Help me paint the perfect Blood Angel.

[Zynk Kaladin]

Oooh I'm glad this thread is back.  TBH I think a rich metallic red is really what we're looking for when we look at those first few pictures.  I'm wondering if I can basecoat a model some sort of red/rust-bronze metallic, then give a couple washes of mephiston red over that.

 

I'm also thinking of buying some vajello liquid gold for the shiny-bits.

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

I actually experimented with some gold glazing over red armor to split the difference between the golden angel and the red tactical look, sort of hinting at the angelic aura of the Blood Angels.  Not sure how it turned out, but I don't hate it, at least.

 

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img708/8747/73br.jpg

[CaptainAjax]

I recently started a reboot of my Blood Angels with the concept of a darker, richer palette.  Dark reds and aged golds are the primary colors.  They don't have the grittiness you are looking for, as I'm not a fan of battle damage or weathering on marines, but I think it has the color palette you are looking for.  Here are a few of my prototypes.

 

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/BAAssaultSquadMarines-1.jpg

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamer-1.jpg

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamerBack.jpg

[skawolf]

I have tried to keep a unique appearance for my blood angels and shy away from GW's studio army image for them. Here are a few pics, they are also in our showcase.

 

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy43/Skawolf/PIC_1198.jpg

 

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy43/Skawolf/PIC_1253.jpg

 

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy43/Skawolf/PIC_1173.jpg

 

I feel like using more than just red on the models really helps.

[Blindhamster]

Pretty nice skawolf

[Quixus]

I have tried to keep a unique appearance for my blood angels and shy away from GW's studio army image for them. Here are a few pics, they are also in our showcase.

 

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy43/Skawolf/PIC_1198.jpg

 

http://i776.photobucket.com/albums/yy43/Skawolf/PIC_1253.jpg

Are all the highlights on the metal and skin parts painted on or are they caused by a light source? If it's the former, that is an awesome paintjob. If it's the latter the models still look much better than GW's style.

[skawolf]

The faces are highlighted, the gold is Mithril silver, washed with gryphon sepia, highlighted with mithril silver and then re washed with sepia. So the gold is highlighted, but the light source causes some of the highlighting you see in the photos.

[Blindhamster]

They look good mate

[MehpistonVsTheWorld]

I recently started a reboot of my Blood Angels with the concept of a darker, richer palette.  Dark reds and aged golds are the primary colors.  They don't have the grittiness you are looking for, as I'm not a fan of battle damage or weathering on marines, but I think it has the color palette you are looking for.  Here are a few of my prototypes.

 

 

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamer-1.jpg

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamerBack.jpg

Just curious brother, how did you get that beautiful colour on your death company? Because I've almost given up on painting the grey highlights on mine.

Many thanks!

[irwit]

Hi all

 

I have a wip thread here with my version of a blood angel. I went for the Adrian smith look but these first guys lack the decoration of the artwork and are more functional. Anyway here goes, hope you like.

 

 

 

 

[DarkMark]

@Eisonhorn; Hope I'm not too late to this party! Looking at your recipe I notice that you don't take the highlights up enough. Failing to do this means you won't get the contrast to create the 'pow' effect. Hence, I suggest you add the following steps;

1. Take the red up to the human flesh colour in GW's range (sorry don't remember its daft name ATM)

2. Put a thin red glaze over the red; the new glazes are very good, though remember to thin a little, and will dull down and give a matte finish to the red

3. Touch up the extreme red highlight i.e the flesh colour

4. Line the deepest parts of the red with blue ( I use Gulliman's blue glaze for this).

 

Hope this helps.

[CaptainAjax]

 

I recently started a reboot of my Blood Angels with the concept of a darker, richer palette.  Dark reds and aged golds are the primary colors.  They don't have the grittiness you are looking for, as I'm not a fan of battle damage or weathering on marines, but I think it has the color palette you are looking for.  Here are a few of my prototypes.

 

 

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamer-1.jpg

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamerBack.jpg

Just curious brother, how did you get that beautiful colour on your death company? Because I've almost given up on painting the grey highlights on mine.

Many thanks!

Hi MephistonVsTheWorld,

 

I was tired of using grey to highlight black and wanted my Death Company to match the rest of my Blood Angels.  I use almost no pure black in this army, instead using a very dark red.  I feel this results in a more natural look. 

 

For my standard Blood Angels, the base color is a 50/50 mix of Mephiston Red / Khorne Red.  The dark lining color is simply the red mix with black added.

 

For the Death Company, I used the dark lining red as the base color, then washed the whole model with a very thinned down black to shade and bring the color down a step.  Finally, the highlights are the base red mix.  

 

Hope this helps!

[MehpistonVsTheWorld]

 

 

I recently started a reboot of my Blood Angels with the concept of a darker, richer palette.  Dark reds and aged golds are the primary colors.  They don't have the grittiness you are looking for, as I'm not a fan of battle damage or weathering on marines, but I think it has the color palette you are looking for.  Here are a few of my prototypes.

