The Lichborne - Homebrew Warband - Balefire Acolyte Completed

[Pearson73]

Aye that's definitely something that tempts me towards it, but I just know that I'll need more than one box to sate my urge to convert and build a cool enough team and then it'll go from a mini project to taking over time from the main army...

[Volgon]

No painting recently but have decided I'm going to go with a zenithal prime using glaze consistency paints to see if I can get some color volumes. Did this with a rattlecan as I don't have an airbrush:

 

Looks decent to me? I would have like a better gradient on the shins but you just don't have the precision without an airbrush. Curious how the speckled look of the white paint will be underneath a few layers of blue. Never have been a fan of that look but it's what you get with a rattlecan.

[Volgon]

Hey all, was able to finish the new tester but unfortunately could not get any sort of glazing/blending to work. I ran into issues pretty much immediately where it seems the white spray paint I used was either gloss or semi-gloss so I was having problems with the paint adhering to the light areas. I pivoted to trying the "normal" approach, so painting two sections and attempting to glaze the transition into a smooth-ish blend, but also could not get that to work. I feel like the two colors I was using (Andrea Blue which is the regular blue armor color I have been using and then a bit darker one called Magic Blue from Vallejo Game Color as the shadow) are close enough that I should have had some success getting a decent blend but it just wouldn't work for me. I also tried the Pylar Glacier contrast paint as an attempt at a "ready made" glaze-esque paint but it's so thin it just wasn't giving me any coverage on the stronger blue tones. Here's what I ended up with:

 

As you can see, all was certainly not lost! I still had other stuff to work on. For one, this was the first time I worked on a base. It's simple, just Vallejo Diorama FX Brown Mud. It's pretty much perfect for the look I'm going for and a good color match for the browns I use for weathering the mini. I also picked up some modelling barbed wire by Army Painter for some decoration. For other minis I'd like to use things like broken armor panels, shoulder pads, bones etc as battlefield detritus in addition to the barbed wire to keep things varied. I also got some AK Fluorescent Orange to use as plasma glow and tried it out on the pistol. I'm pretty happy with it! Also I finally found a good color mix for highlighting the brown leathers I'm pretty happy with, so that was a good discovery.

 

So, where do I stand on blending? Well since I started this guy I've done a lot of reading and watching about glazing so I think I'll have a better idea next time. I was practicing on bases and shoulder pads throughout the process of painting this marine as well to try out stuff. I got a decent result from wet blending on my first try which was good to see, that's a possible route though does seem harder to work with thanks to the drying time. I think I should also try glazing the darker color into the shadows rather than the lighter color into the highlights. I would think the darker color would provide better coverage over the lighter one? I'm not 100% on that though, so if anyone has any advice I'll take it. I was struggling to get good consistency with the glazes as well. Even thinning a lot (from a dropper bottle I was doing anywhere from 1 drop of paint to 5 drops of water up to 10) and wicking moisture off I felt like I was still leaving too much paint on the brush which resulted in the gradient just getting colored over by the glaze color rather than just a filter. At the end of my last paint session I felt like I had a better grasp on consistency and how to properly use a glaze so I'm excited to try again soon.

[Volgon]

Another day, another guy (mostly, waiting on some bits to spruce up the base) done!

 

For this guy, I wanted to try some new things again and I think I succeeded on most of them. A primary goal was to try and give the blue armor more pizazz. Firstly, I wanted to attempt glazing once again, and it actually worked this time! On my previous attempt I was trying to glaze two distinct colors together (similarly to what you see in power sword videos where there are two distinct colors painted on and the transition is glazed). This time, I painted my base tone and then glazed the shadows with a darker color. This made it a lot easier to get coverage and I didn't have a nasty gradient line to work with. That being said, IMO the effect is too subtle for the amount of effort it took. You can't see it in the photos (though I am no professional photographer), and while I could see it while holding it, it was harder to notice at arms' length and once it was in my display case just ~3 feet away from my face I couldn't see it at all. That being said, I believe the color I picked for the shadow was too similar to my base tone. If I had gone with something quite a bit darker like a Kantor Blue I think the effect would be much more noticeable. I am going to try it again at some point once I acquire a darker blue.

