Help me paint the perfect Blood Angel.

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

So, as I have alluded to in a few other posts, I'm quite particular about how I feel Blood Angels should look.  Basically, they should look like this:

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img841/9291/rafen2.jpg

 

...and like this....

 

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img89/9295/bloodangel.jpg

 

...and a lot less like this.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img24/1231/m1620054a99120101087bab.jpg

 

In summary, I want my Blood Angels to have really gritty armor, and be a little less garish shade of red.  I'm sure we've all seen plenty of examples of "battle-worn" armor painted both brilliantly and less so, but somehow even the good ones don't really get at the sort of intense feeling of these images.  Part of that is simply the medium we're working in, but honestly I've seen people do amazing things in our hobby and I'm reaching out here to see what's out there that I haven't seen.

 

I'd like to make this thread a challenge to either post your own Blood Angel that comes closest to capturing the essence of the vision of Blood Angels in the artwork above, or to post any other's you find that you think fits the bill.

 

I will post my own and discuss how I'm going about approaching this issue myself soon, but I really want to get some feedback from you guys to see if you all can help push me even further towards my goal.

 

Again, this isn't a tacit criticism of anyone's painting style or personal vision of the Blood Angels; I've seen lots of inspirational stuff in our showcase thread here.  This thread is simply about bringing the essence of these pictures to life.  I'm not looking for pose recreation or anything, just the vibe the artist is casting here.

 

Show me what I haven't seen!

 

[Zynk Kaladin]

I am 100% on the same wavelength with you.  Here's another one of my favorite BA art images that captures them perfectly.  I think it comes down to these essential aspects:

 

1) Polished Armor:  Polished Armor creates the rich dark tones much like actual deep pools of blood.  I'm not exactly sure how to paint this perfectly, but perhaps a dark metallic red highlighted with a lighter metallic red?

 

2) Gold Etching:  This is something I'm working on with my Sanguinary Guard.  The gold etching really brings out the nobility of our Blood Angels and enhances the rich polished armor.  Very important!

 

3) Battle Damage:  Battle damage not only inherently makes models more badarse, but also could accentuate the rest of the polished parts of the armor.  I'm not exactly sure how to explain it, but it's kind of like a contrast.

 

4) Angelic iconography: Obvious, but essential.  A Blood Angel without wings is madness! :D  I'd go with gold or white with sanguinary priests.

[Niklaslinden]

Hey!

 

Just wanted to pitch in and show some of my assault marines. Maybe not as intense and awe-inspiring as the art but I feel they represent quite well what blood angels are supposed to be. 

 

 

http://i39.tinypic.com/1z674hi.jpg

[angel robertson]

Perfect timing on this thread! Just getting back into things and going back my roots with BA and I agree. They are the BA I want... I was painting angels sanguine years ago and the closest I got was with my chaplin which was done using dark blue as the highlight. I think thats how I will go about my DC

[Xenith]

Basically, you need to work on your freehand.

 

Check out Kraegus' "Mr Red" in the WIP section: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/274967-mr-red/

 

Paint gold banding around armour plates, anything to break up the monotony.

 

Here's a couple of WIP shots of my tac marines, They're done now, and I should update the pictures...

 

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/Mechxen/Blood%20Angels/P8143327-1.jpg

 

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/Mechxen/Blood%20Angels/PC220393.jpg

 

http://i279.photobucket.com/albums/kk141/Mechxen/Blood%20Angels/PC220391.jpg

[Ushtarador]

Time to show off I guess I am on the same page with you, the codex look was just too much "playmobile"-style for my taste. I use a much darker red, black areas and a lot of gold to create a darker effect. I haven't managed to paint good battle damage though, I'm working on that :/

Of course, the images you posted have the advantage that they fade to black in the lower areas and create a very strong lighting effect, which you can't achieve on a miniature (well maybe you can, but then it only looks good from one direction usually).

http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img5128164ae015c.jpg

http://www.coolminiornot.com/pics/pics16/img51281593e9bc3.jpg

[j-smuv]

The OP's pictures are definitely different from the look of most people's Blood Angels.  

 

I think Zynk nailed it.  It's a metallic red with lots of gold highlights that give it that look.   

 

This is just a guess:  try Mr. Hobby metallic red, add lots of gold highlights, then season to taste. . .

[Ushtarador]

Found an awesome pic from Winterdyne, very cool result but I guess also very hard to pull off.

 

 

These were done with several coats of Vallejo Model Color clear red over
a gunmetal-silver zenithal coat, followed by a blue wash and glossing
up.

http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/images/commissions/sanguinaryphalanx/all_1024.jpg

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

Thanks for all the responses!  

 

@Zync, that picture is awesome, I almost included it myself.

 

Everyone keep it up, I love seeing what everyone is coming up with!

 

Here is my Blood Angel in progress.

