Saturday 14 December 2013

To done! [ish] - Dark Vengeance Chaos Cultists

Here we go, the Free Radical Collective in all there glory. Now officially I'm saying these are done, but there are 20 Cultists in the Dark Vengeance box, so sue me! Actually I've done a bit of work on these too but they're not so much Chaos Cultists anymore... :) wait and see.


I'm not overly keen on my 'glowy eyes' it's a but wrong but they do add a slightly unearthly look to the unit, so I can live with it.


I had always hoped these would be quick to do but I spent an awful lot of time on them fussing and faffing over bits. Then the other night I did 3.5 solid hours straight, without a break. I finished the bases, red planet and the grey areas, which is the debris from the Deathwing and Inquisition strikeforce in their HQ [see I was thinking about this a lot!]


I also wanted to freehand the FRC logo, it was unsurprisingly difficult to do and in the end I did a couple of simple 'R' designs but in fact I think I missed a trick. in particular the flat area on this guys leg would have been perfect for the full logo.


Whereas the creases here don't do me any favours. They look better than I first thought in thr pictures but the ridges do not aid clarity. Still, the reds do look quite good, I've surprised myself, makes me want to do Blood Angels!


I do like the hooded gas mask guy, I'm just not convinced I did the mask justice. As for morningstar dude, that ball and chain is a bit lacklustre but I think I was losing patience by this stage. I do like his blue skin though, very Rogue Trooper.


Unfortunately this mix of models was supposed to have more orange wearing fanatics, an even split but that didn't work out. Also flamer dude didn't have too many areas for the FRC logo, so I just put R's all over him, as tattoos too! 


I think this FRC logo came out the best in the end. My freehanding got better as I went along, I hope it helps when I do my Dark Angel logos, maybe that's the way to go, siomething more freehand than a pristine representation of the badge?


The three tenors!


This one turned out ok, helped by the fact that I did not highlight his back at all so he had quite a few more shades of red than some of the other models.


And this one too wasn't bad, if a bit chunky.


Not so sure about that mutants back, a bit of a cop out.


But overall I'm really impressed. As a group I managed to pull it out of the bag. Those 3.5 hours, and I rarely can focus for that amount of time without being distracted, were relentless. The bases, highlights on everything, the browns, the grey highlights on the black and reds will help in preparing for my Ravenwing. Even the red edges of the bases were and experiment, they're not Mechrite Red but in fact Vallejo Game Extra Opaque Heavy Red. The match is near perfect, although it's not as thick and slightly more glossy but only by a fraction. I can certainly see this as a perfect replacement and it will definitely fix all my frosted bases.


In truth this was a long slog, and actually only half complete but I learned an awful lot, even if it was hard going. Hopefully I'll be more confident with my next step, maybe finish up that Dark Angel Tactical squad. The remaining 'cultists' I will split into two groups of 5 I think, you'll see them all soon enough. I'll maybe paint them in amongst my other projects to keep me distracted from getting bored.



3 comments:

  1. I can now especially get why this may have been a tough slog when you had such cool conversions probably sitting in the wings and beckoning for paint.

    Good on you for pushing through and going that extra mile with some freehand.

    I think the main problem with the glowy eyes is yellow OSL over blue won't ever look right it'll just look green. Different colour may have worked better.

    do a small test just on a figures back or something - do it similar but maybe try painting silver in the "eye sockets" and then a light green wash and maybe that will look a little more true. doesn't need to be eyes just something with ridges for the OSL to attempt.

    anyways just a thought

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    Replies
    1. You may be right, perhaps if I'd done the silver sockets it would have allowed the OSL to be 'attached' to something. Still, I'm happy with them and the freehand almost had to be done so I could add them to the fluff. I'll see what I can try differently with the new cultists, I'll stil have to stick with the same colours but maybe not OTT. I think you're right it needs to be lighter and built up, less is more!

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    2. I am anxiously waiting for a mini tutorial from Ricalopia who is painting my Flesh Tearers - for my redemptionists I want to try his method as it's so quick and looks amazing from the right distance (up close it's not 'eavy metal but from a foot away they really look high quality IMO - totally the painting style I would love to have)

      Fingers crossed he might do an OSL tutorial at the same time, the stuff he's done on my FT looks freakin' incredible.

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