Space Hulk BA Sgt Lorenzo

[Chaplain Desmodus]

Well, it's been a year since I last posted anything. I got the Space Hulk box in October and have slowly been painting my first squad since then, an hour here and there when my baby son has finally gone to bed. *yawn*

Anyway. The Golden Bolter got my attention recently, and also the upcoming Blood Angels Codex with new minis and all. Hoorah! ^_^ Finally some great minis to paint. BA have been my favorite army since RT days, but not until now did I really want to paint that much red.

So here's the first finished mini, the others will be finished next week, I hope.

My recipe for red is as follows:

1. Black undercoat, followed by a heavy brush-over of mechrite red.

2. Heavy brush-over of blood red.

3. Shade sparingly using brown ink, or the new black/brown glazes.

4. Paint areas with thinned blood red to get an even coverage.

5. First highlight to edges is blazing orange.

6. Add Dwarf Flesh to orange for next highlight, finnaly add small highlights of pure DF to sharp edges or especially raised points (eg knuckles).

7. 1-2 washes of thinned OOP Red Ink. This is really the secret.

8. Perhaps add a final DF highlight.

I experimented with 2-D scratches for the first time. I wanted to combine some fine dents and scratches with metallic scratches, without making it all look painted-on, you be the judge if I pulled it off or not. ;)

The dents were painted with Dwarf Flesh and then with Darfk Flesh or Scorched Brown. Metallic scratches are Boltgun, followed by Chainmail. All wear-and-tear has been shaded with OOP brown ink.

Gems are Liche Purple, highlighted with warlock purple and white.

The face is Tanned Flesh and a smudge of grey, highlighted by adding pallid flesh and white, then glazed with purple, brown and red glazes (much thinned).

Comments are very welcome! :)

[Terminatorinhell]

Man.. that is something nice! Darn shame they don't have red ink anymore ^_^

[Jokersminis]

Damn fine work, Des. Great to see you back!

 

I love the subtle weathering on the armor.

[Tomevans]

Wow, that looks brilliant, the little chips and battle scars really add another level of detail to the model. Great stuff. Do you have the rest of the SH marines and if so are we going to see them on here?

[Xavier Targhost]

Very Nice done mate :blush: thought that it where the Eavy metal painted first.. :$

Like the skin, skulls and face! and the gems look superbly well done too :D

[Master Toddius]

I think its better than any of the FT's you did, which is high marks to begin with. The red is gorgeous, the weathering isn't over the top so its nice and balanced. All the little details came out beautiful. Love the skin tone and face work and the gold trim is really cool as well. The only little crit I have (because you're at such a high level) is that the black cloak could have a little more play in forced lighting. Maybe some more grey gradient level blending.

 

Very skillfully done work. :)

[StratoKhan]

Hey Des,

 

it's absolutely lovely, I've always liked your red, it really works and there is nothing orange about it, which in my mind is one of the most important things to get right with BA armour. Equally accomplished are both the gold and the purple gems. Just great.

 

One thing that I might have to suggest though is to rethink the white braiding on the model's back. I don't know if the contrast with the black cape is doing it, but it's looking far too flat, while the white braiding on the front of the model has more depth.

 

Ah, and maybe I should point out that while Red and Brown Inks are OOP, Coat D'arms still produce the old white top paints that GW used to sell, so maybe people who want an ink like the out of production GW ones could find a replacement there.

[Demoulius]

:)

 

amazing work chaplain des. nice to see you again btw :) hope you ill stick around for a while?

[sisko11]

First of all, WELCOME BACK!

 

Modding is all well and good, but we loves us our Des miniatures. In fact, it prompted my first post here in a few years!

 

First of all, looking good. Your mastery of reds, blacks and BA chapter fleshtones is of course legendary. In fact, I'm pretty sure a great many of the DIY red and black chapters knocking around on this forum (including my own) are directly attributable to your Flesh Eaters.

 

Now to the minor opinion based crits. I am also tackling these minis after slogging through the genestealers and finally completing them last week, so I know that some parts of these termis are oddly lacking detail in relation to the general standard of the sculpts. One particular example of what I am talking about is the left foot, the 'sole' of it suddenly dissapears after the greave, odd lack of detail. Jeebus knows you are good enough to freehand some detail, or sculpt to even that out.

 

The next thing I would comment on would be the chips, as you specifically mention it in your post. You have done a great job, mixing the metallic and colored chips effectively and keeping the 2 variations smoothly transitioning from one to the other. I do my chips in a similar mix as well, figuring that some damage would be a bit older with dirt/rust causing the paint to lift a bit at the edges (requiring faux 3d freehand), while the fresh scars would be treated as metallic scratches. The thing I would suggest would be to take it further to a 3rd step, with a bit of soot/gunmetal weathering powder in the deepest crevices of the armor, the backs of the legs, gloves etc. This doesnt neccesarily need to be overdone, but I think it would add depth to the armor a bit in realistic soft blacklining method. That and a bit of soot/carbon scoring on the bolter barrels too, to me if the armor is worn, the barrels should be too.

 

The 2 above are only suggestions really, not so much criticism. The only thing I would criticize is the cape, the black seems quite flat, and the highlighting looks a bit rough. I would love to see a few more highlight layers on there and then a black wash. And again, since I know you are godly with the brush, maybe a little freehand embroidery?

 

 

That's it! Hope it's helpful/non-offensive, it really is a great job. Personally, very happy to see a post from you on here, you were a very big inspiration for me when I was last hobbying 5+ years or so ago. Now if we can drag out Chronophague, Bobby Wong, Mad Scuzzy, Commander Y and Misgula this could be a real party!

 

P.s, congrats on your kid, I think the main reason I got back into the hobby is to take advantage of the little time I have before I am in the same boat lol

[Chaplain Desmodus]

Thanks for the replies and constructive comments so far. :)

 

The back of the cloak is a bit flatly painted, I agree. Same with the braiding there, they were much less textured that the ones on the font.

 

I thought of painting a yellow BA symbol on the black cloak but didn't. :P

 

The rest of the SH marines from Lorenzo's squad are coming. I have some detail work to do and then they're done.

[SnorriSnorrison]

Really nice work here, the battle damage and the face look really realistic, and the red is an awesome work! :)

 

 

Snorri

[DV8]

I like it a lot! The face is very clean, has a great "I-vant-to-suck...your-blood!" look to it, and the battle damage is clean without being over-done.

 

I do however wish the black cape wasn't so "flat" in tone, and the white braiding on the back could have more depth added.

 

Otherwise, nicely done.

 

 

DV8

[Brother Mordeus]

I like it, my only concern is the presence of a grainy texture under some of your painting layers, dunno if its the primer, but under such a high level of scrutiny, it might bring your model down, hope not though. The weathering is quit impressive.

[Chaplain Desmodus]

I like it, my only concern is the presence of a grainy texture under some of your painting layers, dunno if its the primer, but under such a high level of scrutiny, it might bring your model down, hope not though. The weathering is quit impressive.

Thanks for the comments. Grainy, where?