I Shall Wear Midnight: Loddfafnir113's VIIIth Legion

[Loddfafnir113]

So Christmas came and went and with it came my ticket for the Heresy Train in the form Betrayal at Calth. The set is fantastic, and me and my son spent a good couple of nights getting stuff built together. So that we can still play it as a stand alone game I'm going to be painting two separate legions from the models. One will be the Imperial Fists, but the other will be my personal Heresy passion: The Night Lords. Ever since I picked up The Dark King/Lightning Tower on CD at games day many years ago, I've been set on doing a force of the VIIIth legion, and I've finally got myself into a position where I can (slowly) get one up and running.

The many threads on here have been and I'm sure will continue to be a massive inspiration, and I hope I can bring something to add to the great stuff that's been on here. When it came to a paint scheme for them I wanted something resembling the slightly metallic scheme from the Forge World books, and after seeing a lot of the Alpha Legion schemes on here I wondered if I could get the same effects using metallic basecoats and glazes. Special mention to Athrawes, after seeing his absolutely stunning Thousand Son's I decided that was what I wanted. If you haven't seen his thread yet, check it out here, it's pretty much full of awesome. I shamelessly stole​​ followed his method for the most part, and I'm really happy with the results. So far I've got one of the veterans finished with the others following closely. Anyway, enough of my jabbering, onto the pictures!

There are some things that will need a bit of a clean up but for a first attempt it turned out better than I expected. The legion symbol is...passable, though I'll probably order the transfer sheet from Forge World for the rest of them. Still undecided on how to base them, if anyone has any suggestions I'm happy to hear them. Any comments or criticisms are more than welcome. Cheers for looking!

[Aeternus]

That's brilliant. Followed :D I actually really really like that legion symbol. But then again, freehand always impresses me. I watch on eagerly...

[Big Bad Squig]

That scheme is looking really good.  Basing-wise you could go with a sort of Martian red for contrast, or something dark/rocky to emphasize and darken the model.

[Kilofix]

Nice shinies. I actually like the minimalist dark base as is.

[Son of Carnelian]

Scary stuff. Keep it coming!

[Skalpynock]

You've nailed the slightly faded look of FW artwork perfectly.

[DimDim]

Holy cannoli. 

The entire piece is great. I actually really like your basing, as it looks like legitimate concrete streets that have been or are being rained on in my eyes.

I think it fits well with the dark tones of the Lords of night.

[Charlo]

Perfect night Lords. Keep it up!

[Remus Ventanus.]

how would one achieve the beautiful metallic scheme you did?

[AlanofAngels]

Looks GREAT, man! Even with all the generic BaC bits it still looks so Night Lordy! Great job buddy, I'm really looking forward to seeing this progress!

[Loddfafnir113]

Cheers for the responses guys! Glad he's gone down well.

 

Think a dark base probably will be best for them. At the moment its actually sand that the undercoat didnt really take to, though I reckon I can achieve something that looks pretty similar.

 

The scheme wasn't difficult to achieve, just a bit time consuming. Black undercoat, then a quite heavy all over drybrush with Leadbelcher. After that I did a light drybrush with Runefang steel using only downward brushstrokes just to catch the edges and rounded armour sections. Followed this with three coats of Guilliman blue glaze. Then used a thinned down Druchii Violet wash all over, followed by light recess wash of Nuln Oil. Went over the most razed sections after that with Runefang again.

 

Hoping to get another four finished over the weekend then get the rest of the squad done next week.

[Corswain]

Beautiful metallic blue. A pretty much perfect execution of the art in massacre.

[jimbo13]

This is awesome!!! One thing that might make him pop a little more, OSL on the eyes. Just to make him extra scary

[Flint13]

Oh, pretty.

 

You get that metallic scheme, bro. 

[hushrong]

That VIII legionary looks fantastic!

 

And thanks for the recipe. I need to "borrow" it :)

[Loddfafnir113]

Thanks a lot boys and girls. Honestly seeing other people trying out this scheme would warm the cockles of my little black Nostraman heart.

