Kneel before the Warmaster!

So what to write about Horus, Warmaster of Chaos? Everyone knows who he is and how important a model this is. So let's get straight to my experience of painting him:

I started with the base, as I always do, and that was painted mostly with layers of drybrushing and washing. For example. the purple bit of the rock was drybrushed grey but has a purple wash over it.

Next, I painted the black armour, gently blending from black, mixed with a little purple, up to light grey or white. For help with this, I took some photos of the undercoated model under a strong downward light to work out where the shadows would be.

Then it was the cloak, which I did in my normal style, but perhaps with a little more care and attention!

I left the head separate, which is one of my first attempts at sub-assembly. I'm not a fan of sub-assembly in general, but I thought his head would be hard to paint when fitted to the model. I definitely spent a lot more time on the head than on any previous model, so I hope it was worth it! For a long time, I really neglected painting faces. I'm assuming it's because I'm autistic that I don't really focus on faces (autistic people tend not to like too much eye contact). It was only when I read that 'the face is the focal point of a model,' that I realised what I was doing, and now I make a special effort to paint faces well. I actually disagreed with that statement about focal point for a long time, because for me, it's not the focal point of the model! I tend to glance around the model and take it in as a whole, so I had to sort of adjust my way of thinking to think of the face as the focal point.  Hopefully the focus on faces is apparent in my latest models, although I still think I'm much better at painting cloaks and rocks than I am at faces!

Finally I painted the details such as armour trim, weapons and such. The gold trim was painted with retributor armour, gradually mixed with more and more white for highlights.

This model feels like a zenith in my painting hobby, and I'm really proud of it. Time to find a little wooden plinth so that he stands out in my cabinet!

A Psyker from Vrayax

I have been making slow progress on The Wings of Vrayax, including constructing a couple of squads and waiting for some models to arrive in the post, but I have now finished my Primaris Psyker, Mariya Lynn. She comes from the Raging Heroes range of models, where you can choose metal or resin for each model. I chose metal, because HEFTY!

Quite a tricky model to paint, really, because it's hard to tell what's what when you have lots of flowing fabric and segmented armour and clothing. I had to refer to the stock image quite a lot. Her skirt is quite experimental: I wanted it to look like slightly pinkish white, and without much to guide me, I did my best to get the right choice of shades.

There's a small attempt at object sourced lighting (OSL) on her staff too,  but quite subtly. I tend to think of my models as being outside in daylight, so I tend not to think that OSL would come into play very much.

An extra bonus model this week: another space marine captain! Continuing my series of captains from different chapters, this one, Sherus, is from the Fire Lords. I just fancied trying to paint some new colours, and the red is a richer, warmer red than I normally use (on Khorne models, for example), and of course bright yellow! Oh, and I'd already painted the sword green, and wanted the armour to contrast with the sword. Yes, the sword. That was an practice for a larger model (coming soon), and it worked so well that I left it there! I painted it as a grey power sword and then applied Hexwraith Flame to it. That's a great paint - try it!

What's Black Legion speak for 'dakka'?

Ooh, shiny Black Legion Havocs! This was a satisfying squad to complete. The Black Legion colour scheme is a great one for painting quite quickly but to a decent standard. The key is that the black armour can be done quickly with a black undercoat spray, and then the armour trim is all metallic colours, which usually only require one coat. Therefore the most time consuming part is doing the little details, like hair, skin and accessories. I wouldn't call these my greatest paintjob, but I like that I did them mostly in one evening, while tired from a day of mountain biking, and they still look good! Hehe.

The models are made from a combination of classic CSM parts and models from the Shadowspear box. Essentially, I wanted to try and use up my old CSM parts and extend the life of that collection of parts by mixing them with the newer, bigger models, and I think that worked well.

My Black Legion army grows once more: will it ever stop?

A repair, and a trip back in time

Originally I used this old Chaplain model as a Chaos Space Marine, and had cut their crozius arcanum off to replace it with a close combat weapon. When I realised they didn't make a very good CSM, I decided to return the crozius and repaint them in Chaplain colours. The backpack is a non-original part and has an extra purity seal added. 

There isn't really anywhere to paint a chapter symbol - the pauldrons are just skulls - so I just left this model as a generic Chaplain. I'll use them in battle, where there is a mixture of space marines, from time to time.