Mars Ascendant

[Vel'Cona]

Love the "eyes" on the Kastelans!  Awesome work on the dark paint scheme, too.  The weathering on the metallic armour is particularly impressive.

[Heliomanes]

Thanks, gents! Much appreciated.

Flame Boy: I actually use 3 different hues of orange/brown when doing rust effects - maybe I'll have to try to make them stand out a bit more? I'll experiment some more with this - thanks for the feedback! I've been eyeing that Ordinatus Ulator, I won't lie...

Azekai: I actually painted everything inside of the glass green, with layers of drybrushing and highlights as usual. Then I watered down some matt varnish and applied ut unevenly on the glass itself to make it more blurry and worn. So I didn't really apply any color to the glass at all. I think it worked out pretty well!

Vel'Cona: Thanks! The metals are really simple to do really - just washes, drybrushing and sponges. It's a lot of fun too, since you don't have to be too neat and precise.

[Prot]

So many amazing things in that post!

 

What is the Titan called? It must have been a nightmare to put together. I hate putting stuff together but you seem to really excel at it. I love the base colour pallets on your Knights. Very unique.

 

The objectives really make me feel like I should crack mine open! They look fantastic.

[Heliomanes]

So many amazing things in that post!

 

What is the Titan called? It must have been a nightmare to put together. I hate putting stuff together but you seem to really excel at it. I love the base colour pallets on your Knights. Very unique.

 

The objectives really make me feel like I should crack mine open! They look fantastic.

Happy you enjoy them! Honestly, I'm a bit of a clutz. Assembly, cleaning etc isn't something I really enjoy apart from conversion work and bitswapping. I tend to try to get it out of the way quickly so that I can start painting asap, which I really enjoy. There's plenty of really dumb assembly mistakes in the pics in this thread because of that attitude - but it's my hobby so I like to enjoy it my own way. With all the quirks and mistakes I bring into it.

[Vel'Cona]

 

There's plenty of really dumb assembly mistakes in the pics in this thread because of that attitude - but it's my hobby so I like to enjoy it my own way. With all the quirks and mistakes I bring into it.

 

FWIW if there are any mistakes they're not easily noticeable (at least, I couldn't see any) :)

[Prot]

Yea I make those mistakes all the time. Drives me nuts, but there's nothing here I can pick out anyway. :)

[Vel'Cona]

Yea I make those mistakes all the time. Drives me nuts, but there's nothing here I can pick out anyway.

 

As a painter your worst critic is yourself, after all  :lol:

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Your models are painted in very dull colors. Is it camouflage, to express humility or other religious reasons (mourning is one idea I had, the dull colors the AdMech equivalent of a widow's weeds), or due to Chaos corruption (your Techpriests worship Nurgle)?

[Heliomanes]

Hah, not sure how to answer that question. I think I just prefer the style of muted colors and gritty semirealism you used to find in the Forge World painters - and that's the prevalent painting style in my gaming group too, so my Mechanicus don't really stand out that much in that regard. Many of us "came back" to tabletop gaming with the launch of the Horus Heresy series, and gradually found our way back into 40k too.

The good thing about muted colors is that you get to use a lot more of them. So while you call them dull, I use a lot of bright reds, turqoise shades, glowing greens and blues. That can quickly get really busy on a model - but you can get away with a lot more if you use more muted colors. I think.

For reference, here's a wip of me trying to paint eldar.

[brother_b]

I love your painting style. Whenever I try to get that gritty, industrial look it comes out horrible. Thanks for the inspiration!

[Vel'Cona]

Agreed, I find my painting usually ends up messy no matter what I do but not truly gritty or grimy looking (as I often intend).  You seem to have a good balance, here  :)

 

I must say, I enjoy the bold red/yellow highlights on the Wraith-construct tabards, though; I think having a bold contrast is key to drawing a model together, in general.  Something about your Eldar reminds me of the Tenno from Warframe (which is a very good thing)  :D

[Heliomanes]

Thanks guys! I'm still learning, so any feedback is more than welcome. If there's something you like here, let me know and I'll try to explain how I did it. We Magi should share our datastacks after all.

I've come to agree with you, Vel'Cona. A strong highlight is necessary. But I find that I'm usually more happy when I use it very sparingly, like with the tabards you mention. Most of them are hues between necron abyss (a very dark blue) mixed with gore red, a darkish red. Small pieces are gradually highlighted up to reds, oranges, yellows and yellowy whites - but the main part is still the "deeper" colors. You can see the same color progression in a way in the green lights on the Onagers, for instance. Most of the greens are blackish greens, but a few spots are gradually highlighted up to yellowy whites. It took me a long time to learn that lesson in ratio - "less is more", in a sense. Still speaking of personal preference, of course.

