Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - GREENS and stuff!

Afternoon #warmongers and I am still #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights. It's felt like quite a chore to be honest, and I know it's advisable when it stops being fun to stop but these NEED to be done and sometimes it's worth pushing through.

The green in particular didn't feel up to the standards |I set myself.

The Orkhide Shade highlight did not go on well and my Valejo Goblin wasn't great either. I tried some additional glaces to smooth things together.

And then went back in with some more black to shade things further.

I think I even used a black wash and some of my Army Painter Quickshades are coming out glossy [well I never really shake them so that could be my fault].

But I'm not bemoaning that fact as I know my Anti Shine varnish will cover up any matt/gloss discrepancies.

So although it was quite a challenge to get to this point and I was close to chucking it all in I think I've just about salvaged it to a standard I'm happy with.

And my odd 2 Terminators also got brought up to speed too.

I went back and painted the skull on the base grey, as I wanted a thoroughly bleached white skull effect. I mean I've had red Genestealer skulls on bases and now a white one and my Old One Eye skull is carbon black. I've never reallyu settled on anything that I'm 100% happy with, maybe the red one still has Stealer flesh on it while this has been picked clean and OOE's is black because, well he's OOE, who knows how he was gene-spliced to keep alive!

Anyway, verdigris next and we know how well that goes...

Oh, and they got featured on the Hobby Roundup on Warhammer TV as well, unfinished! Which is great but also a little sad because they will be better at the end...

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - BONE 2.0

Afternoon #warmongers and I am still #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights. I am persevering and the second lot of bone highlights have been done.

Again I have a pot of 50:50 mix of white and Bonewhite that doesn't seem to run out, although it is getting a bit gunky in the bottom now.

I managed to put on a single drop of paint onto my Pringle's mini-palette and a drop of Instar Water+ [that came free with my order, and will no doubt pay off to Instar]. I then stippled the mix on to get a textured blend, although clearly not quite as effective as I'd hoped in places.

I've no idea what Water+ actually does, it did make the paint more fluid, but without thinning it too much so the paint broke down. There were some areas where it seeped into the recesses, which I'll have to fix, but it was handy to have.

There may be some pure white spot highlights I'll do on these too.

The bone is definitely working, it's not perfect and not quite the stippling I hoped for but it's much more than I had hoped for after the washes set me back.

Knowing when to accept a model, even when it doesn't quite meet expectations is a lessone we all need to learn I think.

Green's still need doing here, although that didn't quite work out as I expected on some of the others, hence why I hadn't done this one.

But again it's being patient with yourself, not too critical. I'm trusting that some additional bits will help to pull these together.

Alongside finished the greens, skin, verdigris, tribal stripes and lenses they should be busy enough that anomalies in the bone may be less noticeable.

Then again, looking at the shading on the shoulder pad - it looks odd, but the viewing angle will normally be higher than this and I'm sure it'll make more sense.

I really need to decide what I'm doing for the Genestealer skull, perhaps need to go white on this instead of bone, even though my nids have red faces - but that's when they have skin over the skull...

This might just have the best chance for the verdigris to look cool on those head wings.

Think the white purity seal ribbons/parchment will be the best option here. If I wash them like I've previously done they may become completely lost.

I'll perhaps know better when I've done the script on them. Not to mention pick out the debris on the base.

Last we have my old skool Grey Knight terminator that has ha some bone highlights done. He's mostly up-to-date, although I don;t know if those red claws are working.

I actually have to do all the metallics on the back here. Most of the bone was done back in the 90's on a base of yellow, with a very poor black ink wash. Then I used brown paint in places, it was really only the right shoulder pad that had to be done, hence the difference in how they've been shaded [well the left one isn't...]

A mish-mash of old and new styles of how I paint there and once again compromises on what I want. The most frustrating thing about all these is that I will be super-elated when I complete them, but that feeling will last for around 24 hours while my frustrations and disappointments have been going on for months [years even]. That's why it's an addiction, most of the time it's suffering to meet your own standards and then you get that 'hit' after completion and each time it's harder and harder to achieve and lasts shorter and shorter. 

Which is why I need to be grateful that I will complete them, because the fact they are done is something else, something different. You can't take away the achievement, even if the high fades. The miniatures remain and when this figure - over 25 years old is done that's one hell of an achievement, regardless of finish...

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - CRUX!

Afternoon #warmongers and I am still #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights. I had applied my highlights to all the reds - mainly using my vermilion art acrylic. In some areas I regretted it as I subsequently looked at my Dark Vengeance Deathwing and discovered I had highlighted them with a mix of Khorne Red and white to get a different red. Not to mention the purity seals are purple... You'd think I'd learn to consult my existing figures or this blog before I do something.

Anyway, the Crux Terminatus was something that needed 3 sets of highlights, using the exact same Red Planet BASING colours as the base. My Deathwing's Crux are made from the same stone as Ferron Proxima, it's a nice call-back and ties things in a little bit more

I was really quite pleased with the results and it's nice to see elements that have been done to completions. I still have post-it notes with these sub-tasks that I'm removing from my task lists, which is also rewarding.

