Deployment of the Spectral Sicarii (homebrew RG)

[duz_]

Cloaks are a well known adornment of characters in 40k I wouldn't worry about WYSIWYG in that instance and if any one complains tell them to :cuss themselves :tu:

 

Sounds like a great kit bash can't wait to see the results :D

[WAR]

I have scout camo cloaks on some characters backpacks to me it’s a modeling effect not an wyswig issue. If I played them as having camo cloaks that would be an issue Edited July 21, 2020 by war009

[Dracos]

I've seen some of your tanks but really should take time to scroll through your while thread.

On a separate note it looks like the Xiphon went down in points and is clocking in at 220. I think I need a second for combat patrols :D

I’m beginning to think I’ll trade my Xiphon in for two Stormtalons. Like the Aggressors I’ve grown to like the look. mind of dirty going with an aircraft in <500 point game but I faced two Armigers and Guilliman once in a game close to that size.

[thewarriorhunter]

I don't think I would actually take aircraft to a game that small. Plus if I did that depending on deployment/mission T2 I might have to put both fliers off the board and have no models left on the table

[thewarriorhunter]

Made good progress tonight and am hoping for more tomorrow. Six of my nine infiltrators have all the blues finished and soft armor/pouches blocked in. I ran out of steam to apply the wash to the last part. A little frustrated that I goofed on several heads with this squad. I lost one (now found) and didn't base coat the Sgt since he does have some of the lower pieces of the helmet around his head. I'll probably leave those off for now and catch them up with the next batch of units I paint.

 

I was hoping to finish these before I pick up Indomitus and while that won't happen I'm very happy with the progress I've made so far. Really liking the contrast I'm getting with the tweaks to my color scheme and have some ideas on how to push it further.

 

[WAR]

Looking great TWH. I’ve lost/ misplaced or thought I didn’t need to under coat something and turns I needed too....sucks when it happens.

[thewarriorhunter]

Bits came in for my Eliminator and I was pleasantly surprised to see the seller gave me all his extra frames so I'm now sitting on six Sniper Bolt Rifles and one Las Fusil. My original conversion idea didn't pan out as well as I'd hoped after putting bits together so I'm rethinking how I'll do this, especially since I could potentially get 6 more Eliminators done up and use the Laz Fusil for Ex Tenebris.

 

Also picked up the Blue Vallejo Ink and oh baby is it nice.

 

Top Left: base coat Vallejo Natural Steel, one coat of ink

Top Right: second coat of ink

Bottom Left: Dark Tone wash (Army painter version of Nuln)

Bottom Right: Purple Wash

 

I may do one more up and just do the purple wash and skip the Dark Tone to see how that turns out. I think I'll move forward with this (or purple) on a model to see if I like the colored bolt casing.

 

Edited July 26, 2020 by thewarriorhunter

[duz_]

 

I may do one more up and just do the purple wash and skip the Dark Tone to see how that turns out. I think I'll move forward with this (or purple) on a model to see if I like the colored bolt casing.

 

I was going to suggest this as I really liked it even before the first nulin wash

I think just the purple will be perfect :tu:

 

That's a really nice blue wash

[WAR]

Wow

[thewarriorhunter]

Wow

good wow or bad wow?

[thewarriorhunter]

Think I got a bolter scheme I like. Two coats of purple wash over the blue. I tried mixing the dark tone and purple together and didn't like the results. I think the purple over blue ink is the winner. I'm going to do the actual gun for this model and see how it all looks together but with this photo I'm pretty confident that I've got a winner.

 

[WAR]

 

Wow

good wow or bad wow?

 

 

 Good

 

I really like that blue on your bolters it makes it pop on your models

[thewarriorhunter]

Still need to highlight but I feel like it works. Am I blinded by my own effort and desire to make this happen? Hit me with your C&C.

 

[duz_]

I like it :tu:

 

If I was going to critique something though maybe a bit too purple? What if you just did a single purple wash?

[thewarriorhunter]

I felt like one wasn't enough... The next one I do I'll only apply a single wash and compare. Either way I think I'm doing this going forward. As I have time I'll redo the bolters on my other marines that are already done so they match.

[WAR]

Very nice it really does make the bolter stand out 

[Alcyon]

To be absolutely frank, it looks great, however I think it's a little weird to have the two shades of blue between the bolter and the highlight colour on your dudes. I always thought it was a bit strange to paint your gun (looking at you, Dark Angels) and I think black would already stand out with your scheme. Now, if you made the metal parts "blued", like they do for rust resistance, and left the casing black, I think that'd be a nice touch and subtle. Just my 2¢

[thewarriorhunter]

Appreciate the input.