Speaking of my eldar - I've still not figured out what to do about their weapons and cables - they are still as in the picture above. Any suggestions?

[anarchistscourge]

I don't know why, but those Wraiths make me think of the Demagorgon from Stranger Things......I love it! How easy was it to get that effect with the grey?

[Charlo]

Big fan of the thread!

 

A fellow messy painter, though a little more successful than myself :P

[Heliomanes]

Anarchistscourge:

I won't lie, I spent a while on the gray, but that was mostly because I was messing around - trying out things and having fun. I start with an uneven mix of dheneb stone and vallejo neutral gray as a basecoat. Follow that with a lighter mix of the two done in a heavy drybrush. Then I did a heavy handed soak in seraphim sepia and athonian camoshade. Just dabbed a little here and there and mixed them unevenly on the model to get a "organic" feel. With that done I drybrushed them again, and then started doing linework. Different shades of the colors already used got watered down and drawn on in thin, uneven lines. Including small stripes of black wash here and there - often added in the middle of white or gray lines I thought looked too thick and clumsy. I guess that's the trick. Don't be afraid of making mistakes, just add something afterwards which makes it look less accidental. Like writing an essay - the magic lies in the editing.

The "helmets" got a pure black spot dabbed on with a sponge before I started the gray and whiteish linework, and then I added black lines going from the middle outwards with black wash. All the darker pieces on the arms etc simply got a layer of black wash afterwards.

Charlo:

Don't let go of the messiness, my friend. Weaponize it!

[Magos Takatus]

Have you considered a dull metallic colour? Something like a bronze shouldn't distract from what you've already painted, especially if you use some washes on them.

 

I also agree with Vel'Cona, there is a Warframe called "Mag" which has a faceplate very similar to what you have already painted. It's a nice coincdence but you've done a great job of capturing that sort of effect. 

[DoomulusPrime]

Love your painting style. Very organic yet grimdark. I myself tend to stay away from strong edge highlights too, I feel they make my stuff look to cartoony (and what good are cartoony Word Bearers?).

 

I also like the pulsing light effect you painted on the Triaros; makes it seem like a pulse moving from top to bottom.

 

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I also love those Eldar you painted.

 

 

Please keep up the awesome work.

[Heliomanes]

It has been a long time, my fellow adepts. I've been working on my Thousand Sons and their neverborn allies for a while now, but with the Forgebane box and a small local event upcoming - I've returned to my first love.

Going by the rule of cool, I intend to bring this 2k point list;

LoW detachment - Knight Porphyrion and two Knight Armigers

Mechanicus Outriders (Stygies) - Enginseer (Necromechanic), 2 Dragoons, 2 Dragoons, 4 Balistarii

I really love those mini-knights. They seem just like the Knights in "Mechanicum" - hunting feral servitors skulking around the wastes between the forges of Mars. Here's a quick WIP:

[abraxus]

Could we get some WIP shots of how you did those bases?  They dont' detract form the model, but yet have just enough going on...

[Clingy]

I’m usually not a fan of desert bases.

 

But those are perfect. Well done and as abraxus mentions just the right level of balance between detail and minimalist

[Heliomanes]

I'm glad you like them, gentlemen. I'll be sure to get some pics of the process when I put together some more models. The recipie is pretty simple though.

I add some miliput to the bases, and shape it to create some rough waves here and there. Then I cover the whole thing with sand and a few stones, and basecoat it.

The painting process is like this:
1. A basecoat mixed out of roughly 1/3 flat brown and 2/3 yellow. With a tiny bit of red in there if the brown you have available doesn't contain it.
2. A very light but thorough drybrush mixed out of 1/2 the mix from the step above and 1/2 pure yellow
3. As above.
4. A very light but covering drybrush mixed out of 1/2 the mix from the step above, and 1/2 pure white
5. A very light drybrush here and there out of pure white, mixed with the same, uncleaned brush from before.

So I think what makes it work is the gradual addition of different hues through the introduction of pure yellow and white, so that the base seems a bit more rich and complex than a pure gradient of brown to lighter browns. But that's just me speculating.

The mixing of paints is much easier when you use a wet palette. It's pretty easy to make out of a lunch box, some cotton and some cooking paper.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you want me to clarify something

[Bjorn Firewalker]

I like your Knights' walking/running poses, which makes them look impressive.

[Heliomanes]

I've got a few more pics for you guys. First a more completed WIP of the armigers, then a few quick shots of the force from the event I mentioned earlier. I'm pretty happy with how they performed. A crushing victory and a narrow defeat.

[Charlo]

Bloody awesome! Great theme executed perfectly.

[Clingy]

Ok that force looks badass! Love it. I only have a knight crusader but would love to copy your units. So all that squeezes nicely into 2k. Brilliant. If you ever are bored enough it would be interesting to read a batrep of your games.