The Lichborne - Homebrew Warband

[Volgon]

Here is a pretty quick result that I knocked out today. This is a method using a reverse zenithal (so lighter colors in the shadows rather than darker colors) and a few layers of thinned contrast paints. I used Briar Queen Chill for the light areas and Gryph Charger Grey for the darker spots.

 

This is pretty much the original method I was going to use to paint flames before pivoting to the turquoise. The effect is ok, my drybrushing is not great so it looks pretty dirty in some areas due to overbrushing. Also Contrast paints have a major flaw in that they want to pool in the recesses to darken those areas while leaving raised spots clearer which is completely opposite of how flames actually work. Now, we can write that off a bit by saying that it's the warp after all, it's not actual flame so things can function differently, but it's a little detail that I wanted to stick to.

 

All that being said, what I realized is that I think I can mimic pretty much 1 to 1 the colors of the end result of the Contrast method with layering instead if I used a few of the turquoise paints. I did some test bits on the arms you can see here:

 

I did the hands in my warband's armor color so you can see the difference between the tones. The color on the wrist (Marine Mist, basically an extremely pale/pastel green) seems almost exactly the same as the Briar Queen Chill on the raised areas. Above the wrist, I did two separate mixes of Marine Mist with the midtone I used on the turquoise flames of my sorcerer. Though I didn't paint a sample, I think the dark areas at the end of the wisps looks pretty spot on for Incubi Darkness (which, again, was a color I used on the sorcerer's flames to paint the tips). Lastly I did a small bit of Volupus Pink around the eyes as a potential contrasting color to add some interest. The next project I will use this color scheme on has spiritual/daemonic faces in the flames so I'd like to have a color I can paint in the eye sockets or mouth to provide some more visual interest. Let me know what you guys think of this scheme!

[Volgon]

I've been semi-reworking my Icon Bearer conversion recently. Standards are a pretty awesome and gothic part of the 40k universe but, admittedly, they've never really been my cup of tea. After watching part of a painting stream I decided they are iconic enough that I should probably make one for my own warband. I have a handful of decent banners but things didn't really click for me until I found the one from the Katakros kit from AoS. I managed to snag just the standard bearer to use. The design on it looks like a stylized version of the warband's badge (skull + crown) so I thought it was perfect. I also managed to kitbash the collar of a Primaris Sword Brother onto this Chaos Chosen torso. I adore raised gorgets like on the Sword Brothers and Chaos Havocs so I wanted to try to add one and I think it came out well.

 

Lastly I kept feeling like he was lacking a bit of "presence"; his rear half felt bland and made him look a bit shorter than I wanted with a normal backpack. He is supposed to be a character level conversion; blinged out and imposing. He's bearing the warband's banner and is part of the warlord's closest cadre. He needed to look the part to fit in with the rest of the bespoke operatives. I put together this backpack using the trophy racks from the Chaos Terminator Lord kit and a Plague Marine backpack. The bars on the backpack should help to support the trophy racks in place as power armored packs don't have enough surface area to glue the entire attachment bar of the trophy rack. I am quite happy with it and I think this pack added exactly what I felt he was missing.

 

[Volgon]

Iterating on some ideas from my thread in the WIP forum. To start, I don't think I have any halo-esque bits so trying to "complete" an Iron Halo using the two curved bars on the top of the Plague Marine backpack is going to require more work. I think I could make a bridge section out of a piece of sprue or something so the idea is not completely out of the picture yet. Regardless, I wanted to see what it looked like with any sort of Halo and I remembered that I have a Black Templars Marshal that I used as the basis for a separate conversion. I had the backpack leftover and threw the Iron Halo topper onto the Plague Marine backpack:

 

I think it looks pretty good! The fit isn't perfect as I didn't want to shave down the area until I finalized the design. Also I now notice in the picture that the skeletal body is falling off the attachment points so a little imagination is in order.

 

The second iteration I did was an evolution of my original design:

 

I flipped the trophy racks 180 degrees and set them further apart. They overhang on the front side of the mini not instead of the back which looks better IMO as it seems they could be resting on the shoulder pads rather than on nothing at all.

 

I am not sure which I prefer right now, I like them both. I think the Templars version is better designed; less busy, less hodgepodge, and it shows off everything there is to see. It also encroaches on an aesthetic space that I already have reserved for a different backpack that will be used for a different character (essentially both are skeletons mounted on top of the backpack) which I try to avoid. The trophy rack version is more bombastic, more outlandish, and I do really like the symmetrical trophy rack look used by Terminators. It does obscure a lot of what makes that particular backpack cool though (the arched spike bars). As always let me know what you think.

