Prot's Custodes Thread: Page 4 Cap on Bike + Venatari

[Prot]

So I guess I've unofficially started these guys based purely on the novels, and the models. My hope is to flesh the army out and get some good advice on how to play them, and make them look decent. Hopefully I'll be throwing all that stuff down here in this thread to chronicle the events as I awkwardly attempt to defend the Imperium!

Prot's Custodes Thread:

- First up I will kick off the thread with my first troops. This is 9 dudes that I got way back in the Burning of Prospero Box. I had another set of 5 guys painted but sold them on Ebay.

Edited March 2, 2021 by Prot

[Dosjetka]

Very nice. Can't help but notice that the black doesn't seem highlighted though. Or am I not seeing things properly?

 

Any chance you'd be willing to do a short step-by-step with what colours you use for your bases?

[Prot]

You're right, the black is not highlighted. I did a few models highlighted and I could barely... actually to be honest I couldn't really see it. When I brightened the greys up a bit more on the highlights I hated how it looked. It looked too obvious, so I repainted the blacks leaving them. I just take the time I had in the blacks and did more work on the golds which seems to pay off a lot more to me at least!

The problem I had here was my lighting was so bright it just about white washes the photos. I typically don't have enough lights for photo's and so this time I went overboard!

Here's some more of the 9 Guardians.

Size comparison with Ultramarines I just finished:

[Prot]

Sorry... the power weapon stuff.

 

I get asked a LOT about my power weapons so for my Grey Knights I knocked out a quick Tutorial.

 

But as far as the colours, I decided on (I knot this will sound stupid)... 'a sky of hope'. When I do some of my other power weapons... like Chaos, I usually do 'moody' colours... .Grey Knights was 'stormy'. So with the Custodes I wanted to do a clear, kind of magical afternoon, bright blue sky colour.

 

All of the shades are based on Baharoth blue, just really thinned out with various amounts of whites and blacks to bring the scale up or down as needed. The Tutorial: Prot's Power Weapon painting Tutorial.

[Dosjetka]

I was more interested in how you painted your bases but knowing how you do your power weapons is handy, too. ;)

[Prot]

Trajan Valoris.... so close to finished I thought I would post him. I just love the figure:

Group shot:

[Honda]

Outstanding work Prot...again. :)

 

A couple of observations:

 

1. One of your UM armies had a more subdued, less saturated blue on them. Are these UM guys from that army or a new rendition? In case you weren't sure, I really, really liked the de-saturated blue.

 

2. The bases look really colorful and I think they match your other armies, but they seem really busy to me. To the point where I think they are taking away from all that awesome gold.

 

I'm going to look at them a couple more times, but my first impression was too much going on.

 

All that being said, this is truly inspiring work.

 

Cheers,

[Dosjetka]

The bases have too much going on when they're on the black background but, in my humble opinion, they look fine on the battlefield (see picture in first post). :tu:

[Prot]

Outstanding work Prot...again. :)

 

A couple of observations:

 

1. One of your UM armies had a more subdued, less saturated blue on them. Are these UM guys from that army or a new rendition? In case you weren't sure, I really, really liked the de-saturated blue.

 

2. The bases look really colorful and I think they match your other armies, but they seem really busy to me. To the point where I think they are taking away from all that awesome gold.

 

Cheers,

Ah... I can’t win, Can I? ;)

 

Yes you are correct, this is intentionally a more concentrated blue. The difference in my process is subtle but the ending result is a bluer Ultramarines look. My 2nd Ultra army was made dirin* Gathering storm and I said I wanted them looking darker, stormier,etc.

 

But I got a lot of people saying the didn’t look traditional enough and missed the blue look. These guys are posted in my Ultramarines thread, we’ll see if I get positives on the blue or not. Honestly these guys took forever to figure out and I was happy with them. But I liked the other look too. I could make these guys look like my 2nd Ultramarines army probably in under... 6 hours of work.

 

On the bases, I guess I did some very plain variant of these and I felt they were too blah. I went back and forth a lot, but ultimately I wanted less silver and more colours on the bases to deflect from the monochromatic appearance of the gold army.

 

I really do appreciate your honest. Another thing is these pics are very whitewashed. I had too much light. I’ll try for a more real world look next time.

[Honda]

The bases have too much going on when they're on the black background but, in my humble opinion, they look fine on the battlefield (see picture in first post).

 

 

Ya know, that's a really good observation. You're right, the bases aren't as stark on the table as they appear to be against the monochrome  picture box. Also, as Prot mentioned, a lot of light may have caused the bases to look very color saturated.

 

Soooo Prot, you have nothing else to do. Could you take some more pictures for me that will make me feel batter about liking your awesome minis? You're a pal, really.  :P

 

Also, your Trajann is just awesome. I really like how you painted him.

[Prot]

Okay so it's biker time....

I decided to stick with the Imperialis bases, and the 75mm (?) biker bases actually have a hole centered in them for figuring out where the peg goes.

So this is what I've done:

It works... a shot from a game with the bikes plugged into the stems:

So for painting these I decided to keep the army ... not super shiny. I prefer a slightly dated looking gold... I did a lot of different wash and dry brush combo's before highlighting up the Guardians. I am doing the same process for the bikers.