 

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img153/1043/realbloodangel.jpg

 

[retrovertigo]

I must admit my recent procrastination over painting my army has been trying to avoid the cartoony GW scheme and trying to get them to look battered and worn without looking a mess. Red armour. Do not underestimate how hard it can be to paint it how you WANT it.

[Ushtarador]

I like that scheme eisenhorn, looks very good! Lots of brown ink and highlighted with blood red?

[Morticon]

I play a successor chapter for exactly the reason that I wanted something darker and grittier!

 

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb447/Brindleysa/Dork%20Stuff-%20Fun%20Stuff/IMG_4249.jpg

 

http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb447/Brindleysa/Dork%20Stuff-%20Fun%20Stuff/IMG_4251.jpg

[teblin]

Maybe after painting on the bright red Evil Sunz coat, a washing with Carroburg Crimson, then highlighting with Mephiston Red and a bit of Evil Sunz? Maybe even some Bloodletter to give it a shine like in the book artwork.

 

Update: Just washed a Marine coated in Evil Sunz Scarlet with the Carroburg Crimson and it brings it down to a nice, rich deep red. I'll post photos if anyone's interested?

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

@Ushtador and Teblin

 

You are both partially right regarding the recipe I'm working on, so here are my observations and conclusions based on a LOT of experimenting.

 

Recipe:

 

White (!) undercoat.

Mephiston Red basecoat

Carrowburg Crimson full wash

Nuln Oil full wash

Mephiston Red touch up

Blood Red/Evil Sunz highlight

Leadbelcher detail

Nuln oil detail.

 

Here's the bottom line of where i'm at with this.  After the base coats and full washes, it's really less of a recipe and more of a case of just feeling out what the model needs.  I say this because normally when I highlight (and I see this with lots of us) I have a very common plan of where to apply highlights.  To get truly real looking gritty armor though I'm finding that I need to treat the broader surfaces with just as much attention as edges. 

 

a few stray technical observations:

 

--The new GW washes--while behaving differently--are really quite great.  The extra pigment in them means that you can actually treat them much more like a proper glaze than the old ones.  You just need to treat them as an entirely different product.

 

--Black washes on red armor look better than brown washes.  I've been experimenting a lot with Agrax Earthshade and it is just straight up worse looking than Nuln oil in this case.

 

--Use Nuln Oil just like regular paint at the detail point.  I'm so used to just slathering it over whole sections of a model, but you can actual get very cool streaky effects by just laying down a few coats on very specific areas.

 

--When you get to the highlighting point your red paints really should be nearly the consistency of water.  If you're not used to thinning paints so much this can be scary because it looks like it's not going to look like anything when it dries, but this is the key to getting the red and the nuln oil to look smooth in transition.

 

--if you screw up with red highlights, especially blood red/evil sunz, just use a little strategic application of carrowburg to dull it down again.

 

--when you use leadbelcher for metallic scratch marks, use nuln oil to dull them down.

 

 

Keep posting everyone, and add any pearls of wisdom you've discovered yourselves!  Also, more awesome pics.

[Zynk Kaladin]

Ooooh... I can't wait to see the gold trimming and other details. I may have to steal your 'secrets' when you're done. I've always wanted a noble looking Blood Angels squad to chuck around the table with my Night Angels :D

[ASSASSINAWOKEN]

I use inks so my models stand out on a table top. Where others fail to be seen mine can. I mix red and chestnut inks to get a bloodey look washed upon red armor.

[exetus]

I think that part of the issue with Blood Angels and how we think they should look is that, over the years, the concept of the Blood Angels (as with all of the Chapters) has grown and depth has been added.  Now we know more about them, a darker past and the simple fact that they live longer that most other marines and thus their armor is among the most intricate of all Space Marines.  Until the most recent plastics, we haven't had models that really represent that other than a couple of characters.  I'm looking forward to seeing more of these grittier yet gilded versions as well.

 

Winterdyne took quite some time with those as he made them for me with that red as my request... you can see the Chapter Master in my profile pic.  Overall, a bad shade of red for the BA, I think... maybe not quite areterial enough, but close for BA.  Those marines are successors, not Blood Angels.

[appiah4]

I'm not a very good painter, but I can easily say that the GW colors (especially the old range) is to blame. The go-to color for Blood Angels (Blood Red) is a very vibrant color. Even with the newer painting trend of black basecoating (real men always basecoat white or grey ) Blood red comes out looking too bright, and red washes really don't do much to change that. Then people try to make it grittier by resorting to what they normally do with clothing etc., slap some brown wash on it (Devlan Mud/Agrax Earthshade etc.) and it looks like ass on power armor.

