Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Skaven Warlord

Hi everyone. Up next is a Skaven Warlord with a converted weapon. The weapon is from the plastic Stormvermin box. I'll include some color recipes at the bottom.



Red Armor: Basecoat Mephiston Red, shade with earthshade wash (several layers). Highlight Mephiston Red, highlight Blood Red, highlight Blazing Orange, highlight Fiery Orange. Paint chips with black first, and then with Mithril Silver, leaving a thin line of black around the edge. 

Steel Blade: Basecoat Leadbelcher, shade with earthshade wash and black wash (several layers). Highlight with Leadbelcher. Scratches on the blade were painted with thinned down Chainmail. Highlight the edges with Mithril Silver. Glazes of Scorpion Green and Dark Angels Green were applied after. 

Friday, October 31, 2014

High Elves White Lions

There's been a bit of an absence here, but I've still been painting like mad. I've got a large backlog of work to share. First up is a unit of White Lions. I'll include some of the color recipes at the bottom.












White Fur: Basecoat Zandri Dust, highlight P3 Menoth White Base, highlight P3 Menoth White Highlight, highlight Ceramite White. Shade with a mixture of Seraphim Sepia and a little bit of Zandri Dust and water. 

Silver: Basecoat Chainmail. Shade with a mixture of Nuln Oil and blue wash (repeat the wash several times in select areas; especially the blades). Highlight Chainmail, highlight the edges with Mithril Silver.

Purple Gems: Basecoat black. Highlight Liche Purple, highlight Warlock Purple, highlight with a mix of Warlock Purple and Tentacle Pink, highlight with a mix of Tentacle Pink and a little white. Add white reflections on the top. 

Green cloth: Basecoat Scaly Green, highlight by adding in white. 

Blue cloth: (The old recipe was basecoat Regal Blue and highlight with white, but as I've run out of Regal Blue, I came up with a substitution) Basecoat Macragge Blue, shade with Azurman Blue wash. Highlight Macragge Blue, highlight Ultramarine Blue, highlight Ultramarine Blue plus white. 



Monday, August 4, 2014

Forge World Salamanders Dreadnought and others

Hello again. I've got a few new additions to a Salamanders army. I'll try to include some color recipes as well.

First up is a Forge World Salamanders Dreadnought with magnetized arms. The Forge World Website shows the hammers glued to the front of the shield, which covers up all the detail in the scales. I glued it to the backside of the shield/banner instead, which I think looks much better. 






Green Armor: Basecoat Caliban Green, shade with Nuln Oil, highlight Caliban Green + Goblin Green, highlight Snot Green, highlight Scorpion Green. 

Orange Scales: Basecoat Blazing Orange (several thin layers), highlight Fiery Orange, highlight by adding in a mixture of Bad Moon Yellow and White (I have a spare bottle of this mixture handy. It's a useful color).

Next up is the new plastic Chaplain:



Black Armor: Basecoat black, highlight with darkened Eshin Grey (I put a little bit of black ink in my pots of Eshin Grey, to darken it just a bit. That way I can use that color to highlight straight over black without having to mix every time), next highlight with Mechanicus standard grey. Corners are given a touch of Codex Grey.

Bone Helmet: Basecoat P3 Menoth White Base. Shade with a mixture of Zandri Dust and Sepia wash. Highlight Menoth White Base, followed by mixtures up to Screaming Skull, followed by White Scar.

Purity Seals: Basecoat Zandri Dust. Shade with a mixture of Graveyard Earth and Sepia Wash. Highlight Zandri Dust followed by Menoth White Base. Finally touch some of the corners/edges with Screaming Skull. Lettering is added with thinned black. The red portion of the seal is painted with Scab Red, shaded with Nuln Oil, and highlighted by adding in successive amounts of Screaming Skull.

Next up are some of the new plastic Sternguard veterans. I converted two of them to hold a lascannon and a plasma cannon. This involved carving down the pre-cast shoulder pad portion of the right arm, in order to fit a new shoulder pad.









Yellow/black striped cables: From a black undercoat, basecoat the cable with Tau Ochre Light. Highlight with two thinned coats of Sunburst Yellow. Add a stripe "spiral" around the wire with black paint. This takes a lot of practice. Highlight the cables if you like, with darkened Eshin Grey (recipe above), and Sunburst Yellow + White Scar.

Next up are some Sniper Scouts. I was asked to paint the cloaks with a lava style camouflage pattern. One of the scouts was converted to hold a heavy bolter, and the scout who has his gun pointed in the air was converted to hold his weapon horizontally (to aid in transportation). 





Lava Cloak: Paint a rough lava pattern with white. Several layers works best. Next, paint over it with Golden Yellow. Using successive layers of orange and a touch of red, add variation to the pattern. Don't worry about being sloppy at this stage, and keep the lava lines wide at first. Once this is dry, go in with black and define the edges of the black spots, making the orange lines thinner in some places and wider in others. Highlight with darkened Eshin Grey (recipe above). When this is dry, drybrush a little bit of Graveyard Earth near the bottom of each cloak. Then give the cloak a light wash of Agrax Earthshade. 

Scout's Green Armor: One of the themes in this client's army is that new recruits have a slightly lighter shade of green armor. This armor was basecoated with a mixture of Caliban Green and Goblin Green. Shading was done in the cracks with thinned Caliban Green. 

Lastly we have a Drop Pod. This one has the interior troop harnesses removed, as it is intended for carrying Dreadnoughts.






Saturday, July 26, 2014

Space Wolves Battleforce

Hello again. This time I have the contents of a Space Wolves Battleforce, with specific models built to supplement an existing army. There are 5 Scouts, 5 Blood Claws, 6 Grey Hunters, 9 Wolf Guard, and 1 Drop Pod (made for a Dreadnought, so it has no harnesses inside).

Here are a couple color recipes for those interested:

Yellow: Basecoat several layers of thinned Ceramite White. It's really essential for it to be smooth. Apply two thinned coats of Sunburst Yellow. Shading is done around the edges with Golden Yellow and a touch of Yellow Ink. Once the pack markings/decal is added, a highlight of Sunburst Yellow + white is painted around it. 

Frost Blades: Basecoat with a mixture of Ceramite White and Space Wolves Grey. Several thinned layers is best. Shading is done with Space Wolves Grey and a bit of Ice Blue. Highlights of very thinned White Scar are added on the edges. Using thinned white for the highlights rather than building up mixtures helps create a frosty look. 

















Thursday, July 10, 2014

Dwarfs and a Dragon Prince

Hello again. I've had a lot going on, so there's been a lack of blog posts. I've still been painting like crazy though, so there is no shortage of pictures. 


First up is the magnetized Dragon Prince from the High Elf dragon.



Next up are four Dwarf heroes.










A couple months back I posted about creating your own washes (which you can find at http://mattsterbenz.blogspot.com/2014/05/making-your-own-custom-washes.html). I came up with a new gold recipe as well as a recipe for the grey beard on the Runesmith.

The gold on the slayer was given a burnt orange wash of Yellow Ink, Dark Flesh, and Polymer Varnish. The gold was then highlighted up to Mithril Silver, and was finally given a very light glaze of the original wash. This makes the highlights look less pale and more yellow. 

The beard was basecoated with VGC Stonewall Grey. Shade with a mixture of Stonewall Grey and the black wash mixture. (I like to add a little bit more varnish and water. This makes a nice grey wash, great for shading over light basecoats). Once the wash dries, highlight with Stonewall Grey, followed by layers all the way up to white.