[Soder]

Amazing as always Prot! ;) Do you use the gloss shades? I’ve read a lot of mixed reviews about them but in the Duncan video IMO the gloss shade he uses on the custodes model looks a lot better than the other one.

[Prot]

I used to use purely gloss shades but I could hardly see it. I started theses guys with the reikland shade and end with agrax gloss to define the edges. Then some dry brushing before highlights.

[CombatVet]

These are not Ad Mech.

[Stoic Raptor]

This is some exceptional work, Prot - even better than your other armies.

Edited March 5, 2018 by Knight of Lupus

[SkimaskMohawk]

You find any trouble with the pegs? I always found they got angled due to the surface not being flat and then my bikes would tip over really easily as well as just look silly

[Prot]

I see what you mean. What I noted was the pegs were slightly tilted when I dry fit them. So when I was about to glue them in I took a very thin string of greenstuff and wrapped it around the thin stem insert and tried to use that to stand it straight.

 

It wasn’t perfect but works great for me. However one trick I picked up from another Frater on the forum mentioned putting a bead of super glue on the ball joint that connects to the bike socket. What a simple but effective tip that was. It created great friction and a nice, snug fit the bikes have not tipped or fallen off on me yet ( admittedly I am pretty careful).

[SkimaskMohawk]

Well unfortunately for me my bikes are the forgeworld ones, so no ball sockets and a whole lot more weight. I'll try the greenstuff trick though

[Stoic Raptor]

I saw someone else do something with a metal nut but I don't recall how or what it fit on.

[Prot]

Tnhis is some exceptional work, Prot - even better than your other armies.

Thanks. That's a pretty nice compliment... I don't know if it's true but I do love working on this army. It's too bad it feels so limiting....

I did an experiment as I was working on my Deathguard it was very interesting.

It turns out at least 50% of the time Trajjan does not walk away from the Blightlords IF they go first. The typical squad I use has the Flail which turns out to be a huge difference maker. Shockingly the 'False Emperor' and Plague Weapon Rules make a very big difference when we're talking about multi wounds.

I did 5 rounds where Trajjan goes up against the Deathshroud. It gets much worse for him.... if the Shroud have one lucky turn they can shred him with all the multidamage attacks...basically 3 Deathshroud give him a much harder time.

On the other hand if the 4+ saves are not firing on all cylinders for Deathguard, his multidamage nearly negates the FnP effectiveness, but doing this in sequence, a lot comes down to his Damage rolls against the DG units. The Blightlords need more time to deal with him. The Deathshroud are clearly more effective against him in this fishbowl scenario. (I did not use his relic for this... I think it depended on what you'd do with it (If he went first, attack twice. Or regain 3 wounds if he lived a round).

Either way it would take 2 full rounds of combat almost every time, and only one time did either side walk away lightly damaged.

[Captain_Krash]

Hey Prot!

 

What's your gold recipe for the armor?

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Krash

[Prot]

Hey Prot!

What's your gold recipe for the armor?

Thanks for your help!

Krash

Thank you very much.

The non-Airbrush version is fairly simple but more time consuming than I think most would guess:

- Spray Retributor, do the clean up on missed spots with some Griffon (it works after washes just fine).

- Wash with Reikeland Flesh Wash (I don't use the Gloss here because I like a bigger contrast between the highlights and recesses.)

- Dry brush with a mix of Golden Griffon, then Liberator mixed with it, and keep adding a strong metallic... stormhost or whatever (Runefang doesn't have enough pigment)

- Spot wash with Agrax Earthshade Gloss (this is where the gloss is great for 'tracing' detail). Sometimes I add Nuln Oil Gloss too.

- Start manually painting the detail work with silvers, etc.

And I finished some bikes this weekend. I'll get better pics later:

[Captain_Krash]

Beautiful explanation! Thanks a lot

 

What do you do for air brushing is it that much easier? I'm assuming you do a zenathil highlight?

 

Krash

[Spiritual Liege]

I'd like the airbrush version too. Also those blades are absolutely beautiful.

[Prot]

Beautiful explanation! Thanks a lot

 

What do you do for air brushing is it that much easier? I'm assuming you do a zenathil highlight?

 

Krash

  

I'd like the airbrush version too. Also those blades are absolutely beautiful.

Thanks for the kind words guys. I on my phone right now but basically the airbrush version for the armour is more tedious ( everyone thinks it’s always faster :) )

 

I only use airbrushes on the weapons of these guys and reserve the airbrush for vehicles going forward. For my bikes i transitioned to the airbrush to finish them but I have a new recipe I want to perfect on an Achillus or Landraider or something. But I will tell you it starts on black primer and goes through more stages.

 

For the power weapons, all I did was start on black blades ( I normally start on white like with my Grey Knights for example).

 

The recipe is simply watered down Baharoth blue. I just keep adding white to taste. I think if you look upwards 8n this thread I left a post with a link to my power weapon tutorial with or with out airbrushes. Please reference that link for technique as it all applies to how I did these blades.