Hey all, time for an update on the squad of Chaos Marines that I've been painting. As you will see, progress has been very slow on this project and it has forced me to re-evaluate my painting process. I've touched on this in the comments of my last post but I feel it bears repeating here. I'm feeling a bit lazy so I'm just going to do a little copypasta from my earlier comment and edit it a little bit.
I enjoy all aspects of the hobby including painting and I take pride in producing high quality work (at least as high as I can reasonably manage.) It's been rough trying to find the right balance between getting quality I want and fighting the frustration of having an army that I have been working on for 9 months with hardly any finished models to show for it. I spent a ton of time on modeling and working on my greater daemon which was a MAJOR conversion job. (I'll probably make a post on the blog about it at some point but for now here's the link to the thread about the project on Warseer.) I also spent a ton of time researching different techniques and testing out a dozen different ways to paint my guys to make sure I got everything done the way I wanted. Now that I have finally gotten to the nitty gritty of it, I was starting to get a little impatient. I got a little advice from Dave/N++ from Wargaming Tradecraft that has helped me think about the situation and come to a conclusion. I have decided to stick to my guns on the quality standards that I set for myself but will also try to save some time by not focusing so much on all the painstaking little details that won't even show anyway. I think this will give me the right balance between quality and actually getting stuff accomplished, especially as my skill improves. Well, that's enough of a philosophy lesson for one day. Let's get down to business.
Here is the first half of the squad. I have four of them ready for varnishing and the fifth one needs washes on the metallic areas. I intentionally did not wash one so I could show the difference between the untouched shiny metal and the washed metal. Instead of the Chainmail Silver I used on the first model, I switched to Vallejo Gunmetal Metal, which is one shade darker to begin with so I don't need to wash it quite as much. Not a major change but I think it's an improvement.
Here's another angle...
I had to take this one fast, they were trying to moon the camera. Good thing power armor is hard to take off quickly.
Apparently this is their "good side." I didn't know they had a good side.
And a close-up of the icon bearer's backpack. I was going to paint the face with metallic colors but decided I wanted something a little more dynamic. I used the same Ivory + Sepia wash and Ivory + Payne's Gray wash as before, and the tongue was painted with Bright Red over plain Red with a Sepia wash. I think I will try out another new wash on the tongue, a "Dirty Wash" from Les at Awesome Paint Job called "Ruby" which is supposed to be 1 part Black and 3 parts Flame Red, but I used 3 parts Crimson instead. It still looks similar to the original recipe and I think the ruby wash will really help make it look more like a real tongue.
I also started using a different wash after the first two models. Instead of a straight black wash, I tried Les' Armor Wash, which is one of his "Dirty Wash" recipes. It uses 3 parts sepia and 1 part black and is similar to GW's Devlan Mud wash. I really like the new wash because it dulls down the shine just as well as the black wash, but makes it look more grimy rather than just dull and it does not change the color of the copper paint as much. The models with the armor wash come out looking much brighter overall than the black washed models. The armor wash is simply an improvement in every way over black. Left to right, we have Armor Wash, Black wash, then unwashed.
Back to the topic of eyes, I tried a couple different things for the eyes on a couple models. From left to right, we have the original Bright Red over Opaque Yellow with Sepia wash, then Chainmail Silver eyes, then Hammered Copper, then White eyes with Bright Red pupils on the last guy with no helmet. The silver eyes were a complete failure. You can't even tell the eyes were painted unless you pick up the model and look at them. The copper eyes turned out better but are still pretty lackluster compared to the red/yellow. The white/red pupil eyes look pretty decent and I think they will work for bare-headed models.
That's all I've got for now. I hope you enjoy the pictures and please feel free to leave comments/critiques/suggestions in the comments. Next I will be going over the hobby supplies I use and how to save money on them. Chaosheade signing out. Catch you on the flip side.
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