 

The second technique I attempted was also to spice up the blue. I did a scratch mark weathering technique which many have probably seen before. It just involved painting a scratch on an armor piece with a dark color (I chose a dark grey for mine) and then highlighting that scratch with the highlight color for the armor. Very simple, cool effect, and I was happy how it came out. Unfortunately I made the mistake of doing it before the sponge chipping which, once applied, makes it difficult to make out those scratches. Next time I think I will do the sponge chipping first and then paint over the chipping or in non-sponged areas with the scratch marks to make them more visible.

 

I tried hazard stripes for the first time. I've never thought they looked particularly difficult to do but I was wrong, at least for this guy, as the space to work with was so small. I also made the mistake of trying to paint yellow stripes over black. I had reverse my order and totally redo both pipes by basecoating white then painting yellow and then painting black stripes.

 

Lastly I took the good @Dr_Ruminahui's previous suggestions and worked on my bolt belt. I kept the casing a darker color and then also tipped the bolts red which I think is a cool effect. Perhaps I should have painted the entire tip red rather than just the front flat part but I think it's ok as is.

 

The heavy bolter gunner marks the last of the generic operatives in the kill team. I have the 5 bespoke operatives plus a handful of leaders both kill team related and not remaining. I already have my Anointed conversion primed so he will be the next project.

[Firedrake Cordova]

Looks good.

 

Hazard stripes are a pain ...

[Volgon]

Thanks @Firedrake Cordova! I think the hazard stripes would be easier on a larger piece of armor. Small area + pretty curved pipes meant it was difficult for me to get clean and straight-ish lines. Looking back, I might have been able to mask off the areas and just hope the paint brush didn't go underneath the tape but too late for that. Maybe next time.

 

As I mentioned in my previous post, next project will be my Anointed. I want to continue working on the blue to give it more complexity. I'm definitely going to give glazing another shot. I will try to make a return to "less is more" when it comes to the sponge weathering, similar to the latest Chainsword wielder or the Chaincannon gunner. I feel like I overdid it on the Heavy Bolter and it made the paint job more muddled than I really want.

 

My current plan for the blue is:

1. Recess glazing with a dark blue (Kantor Blue in this case). A dark blue should offer much more contrast than what I used before and will hopefully be more noticeable. Visually, I'll have to see if the armor retains its overall shade with the inclusion of the dark blue.
2. Brown chipping in the lower areas of armor panels. Go lighter on this than on the heavy bolter gunner to allow other techniques like glazing to show through. Retain some larger splotches where I can paint in silver areas to mimic paint chipping all the way to the metal.
3. Blue chipping with a highlight color for some chipping contrast. I haven't done this before but I may attempt it next time.
4. Do scratch weathering last to ensure the effect shows. I don't want to repeat the mistake of sponging over the scratches to dull the effect.

Edited July 2 by Volgon

[Firedrake Cordova]

Sounds like a plan

[Volgon]

The Anointed is DONE! What an absolute beast of a mini. So much detail, lots of little cracks on the armor, and the backpack with the tiny vertebrae. Very happy with the result though! I think he may be my favorite so far. A little backstory: the Anointed in kill team is basically a pre-fully Possessed marine. Personally, I am not a fan of the generic Chaos mutation stuff like tentacles, claws, pustules, etc, and for my warband specifically I don't see them as drinking the Chaos kool-aid (hence no mutations on any of my minis) but you can never fully escape the warp's degeneration (hence this guy). The warband's sorcerers ply their trade as necromancers, using Chaos as a tool to replenish their ranks. This Anointed has been brought back from the abyss one too many times, however, and the mutations have manifested.

 

Because of the nature of the warband, I see many of them as being nothing but bones and withered skin, souls fractured by reanimation, and sustained by unholy energies. It makes sense then that a collection of, essentially, skeletons and zombies would exhibit mutations of the bone variety, so that's the direction I went with this conversion. I haven't been that happy by my normal bone recipe that I've been using on the skull helmets so far, so I wanted to try experimenting on that a bit and this guy was perfect for that. Out of the 5 bone recipes I was pretty happy with 4 of them, and of those 4 I was super enthused about 2. I used a lot of stippling on the bone growths, the backpack, the claw and the shoulder pad to get some transitions/textures and I love the color and look (these were Stormvermin Fur base > stipple/drybrush Rakarth Flesh > stipple/drybrush Wraithbone). For the skull helmet I did a Vallejo Sky Grey base (for coverage, this is basically Grey Seer) > white > Nuln Oil order and then tapped some Stormvermin Fur on the brow to make it look more worn and I really like that recipe as well.

