Space Hulk -- Noctis finished! (sort of)

[JeffTibbetts]

I needed a break from my knight, so I started messing with my Space Hulk terminators finally. I settled on a palette that I'd like to follow, roughly this:

That's Naggaroth Night, the old Mechrite Red (I may drop this), Drakenhof Nightshade, Khorne Red, Wazdakka Red, Wild Rider Red, Lugganath Orange and then glazed with Bloodletter. It's a lot, I know. I've been wanted to do Zenith/Nadir airbrush work on them, and I wanted a very strong contrast to evoke the feeling of the much older PC game. I don't mind taking my sweet time on these and doing them right.

Here's the first nadir/zenith shot. That's just Naggaroth from below (and kind of all over for a base) with Mechrite Red sprayed from above his right shoulder and then spread around a bit more for some ambient color.

From below it's pretty dang purple still.

From above, pretty dang red. Just as it should be.

From the side you can see more of the contrast.

Now with Khorne Red added. Much more vibrant color, but honestly it covered pretty much all of the Mechrite. That's why I was thinking I'd just skip Mechrite next time.

And again from the side.

And above.

And the back.

And the upper rear.

Now here it is with some Drakenhof applied. I'll freely admit I went pretty heavy with it, but I really wanted to up the contrast and drama. I may reel it in on the next one.

First highlight added. That would make this Wazdakka Red.

And a little Wild Rider Red to boot. I'm skipping the areas that won't remain red, so don't mind the bits that look less finished.

And then for fun I took a more tabletop lighting shot, mostly for reference.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Comments are always welcome.

[Brother Callius]

Looking great so far. Seeing how much detail you put in to the queen bee, I look foward to seeing the progress on these guys.

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks for that, bud. This is going to be a lot more straightforward. Such great minis kind of deserve to be stock. I also want to try out new techniques like the zenithal highlighting. I plan to go pretty nuts on them, but it will be very different from Queen. :D 

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Great start. Smoothness of tone like this is reason #234589034853904 why I need an airbrush.

[JeffTibbetts]

Brush blending is a heck of a lot of fun, but zenithal highlighting is not actually something I like very much when applied across an entire force. It is, however, great at replicating these sorts of shadows. I don't think I'll ever use it again, but for Space Hulk I really wanted to try it.

[helterskelter]

That's some nice red right there. The technique you've used is pretty funky, it just seems to work! I agree about being a touch heavy on your wash but you've resolved that so none issue there. I want to see the squad all done to this degree just to compare how the technique applies across multiple models. I love your work dude, ever the inspiration

[JeffTibbetts]

Thanks, buddy! Yeah, I knew it was going to be weird going into it, but I stuck with the plan and I think it does work. I planned this color scheme a long time ago, and it was supposed to have even more contrast. I may yet go in and darken some shadows still, and I've got another highlight and a glaze coming for the red. The purple is really funky, for sure. I'm just glad it doesn't look stupid. 

[JeffTibbetts]

Here are a few more shots for ya.

I think the red was fully done and glazed when I snapped this. The glaze actually redded up the purple bits quite a bit more than I expected. Not in a bad way, really.

Colors blocked out, dramatic lighting.

From the back, still dramatic lighting.

And less dramatic lighting so you can see the blending a little better. I kind of love this red.

Now compare that rear panel with the shot from yesterday and you can see it's a lot less purple.

I've actually added an Agrax wash to most of the new blocked out colors, but I didn't snap a pic yet. I'll work on it a little more over the next couple days.

[deathspectersgt7]

Looking Good.

[Battybattybats]

I foresee a magnificent set coming!

[Hexagon Sun]

That's really cool Jeff, the purple base/shadows are a refreshing change and it works very well. Looking forward to seeing more of your progress.

[JeffTibbetts]

Ask and you shall receive, Hex (I'm a big fan of CH, by the way).

Brother Noctis, reporting for duty to Sanguinius and the Emperor.

There you have it. I think I'm calling it done for now. I still need to varnish it and pick out the gems and lenses with gloss, and decide what's happening to the base. I also plan to add some minor scratches, damage, etc. at some point.

EDIT: Forgot to mention... I used neon pigments to wash the eyes and sensors. I also did some very minor OSL around the eyes, which is a first for me. I will do more on models that are more deeply shadowed, but I'm actually really liking the effect here. Plus, if you shoot a blacklight at it, they actually glow. I should do a pic in the dark once they're all done. It looks pretty cool.