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!