 

 

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamer-1.jpg

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm477/cgershman/Blood%20Angels/DeathCompanyHandFlamerBack.jpg

Just curious brother, how did you get that beautiful colour on your death company? Because I've almost given up on painting the grey highlights on mine.

Many thanks!

Hi MephistonVsTheWorld,

 

I was tired of using grey to highlight black and wanted my Death Company to match the rest of my Blood Angels.  I use almost no pure black in this army, instead using a very dark red.  I feel this results in a more natural look. 

 

For my standard Blood Angels, the base color is a 50/50 mix of Mephiston Red / Khorne Red.  The dark lining color is simply the red mix with black added.

 

For the Death Company, I used the dark lining red as the base color, then washed the whole model with a very thinned down black to shade and bring the color down a step.  Finally, the highlights are the base red mix.  

 

Hope this helps!

I'll give it a go tonight when I get the chance, thanks a lot!

I hope I can achieve even a tenth of what you've done.

Thanks

[Kaldoth]

I personally am a fan of the more noble, artisan aspect of the BA so I try to keep my models fairly clean. However, I do prefer a deeper red than a super bright one. The chest eagle on this guy is white, so it makes the red appear brighter, but I'd say it's about halfway between your standard bright BA red and Flesh Tearer crimson.

 

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c206/Kaldoth/IMG_20131019_222401_115.jpg

 

Pretty easy to do and even easier to do battle damage on.

 

Base Mephiston Red.

A very even Carrowburg Crimson wash.

Highlight large flat areas with Evil Sunz Red.

Final highlight of Wild Rider Red.

 

After that I give it two or three coats of Blood letter glaze. It blends the highlights really well and mutes them down. This guy is a painting comp entry so I wanted the eagle brighter than normal, but normally I will do a base of leadbelcher, nuln oil wash, and only one highlight of bolt gun metal for a really dark silver color. I find that gold actually makes the red look brighter than dark silver and black accents.

 

For painting battle damage, once you've finished the mini take the Evil Sunz Red to whatever battle damaged areas you have. Fill most of that in with black, leaving the red around the edges of the black. Then put silver in the middle of thar and you're done!

 

-Kal

[Spagunk]

 

Base Mephiston Red.

 

A very even Carrowburg Crimson wash.

 

Highlight large flat areas with Evil Sunz Red.

 

Final highlight of Wild Rider Red.

 

I used this method on my Storm raven (bought the 20 dollar blood angel  paint pack from GW) and was happy with the results. I only go up to kindleflame if I am doing gems so I too use Wild Rider for a final highlight.

 

I have also decided to step down with my tech marines but I use the Baal red foundation and then use Evil sunz as the final highlight.

 

Also, have you used the bloodletter glaze at all? I can't quite figure out what it is for as it doesn't seem to have any effect on my miniatures.

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

Been messing around with some more Blood Angels.  Definitely the happiest with these of all that I've done so far.  Going to continue updating the rest of them along these lines.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img853/1013/yiiy.jpg

[blood of Sanguinus]

Paint it a flesh tearer

[blood of Sanguinus]

I paint flesh tearers an  like to use a black wash at end of painting gives a good dirty grungy look I'll try get pics 

[Blindhamster]

Eisenhorn, the end result you've achieved is lovely, nice work!

[Lord Commander Scrymgeour]

Captain Ajax, love that palette!

I agree that the studio BA are a bit wet,

I've been going for something a bit darker myself

[Telencephalon]

A very interesting thread! I am impressed by much of the stuff and I especially like the darker red some of you have going.

 

However, the way I see it, a chapter as aesthetically oriented as the blood angels would never go into battle in anything less than pristine and polished armour! :) On the other hand, one could argue that it's harder to come out of a battle without one or two scratches..

[Bartali]

Been messing around with some more Blood Angels.  Definitely the happiest with these of all that I've done so far.  Going to continue updating the rest of them along these lines.

 

http://imageshack.us/a/img853/1013/yiiy.jpg

 

Probably a bit too late with the congrats, but these are excellent and have captured what you wanted to achieve in the first post.

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

Thanks Bartali!

 

I've actually continued to experiment beyond those marines pictured, because although the look decent enough in photos, in real life and in larger numbers the effect is less than stunning.

 

That's largely because when all of that weathering is done in the absence of stronger highlighting contrast, they end up looking sloppy from more than a hands length away.

 

I posted some more updated ones in my WIP thread, but the compromise with those was that while pretty they are less damaged looking.  Here they are again:

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800x600q90/546/icrp.jpg

 

But they look much better in real life.  I'm slowly introducing more judicious damage to them to find a happy compromise, so the goal has shifted from figuring out a good technique for weathering on red to finding a happy balance between damage and highlighting.

 

That's where things stand at the moment.

[Blindhamster]

Those definitely look better though mate

[Memento Of Prospero]

Holy Emperor brother!