Hoist the Banner

Yay! Another guy done!

My banner bearer for pack 2 of grey hunters, nothing particularly fancy here. I'm really pleased with the eyes, though the resolution isn't good enough in this shot, I'll try taking a better one tomorrow maybe. I think sometimes these milk bottle camera shots are great for visibility in terms of light in our dark house, but not so good for getting the angles you'd usually see when playing.

In keeping with the rest of pack 2 he has a bolt pistol instead of a boltgun.

I'm pleased with the shading on the back of the banner too, also the gem thingy on the backpack.

The pack markings are really hard to do, they seem like simple two red triangles on a black background, but due to the curvature of the shoulderpad, it's quite hard to paint them in such a way that they look like triangles from different angles.

Anyway, now Pack 2 has a leader, power weapon, banner bearer and a normal trooper. Lots more guys, but those are the tricky ones out of the way (except maybe the wulfen guy, perhaps I'll do him next).

Bannerman

Another babysat Thursday, another marine done!


I'm surprisingly happy with the face, normally I find them the weakest part, but I quite like the job I did here. Again, the photo is taken a little too close to the light bulb so it's a bit glary.


Here's the banner bearer. Not entirely happy with the black wolf on the banner, I think it's just too plain.

Rear view, only ever seen by his packmates, the enemy will only ever see the front of him as he charges in bolter blazing...

I'm quite happy with the purity seal on this one too, got the little scorched brown squiggles nice and fine.

And the pack markings don't look too terrible this time, though still so hard to get the red and black triangles right on a curved surface!

Well, until next Thursday's paint session...

Dreadnought Banner

I haven't been super painting, but have done a bit in the last few days. Been mainly working on the banner, as it was the last piece with no paint on it.


Here it is with a single coat on everything. My plan is to make it the same as the shoulderpad, but with a white wolf on it (as his namesake, Loki, was a white dog - I think he'd get a kick out of being remembered as a white wolf as he was nothing like a wolf, more like a teddy bear).


So Astronomican Grey for the bits that will be bone, as it gives a good undercoat to add light colours to. The very top skull bit will be bronze, like the ones on the torso, so it has a metal undercoat. The lava bit is undercoated in Iyunden. The banner is Space Wolves Grey.

Next I've started doing some yellows on the bottom part, my yellows are either very old or just not very pigmenty or something, because I can never get a smooth yellow. The wolf and banner were done in Astronomican Grey with white for the wolf and bleached bone for the banner. The wolf head was done freehand using this excellent tutorial: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=184639&hl=space+wolves

The Bleached Bone bits are given a sepia wash, quite heavily on the skull. The fur is given a bit of extra drybrushing to make it stand out a little better. The lava is just yellows, oranges and reds sort of swirled around, then Scorched Brown blobs on top, bigger at the bottom, smaller at the top. Some Desert Yellow and Graveyard Earth are used to give some definition to the banner. The Space Wolves Grey on the top is given an Asurman Blue wash.

The lava is given some red washing to dull down the yellow. The skull is highlighted with more Bleached Bone. The wolf is given another coat of white.

And here it is pretty well completed. I'm still not 100% sure what to do with the white wolf in the middle. It's SO white. But it's meant to be I guess. I might see what it looks like when all assembled. 

Anyway, the lava has some black on top of the brown to further darken those bits. 

The side bits have white stripes with Ice Blue runes. A mix of Ice Blue and White on the tips of them, Ice Blue and Hawk Turquoise towards the middle of them. 

The Space Wolves Grey on the banner was washed with Asurman blue. 

An eye was make in Ice Blue with a white pupil. 

The skull has a slight highlight of Bleached Bone mixed with White. 

The back of the pelt is Dark Flesh, Scab Red and Red Gore. 

The top skull has some highlight layers of Dwarf Bronze mixed with Chainmail. The gems are Scab Red, Blood Red and just a dot of Blazing Orange on the front. 

The text was very, very carefully done with watered down Scorched Brown and a bit of Black added to the bottom of it. 

I think it looks pretty good, better from a distance than up close like this! Still not sure about the white, but don't really know what to do about it!

From the chemist I got two 1mL syringes and made up some paint pots of Shadow Grey and Space Wolves Grey in 4:1, 3:1, 2:1 and 1:1 ratios. The syringes cost about 40cents each =) I figured I'll go through enough and paint sporadically so this should be easier than mixing small amounts every time I paint.

Here's the back, with the right leg highlighted and the left leg not. Not sure you can really see the difference in the photo, but it is noticeable. 

And here's the front. Again, one leg highlighted, the other not. I'm really not sold on it, but my wife thinks it looks great. You can see the bands of colour if you look closely, but at the same time from any distance you can barely tell there's any colour change as it looks like you'd expect the curve to look. 


I guess it looks better than the unhighlighted leg! I have to keep reminding myself that you only see them from a distance anyway! I've seen people do this then put a final glaze over the top to try and work them all together, I've never had success at that. I just either put on too strong a colour, or can't get it on evenly enough. 

My other massive purchase for the week was this sand from a pet store. It's for putting in their Hermit Crab tank and is black. $3.65 for a 1.5kg tub. That'll last me a LONG time and is more convenient than the previous massive bag I used to have and way cheaper than some of the other options around.

So that's where we're up to with Loki, my mighty Space Wolf Dreadnought. With any luck I'll be able to get bits highlighted one at a time and then it's pretty much done bar the gluing!