In Midnight Clad - A Night Lords log

[Sanctimonius]

I just ran through this whole thread, these look amazing. I love the individual touches you've given everyone, it really gives them character even while they are clearly a cohesive whole.

 

Can you share your recipes?

[Shovellovin]

 

The Night Raptors / Warp Talons are DONE! If not for Citadel Contrast, these probably would still be unpainted. Being able to do Wraithbone > 50/50 Guilliman Flesh/Contrast Medium layer > Reikland Fleshshade > Highlight with Flayed One Flesh > liberal Blood for the Blood God I think I'd have gone made and given up. 

 

Blue is the normal (VMA Imperial Blue > Zenithal VMA Magic Blue > Drakenhoff Nightshade) and so is the metal. Not much experimentation 

 

 

 

 

Can you share your recipes?

I was looking through the thread too and found this. 

[Inquisitor Engel]

I just ran through this whole thread, these look amazing. I love the individual touches you've given everyone, it really gives them character even while they are clearly a cohesive whole.

 

Can you share your recipes?

 

 

Thanks!

 

My own method isn’t super complicated, but it does require an airbrush. My Night Lords are also Heresy era, so have silver trim instead of gold/bronze.

 

​White base coat.

1. Coat the model with Vallejo Model Air Imperial Blue (Closest to Kantor Blue in the Vallejo line)
2. Aggressive Zenithal highlight of Vallejo Model Air Magic Blue.
3. Drakenhoff Nightshade all over. Everywhere. This really tied the two blues together.
4. Blue highlights are Caledor Sky with another hit of Drakenhoff Nightshade on top.
5. Matte varnish (at the end , obviously) 

​Red:

1. Mephiston Red
2. Nuln Oil
3. Thinned later of Mephiston Red in raised areas
4. Evil Sunz Scarlet on the sharp edges
5. Army Painter Red Tone in the recesses/non-highlighted spots.​ (Sometimes I will do an additional recess shade with a brown wash of some kind if I want to up the contrast)

Metal trim:

1. Scale75 Black Metal
2. Nuln Oil
3. Highlight of Runefang steel.

This is one of my favourite methods of doing metal now. Nice, dark, realistic black metal.

 

Other silver metals (joints, backpack tech, etc.) are usually just Leadbelcher with Nuln Oil. Other golds are usually Runefang Steel with a chosen Contrast (yes really!) brown over the top. Skeleton Horde is a nice light gold, Snakebike Leather gives a good bronze tone. 

 

Any flayed flesh (which I don't have a TON of, as I view my force as mostly Terran, and early on in an engagement) is:

1. Wraithbone
2. 50/50 Guilliman Flesh/Contrast Medium layer
3. Reikland Fleshshade
4. Highlight with Flayed One Flesh
5. Liberal Blood for the Blood God 

Hope that helps! Ave Dominus Nox!

[Inquisitor Engel]

It took me the whole month, but I came in under the wire before my trip next week. 

 

 

I ended up doing them, more or less, one by one, but it worked out okay. Once I had the steps down I essentially did a step, went and did other things, came back later, did more. No marathon paint sessions here! I'm pleased with the results.

 

 

I really enjoyed this guy's head, though the difference between the FW resin Cataphractii I've had sitting for several years is obvious. There's a weird scale thing that's slightly different, but they look fine over all. 

 

 

All the pads were 3D printed from Shapeways, but this one is different from somewhere. I was waiting for Forge World to do Legion Cataphractii for Night Lords and they... never did, so here we are. The additional loincloth layers are from Artel W. and they are absolutely amazing for additional detail. I'd really like some other options for it, but it is what it is. 

 

 

 

I varied the helmets on them so the sergeant has a black helmet, there's one with gold trim he earned somewhere, and so on. 

 

 

 

This pose ended up being my favourite. The way both doing Blood for the Blood God pre-matte varnish and post layers dried and flesh blood nicely. 

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Beautiful work on the Terminators. The bloodstains and the skin-colored loincloths are most appropriate for the VIII Legion. Edited January 21, 2022 by Bjorn Firewalker

[Pearson73]

Great work mate, the gore is really nicely done and cranks the flesh up a notch. The Imperial Fist helmet on the base adds a nice spot of contrast too.

[OakRiver]

 

It took me the whole month, but I came in under the wire before my trip next week. 

 

 

I ended up doing them, more or less, one by one, but it worked out okay. Once I had the steps down I essentially did a step, went and did other things, came back later, did more. No marathon paint sessions here! I'm pleased with the results.

 

 

I really enjoyed this guy's head, though the difference between the FW resin Cataphractii I've had sitting for several years is obvious. There's a weird scale thing that's slightly different, but they look fine over all. 

 

 

All the pads were 3D printed from Shapeways, but this one is different from somewhere. I was waiting for Forge World to do Legion Cataphractii for Night Lords and they... never did, so here we are. The additional loincloth layers are from Artel W. and they are absolutely amazing for additional detail. I'd really like some other options for it, but it is what it is. 

 

 

I varied the helmets on them so the sergeant has a black helmet, there's one with gold trim he earned somewhere, and so on. 

 

 

 

This pose ended up being my favourite. The way both doing Blood for the Blood God pre-matte varnish and post layers dried and flesh blood nicely. 

 

 

Looking that these Terminators, you've managed to capture that feeling when I first saw GW's seminal Chaos Terminators when the 2nd Edition codex was released

[Gore Crow]

Amazing work on the cataphractii - love the details and you're nailing miniature photography!

 

EDIT: looking through your log I recognise your NLs from my many image searches for inspiration! I've ripped off so much of your stuff :lol:

Edited June 30, 2021 by Gore Crow

[Inquisitor Engel]

Amazing work on the cataphractii - love the details and you're nailing miniature photography!

 

EDIT: looking through your log I recognise your NLs from my many image searches for inspiration! I've ripped off so much of your stuff

 

Oh see now I'm flattered! :) 

 

Thank you! 

[Isengrin]

These terminators look great! And now I'm tempted even more to buy the KFStudio bits. 

[Inquisitor Engel]

Thanks guys! FW giving the suggestion that pre-Heresy Night Lords were silver-trimmed was one of the best things to have happened. 

 

That said, sometimes you spend a week assembling, washing, priming, and painting a vehicle and then go... "Yeah, that's a rhino." 

 

 

I'm happy to get the resin off my plate. Progress was also slowed by them including two left side sprues and no right... Fortunately the Warhammer Cafe sorted me out. 

[Smoke Frog]

Beautiful work, I really like how you painted that terminator with no helmet!

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the Rhino.

[Inquisitor Engel]

Hey look, terminators! I know it's been a while. I've been... busy (see below).



And of course, I couldn't resist a stack-focused panorama of Sevatar and his Atramentar friends! At some point I'll actually get to use them in a game!

I actually uploaded various groups of this set to my Instagram and Reddit as I finished them instead of waiting to finish the whole squad and it really did seem to help me push through and finish them all at a faster clip than I usually run at. I also like the chained skeletal hand on the lightning claw guy as well.

I really ended being pleased with the super pale face on the one guy, including his purpled scars and milky eye. It's the bare head from the FW NL Praetor.

Face was based white. Then covered with pallid wych flesh. Then:

 

1. Leviathan purple, focused around mouth and eyes and edges near hair.
2. Then a light nuln oil wash focused on the deep recesses and eyes. Then athonian camoshade all over.
3. Relayered a light coat of pallid wych flesh.
4. I took a 1:1 white to pallid highlight and a very small pure white highlight.

 

These were FW resin kits I picked up when we bought our house TEN YEARS AGO so it feels good to get them out of the backlog and done. Most of the shoulder pads are Pop Goes the Monkey, though some are originals. I was hoping FW would do official NL pads but... they never did. I stopped adding to my backlog when my wife and I started trying to have a kid. Sold some stuff I knew was just “for fun” and focused on what I had as armies. Once we found out in September (due in June) I resolved to finish as much as I could, and focus as much as possible on the resin I had so that was out of the way.

 

I’ll come in close. I have an Eldar Scorpion ready to be based, and then Dorn and Curze. I figure if I clean and prep them I can do them half an hour here or there and just take forever. Plastic is whatever, at least it’s easy to work with and non-toxic. I’ve made my peace with not getting to my Warhound. I’ll probably pay someone to do the cleaning and body assembly and just do the plates myself so it still feels like “mine” one day. I do need to install a lock on my study door though…

There's a shot of Sevatar with all 10 of his Atramentar buddies I'm doing some stack focus editing on I'll post this week.

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great  (Night Lords are my favourite traitor chapter ... no I'm not biased )

 

It's good to hear some items which have been in the backlog for a such a long time are getting finished!  

[Inquisitor Engel]

AVE DOMINUS NOX.

 

 

BOW before Konrad Curze, the Night Haunter, King of Terrors, The Last Judge, Prophet, pacifier and regent of Nostramo, Lord of the Night, and gene-father of the VIIIth Legions Astartes “Night Lords.” 

 

This took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to paint. I think I completed the base in November or so? I'm very pleased with how he turned out.

After a long time painting Night Lords, I figured I needed to finally paint the big man himself and... wow it took a long time. The amount of detail, and the amount of SUPER shallow detail on this model is crazy. The little gothic windows on his calves alone are like like... what? Someone sculpted this by hand??

 

 

 

 

The gold/bronze/brass on his shoulder pads were stolen from u/darcybono's tutorial on how to paint Night Lords with mostly contrast. The end result for me was a bit darker than her result (likely me not mixing things right) so I brought it up further with Retributor Armour and Liberator Gold. I enjoyed how this turned out. Happy accidents!

 

Flayed Flesh:

His loincloth I did my older flayed flesh with Gillian Flesh and highlights and stuff which worked out find, but for the cape I again stole Darcy's method of quick flayed flesh, with some additions: White undercoat > Skeleton Horde Contrast - I thin this with a small dab of Contrast Medium as I wanted it to look more plaid at the base > 1:1 Volpus Pink/Lahmian Medium - Darcy's plan here was stellar. I'll be stealing this for future line troops.

 

For Curze, I further highlighted with various mixes of Pallid Which Flesh, Flayed One Flesh, and Terminates Stone on different parts of the cape to indicate it's from different people while still keeping the overall tone.

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD applied liberally in places where it would pool and make sense. I didn't want to obscure the skin or anything, or make it look like the cape was pure muscle, so I was more conservative here than a lot of Curze paint jobs I've seen.

 

Face:

White primer. The hair was administratum gray. Washed with many nuln oil plus matte medium washes. No highlight. Face was based white. Then covered with pallid wych flesh. Leviathan purple, focused around mouth and eyes and edges near hair. Nuln oil wash focused on the deep recesses and eyes. I then relayered a light coat of pallid wych flesh. I took a 1:1 white:pallid highlight and a very small pure white highlight.

 

The entire model got some strategic Blood for the Blood God in places, then a seal of Mr. Super Clear Matte varnish, then some BFTBG again on some of those spots, which gives a slightly dried mixed look to the gore.

 

I painted him limb by limb basically and it took a while, but let me focus on the details. The "scales" on the arms and legs in particular took a while.

 

[Rusted Boltgun]

I'm starting to appreciate Night Lords and hope to attempt painting some soon (new Kill Team arrived today). 

Konrad is stunning and well worth the time spent.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I don't know what to say, but he came out great

 

Thanks for including the recipes, too!