How to paint Bloodangels nicely using Quickshade - Prototype

[Saphos]

By request of some users I painted two Bloodangels Tactical Marines from the Black Reach box using highlights to improve the effect of the Quickshade.

I was a little sloppy with them as a) they are just prototypes and B) I messed up with the Armypainter white basecoat and got a grainy finish. I hope that they are still of interest to you.

 

I primed white, then applied Blood Red, then a drybrush with skullwhite and on the other model with Fiery Orange. Details picked out with Mithril Silver, grey and white. Then Armypainter Quickshade Strong Tone. After that varnished with Vallejo matte varnish from the can. Snow is Ziterdes snow paste.

 

Here you go:

 

Before Quickshade:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4538...57623591653202/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4538...57623591653202/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4538...57623591653202/

 

Finished:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4537...57623591653202/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4538...57623591653202/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4537...57623591653202/

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4538...57623591653202/

 

They got darker then I expected. I think I like the harsh white highlights better.

 

Edit 5/1/ 2010: Some thoughts on the use of Quickshade in general, prompted by some questions I received.

 

Do you have some Quickshade experience outside of the Sanguinary Guard?

 

I do:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=194045

 

Not too much black, but enough to highlight what I am about to explain. Large areas of black and the Quickshade are not really that compatible, as the shade just really works nicely on lighter colours. But we have one quality of the quickshade working in our favor. Stark highlights as white shine well through the Shade. They get slightly duller but not too much. So you can highlight the black with grey and light grey or white and those highlights then look good through the shade. So what you write below could work or as I prefer it I paint classical two stage highlights (Codey Grey + white) on the black. This is less work with my ImpFists as they have less black. So your Fleshtearers with larger areas of black are not ideal candidates for quickshade use. This is why my Blacktemplars I started some years ago are being turned into Bloodangels. Back then they were easier to paint as BTs compared to my old Ultramarines. But now that I use the Quickshade so much, they are too much work (and I like BAs better ^^).

 

Be careful with the drybrush as too much quickly turns into a too dirty/dusty look. The harder the contrast the faster you get a sloppy look. I prefer less but stronger highlights. Just look closely at the Bloodangel I drybrushed with white. The undercoat was rough and I rushed the job to get it done. It would have looked much better/neater if I had spent just a little more time. You will have to try out what works best with a couple of testpieces.

 

I was hoping you could help me figure out which colors to use for my Flesh Tearers, specifically the black. I couldn't really see any black on your models, not on any large area - for painting black heads and backpacks, would you recommend drybrushing a dark gray (Adeptus Battlegray), with hardline highlights in a light gray?

 

Like I said either that (could work out quite nice) or painted highlights in like Codey Grey and then a little white. Try the drybrush first as this will be the much faster approach in case you like the result good enough.

 

Also - is there a trick to brushing the quickshade on? I've tried brushing a polyeurothane wood finish on and it didn't go well. It was also incredibly difficult to dip them and then brush the excess off, it was painfully obvious where I had to brush it off. The fellow at my game store said the Quickshade is even thicker.

 

Yeah, the stuff is quite thick. But it is well possible. It just needs some practice to get it nice. The classical way avoiding the overflow is to shake it off. But this wastes too much material imho and you seem to think so too, as you tried brushing already. I use two different brushes. The first is semi-large, not too soft, not too hard. If it is too soft, it will be hard to brush on the thick fluid (especially to reach into recesses), if it is too hard, you can damage the paintjob and run risk of scratching the starting to dry Quickshade. Here is a picture of the brush I use (and friend asked me for that ^^):

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cplhicks/4537...57623591653202/

 

I paint on the Shade quite liberally and then wipe off the first larger amount of the goo. You said yourself that those places are easy to identify. For example the lower end of the Sanguinaryguard wings were a point where the Shade was pooling strongly. You have to carefully watch those places. They are different with every miniature.