Edited September 12 by Volgon

[Tallarn Commander]

Both look great. I'd have to agree that the trophy rack configuration looks more symmetrical than the iron halo configuration. But either would work nicely. 

[Volgon]

Quick WIP I wanted to share, just about finished with the banner. Still need to do the pole but everything else I would consider done. I went with the same set of colors I used on the previous Balefire Acolyte's fire. This picture is a more accurate representation of the color IRL, not particularly close to the vibrant cerulean blue of the armor. If it's still too hard to picture, it's fairly close to the banner/cloth colors on things like Mortarch Katakros and and the Mortek Guard from the Ossiarch Bonereapers in AoS.

 

Comments on the banner itself: Couldn't quite get the runes to glow like I wanted. Very happy with the blending at the bottom of the cloth. Also I mixed up a few colors for the stone obelisk at the top that I like a lot. I've considered adding some light scratching for weathering but unsure if I will go through with it. I do feel the cloth is missing a bit extra pizzazz but I don't really know what I could do.

 

[Tallarn Commander]

Wow! The blending is insanely gorgeous. The banner looks great as is. For what it's worth, I don't think any additional pizzazz is needed.

[Volgon]

@Tallarn Commander Thanks mate, I am really happy with the blending for sure. It was a lot of back and forth but the end result is worth it. I'll probably hit it with an ultra matte varnish to knock back the gloss (glazing stuff always ends up glossy for me, not sure if that's just how it is or what) at the end of the project.

 

I went back and redid the runes cause they weren't really working for me personally. Went with a bright red, diluted into a wash and then just let capillary action do the work. Haven't got a photo right now but I am a lot happier with the result.

[Volgon]

 

Still a lot to do, haven't been painting as much as I'd like. I think the blending on this guy is by far the best I've ever done. In particular I am extremely happy with how the banner and shin armor blending went. It is pretty faint thanks to the color choice but that is the effect I was going for so I suppose it works. All of the blue (minus the belt I suppose) has glazing/blending but some of it is hard to tell. Oh well, at least I know it's there

[Volgon]

Another operative in the books! This marks the completion of all non-leader members of the kill team. For the kill team specifically, that leaves the warband's leader, a power fist champion, and a power sword champion. I have a handful of other characters and models to work on as well so as much as I'd like to dive right in to doing the lord next, I continue to bide my time gathering experience and techniques to make the end result as awesome as possible.

 

 

Let's talk the present, though. The Icon Bearer! I am thoroughly pleased with the result. I love the banner; I think it's easily my favorite aspect, but also the cloak kind of came out of nowhere. I posted a WIP recently and went back to work on the cloak as I wasn't pleased with the result. I initially tried to stipple some highlights to add texture which came out ok but not great, but then I had to idea to drybrush instead and that gave me exactly what I was looking for. I knocked back the highlight areas with a glaze (they were far too bright for my tastes) and reinforced the midtone purple. I love the way it looks now! I ended up using drybrushing again on the scabbard for easy texture/scratching.

 

Other than that, it was mostly business as usual. I continue to work on blending despite how temperamental it can be. I think that I have come to the conclusion that glazing is just a lot of back and forth; there is no set recipe for success. It's not like painting 2 or 3 coats to get coverage over a primer; some glazes do essentially nothing, some glazes may completely overpower a transition if you move the brush the wrong way or with the wrong paint.

 

One thing tangentially related to blending is my weathering. I've always liked the weathering look and specifically for the blue I felt it added some complexity to the color that didn't really exist. These days though I feel like the weathering masks some of the work I do when blending. I think the weathering is fine for the black as I don't do any sort of volumetric painting for it (though I may try that very soon), but sponging a bit of brown directly over a blend I worked hard on smarts a bit. I had some blends I was really happy with on the shin armor (they may be hard to see in the photos). They are still noticeable especially in hand but they lose a bit of the effect once I slap on some weathering. I may try going no sponging (at least on the blue areas, or far more minimal if I can) on blended areas next time to see how it turns out.

 

As always let me know what you think!

[Tallarn Commander]

What an incredible model!

 

With regard to your sponge weathering, you might want to keep doing it. But just tone it down great deal. Just a very little bit here and there on a model, especially on the lower legs.

[Volgon]

@Tallarn Commander Thanks mate, I think you are right. I will probably try to scale back a bit on the sponging in some form. Probably try to remove more paint from the sponge before applying to the mini and applying it to different areas. Rather than applying it around the middle where the transition is, I can sponge only in the lower areas and see how it looks. I think the 4th picture, the photo showing off the scabbard, on his left leg on the blue armor panel. That seems to be about the amount of weathering I'm thinking of. Enough to definitely be mud but sparse enough to still show off the panel very well. Just a little difficult with a technique as imprecise as sponging! I'll figure something out.