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

He came out well.

 

I like the back-story you've given them  

[Volgon]

On 7/15/2024 at 1:37 AM, Firedrake Cordova said:

He came out well.

 

I like the back-story you've given them  

 

Thanks! Days later I am really pleased whenever I look at him.

 

Haven't posted a WIP in a while but thanks to a post in the CSM subforum I wanted to try my hand at some stitched flesh/sutures. I can't sculpt very well but I thought it would still come out better than attempting to paint them on. I also like the physical nature that the sculpted sutures add, rather than being 2D pieces when painted. I'm pretty happy with how they came out. I think the chest staples might be a little large but on the other hand their size may help them stand out further away. They aren't perfect but I think once paint is down they'll look pretty ok.

[Volgon]

Finished up the Shrivetalon today! I did some sculpting on the tabard to turn it into a flesh apron. I used a variation of a fairly simple Contrast recipe for skin from Darcy Bono on youtube for all the skin parts. I think it came out decently, too dark/red IMO. I put 2 coats of each color (Skeleton Horde then Volupus Pink) but I think next time I'd want to thin the paints down more than I did and also maybe only do one coat, or perhaps 2 coats of Skeleton Horde but only one of Volupus Pink.

 

Also I experimented with Blood for the Blood God for the first time. I think it's pretty solid, I am not sure whether I prefer it to my normal bright red blood spatters. The gloss is a cool effect but I do like the matte nature of my normal blood technique, and it was a little more difficult to use as it was gloopy right out of the pot. I didn't try thinning it (or do any research into it) but maybe next time I can try that. Definitely makes it more difficult to get really thin wisps/streaks of blood from the larger pools at the consistency it was neat from the pot.

 

[Pearson73]

Wow, he's fantastic! The helmet is crazy cool!

[Volgon]

Thank you @Pearson73 ! The helmet is a modified one from the Wrathmongers AoS box. This one specifically was a pretty easy conversion, just had to remove the Khorne bunny ears. Didn't have to resculpt any details like some of the other Khorne heads I've used which was a nice change!

[Volgon]

Progress is ongoing on the Butcher but I wanted to show off the axe. I'm really stoked how it's looking! The outer silver edge is a bit darker IRL so I might relayer a bit of the silver to brighten it back up as I really like the stark difference between the edge and the black metal recess in the picture.

[Firedrake Cordova]

That looks good, especially the glow in the eyes  

[Volgon]

Another day, another operative done and dusted! This time we have the Legionary Butcher/Master of Executions equivalent. This fella was my longest project by far. I didn't keep exact count but I want to say I spent somewhere between 20-25 hours working through everything. I am super proud of the result, I think he is my favorite completed project so far!

 

A few highlights:

1. Going in I was anxious about the coat. I had never done fabric/folded stuff before so I was concerned about whether I could properly paint the volumes. I think it came out fantastic! Up until my previous session I think it was my favorite part of the mini. I love the color and weathering on it.
2. The axe really blew me away once I had finished it. I was struggling with the eyes until pretty much by random chance I decided to drybrush the red from bottom to top rather than top to bottom. It gave a bit of a sinister looking red underglow which I thought was really cool so I kept working at it until I got what you see here.
3. The conversion itself is probably one of the top 3 I've made for my warband. It was actually a little different for the longest time until right before I started painting him. I initially use the Judiciar sword arm converted to an axe (I've posted it very early on in the thread I think). I soured on that pose over time. I wanted something more casual, with the axe being dipped downwards in a relaxed fashion. I wanted him to exude supreme confidence in his ability to take on his next victim, beckoning them to their end. I like to tell stories with each conversion and I really think it goes above and beyond for this guy.
4. I alluded to it in the first point but my favorite part was the helmet! Not necessarily the head itself but the glow I was able to do. I really love the way it came out and will definitely be trying to included it on everything else from now on (and likely at some point I will go back to previous minis and incorporate it into those as well). Here is a better picture of the eyes/glow. Not perfect white dots but they're pretty much completely unnoticeable IRL.