 

When you have wiped off the major excess it is time for the second brush, a small GW detail brush for example. With this brush you can take away smaller amounts of Shade without touching the surrounding Shade. Because as soon as it starts to dry, you should not touch those areas anymore as this will disturb the smooth finish of the Shade and look messy. The areas where there will still be too much Shade will remain fluid longer and there you can then take off the excess Shade. An area for that besides the aforementioned wingtips is between the thigh and the kneecap of a Marine´s leg. You can see that with the two Bloodangels. There I forgot to pay attention to this area and ended up with a brown spot. The Shade needs some time to settle. So just do one miniature at once and give each a little time to see whether the Shade is doing what you want it to on the whole of the miniature. This should do the trick.

 

In case you missed a spot you can thin it down again with paintthinner. This actually happened witht he wingtips. A large ugly blob had formed there that looked utter crap. The Shade was too dry already to just be wiped off but not fully dried trough. So I dipped the tip of the small brush in the thinner and thinned down the blob again. That luckily worked really good.

 

What I have described here is the more advanced version of doing it nicely. You need that approach or something along this line to achieve what I have done with the Guard or the Dreadnought. You can do it faster if you can live with compromises on the quality (which the Quickshade is about in the first place). So for example quicker, less accurate drybrushs instead of painting highlights and the like. You have to find the happy medium between your motivation and the amount of work you need to get a result you can live with happily. I took me quite some time to get there. But once you do, things get much easier. I painted more miniatures this year alone then in like the last 5 Years. :)

 

Well, I hope my experince is of use to you. It is actually not too difficuilt comapred to how my explanation might sound. I am really interested in your experiences so feel free to give me plenty of feedback. My way works for me but is not necessarily the best or most economical. I am always interested to learn myself.

[Skoby]

they look good, better than I wouldve expected, I personally prefer the orange one, but both look good. I was considering messing with this stuff sometime, but I think I would try using their coloured primers (apparantly they have a decent match for blood red) and looking at your results I think I would do metals seperate and badab black them since in the pics they have almost a bone tint.

 

If I ever get round to doing a BA army (again) I will have a go at this method myself.

[Saphos]

Yeah, the colourprimers seem to be a useful product. I will try them out myself someday. The tint of the metal is less severe in real life. My camerafu is not stronger unfortunately.

[S'jet]

Used quickshade for the first time today, i put it on too many areas at once, and it ended up going sticky by the time i got to the last bits, which was obviously... bad. So, my advice would be to only do small sections at a time if you want to work it and try get some kind of gradient on the shading...

[Saphos]

Well, working quickly indeed is paramount. The advice above to apply the Shade quite liberally is supposed to help with that as you should manage to cover the model quickly without worrying about the intricacies too much at first.

[Tropicana]

You, old son, are God.

 

/End.

 

Amen to Quick Shade! Amen to New Signatures! (Checkiddout, man!) ^_^

 

Fantastic Results!

 

I'ma getting me some Quick Shade!

 

Cheers for all your Help, Communicaiton and Patience whilst I badgered you about your Techniques and such!

 

I'll be keeping an eye on whatever you post next! ;)

 

We need to see more of your work! :D

[andypandy119]

WOW, they looked really nice :D Could you maybe show a army picture if you got one avilable ? :)

[Cadaveri]

woah looks really nice :( btw ignore the pm i sent u.. now that i read the whole post i got my answers already ^^

[Saphos]

No army picture so far. I am still in the process of putting everything together and priming it. I started painting my Terminators and some characters though and a Razorback is nearly done, too. I just need to put finishing touches on a Predator (this week, magnetising the Sponsons tonight), then a Landraider, starting next week. After that there is another tactical squad, 13 Sternguard and rebasing of 13 Bikes and 2 Trikes. Then I will start to paint it all up. :D

 

@ Cadaveri

 

Too late. :huh:

[Saphos]

I bought the Pure Red Primer from Armypainter and will give it a try in the coming weeks. So updates soon. I just need to get the upcoming Bloodangels Blackbox in my hands. :tu: