Angels, Wolves & Xenos - Swarmlord - Carapace Markings

[Bryan Blaire]

So, I have come to a really silly sticking point while working on this bike and I'd like some advice: what the heck should I paint the little buttons on the handle bars and center console. On the bars, there is a little downward triangle button that looks like a yield sign, so I was thinking of painting it either yellow or red. Below that is a round button, and I was considering painting that green for "Go", but that seems stupid because most bikes have a rotational control for the throttle. I guess one could be the gearing, because there don't appear to be any pedal controls like on a motorcycle, and there aren't any brake levers/pedals either. Maybe one round button is the weapon trigger?

 

Anyway, the button lay outs: two downward triangles and two round buttons on the handle bars, two square buttons, one round one and one depression that looks like a square button under the console screen. Suggestions for paint schemes for these things?

[deathspectersgt7]

I paint the tri green  rd blu screen grn then scorpion grn lines&dots to represent blips and such. the others red and lt blue.

[Firepower]

Quite the beauty so far. You have a real knack for browns.

[Bryan Blaire]

I paint the tri green  rd blu screen grn then scorpion grn lines&dots to represent blips and such. the others red and lt blue.

I agree with you on the screen idea (I had a very similar one myself) but why the button colors? Did you have a reason for choosing which you put where?

 

Quite the beauty so far. You have a real knack for browns.

Thanks Firepower! He's coming along slowly. Most of the brown you see other than the pistol holster and pouches are about to become bone though!

[deathspectersgt7]

On the other buttons I just went with random colors got the idea watching a doc on nuclear power. On all the buttons they had in the control rm. Plus no one ever said what the buttons are for .

[Bryan Blaire]

First up, the 360 for Veteran Sergeant Temiel as he currently stands (or sits on his hog):

Still have the shoulder scroll, purity seals, touch ups, battle damage and highlighting to do, along with the melta-bomb and backpack, and the squad designation (still deciding if I'm going to do a simple number or something a little more elaborate), and then this fella's main body is all done.

Hopefully Captain Semper can see the pin stripe on the tire.

Thank you for the suggestion and info, deathspectresgt7. So I took Pbenner and Elmo's advice from the DA forum and went with purple and blue for buttons. I tried to make the recessed area appear to be glowing purple (that I'm going to have to work on), and then went for as much of the primary and secondary color spectrum as I could fit. I really like how the view screen turned out, but I should have made it a little brighter:

And finally, the progress on the winged fairing. I think the light turned out well this time:

C&C? How does the highlighting on the pouches and holster look now? I tried to brighten them up a bit!

[Alpha PTP]

The skin on the sergeant looks a little flat. It needs another highlight or two on the most exposed parts.

 

Skin is also a very complicated thing to paint on a miniature because skin in real life has so many different colors. It isn't just shades of brown and white, but there are shades of purple because of blood under the skin and the natural red tint of pale complexion skin. If you want to make it more realistic, there should be light shades of purples in the recesses along with some brown.

Other than that it looks pretty good so far. The text on the one purity seal looks great and the green has a lot of depth. 

[Bryan Blaire]

Hmmm, I did a pretty heavy wash of Druchii Violet around the eyes after the base coat, so maybe it got too covered when I started highlighting. Where would you put the highlights at this point? This is the best skin I've ever done (and I really hate skin), but I don't think this guy needs any more reddish tint (he was already accused of being a Devaronian by my wife). I've been trying to get a more coppery skin tone, so I'm not terribly sure just how light I should go up.

[Alpha PTP]

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/HollowJester/SotE1-1-1.jpg

 

So here is a miniature I painted a few years ago that had the light purple washes in the recesses like I was telling you.

I shade above the brow a lot because it shows off how large and intimidating of a brow space marines have, and I shade below it a lot close to their eyes but leave their cheekbones exposed because it makes them look more intimidating as all marines should be. Also, because of how this model was shadowed the mask doesn't look like it is melted to his face, but is actually a separate part of him with just enough space between his skin and the mask. 

 

tl;dr I would shade like how the one above is done, but make it a little more tanned. 

[Bryan Blaire]

Okay, so based on the advice of Alpha PTP and some of the Dark Angels forum chaps, I added another Druchii Violet shade around the eyes, an Agrax Earthshade wash around the edge of the mask to give the face/mask edge better definition, and highlighted with a 3:1 Ratskin Flesh:Skrag Brown, then a brightest highlight with just watered down Ratskin Flesh:

Thoughts? Any better looking? More C&C?

Edited June 17, 2013 by Bryan Blaire

[Alpha PTP]

Much better! Now go paint more stuff. :lol: 

[Bryan Blaire]

:lol: Thanks Alpha PTP!

Hopefully this is quick enough for you!

So the fairing is done and applied! It's on to the backpack, and then the final details and highlighting!

So, the eternal question... what color am I going to highlight the black with? Pure grey, dingy grey, or blue-grey. Decisions, decisions.

[chapter master Benji]

stunning improvement from the first photos. i was stunned.

[Bryan Blaire]

stunning improvement from the first photos. i was stunned.

:lol:

Thanks chapter master Benji! I feel I've improved by leaps and bounds, but it is nice to know that others feel similarly.

Now, apparently, I never actually posted the finished bike + biker here (the base is still to be worked on, as well as highlights and grime for the tires), so I present Sergeant Temiel of the Boneseekers, riding his mount Breaker of Chains:

The seal fabric and scroll on the pauldron looks a little oddly colored in the photo, but it is painted the same way as the other ones. Not sure exactly what happened in the photo, but it looks the same IRL.

[Liberame]

Beautiful biker Bryan, reminds me of why I laugh the Angels of Absolution color scheme

[Firepower]

Very pretty.  Kind of odd that the metal is so scratchy while the rest of the model is pristine.  And no basing?

 

I'd be supremely jealous of your work if it wasn't so time intensive.  Instead I'm just irritatingly green 

Edited June 29, 2013 by Firepower

[RedInventor]

Looks great man, love what you've done.

[Bryan Blaire]

Alright, so I had already come back to this one, but the database scrap-code issue ate it, so now we come back again!

Beautiful biker Bryan, reminds me of why I laugh the Angels of Absolution color scheme

Thanks a bunch, Liberame! I'm still amazed by how quickly you crank out high quality models!

Very pretty. Kind of odd that the metal is so scratchy while the rest of the model is pristine. And no basing?

I'd be supremely jealous of your work if it wasn't so time intensive. Instead I'm just irritatingly green

A tip of my hat to you as well sir! Yeah, it takes forever, but I dig it. The basing will definitely be coming along, I just need to figure out which, if any, Chaos bits may feature on the base. As far as the scratched up metal: hey, you can paint over scratched up paint. That's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!

Looks great man, love what you've done.

Thank you RedInventor! Glad you like!

Now, due to hobby ADD, I have switched sides for my painting endeavors to the opposition force on Hybreon IV (my little made-up warzone), the Extinction Angels. They had been cultivating the world of Hybreon IV as a cult planet prior to the Iron Crusaders landing there on their path out to the Ghoul Stars. Unfortunately for them, when they decided to leave a small garrison, one of the cult leaders (who had made themselves scarce upon the IC landing) rang up their local EA pack and requested assistance before they were rooted out. A group of EA Chosen, led by a rather powerful Sorcerer in oddly marked armor (it was remarked upon by the Loyalist Lord Governor that the abyssal black, red, white and brass markings were unlike those of the rest Chaos Marines that landed, prior to having his head taken off), arrived and assisted the cultists in butchering the garrison and then running amok among the populace.

I present the first of the Extinction Angels' Chosen (possibly of the Reapers, not sure yet):

I tried to do several things on this guy: I wanted the little claws on his armor to look "obsidian", so I used a method I had found on GW's What's New Today when they were introducing the Ogre Kingdom's Stonehorn. I did that on the little icon on the pistol holster and the Chaos eight-pointed stars on the chain hanging from the bolter as well. I think they flayed flesh loincloth came out well, but it is too close in color to the bone trim, so I'll be finding a new way to paint that for the next one. I think the next eye in the chest and the eye lenses will both be yellow as well, to set them off more from the purple. I tried to do the little pipes as if they had become slimy fleshy tubes, but I think they need more gloss varnish to really look slimy, and the ridging on them I tried to do as if they were bone structures underneath, with bits of blood coagulating around the exposed bone ridges. I do like the way the little "brain" turned out on his backpack, it seems suitably nasty.

Sadly, I didn't get to fill in all the "snap together" joints on this guy, that will need to be improved for next time. And the basing will eventually be done, just have to decide on which Crusader bits this guy gets to stand over and how much blood he'll be covered in.

Thoughts, comments, criticism? Ideas for what I could do next with this guy?

Edited July 30, 2014 by Bryan Blaire

[Bryan Blaire]

Well, the Extinction Angels Chosen didn't seem to do much for anyone, so back to the Stoneburners!

4th Company Master Furael (Commander of Hybreon IV Strike Force):

Command Squad:

Apothecary (with additional vial/gene-seed container pack mag-locked to leg):

Company Champion (not a very effective unit member, but I think the model is cool, so I wanted to put a new one together):

Standard Bearer keeps trying to fall apart (they are all just tacky'd together at the moment), so I'll have to get a set of images when I get him more glued together. Still unsure exactly which banner I want to paint up right now.

Additional squad members:

Power Halberd (Axe according to the BGB) and Storm Shield:

I have a shooty command squad I'm currently putting together for the 6th or 7th Company, will probably be two plasma gunners, and two combi-plasmas, and a Company Master with Combi-Plasma to be set with the Standard of Devastation standard bearer.

Thoughts, C&C on the models?

[Candleshoes]

Great and characterful models as always Bryan, I especially like the sword choice for the champion, can't wait to see some paint on it.

[KaosRaptor]

Aw hell, I've always thought the Extinction Angels scheme was awesome, and you've definitely done it justice! Why have I not seen this thread before?

 

On the newer stuff, I love your kit-bashes. If I could just throw one thought your way, I love the idea of the vials/gene seed on the leg of the Apothecary, but it kinda looks clunky sitting there as it is (that's probably more the size of the bit's fault than yours though!)

 

Now excuse me while I gape over the rest of the thread 

[Bryan Blaire]

Thanks guys!

 

Candleshoes, I really like the sword also, took a bit of cutting to get it to that point, and I've been pondering the paint also. I had original considered a bone colored blade, but that wouldn't quite fit, since that would only really be appropriate for the Deathwalkers (for Death's sword in the legend) and possibly the Boneseekers (bone colored claws from their legend). I've been thinking that something more like Sergeant Barathiel's power maul with bone letters and brass cross guard and pommel gem setting. Now I need to come up with a gem color for the pommel, might be too much red, but blue would stand out too much. Possibly green.

 

KaosRaptor, glad you like the Extinction Angel, I really do have some plans for him with some bloody messes made from Tamiya Clear Red and I need to figure out some basing for them. (I will gladly take suggestions, I have no idea what theme I want to use for these guys.)

 

I think I agree on the Apothecary's leg unit, I really hoped it was going to work out, but even logically, if it was mag-locked that way, it would inhibit leg movement. One suggestion I've had was to move the extra unit up to be mag-locked against the bottom of the power pack. I may also just remove it completely and leave just put the single vial pack on the belt. I will definitely be pulling out an old WD 'Eavy Metal painting guide on those vials.

 

Hope you like the rest of the thread, I have a lot more stuff on my DA Forum WiP thread too.

[Bryan Blaire]

Alright, got a couple modifications:

Apothecary

Halberd Wielder

How about these stances?

Tried to unclutter the Apothecary some and move the vial pack to a position where he could still un-mag-lock and grab it. Would probably clip/shave off the two triangular protrusions on the case back to have it sit more flush and flat on the power pack.

The halberd wielder wasn't necessarily bad, but someone suggested trying this kind of pose. I like it a bit better than the across the chest position, even though this is my CC Command Squad, other than the "stalking" claw user, the unit is more of a "surveying the battlefield for their next victims" standing poses, so I think this one fits a little better.

Thoughts, C&C?

[Firepower]

I think the apothecary needs a relaxed right arm.  He's got a Rock Em Sock Em Robot pose going on with both arms bent like that.

 

It could be interesting to rotate the lance 90 degrees to the left and rest the business end over the top of the shield in a semi-Spartan style.

[Bryan Blaire]

I think the apothecary needs a relaxed right arm.  He's got a Rock Em Sock Em Robot pose going on with both arms bent like that.

 

It could be interesting to rotate the lance 90 degrees to the left and rest the business end over the top of the shield in a semi-Spartan style.

I think you are probably right about the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em vibe. :lol: Back to the bitz!

 

Hmmm, I think I can do that, but I'm not going to rotate the hand just yet, plus it will definitely require some pinning. Need to snag a Rock 'Em Sock 'Em left arm to hold the shield also.