Resolution 2020: Clearing the pile of shame

It’s been a few years since I last painted models for my Blood Angels army, but I’ve been painting them to this standard way for about a decade.

The model starts with a chaos black undercoat, then the red is done with a mephiston red basecoat, followed by a corroburg crimson wash, an evil sunz scarlet highlight then a wild rider red highlight.

Then I paint the piping and flexible joint armour with abaddon black.

The parchment is basecoated baneblade brown and then highlighted rakarth flesh.

The skulls are basecoated zandri dust then highlighted ushabti bone.

The wing emblems are basecoated celestra grey and then highlighted ulthuan grey.

The gold was basecoated retributor armour and then highlighted auric armour gold.

The sword was basecoated leadbelcher, glazed waywatcher green, then highlighted runefang steel.

The skin and hair was basecoated flayed one flesh then highlighted with pallid wych flesh. The hair then had a glaze of lamenters yellow to make him blonde.

The plasma chamber of the plasma pistol was painted white scar, the surrounding area was drybrushed praxeti white, and then the area was glazed with waywatcher green and the chamber itself also was washed with biel-tan green.

The phials of blood were painted abaddon black, then evil sunz scarlet to make it look like the blood was flowing with the model’s movement. They were finished off with a layer of ‘ardcoat gloss varnish to give them a glass appearance.

The blood drop gems were painted using @innes tutorial (https://www.beastsofwar.com/project-entry/1530824/). The gems were painted abaddon black, then painted with successive layers of khornes red, evil sunz scarlet, wild rider red then flash gitz yellow. Then a dot of white scar was put in the top corner.

The base was painted mechanicus standard grey. The flat areas were painted with astrogranite. Then the whole base was drybrushed with longbreard grey then finished with a wash of nuln oil.

Mephistus’ eyes and temples were glazed with waywatcher green.

This is another model I picked up at Salute last year.

The model was undercoated with chaos black. The skin was painted with rakarth flesh, washed with a 50:50 mix of druchii violet and carroburg crimson, then layered with a 50:50 mix of rakarth flesh and white scar. Finally it was glazed with waywatcher green.

The armour was painted mephiston red, washed carroburg crimson, then highlighted with evil sunz scarlet followed by wild rider red.

The cape and gloves were painted corvus black, highlighted mechanicus standard grey and then washed with nuln oil.

The hilt handles and pouches were painted mournefang brown, highlighted skrag brown, then washed with agrax earthshade.

The chain mail and swords were painted leadbelcher, washed nuln oil, then highlighted with ironbreaker followed by runefang steel.

The base was painted caliban green, washed agrax earthshade and then the lower areas were painted nurgle’s rot.

Finishing details were screaming skull on the teeth and fangs, evil sunz scarlet for the eyes and then blood for the blood god on the swords and mouth.

Now its the turn for the Aeon Trespass Nymphs. I painted three from the original kickstarter (project here: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1243151/) and when the second came around I picked up another 12 of the miniatures.

They are 32mm but being predominantly scantily clad women there are a lot of very delicate joints. For example, the Knowledge Nymph has separate feet that need gluing on by the ankles. Given that, with care and a set of tweezers they go together well enough.

The models were undercoated grey seer and then zenithed with wraithbone. I picked these six models to start with as they all have very similar skin tones. The skin was painted rakarth flesh, washed reikland fleshtone, then highlighted flayed one flesh followed by pallid wych flesh.

The hair was painted mournefang brown, washed agrax earthshade, then highlighted tuskgor fur followed by skrag brown.

The feathers and leather were painted xv-68, washed agrax earthshade, then highlighted tausept ochre then bubonic brown.

The dark grey was painted mechanicus standard grey and then highlighted dawnstone followed by administratum grey.

The light grey areas were painted celestra grey and then highlighted ulthuan grey followed by white scar.

The yellow dress was achieved with a iyanden darksun base and then a wash of casandora yellow.

The blue was teclis blue, followed by a drakenhof nightshade wash and a highlight of lothern blue.

The green is castellan green with a athonian cammoshade wash, followed by highlights of loren green and straken green.

The clay vases and amphorae were basecoated doombull brown, washed with nuln oil, then highlighted with a 50:50 mix of doombull brown and evil sunz scarlet. They had a final highlight of tuskgor fur.