Managed to get the next four members of the squad finished. Decided to carry on freehanding the legion badge. They're not spectacular but I'm warming to them (cheer's for the encouragement there Aeternas). Also had a go at a bloody hand on two of the blank shoulder's which came out alright. Plus, bases are painted this time round, though I think they're missing something. Might get some grass tufts for them but undecided as of yet. All that's left to say is that I'm better with a brush than a camera so some of these are bit blurry. Hope you all enjoy them.

And the squad as it stands so far.

​

[Atia]

Really like your colour scheme :)

 

 

 

The scheme wasn't difficult to achieve, just a bit time consuming. Black undercoat, then a quite heavy all over drybrush with Leadbelcher. After that I did a light drybrush with Runefang steel using only downward brushstrokes just to catch the edges and rounded armour sections. Followed this with three coats of Guilliman blue glaze. Then used a thinned down Druchii Violet wash all over, followed by light recess wash of Nuln Oil. Went over the most razed sections after that with Runefang again.

simple but it works - metallic schemes ftw!

[Slips]

Ohhh I like these a lot! Have you experimented with using Drakenhoff Nightshade anywhere in the mix?

[Loddfafnir113]

Ohhh I like these a lot! Have you experimented with using Drakenhoff Nightshade anywhere in the mix?

Not yet, I was actually trying to get a slight purple tone to some of the armour sections, so I avoided Drakenhoff in favour of Druchii violet. It didn't really work, so I might try Drakenhoff on one of the next batch, and get some of the Forge World clear purple (can't remember what its called) to try in the future.

[Aeternus]

I may have to steal your scheme for a fire raptor...take that as a complement for how awesome your blue is! The squad as a whole look terrifyingly brutal. All the dark colours together really work, though are you considering adding terror markings?

[Loddfafnir113]

Steal away! We'll call it payment for the lightning tutorial you put up which I'll be borrowing heavily from :P cheers for the mention by the way!

 

I'm planning a skull on the sergeants helm and going to spread some lightning through the squad but I want to wait till I've got the first ten done before I decide whether I want to add more. At the moment I'm thinking of going quite minimalist with it and reserving a lot of the more ostentatious stuff for Terror Squads and characters.

[OrangeBob]

I second that the free hand legion symbol looks great as does everything else! I hope you stick with the free hand.

[Flint13]

Wow, great work man!

 

These are only getting better looking. The little black plates looking awesome scattered in among the super rich blue.

 

What's next on the to do list for these guys? 

[Caillum]

Looks amazing man! Clean finish. I too have been working on the metallics! :)

 

You should totally swap those mundane bolters for some awesome Volkite chargers! Would make great Terror Squads Executioners! :)

[Loddfafnir113]

Wow, great work man!

 

These are only getting better looking. The little black plates looking awesome scattered in among the super rich blue.

 

What's next on the to do list for these guys?

 

 

Thank ye kindly! The black plates are actually a mix of Abbadon and Leadbealcher, but they came out a bit darker than I expected. I was worried they wouldn't provide enough of a contrast next to the blue, but it worked quite well in the end.

After these guys I've got the B@C termies and praetor to do, then I'll be taking a bit of time away from them to get the rest of B@C done as imperial fists. However, as its the celebration of my annual chronological advancement this month there may well be a forge world order soon. I've got an idea for a destroyer squad which I'm really excited to try so that will probably be one of the first things, and maybe Sevatar or Curze (or both) because they are just stunning models. This is mainly a painting project than a gaming one so what appears in this thread may end up being pretty random and sporadic, but hopefully that will keep my enthusiasm up more than just working towards a specific list.

 

Looks amazing man! Clean finish. I too have been working on the metallics! :)

You should totally swap those mundane bolters for some awesome Volkite chargers! Would make great Terror Squads Executioners! :)

Thanks man! Any tips you've picked up? Would love to see some examples of what you've achieved.

To be honest these guys are mainly for use in the B@C game so the bolters work fine for now. I will of course be doing a Terror Squad proper at some point, and fear not, there shall be choom a plenty!