The Just - Dr. Ruminahui's new Emperor's Children

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the video, @Sume - it was very interesting.  I think I'll just be using it to base coat at first, but depending on how that goes, I may try more advanced techniques.

 

A bunch of EC projects just kind of coming together at the same time.  First, just got in the mail a bunch of 3D printed bits I had traded for, among which was the head I needed to complete my 3-pistol Exaultant.  He's built mostly out of an Age of Sigmar guy (the Lord Terminos from the Skaventide box - he had a big axe, which is now in my bitz box).

 

From the front:

 

More from the side:

 

He'll also my Cypher stand-in for my regular CSM army, which is why I gave him a sword and hooded head.

 

Not sure about the frill behind his head and whether I should chop it down - I think it looks fine, but am worried that for people who are familiar with AoS that it comes across as too Sigmarite.  What do you guys think?

 

Next, I finished the last details on my seekers - these I had practically finished 4 or so years ago, but didn't like their hair colour so got stuck.  Dusted them off recently to finish, as it was something quick to do before Call to Arms (and something too far along to paint in CtA) and with a new hair colour finished them all up in about a week.

 

 

Their hair colour is a bit closer to that of my first squad than I would like (I use hair colour for unit designation for my demons), but they are distinguishable enough that it still works.  Here are the 2 units together:

 

Finally, what I'm working on now is dividing my 3x 20 squads of demonettes into 6x 10.  This means redoing the hair colour on half of them, and converting some of the existing figures to give each of the new squads an Aluress (though that doesn't make any game difference this edition, it may in future ones plus it adds a big of variety to the squads), a banner and a musician.

 

So far, I'll I've done is try out the new paint colour for my pink demonette squad - here it is (on the left), with the original hair colour on the right:

 

It works, so I'm now doing that for the rest of that new squad.

 

Did lose one of my pink demonettes at some point, so in addition to a converted banner and musician, I'll need to build myself an entirely new aluress.  I have the bits, though, so its not a big deal.

Edited May 22 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Dr_Ruminahui]

This past week has resulted in some more work on re-squadding my demonettes, both in the form of painting and converting.

 

First, I've painted all the new squads hair colour - I'll show that off once I've finished painting the conversions.  For now, I'll just show a picture of my new and old hair colours - the left of each pairing is the new colour.

 

 

The pink and blue, I arrived at a colour I liked on the first try.  Purple - not so much.  I think this is the fourth variation I tried, before I could come up with one I could likve with.  On the plus side, it was the easiest to paint - for the blue and pink, I had to repaint the hair in the base colour before giving its coloured wash, for the purple I could just paint the contrast paint I used right over the old paint scheme (except for a couple of the test models, where I  had to repaint those the original colur scheme before washing them.

 

Next photo is the conversions:

 

 

The middle model isn't a conversion per se, but is entirely new - its the replacement to the model I lost somewhere.  Other than her, where all the paint on her is new, I haven't painted any of the conversions yet, though I expect they'll be pretty quick to do.  Once they are, I'll show off a picture of all 60 of my demonettes together.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, finally got the gumption to get my air brush spraying models for the first time, which I did last weekend.  Certainly not as quick as I expected - I don't think I really saved any time over doing them with a brush.  Did that last weekend, and got the second half of my CtA vow sprayed this WE.

 

Anyway, at least I can say they are now obnoxiously purple.

 

 

There is still a fair bit of white that I didn't get coverage of, so I'll be applying some paint by brush to cover that up.  That will wait until next weekend, though, as I'll need to vow them in CtA first before I do that.

 

Another thing I discovered is that this colour is really hard to photograph - I need a lot light to get their vibrancy to show.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Okay, I've finished up the painting the converted bits of my demonettes to make them into 6 squads - here's a picture of them with their new hair colours with the rest of my demon army - the newly haired demonettes are the front 3 squads (I appologise forthe non-EC stuff in the back, such as the charriots and non-keeper characters).