 

I also scaled back the weathering a bit. I didn't include the light blue + grey scratches on the armor panels (I am not sure how else to describe them) as seen on my last two operatives. Any thoughts on that? It was a nice experiment but I think I prefer the weathering a little simpler with just the brown/silver sponging and silver chip highlights. As always let me know what you think!

Edited August 16 by Volgon

[Firedrake Cordova]

Very nice - the texture on the leather is great, the glow on the helmet works well, and the flayed skin looks suitably disturbing  

[KrautScientist]

An absolutely gorgeous model! Great selection of parts, and a striking paintjob! The head works so well on him, and the glow is a fantastic addition!

 

Personally speaking, I think I would have shortened the haft of the axe, but if you want it to read as a two-handed weapon, your approach is totally viable, of course.

 

Great army project! Looking forward to seeing more!

[Volgon]

@Firedrake Cordova Thanks much, I am really proud of the coat and helmet. They came out basically as close to what I had envisioned as possible. The skin is decent too but I am still working on that. It's coming out darker than how I want it so I still need to tinker with the recipe.

 

@KrautScientist Welcome back to my thread! The head I took from your playbook, using the rebreather half of a Mechanicum head spliced onto the Aspiring Deathbringer's head. Thanks for that! And the axe is 100% meant to evoke a 2 handed weapon. I also thought it looked a little too long/unbalanced because I added the little bone handle at the butt of the haft. I decided to keep it though as skulls and bones are a theme for the overall aesthetic of the warband. It's just a small piece so super simple to fix if I ever change my mind

 

Thanks you two for commenting!

[KrautScientist]

See, I think keeping the bone handle would be perfectly sensible, for the reasons you've outlined. If anything, I'd get rid of the part above that. Here's a mockup:

 

 

Still long enough to wield the axe two-handed, but quite a bit less dodgy in silhouette. But it might be a finicky tweak, so I wouldn't blame you for leaving the model as is

[Volgon]

@KrautScientist Good shout, thanks for the mockup! I'll mull over it for a bit. It shouldn't be too difficult of a fix if I went through with it.

[Volgon]

I decided to act on the advice of @KrautScientist and shortened the haft of the axe a bit. It was just a bit too unwieldy looking even for me. I also reworked the colors of the bone handle at the end of the haft as it was an experiment in reverse layering bone (using darker colors at the end of the bone as can be seen in the new Vizzik Skour mini from the Skaven line in AoS) that didn't really work out. Lastly I also weathered the Fire Hawks helmet as I had completely forgotten to do that. I didn't include a picture of it as it's just a minor detail but it has my usual sponging and scratch highlighting on it now.

[KrautScientist]

I think the tweaked handle looks great! Should work really well for the model's silhouette, too!

[Volgon]

Newly (fully) completed Balefire Acolyte! Similarly to the Butcher from my previous project, this guy involved a lot of experimentation and learning. I believe this project was a major breakthrough for me. I learned a LOT about blending colors. Part of the way through the process I found a Reddit thread explaining stipple glazing which opened my eyes once I started breaking down the process. I also began mixing colors to make midtones for blending different sections together. This has made it significantly easier/simpler to blend gradients together. The way I describe my previous process was basically brute forcing it: glaze my highlight or shadow color over my midtone (no layering involved) a LOT and hope the result is acceptable. This got results but it took a long time and was inconsistent; I had a lot of issues with glaze consistency and drying unevenly which meant the gradient was mostly smooth but didn't look very good to me. The best example I can give on my (hopefully) improved blends is the blue armor panel on the helmet where I feel like I did a pretty smooth transition between the midtone and my highlight/shadow colors.

 

This was also the first time I've painted flames. I took what I learned about blending colors and applied it to the flames. My first attempt was decent; not great but passable at a distance. I decided to try again, this time going heavier with mixing midtones up for smoother transitions, and doing layering (previous to this project I had never layered before). I am much happier with the result. The colors I chose for the flames may not work for the color scheme; I was adamant on going for a spectral flames look with pastel green and turquoises rather than a much more traditional warp flame look with greens. The color difference between the flames and the armor is more noticeable IRL than in the photos. I will think on it some more, an alternate color scheme I have been considering is darker purple (think Castellan Crowe's box art sword) with some of the brighter turquoises I used here for the inner glow.

 

As always, let me know what you guys think!

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

The wytchfire looks great