Si Vis Pacis Para Bellum. Something Big (sorta clickbait) :D

[Sagentus]

smashing it out the park again!!! the back story bits really add to the aesthetics of the army !

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Excellent work on the new Marines' models. Their biographies are well-written.

[Pearson73]

The whole squad together look even more imposing than the individuals! Really nice stuff.

[Monstra Sumus]

The whole squad together look even more imposing than the individuals! Really nice stuff.

 

Seconded! 

[Joukernaut]

Oh my, this is an amazing hobbyproject! I discovered it through your respons in my own thread, and I'm glad I did! It took me a while to get read it all, but it was absolutely worth it, your conversions and greenstufwork are very well executed, I wish I could do the same. The progress in colour and paint job is also very good, your paint job does the conversion work justice.

All in all very inspiring work brother, I'm looking forward to see more!

[space wolf]

Sagentus, Bjorn, Pearson, Nomad:  Thank you all for the very kind words!  I'm happy you guys decided to come on this journey with me.

 

Joukernaut: Welcome to my plog! I certainly wouldn't expect someone to read through all those pages.  You humble me.  If I may, I want to encourage you to (if you haven't) give green stuff a try.  I was intimidated at first, but it gets easier.  Knowing what tools to use, is really the hardest part.

 

So for those who are interested, I kind of took pictures of my painting process, almost step by step.

 

1.) We start with just a base coat or two of watered down blue (I used Medium Blue from Vallejo)

 

2.) Then we move on to a blueish black wash (a little matte medium, water, blue and black paint)

 

3.) You can use a sponge (i have in the past) but now I use the brush seen below, and just stipple on some pure medium blue, to bring kind of a mottled blue look to the armor (so that it's not smoothly one shade of blue)

 

4.) Using almost a 50/50 mix of medium blue and your choice of pure white (I used vallejo's white--way less chalky than citadels), I started volume highlighting the model. For those new to that, just try to think where the light would hit it from above.  It doesn't have to be perfect as any highlight can be explained from the multiple light sources on the battlefield (headlights anyone?)  I'm sure if you just wanted to edge highlight, that would look fine too.

 

5.) Then with a 70/30 mix of white and blue, I highlight the highlights.  If its on a flat panel, I make sure this highlight is INSIDE the other, so we get sort of a layered blending effect.  It wont be perfect, but thats ok, we'll fix that later. If its on a edge, just highlight the barest edge of that edge.  Sometimes I like to make the highlights look "Scratchy"  You can see it on his fist on the left side.

 

6.) Then we paint all the areas that will be gold, or leather, brown. I used bloodstone from P3

 

7.) Then...all the silver parts silver. (Mithril Silver from Citadel...I don't know what the renamed one is...basically a really light silver)

 

8.) Paint on the gold (gold from vallejo) over the brown, and block in the first coat of white.

 

9.) Decorative ropes -- red (Khorne red)

 

10.) You really can't see it unless you look close, but wash all the gold in Agrax Earthshade.  I like to use Nuln oil on the leather/silver to give it a darker tone.

 

11.) Then start blocking in the rest of the details.  Paint your purity seals and such.

 

12.) base up the crest.  The white was just white, then washed with sepia wash.

 

13.) Finish crest and eyes.  Crest highlighted with more white after wash, and blue parts hightlighted with 50/50 blue white mix.  Eyes were done, by painting lenses white, then painting over with tesseract glow (by citadel).  then another smaller layer of white in the middle, and more tesseract glow.

 

14.) Initial weathering:  Take a small piece of sponge, and dip it in black paint.  Wipe/dab most of it off.  Then lightly dab it all over the model, to give little sections of "chipping paint."  Then I come in with a small brush, and dab some silver into the black areas, to look like the paint has rubbed off to the metal. (see fist on the left)

 

15.) Finishing Touches:  Then we take some AK Interactive, streaking grime (course any lacquer based product will probably work) and paint it all over the model. (This will be VERY scary) Don't worry, we will be able to remove it where we want to.  Take a q-tip (cotton bud, for our friends in the UK) and dip it into some odorless paint thinner (mineral spirits, or white spirits) and gently rub/dab away the brown streaking grime.  Use the dry side of the q-tip as well.  This should leave all that grime in the recesses, and staining the blue of the armor, making the model look dirty.  Then just paint up the base, and dry brush some dust on the feet....done!

 

I hope you guys found that useful :D

[Bjorn Firewalker]

Thank you for the tutorial.

[Sagentus]

hot dam that is epic 

[Monstra Sumus]

Excellent tutorial space wolf.

[Pearson73]

Great tutorial mate, that volume highlighting style looks worth a try for sure!

[space wolf]

Thanks guys! I hope you found it useful.  Volume highlighting can look REALLY good, if you do it in more layers with more subtle color changes...I just don't plan on winning a painting competition, so just two highlights will work just fine for me.  

 

Anyway its been a long week, and a lot of my time had been taken up with other commitments.  Anyway, I managed to get a little greenstuff work done for this guy.  Primaris Outrider, he is not.....I wonder what it could be?

 

[grailkeeper]

Cappelanus.

[Monstra Sumus]

DOOM RIDAAAAAAAH!

 

It's not but I just can't help myself

[Majkhel]

I'm on hiiiiiiiiiighway to heeeell :D

[Smoke Frog]

That is a truly glorious ultramarine, I like the weathering you have done

[space wolf]

Smoke Frog:  Thank you for the very kind words!

 

Made some progress on my chaplain:

 

 

 

 

[Majkhel]

Nice work on the collar!
Love the book too. Obviously he will not be able to see a damn thing through it, but who cares if the Emperor's words guide him, right? ;)

[Pearson73]

Excellent greenstuff work!

[space wolf]

Majkhel: thanks man. I've attached his head at this point...trust me, he can see just fine ;)

 

Pearson: thank you sir, I think I'll be done with the converting work later today. This is becoming my new favorite model...course everyone I do is my new favorite when it's new. LoL

[space wolf]

So aside from the pauldron emblems, the chappy is done!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look closely, you'll notice the mechanism by which flames, shoot out of his helmet crest.

[Pearson73]

Every time I think you've made your best piece, you come out with something even better! The details are really cool here and the oath papers add a tonne of dynamism.

[Rockybaerboa]

I love your work so much!!! 

[space wolf]

Thank you! I'm really happy you guys are enjoying it as much as I am.

 

Given how well Brother Agrippa turned out, I needed to improve brother Atullus so that he didn't look overshadowed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Majkhel]

Great to see your fantastic dreads together!
Brother Atullus is definitely my personal favourite among your works :D

[Smoke Frog]

Exquisite pair of dreadnoughts! 

 

Its amazing how well your painting makes it look like the dreadnought is really carrying around stone blocks on its armor plating!