 

Alcyon - a lot of this is being driven by my need to be a snowflake and wanting something more going on, current bolters are black/steel. I've also updated my armor color recipe from when I started and it's a little darker now and I feel like the bolter on my Helix Adept I did doesn't stand out that much from the model.

 

I did try using the same blue but it looked very flat, considering what it's going on I felt it should have a metallic sheen. I did actually try one version of the metal parts being washed to get the blued look you're describing and I didn't like how it turned out. I think I tried eight or nine different times before landing on the picture above. All of my optics and the marines eye's will be purple since I use that for my spot/third color. I'm hoping when I add those it will still look cohesive.

 

Eliminators to show finished models with optics:

 

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[WAR]

damn did I miss you posting those elimantors before? those are really nice. Purple optics do add a that nice touch of color to the models but nor to over powering. 

[Alcyon]

I think from a colour theory perspective you have a very consistent sort of muted pastel going on, and that might make it tough for any relatively similar colour to pop out. I tend to think people are too conservative with their colour schemes for small models, they really need that extreme highlighting and contrasting colours to draw the eye when you're looking from head level, and honestly it turns me off a lot of batrep channels.

 

Something that would really jump out would be like, hazard stripes on the bolters, though I think that's fairly silly. I actually quite like the look of the black rifles on those very well done Eliminators (the Mark IV helmets are a nice touch too!)

 

If it were me, I might experiment with taking the blue tone on the armour towards a more plasma/electric palette (Lothern → Baharroth) or choose a contrasting company colour like yellow or gold (2nd Co.), orange (6th Co.) or purple (7th Co.) again aiming for more extreme/neon esque colours to help stand out beside your beautifully smooth light grey. Then you wouldn't need the bolters to be a major source of contrast and I think it'd help draw the eye to your marines and their colour scheme, which is more visually interesting and unique anyway.

 

More like $2 than 2¢ but there it is, I hope it's at least interesting.

[thewarriorhunter]

All great points and I really appreciate the feedback. I'll have to do a side by side of my first model in this scheme so you can see the contrast that I have now. I think with each unit I'm going to push my contrast and scheme to try and get a better range of light and dark. This current version is exponentially better (to me) than my first one.

 

You've got great points on color suggestions. Your blue suggestions is great and actually something I implemented with this model. Before it was just a dark blue but I've started working lighter colors into it to push the contrast and provide some more 'pop'.

 

 

I actually quite like the look of the black rifles on those very well done Eliminators (the Mark IV helmets are a nice touch too!)

 

Thanks! Funny as I was looking at that picture I was thinking 'black doesn't look bad' but that's also against the lighter armor color I've moved away from. When I look at the black on my Helix Adept the bolter is 'lost' to me.

[Alcyon]

Ah yes, I'm guilty of the old crime of not paging through the last 47 pages to see your progression I will atone for my sins when I'm not supposed to be working. 

 

I can definitely imagine a black bolter getting lost if the grey is darker and you'd be highlighting the black with grey as well. One thing you could try is doing a very dark black, like highlighting with Eshin Grey or something to give the armour more colour space in the midtones of grey, but I think your approach in changing the tint is probably more effective. You could also just try painting the casing in the same blue as you use as an accent on the armour, that'd make them very consistent and would ensure a third contrast colour would really stand out (i.e. the pink/purple or a differnet company colour.) I think gold would be awesome with your scheme as a subtle shoulder pad trim.

Edited July 27, 2020 by Alcyon

[Dracos]

Me like.

 

Comparing with the Elimnators I’m a bit torn. I have a bias for the “realistic” but honestly as a snowflake in my own fashion I totally love idea of finding ways to incorporate purple into your blue white/gray scheme.

 

So how hard is it going to be to “purple” the Eliminators ;)

[thewarriorhunter]

Not too hard? One thing I've always done is paint in sub assemblies, but with the airbrush and gradient base layer that's not going to work anymore. I've got several bits on these infiltrators where the transition from the arm to hand is not smooth:

 

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I'm going to assemble the Infiltrators where they're at right now and see how much I hate painting them that way. I hate not being able to reach every nook and cranny but when I think about it, if I can't reach it you're most likely not going to see it. I also think this well speed things up because it will reduce how much I edge highlight. Going forward I'm planning on only highlighting the spots where light would be hitting. So no more highlighting the elbows that are completely under the arm.

[Alcyon]

I do the exact same thing, it'll take me something like a switch to airbrush to push me to abandon detail painting things you can't even see unless you pick up the model and flip it upside down. I also highlight every edge whether it's upward facing or not out of some compulsive drive, so I feel your pain.