A Week in Miniatures: April 16-24 2016

I realize this post is actually pretty late and it's dated from a Friday to a Sunday, but here we go. I also think I should show some photos of the work, so we'll do that too.

I managed to finish up an Ultramarine for the Horus Heresy, sans markings at the time.  I think the color scheme works out pretty well, especially using Citadel Screamer Pink for the basecoat on the bolter.  Other tricks include using Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade to fix up any deep recesses that I accidentally got paint into.  Eventually I got to painting markings on the model, though I am not 100% happy with the outcome since they're a bit uneven.

Heresy-era Ultramarine, sans markings.

I've been using entirely Citadel paints for the Ultramarines, as sort of a personal challenge.  The armor is simply a basecoat of Kantor Blue (which also serves as the shade color), with Macragge Blue layered over that.  I highlight the areas where light would hit from the top with Altdorf Guard Blue.  If I'm doing things correctly, you won't see highlights very much in photos.
I'm really happy with how the helmet lenses turned out.  You can see them in the photo to the left; I think the small dots of Ceramite White do wonders to make them look like reflective surfaces.  There's also a tiny stripe of Evil Sunz Scarlet at the bottom of them to make them really pop.  The base red used was Mephiston Red.
Metals were much simpler; Leadbelcher for the gunmetal colors, with a subtle wash of Nuln Oil to bring the vents and fiddly details back out.  The golds were simply Retributor Armour, as they were small enough details that I did not want to risk flubbing up the other parts of the paint.
Tubing and other details were Dark Reaper or Stormvermin Fur.  The cables didn't look right with just a flat coat of Stormvermin Fur, so they were lightly washed with Nuln Oil to push shadows back in.
The red casing on the bolter is rather counterintuitive.  The basecoat was Screamer Pink as I mentioned, and then Mephiston red, then a highlight of Wazdakka Red.  Then the upper edges of the case were very carefully edged with Evil Sunz Scarlet.  Normally I don't do edge highlights but the casing looked somehow wrong without a little bit of it.

I also completed a commission last week;  a Stone Lurker from Reaper Miniatures.  The client wanted the model to look stone-like with hints of life around the eye and mouth.  He also requested a subtle hint of moss green around the tentacles.

Stony Lurker commission.

Since it was not intended to be a super fantastic paint job, I essentially base-coated the entire thing (after priming black) with VMC Neutral Grey.  I gave it a very light drybrush of a lighter gray, knowing that I was going to use a wash on the whole thing.  That meant that the colors under the wash had to be brighter than you would think they should be.
I settled on Secret Weapon's Armor Wash, reasoning that it'd be better to have a slightly warm cast to the model.  I could not figure out a harmonious way to incorporate a mossy green over all the tentacles, so settled for a light stain of SW Algae along the suckers.
Knowing that the eye would be an important focal point, I had asked the client what color he wanted it to be.  He said he had been thinking of red or a yellow, then settled on a mustard yellow.
I ended up basecoating the eye in red and then carefully painting yellow over that so there was a nice red lining around the eye.  For the really alien look, I gave the thing a three-lobed pupil.  The model was sealed with a satin spray to retain a wet sheen that stalagmites have from the constant water drip that forms them.

Armorcast Warhound Titan

Another thing I'm working on is the Armorcast Warhound.  It will end up being from the Legio Astorum.  Officially the color scheme is a dark blue, but since the legion is also called the Warp Runners and has kind of a constellation marking theme going on, I decided to try blending some blues together to create a sort of space cloud appearance.  I actually got the idea after seeing this video in my Facebook feed.  Though I realized I needed to use drying retardant to accomplish this.
My first attempt was kind of a disaster and I had to clean off the model.  Then I figured out that I needed to kind of blob on the colors first, then blend them with a deep blue with light circular scrubby motions with a short drybrush.  I had to clean the brush out once in awhile to avoid the colors from muddying up too much.  But there you go.

I also assembled a bunch of Space Marines, base-coated a number of them with the Kantor Blue, and primered some of them.  Slow going in that regard since I had to turn my attention to sorting and bagging models to make sure I had enough parts for them.

Until next week.