The large amphorae held by the amalthean nymphs had a pattern on it so I replicated that with corvus black.

The green leaves in the hair of the age nymph was painted waaagh! flesh, washed biel-tan green, then highlighted warboss green followed by skarsnik green.

The grapes held by and on the base of the sweet nymph were painted naggaroth night, washed druchii violet, then highlighted xereus purple followed by genestealer purple.

The stone blade of the blade nymph was painted mechanicus standard grey, washed agrax earthsade, then highlighted dawnstone followed by administratum grey.

The bronze areas were painted screaming bell and then washed agrax earthshade. I haven’t done it yet, but they will then be highlighted hashut copper followed by sycorax bronze.

To finish the models I used contrast paints on the bases along with paints already on my palette to paint the rims. The colours used were skeleton horde, apothecary white, wyldwood, darkoath flesh, basilicanum grey and militarum green.

The Blade Nymph had some watered down blood for the blood god applied to her hands and fore-arms to tie her in to her art card. I guess she must be pretty vicious.

The Gorm model and survivors went together well enough but the Gorm had some bad joint lines on his hips and around the head. Gerry suggested milliput for gap filling on the unofficial hobby hangout so I got my milliput out only to find it had turned rock solid. I guess that happens when you leave it for 15 years. I decided to proceed without filling the gaps in the hopes the paint job hid it. It did not.

The models were undercoated with zandri dust.

The Gorm’s skin was given a mottle effect along its back by first painting a solid patch of castellan green. I then surrounded it with a ring or large patches of castellan green. Around that I did a second ring of smaller patches. In total I did four rings, with the sizes of the patches getting successively smaller. This still looked very artificial, so I stippled castellan green over the entire pattern to blend the patches together.

The skin was then finished with plageubearer flesh over the entire model, followed by drybrushes of elysian green followed by ogryn camo.

The survivor’s armour and regeneration suite were painted in the same way as the Gorm skin but without any mottled patterns.

Bone areas were painted zandri dust, followed by highlights of ushabti bone followed by screaming skull.

The skin (and inside the Gorm’s mouth) were painted bugman’s glow, followed by highlights of cadian fleshtone and kislev flesh.

The regeneration suite pinup model’s hair was painted evil sunz scarlet followed by highlights of wild rider red.

Metal areas were painted ironbreaker.

The models were then given an all over wash of seraphim sepia. I do this to all my Kingdom Death Monster models as I want the sepia tones to tie all the models together and with the art style of the game.

Light sources were then painted white scar, and then white scar was drybrushed around them where light would strike the model. The sources were washed with casandora yellow and the areas of glow were glazed lamenter’s yellow.

The Gorm’s eyes were so big I felt I had to try to paint them well. They had three coats of white scar to give them a good solid base colour. I then used naggaroth night to paint purple circles for the irises. Then I used xereus purple to paint a star pattern over the naggaroth night. On top of this I painted a finer genestealer purple star. Once these were dry I used abaddon black to paint a central circle to be the pupil. Finally a dot of flash gitz yellow served as a reflection of the Gorm’s glowing lure.

My plan is to work my way through the different sets of survivors more or less following the progression of the game, so I started with the unarmoured survivors, Old Joe, Young Rachel, and the intimacy couple.

The models were undercoated zandri dust.

The skin was basecoated bugman’s glow, then layered with cadian fleshtone followed by kislev flesh.

The cloth was painted celestra grey and then highlighted ulthuan grey.

The whip was painted mournefang brown then highlighted tuskgor fur.

The bone was painted ushabti bone and then highlighted screaming skull.

The different hair colours were dawnstone with a highlight of celestra grey,  pink horror highlighted with emperor’s children, naggaroth nightshade highlighted with xereus purple, the fang highlighted with russ grey, iyanden darksun highlighted with flash gitz yellow, evil sunz scarlet highlighted with wild rider red, macharius solar orange highlighted with blazing orange, or teclis blue  highlighted with lothern blue.

Metal areas were painted ironbreaker.

The models then had an all-over wash of seraphim sepia.

Light sources were then painted white scar and white scar was drybrushed where light would fall on the models. The light sources were washed casandora yellow and the areas where light would fall were glazed lamenters yellow.