OK, I'm not a genius, but what I figured was, if yo slap on an even coat of Ogryn flesh (orange/brown wash) onto the red to change the brightness, and THEN wash with a red wash to fix the hue you end up with something a lot more desirable:

On Grey Primer:

http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_8363/gallery_60983_8363_167573.jpg

On White Primer:

http://image.bolterandchainsword.com/uploads/gallery/album_8363/gallery_60983_8363_8689.jpg

My 2c. It's not a super advanced technique by any means, but it's not suposed to be I suppose. It's a quick and easy way of doing what I like.

[Xenith]

That's a gorgeous shade of crimson on your marines, appiah, are you going to put some insignia on them? It seems like an excellent base to add a lot of detailing, which will really stand out due to the dark red.

[teblin]

Hear, hear! That hue is far more badass and, unlike GW's images, far less toy soldier.

[Blindhamster]

Whilst far from 'perfect'

How do these look? Probably too cartoony I guess.

More pics in my WIP thread :)

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/262209-blood-angels-blog/page-4

[Boomkapow]

@Blindhamster those models are sick. Top notch!

 

Everybody else: great minis. Lots of inspiring stuff.

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

@blindhamster

 

Actually those are some of the best looking blood angels I've seen in a long time.  I *sort* of see what you mean by cartoony, but it's not bad how you seem to think.

 

I think that you have actually captured the vibe of some very early blood angel artwork that I can't even really find very easily on the web anymore.  It sort of reminds me of the vibe of the 3rd edition Codex cover. 

 

I love the conversions, I love the combinations of of colors, I pretty much just really love these.

 

What is your red recipe, and how did you apply your battle damage?

 

The Angels I'm working on are quite a bit darker and dirtier than these, but as far as having a very confident and convincing take on the chapter I absolutely can't wait to see more.

[Blindhamster]

Thanks man :) 

 

funnily enough I started right at the back end of 2nd ed (I was 10 and couldn't paint for toffee), I suppose I sort of 'grew up' with the old school colours and when the later codices came out and they lost the colour variations in favour of a plain all red look, I flat out refused to follow, I prefer the larger amounts of gold and black on them as it makes them more interesting to look at (IMO), it also helps retain a link with stuff like the images you posted.

 

My other major inspiration for colour scheme is the space hulk terminators, I intend to add a black and white patterned knee to Kano to keep that tie, and all veterans will similarly get some unique heraldry (another good example of what I mean are the covers for red fury and black tide). 

 

When I refer to my own minis as cartoony, I mostly speak of the highlighting style I guess as I think most marines look cartoony unless you go for zenithal airbrushed highlights.

 

As to how I paint them, well, despite being in the hobby for years, and through all that time I've almost always done blood angels, I've never had a recipe for Red that I've been happy with. When I started this iteration I spent some time looking at my favourite blood angels from these very boards - AncientGods (both his really old gritty ones and his newer pristine ones), SixestoHit (he uses the new paints and gets a very vibrant look to them) and finaly DaemonPrinceDargor whom has the Pre Heresy Blood Angels that have featured in White Dwarf, White Dwarf Daily and at Warhammer World. But they all use different techniques.

 

My final version ended up as the following:

Black Basecoat (chaos black spray paint)

Spray two coats of mephiston red on them

biel tan green and riekland fleshshade in the recesses

touch up with mephiston red

highlight with evil sunz scarlet

highlights with a 50:50 Evil Sunz scarlet and Vallejo Brown Rose mix

pure brown rose in specific spots.

 

I also tend to do a few glazes of mid tones around the highlights afterward, just to smooth them out (I'm actually pretty sloppy :/)

I also went back with another biel tan green wash in certain areas on a few of them where I'd painted over recesses etc.

 

To do the chipping I then paint chips using a 50:50 Evil Sunz scarlet and Vallejo Brown Rose mix

I then paint inside those chips with a 50:50 Abaddon Black and Vallejo Black Red mix, I try to leave more of the lighter colour showing on the sides than top or bottom.

finally a very thin highlight of pure brown rose.

 

I reckon for a darker look to them all it'd take would be to start with the Khorne Red, swap evil sunz for mephiston but still use brown rose and the result would be pretty good, I may give that a go for my own Mephiston when I make one...

 

I really like the style your WIP one above has btw, he does look very gritty, and the tone of red seems spot on. Be sure to post some clearer pictures of him soon!

[miniaturepainter]

At the time that picture was taken, the flip side box art to the blood angels boxed army was painted with the blood red or orange, depending on your idea of what blood red was to you back then. Now with the new line of paint Mephiston red base, don't remember the next paint or its new name which is the new blood red (layer) paint and highlight with the new orange, final layer paint. But if it's a darker red you want, don't cover the entire model with the new blood red. Edge highlight only. But you already have an idea of what you want.

Try a blue wash instead of black. Sound crazy? Try it. You'd be surprised. Or purple.

Take a look at painting battle damage on YouTube. Especially buypainted, his tutorial uploaded about 3 years ago is pretty good.

Happy Painting :-)