 

 

In deciding how to paint the dark witch "ribbon" type banner I had just converted, I decided to make it an "slaaneshified" Biel Tan eldar symbol.  I liked it so much, I repainted the old one (which was a much less exciting white on yellow generic slaanshi symbols) to be a matching Iyanden - and I'm really happy with the decision (and results).  Here are the two together (though I still have to paint the symbols on the "back" sides):

 

[Volgon]

Haven't been very active on the forum but glad to see progress continues! I'm about a month late but I wanted to comment on your Cypher question: I think the frill looks fine, and if you paint it not gold I think it would pretty easily pass as just gothic decoration. One thought I had is if you wanted to change it, you could maybe clip the wavy points a bit straighter, to kind of mimic the Chaos star? Bad MS paint example of where to potentially cut:

[Dr_Ruminahui]

I've finished painting my first post-codex EC unit! (It's also my first model of this year's CtA - just 19 more).  Here's my Lord Kakophonist conversion:

 

 

He is the most obnoxiously coloured model I've ever painted (both the purple and the gold are very bright), but that kind of works for EC.

 

 

Here's a pciture of him beside fome of the CSM characters (though the one on the right is being ported over to my EC to be a Lord Exultant - he was my Lucius kitbash, though only ever got fielded as that twice).  I took this photo both to show how much brighter the new model is, and to show how the forces look side-by-side - close enough, IMHO, to lend from my CSM to my EC as I build my force, I think.

 

The model also served as a proof of concept for the army as a whole, and I will be painting them the same way.  I don't think I will do quartering for the characters like I thought I might, though - the other colours just kind of look muddy and dull next to the purple.  Likewise, I won't be doing the squad capes in GW pinks as I had planned either, for the same reason, and will be working things out.  Need to figure that out, but the leading idea is to do them white with a florescent wash in another colour, like I did my demon HQs hair - here's what blue, orange, red and green look like over the white.  Anyway, something to experiment with.

 

Somethings I learned in the process:

 

1.  Airbrushing definitely isn't any faster (even ingoring set up, the cleaning of the brush, and take down)  though that may be because my compressor is too small and I spend too long waiting for it to build up pressure.

 

2.  I'm having trouble getting smooth consistent colour, even on flat surfaces.  Part of that is the compressor (I can only do short blasts before my pressure drops) and part of that is lack of practice/poor technique.

 

3.  My whites don't paint over the sprayed areas well, and its difficult not to get the pink showing through even after several coats.  For my next batch, I'll have to mask the cloaks, as I want those to start white.  That said, with enough coats, I can get the white looking pretty nice.

 

4.  I can use the airbrush paint with a brush to correct small mistakes, which is a relief - I was afraid that doesn't work, but it does.  It might be a problem if I wanted my models to be a softer purple, but for the me the more saturated the colour the better, so it works pretty well even if I sometimes have to go back and give the correction a second coat.

 

One thing the model doesn't have yet is any highlighting - I may go back and do some once I figure out how best to get the same colour but lighter yet not less vibrant.  Maybe mixing it with silver?  Anyway, another thing to experiment with, but that's the kind of thing I would rather try out on a non-character as there will be less concern if the results aren't quite what I want.

 

Oh, and one last thing - a change to my hobby area.  So, my wife got tired of my desk looking like this (sorry about the blurry photo):

 

So, last weekend we went to ikea and got a little storage shelf-thing on rollers to put my paints on.  It works pretty well, and fits under my desk - though that did mean I made to move the boxes of sprues I had there onto a nearby shelf.

 

 

I would show you an after picture of my desk, but I haven't really cleaned it except moving off the paints - so it looks pretty much the same, but with only a dozen paints rather than several dozen.

 

Edited June 23 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Volgon]

To start, I don't think mixing silver with purple is the right idea. It's going to give you different finishes on the mini: the edges are bright and reflective due to the flakes in the paint but the rest of the purple areas are not. That being said, I've only ever mixed silver with colors with the intent of doing the entire area as a colored metal, so maybe purple/silver highlights gives an effect that you like.

 

I think no matter what you are going to lose a bit of vibrancy for highlights. Going brighter generally means adding more white to the paint which desaturates the color. But there are colors you can use to limit that desaturation because of the other colors they contain. Ice Yellow is often the go to color for mixing highlights; it's still very bright and it won't desaturate as much as pure white while adding a bit of warmth by imitating natural (for us, at least) light. A vivid flesh color like Sunny Skin Tone might work better for purple. Or you could try mixing a pastel color (purple, pink, or red) with your current paint. When I highlight the blue areas for my warband (also a very vivid color) I use mixes of my midtone with a slightly brighter desaturated color and then point/specular highlights with a very pale pastel turquoise.

 

EDIT: Vince Venturella did a video on purple a few years ago. He recommends a pale grey or grey blue for cold highlights, and a skin tone for warmer highlights. You can see that part on the timestamp here: 

 

Edited June 22 by Volgon

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks - that was very interesting.  Good to see my gut feelings about options are largely validated by someone who actually knows their stuff.

[Sume]

I have been finding the Vince Venturella videos very helpful.  Helped me get over that fear of the airbrush and what not.   As I transition into Necrons and Tyranids for the next few months.  I still find his videos very helpful for things I never tried or just want a better understanding off.  

[Dr_Ruminahui]

My latest decision point has been deciding how to do my EC squad members capes.  For those who aren't familiar, my chaos space marines capes are in GW pinks washed with the purple I used as my EC's armour colour - click on the numbers for some examples: 1, 2, 3, This allowed me differentiate my squads by cape colour, so I wanted to do something similar with my EC, except I ran into a couple of problems: that the standard GW pinks were too close in colour and looked muddy next to the vibrant armour, and washing them in the armour colour would make them too close in colour and vibrancy.

 

So, as often I do when I can't make up my mind, I tried various options.

 

Here is my first batch:

 

 I tried the guy on the right first - he's a white cape washed in blue florescent paint.  Originally it was lighter, didn't like it, so gave it another wash and liked it less.

 

Second is the same blue wash over GW Baharoth blue rather than white (incidentally, one of my demonette squads has hair painted this way).  I like the colour, but think its too rich against the purple, so not enough contrast.

 

Third is the guy on the left, which is a GW Sotek Green stripe on the white all my other capes are currently.  It then has a thin black wash in the folds.  Not bad, but I'm still not decided.

 

So I did another batch to compare with the last one.

 

 

This time, chronologically they go left to right.  Left guy is the same guy on the left in the photo above.

 

Middle guy was next, with a very rough slaaneshi symbol in Sautek Green just as an example - I also happen to have gotten the middle crescent backwards - it should bend back towards the circle, not towards the front (you would think I've painted enough to know, but apparently not).

 

Left guy is the middle guy above, but with the sides of the cape repainted white, leaving only the central blue stripe.

 

My favourite so far is the last one, though I'm not sure if I'm happy with the width of the central stripe - if I stay with just the central stripe, I think its a bit narrow and I want it somewhat wider (though narrower than the one on the left).  That said, I could also put a slaaneshi symbol (a correct one, this time) over it - in blue on the white potions, and white in the blue portion - it I do that, I think its width is fine.  Just weighing whether I think the effect will be worth the effort.

 

Anwyay, let me know your thoughts.

 

About it being another colour than blue - not on this squad, anyway.  Eventually, I will have multiple squads in different colours (by whatever method I decide on), with the reds and oranges reserved for my noise marines, which means my infractors are going to be blue and (when I have another squad) green.

[Tallarn Commander]

I’m partial to the bloke in the middle with the symbol, but they all look good.

[Volgon]

I think of the options, what you mentioned in your post (the last one with the 2 colored Slaanesh symbol) would be the most visually striking. That would look pretty cool when done. One suggestion would be to try a striped cape with the colors flipped: make the stripe white and the outer sections turquoise. This has the advantage of adding a splash of turquoise to the front of the mini's profile since you'd be painting the section of the cloak that wraps over the shoulder in turquoise. If you leave the stripes as is you'd be painting those sections white which I don't think is a particularly good color combination compared to turquoise + purple.

 

Another idea would be instead of painting a stripe, try different shapes. Perhaps an inverted triangle, with the tip of the "top" of the triangle being centered at the bottom of the cloak and the two points of the "base" being the shoulder pads (hopefully this makes sense).

[Sume]

I like the middle one in the first set.  I mean well might as well get excessive right?  It's rare outside of Tzeentch demons that you can try different bright things with anything chaos.  

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.  I've decided to keep the middle stripe and add the slaanesh symbol ontop:

 

 

Not sure why in the photo the symbol is so blotchy - it isn't in person.  Anyway, I'm happy with how it turned out and its not too much work.

 

Anyway, my thinking is as follows - while it makes sense for slaanesh to be extreme and therefore for the full on loud blue cloak, for the best visual effect on the model, I really need the destaturated counterpoint of the white.   While I do think this makes it look better with the blue, I think it will be even more important when I do my noise marines in pink/red and orange.  Its also why I decided to keep the middle blue and the edges white, to keep that contrast when looking at it from an angle. This also means I didn't have to worry about doing the stripe on the inside of the cloak or a transition line between the stripe on the back and an unstriped front.   It does, however, mean the white of the cloak and the pad do kind of run together, but I don't think that will be an issue with some shading and with the shoulder pad symbols painted..