I also applied the final set of white highlights to this shield and Purity Seals, you can see the difference to the grey one on the right. Not sure about washing the seal parchments as I usually do, at lieast I do on the green-wing my last Deathwing were all white... Can't wait to add the verdigris to the bronze/brass 

The shoulder pad also got highlighted. I'm always surprised how much I like this approach to white. I mean it's far from perfect but Valejo Stonewall Grey > Agrax/Strong Tone wash > Stonewall Grey > White. I think even though it could be considered a 'dirty' grey it actually comes out really clean looking, which sounds contradictory but that's the only way I can explain it.

Anyway, I'll get all the white's done, possibly 2 a session if I'm lucky, which will leave me with the green and final bone highlights on my next sub-tasks...

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - SHIELDS!

Afternoon #warmongers and I am still #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights and I finally caved into gluing on the shields. I may regret it, it might be too early but I'd highlighted the bone on the shield and just wanted to have them as a whole instead of 10 discrete pieces 

I had tried highlighting the inner shield but the wash was not helping, the end result I just drybrushed, with stiff fine bristled brush, so I could really work the bone in and I think it's a pretty smooth blend all things considered.

I still have his cloak to do, which leaves me with the quandry of how much I highlight in the back here. If anyone has read David Eddings Belgariad the simple answer is I'll know it's highlighted even if no one will ever see, but technically it'd all be in shadow anyway so highlighting it would be wrong...

I also need to do a bit more shading - like the inset shapes on the arch above his hood.

I will do that before the final bone highlight so I don't end up spoiling anything with wash splodges on the highlights.

I'll also need to consider how much tribal markings I add. These are highly detailed miniatures, adding on patterns might just make them too busy.

But the carapace, leg plates, butt plates and thigh plates might be the best choices as the back is pretty plain looking. Afterall this will likely be the view I get so I don't want to get the most boring one.

All the greys need a Valejo Stonewall Grey highlight and then white, not to mention skintones.

At least you can see some depth from the washes on this shoulder pad. I also painted all the rubber joints. I don't think I even highlighted these on the Dark Vengeance terminators last time round. No doubt that's another debate I'll need with myself down the line.

A lot of those rivets'studs are really shoddy looking with the washes/highlights. I wish I could be neater but we are where we are now - c'est la vie.

Steady progress, I'm actually getting there. I know I have still lots to do but I can feel momentum now, I can feel these are 'inevitable'.

That's not to say I'm not dipping into other things - I've made a little more progress on my Adeptus Titanicus models - the Titans are almost fully constructed and glued together and the metallics are just waiting for touch ups and then I wash the whole lot. But, I also want to do my Land Raider at the same time but as that represents a significant effort I don't want to interrupt the Deathwing just yet with those tasks - it's about balancing projects, motivation, resource and workload.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights - BONE!

Afternoon #warmongers and I am #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Knights. Having been disappointed by my last wash it took some significant willpower to finally get back to these and thankfully it has paid off - in getting me motivated at least.

It turns out it takes me around 40-60 minutes to do the first highlight on the bone. Not sure if I should be embarrassed about that but I can't hide the fact. 

In part this made painting all 5 that little bit harder because on the plus side I knew how long it would take, on the negative side that's 5 nights/sessions work... 

And that's not including the 2 or 3 extra terminators I'm doing at the same time as the knights!

A lot to do and as my pace is so slow it's also frustrating because this highlight covers so much of what had just been added in the wash and the original primer/basecoat.

I wish I was either a little braver to keep more of it or less impatient and applied wash more sparingly - a line wash where needed.

As it is I'll probably go back in and apply a line wash to achieve better shading.

With 5 days work under my belt, but still the shields to do I'm also predicted the second set of highlights will take the same time/effort.

But thankfully, despite all the negatives, I finally have the motivation to crack on and complete these.

Even though the 2nd highlight takes up less area it requires more finesse so whatever time savings I make in reducing coverage is made up in being more careful - actually painting.

I need to do all the reds, greens, grey/white, skin, verdigris and glow FXs on the mace's. So much to do it, feels like the opportunity to get stuff done in lockdown isn't quite getting there for me because this is so laborious and slow, but in actual fact these haven't been awaiting completion for 4+ years for no reason.

And here's the other terminators I'm doing alongside.

This was the Dark Vengeance sergeant, that I kitbashed as Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield, when they were highly popular for Terminators and before we got Knights which always seemed better. Still, he looks cool.

And my odd Space Hulk Terminator. You can still see some of the Blood Angel iconography . I cut some away but left the rest as I'm confident they won't detract form the model if I don;t draw attention to them  - painting the blood drops as gems for instance

He's got a load of purity seals that's for sure

I also have an old school metal Grey Knight Terminator with lightning claws that I've done a little bit on but don't know if I'll finish that, we shall see.