[Volgon]

Hey all, been a bit since I've worked on anything. Always tough for me to start a new project. With the rest of the kill team completed, it was time for me to take a crack at a leader, so I went with this Aspiring Champion. I worked on this guy across around 2 weeks. The first session was really frustrating; I had a lot of trouble with the blending. Even after a few months chipping away at it, glazing still remains a bit of a conundrum for me. Sometimes I get it perfect, but most of the time it's just back and forth, repainting layers as I mess up the previous gradient and have to start over. Overall though I am really stoked with how he came out, I think he is easily my best painted mini so far. I went with a higher contrast paint style this time. As per usual, may not be that evident in the photos but I am really satisfied with how he looks in hand. At first I wasn't sure if I'd like the look, as I felt darker shadows pulled away from the overall tone I was aiming for, but I think it came out great. I also went with no brown sponging this time as it was imperative to me not to mess up any of the blending I'd worked really hard on. I think that is probably what I'll continue doing for these guys from here on out.

 

[Pearson73]

Love the effect on the champion's head, really freaky! The base is well done too, the colours of the fallen marine match nicely with the pistol.

 

The icon bearer is phenomenal, the design and gradients on the icon itself are cracking, and the model just has so much presence. Looks like something right out of the art. Cool that you could get such nice results with dry brushing for the cloak.

[Volgon]

@Pearson73 Thanks so much! I feel like I have really been "leveling up" lately. It's a slog to try and learn new stuff but so satisfying when it comes out well.

 

Quick update on the Champion. It was bugging me that I kept him pretty clean compared to the rest of my kill team. My original intent was to have a finished piece that was a bit weathered but clean on the blue panels where I did all my blending. I wanted to ensure that the gradients were present and visible, and for him to function a bit as a milestone/display piece more than anything. However, it was bugging me that he didn't necessarily fit with his own base or with the atmosphere of the rest of the team. He can't be trampling through mud and be spotless except for his boots. I pulled the trigger on doing some light weathering. I purposefully skipped his plastron as I wasn't sure if I could effectively weather that area without really messing up the blending.

 

[Tallarn Commander]

Yay! Weathering! He looks great.

[Volgon]

@Tallarn Commander Appreciate it bud, I am a bit torn myself. I do think he looks good with the additional weathering. It was just nice to have a bit of a "trophy" mini for lack of a better description. I'm sure it'll grow on me and once I get to painting some of my next few characters (which I am REALLY excited about) I'll be right as rain.

[Pearson73]

I think you've struck a nice balance there, still using him to showcase your skills, whilst grounding him with the rest of the team a bit better.

[Volgon]

Nothing major to report but I will be starting on my next project soon-ish. Waiting on some new paints to come in as I want to try evolving the recipe for my black trim/armor panels a bit. Everything up to now has just been black primer with silver weathering on top (and Vallejo Black to clean up where needed). I like the matte finish of the primer and I can spend very little time having to work on that color other than highlighting. I am not exactly sure what look I'm going for. Right now it looks like armor that is painted black (I find the chipping helps sell this). The other option is to try a look closer to metal that is actually black rather than painted black (this is where the new paints come in). I'll just have to see if I can make anything work.

 

As part of this effort I want to incorporate more complex weathering where I can. Mostly looking at rust for silver metallics, verdigris for brasses/bronzes/golds, and more varied looks for metallics in general (such as scratching, mottled/pitted metals, etc). I kind of want to incorporate a pretty aged, ancient look, like something you'd see from a Wight King or Deathrattle Skeletons from the Soulblight Gravelord range in AoS. Unfortunately it's pretty late into current scope of the kill team to incorporate a brand new theme but maybe I can touch up previous minis with a bit of additional weathering if I like it enough. Here is a very quick tester axe blade I knocked out and am very happy with:

[Tallarn Commander]

Nice rust effects. It probably would not take much time to go back and add the new weathering to the rest of the Kill Team.

[Volgon]

@Tallarn Commander Thanks, I am quite happy with the result especially for how much time it takes! I think I am going to take a page out of your book and try oil washes again. I found a fantastic looking black armor recipe with a rich rust color that I really like. I had a few issues with oils that put me off from using them again but that was at the very beginning of my hobby journey. Hoping now that I've learned a lot more stuff I'll have a better time.

[Tallarn Commander]

I hope it goes well! Oils are hard but rewarding.

 

I bought some blue oil paint earlier this month and I want to see how a touch of blue wash here or there can change the weathering. Plus I plan to use it for 5 o'clock shadows on faces.