 

Probably the most important thing, though, is that I have now made a decision I am happy with and can get back to painting the unit - given that I have 20 models (including a vehicle) to paint in 3 months for Call to Arms, which is a lot for me, and deciding on the cloaks essentially set me back a week, I'm glad to be at a point I can just focus on getting paint on models again.

Edited June 28 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Volgon]

I like it! It took my eyes a second to understand what I was looking at which I think is suitably Chaos/Slaanesh-y. One I did not notice in the previous pics (it looks like it was there but somewhat hard to tell), but I like the line between the blocks of solid colors on the cloak. I think it adds a bit of visual interest which is always good. What color is it? It looks like it might be the same purple as the armor color? If not I think that could be a good shout to try if you are still up for experimenting a bit. It would add a unifying color between the cloaks and the armor palette.

[Tallarn Commander]

That looks really good!

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Sorry to say, @Volgon, but I think the dark lining on the cloak is just an artifact of the photo, buecasue I didn't do anything of the sort.  Still, I think it looks fine without it.  

 

Anyway, finished my first Infractor and am happy with it - which means I can set out in earnest on the rest and hopefully can get a few more done over this extra long weekend (Tuesday is Canada Day and a day off for me, so I also took Monday off to give me a 4 day weekend).

 

 

Some comments:

 

- I did do some blacklining (a bit of nuln oil) on the shoulder pads as Volgon suggested with my Lord Kakaphonist, and it really does help - I'll see if that is something I want to do with the Lord K.  WIth that and the light grey at the edges of the cloak, I think I have enough deliniation between those 2 white elements.

 

- I'm doing all their tassels and helmet hair elements in the same colour as the back stripe - so blue for these models.  I'm happy with it, at least for the blue.

 

- I have planned to do all the studded leather bits in dark purple with lillac highlighting (I did the one on his right thigh like that, but it doesn't really show up in the photo).  However, as the gun casing was already done like that, I did it in pink instead with the purple wash - and actually quite like it (I thought it would be too close to the armour due to the wash).  I think I'll try the next studded leather bits I do that way, and decide then whether to do them going forward the dark purple, the pink, or some of both.

 

- He may eventually get some highlighting on the purple and maybe the gold as well - I'll make those decisions when I finish otherwise painting the various models in  my CtA vow.

 

 

 

 

Edited June 29 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Sume]

I did like how the newer GW purple wash turned out over the gold.  The name escapes me at the moment.  I know I mentioned it in my blog posting.  If you need the name to try it out.  I'll go find the bottle.  Its been packed up with some other colors to make room for the necron and tyranid project.  

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Thanks for the suggestion, @Sume.  I'm finding that my nuln oil blacklining seems to be the trick and I admit I'm a bit wary of adding even more purple to my models.

 

Anyway, (mostly) finished my first 5 infractors and am pretty happy with them - they obviously still need to be based, and I may go back and highlight their armour and trim once I work out how I want to do that.

 

 

I'm now painting the second half of the squad, who are the same except their cape symbols will be facing the other direction.

Edited July 10 by Dr_Ruminahui

[Sume]

On 7/10/2025 at 10:01 AM, Dr_Ruminahui said:

Thanks for the suggestion, @Sume.  I'm finding that my nuln oil blacklining seems to be the trick and I admit I'm a bit wary of adding even more purple to my models.

I can totally understand that one.  With your armor being based purple.  Wouldnt want it to get too washed in and take away.  Nuln oil, Agrax Earthshad and Serphia sephia are ones I always have a spare bottle on hand when it gets to be about halfway.  I find I use them the most for various things.  Especially the last one as I think I paint undead stuff like fair superior to anything else.

[Dr_Ruminahui]

Haven't tried Earthshade, and find Sephia a bit too yellow for my personal tastes - so Reikslander is my go to.

 

Finished my first post-codex EC squad and am pretty happy with it.  They still need to be based (which will occur when I have finished my other CtA vows, as I'll be basing them all at the same time).  They may also, as we've discussed, get some highlights/shading and need a protective coat.

 

 

And the backs:

 

You can see how I've done the symbols facing both directions, which I think works fine.

 

Next up is my "stock" Lord Exultant, and then my first squad of new noise marines. 

Edited 23 hours ago by Dr_Ruminahui