Raven Guard bolter casing in the new codex

[Buggane]

Does anyone have any idea what colour this actually is?  Looking at it my best guess is some kind of very light grey (but then too close to iron hands surely?) or very bright silver. I've tried re-creating with a gunmetal/blue steel combo but the contrast isn't quite right. I quite like the concept as i think it helps to break up the black but can't for the life of me figure out what it is.

 

Very frustrating that the new app has the RG marine with a black casing when all the art in the codex is differernt, but there you go.

 

Cheers

 

Bug

[Major_Gilbear]

The casing looks to be a bright silver with a thin blue wash and then re-highlighted again. The other metallic parts on the bolter are a mid-silver washed with Nuln oil and selectively highlighted with the mid-silver again.

 

As they are both silvers, it takes a bit of practice to get them to look different to each other (especially as they are side-by-side on a relatively small area). You may need to wash and re-highlight each silver a couple of times to get the right level of contrast and colour graduation, and I wouldn't even be surprised to see a dab of Agrax Earthshade added to the Nuln Oil to help make the darker silver "warm" and enhance it's contrast against the "cool" bight silver.

 

Alternatively, a spot of something like Lamenter Yellow glaze added to the blue wash to make it a little more turquoise/sky-blue, and then add a little Druchii Violet wash to the Nuln Oil for the darker silver areas.

 

Hope that helps. :)

[Buggane]

Wow thanks very much that is super helpful. I'm having problems with washes period so need to practice them anyway...

[OnboardG1]

Have you considered trying a blue glaze like Guilliman Blue rather than a wash? I used that a while ago on a GK project back in 5th and it worked really well. 

[Buggane]

I could make my own glaze by watering down a wash correct?

[Major_Gilbear]

I could make my own glaze by watering down a wash correct?

 

Yes, you can make your own washes and glazes using water, matte medium, glaze medium, and pigment (store-bought wash, ink, or paint).

 

Here's a more detailed how-to:

 

I know the cool thing is to recommend an off-the-shelf GW Wash or such, but I am going to make a different suggestion: make your own.

 

It sounds like it would be difficult, inconvenient, or expensive, but it really isn't. The best thing about making your own is that you can make any paint or ink into a wash. Here's how:

 

1) Buy some Matte Medium and some Glaze Medium. Vallejo sells these, but so do good artist's stores. The Vallejo ones are quite expensive for what you get, but cheaper if you only need a bit (Vallejo sells £2 for a 17ml bottle vs £5.50 for 117ml bottle of Liquitex Matte Medium for example). If you start with the Vallejo and like them, you can always go for a different brand next time.

 

2) A strong wash can be made by putting one drop of paint on your palette, and adding three drops of matte medium, one drop of glaze medium, and one/two drops of clean water to suit.

 

3) A soft wash can be made by putting one drop of paint on your palette, and adding five drops of matte medium, two drops of glaze medium, and one drop of clean water.

 

4) Using ink instead of paint makes the wash much more translucent.

 

5) You can use a Gloss Medium instead of a Matte Medium for a gloss instead of matte finish.

 

I also add a small amount of retarder to my washes - this means they take longer to dry but because of this I also get no incidence of so-called "tide marks". Vallejo again sell Drying Retarder, and I would recommend just buying a bottle of theirs (it will last you a silly-long time anyway).

 

However, do not use it neat! Instead, get a clean dropper bottle and mix 1 part Vallejo Retarder with 3 parts of clean (distilled if you can get it) water. You will need to shake this mix vigorously for a good while until it is an even consistency (should be like liquid dish soap when you're done).

 

Because of this dilution (Retarder is otherwise nearly useless as sold for miniatures purposes), you basically get four bottles of the stuff for each one you buy - and as you only use a drop here and there, four bottles will probably last you the rest of your natural life!

 

To use this in your wash mix, I add one drop of the diluted retarder to either soft or strong washes. Doing this will mean you probably need to leave the model to dry overnight, so I tend to apply it to a batch of figures at a time. If it's a longer painting session, I try and do this as the last step.

 

For small areas, touch-ups, etc, I just use the same wash without the retarder, and this dries rather faster. This way, you just have to be more careful that the wash doesn't pool too much though, to avoid drying/tide marks.

 

So there you go - three bottles of acrylic mediums plus a spare dropper bottle (two spare dropper bottles if you want to pre-mix the wash additives so that you just add it straight to paint). Total cost is around £7 for an almost endless variation of washes!

 

You can also add a little more water to the strong/soft washes above if you find them a little thick - better to start with a bit less and then add more water, than the other way around.