem is that i feel they should be as dark as the blue when they really don't need to be.

 

The skulls and weapon haft are unfinished at this point so you are right, they need some work :tu:

[Argon]

This guy?

He is one of my favorites as well, I'm glad you like him. Unfortunately my first upscaled squad has fallen out of use and most of it's members have gone on to lead other squads or have had their armor/weapons cannibalized. This guy is one of the few remaining survivors of 1st squad who hasn't been ripped apart by enemy fire, or my clippers. Don't worry, the survivors must live to fill a purpose...

The bits.....

-legs-

Space marine legs

Space marine assault legs

catatchan accessory knife

-belt line-

catatchan screaming guard head

chain from chaos marauders

skull from chaos marauders

Ogre kingdom grappling hooks/line

belt accessories from marine/guard sprue. (grenades, pouches, etc.)

-arms/weapons-

catatchan 'big knife' with ork nobz plume(skull pommel)

Space marine assault arms L + R

space marine assault bolt pistol

-chest-

Chaos torso

Possessed shoulder pad

Space marine backpack

chaos knight WHFB head spikes

-Head-

Chaos helmet W/ Grave guard wings.

Hope that's the model you're talking about.

Dan

Yep, that's the one. Thank you very much.

That's an IG knife? Wow. It looks gigantic even in a Space Marine's hands. I approve.

[Moribund the Burgermeister]

Yeah I really struggle with my reds in contrast to my blues. my old bat wings used to go from red gore, blood red, through blazing orange, with some wash, but they always looked way too bright, like they were on fire. I think my problem is that i feel they should be as dark as the blue when they really don't need to be.

 

 

 

I think you'd do well to use purple to shade the red, rather than using orange to highlight it. That way, you can still keep it bright while keeping in theme of the rest of your models. A simple example could go like this:

 

 

 

 

Mechrite Red base

 

1-2 layers of Red Gore

 

Leviathan Purple or Asurmen Blue(?) wash

 

Red Gore highlight

 

Red Gore + Blood Red highlight

 

Red Gore + Blood Red + Dwarf Flesh highlight

 

Thin red ink glaze, possibly

[popkhorne]

jesus christ where do you get your bitz? u must use at least a pound of little plastic skulls and spikes on every guy, could not be more nightlords! i wish i had your bitz my friend.

[Dan The Deamon]

Popkhorne Thanks for noticing the use of excessive bits. I actually counted up the skulls on most of my squads after you asked.

The zerks had 24 skulls in their squad, not counting armor trim/shoulder pads. My 2nd squad beat them with 27 though.

Moribund I tried out what you mentioned on my reds.

(in progress)

I started with red gore, then asurmen blue, then from red gore highlighted through blood red. I think they look much better now, thanks for the advice!

Brother Nihm I put some more highlights on my skulls per your request. I didn't want to go as high as the greys as i wanted the skulls to maintain a very dirty dark feel. If you remember Jesse the Body Ventura's skull getting ripped out in Predator you'll know what I'm talking about.

And now for the monthly Alpha Legion love.

Icon of Chaos Glory model

Probably one of my favorite models to date.

Hope you guys enjoy

Dan

[KhornateKiller]

Dan your stuff rocks !!! Much better than mine :wacko:

[Moribund the Burgermeister]

Glad it worked out, it looks a lot better now! :wacko:

[Loken86]

Amazing work brother

[Marshal Rohr]

That is a sexy Alpha Legionnaire.

[Xavier Targhost]

Awesome work mate!! And love your colours too! looking very nice and smoth i coulor tones and the red looks allot better now too :devil:

Superbly done with the Alpha one too.. love them more and more... and its basicly all thanks to you that the two legions you have here have grown on me so much!!

Befor they where more like "?" nothing special.. now.. works of art and super chaosy... :devil:

Cheers and a big salute there mate for all the love of the dark gods and insperations you corupt us all with!!

[daemonclaw]

always a pleasure looking at your stuff ,i love the dark painting and the posing and converting ideas are inspirational :devil:

[Dan The Deamon]

Hey guys,

Khornate Killer, You knocked out a squad bigger than me in a fraction of the time. I think better may be a relative term here, as you're finishing them <_<

Xavier You always blow me away with your comments and praise. Thanks for enjoying what I do.

Daemonclaw i'm glad i can inspire the inspiring. You're one of the reasons i've gotten so caught up in this army building thing. I love your work.

and onto the updates. I signed up for the call of Chaos and pledged my service to one legion above all else, The Alpha Legion!

I promised i'd finish my Hydra's Teeth squad.

1 Dreadnaught and 1 predator. I feel these are plausible goals and i'm pretty motivated to do it. If i get them knocked out quickly enough i'll get some fun new stuff up here.

I have 4 out of 8 finished and i love painting them. I really like the depth of the green/blue.

And then a little bit of midnight. With 'Ard Boyz coming up i remembered one of the games i had last year at Semi Finals. My champion held up a unit of iron warriors on a table corner by himself for about four turns.

I decided i'd honor him with a new model where I created this guy.

After making good progress on the rest of my army and learning a lot of real neat tricks to make them look better I decided he was too valued to leave in antiquity. I updated his combi-melta, his helmet, and his powerfist arm. He cut his old one off because it housed taint from the warp! I slapped some paint on him and think he turned out great.

He is looking forward to melting face soon. Grudge match, go.

Hope you guys enjoy.

Dan

[Dan The Deamon]

Almost forgot.

Intended to match the scales/skin on the shoulderpads.

[Loken86]

WOW brother those AL look fantastic and i love the reworked last man standing guy cant wait for next update

[CavPathfinder]

Dan,

Those Alpha Legion look beautiful. Glad to see someone has some time to finish a project. Your painting skillz have improved tenfold. Those are beyond tabletop quality. Once again great work.

Edited May 4, 2010 by CavPathfinder

[KhornateKiller]

Dan those are fantastic !!!!!

That updated champ rocks !!!

I would def say yours are better mate as your taking more time over them hence why they look better ;)

 

On a side note, My squad won the competition I couldnt believe it I am well chuffed, I get to pick a new title for myself on the forum which is gonna be "Night Haunter" and i get to decide what the next contest is, :eek

 

Keep up with your stuff mate it keeps the rest of us going, Although speaking for myself also insanely jealous from your quality of work from converting up to painting :D

 

Andy

[AL.]

great work, i love the alpha legion guys, the colours rock!

[Sons of Horus]

Love the Alphas ;)