30 March 2019

Crimson Fists Kill Team – Part 2


So as we head into the end of March, I thought I would sneak in an update on the Crimson Fists' progress.

I had raced ahead with my Comms marine, even getting so far as to test some red and black out the blue overspill. This did however leave the rest of the team lagging far behind. I got the bulk of them up to a basic blue coat, but it took a while for the Veteran Sergeant (with all his greenstuff additions) to catch up.

Last night I put in a shift to make sure they were all finished with the blue, with final highlights (I may got back with a touch of white at the end) and ready to see red! With the grinding bit over I'm looking forward to getting stuck into some details to bring their characters to life. Alas, with Easter fast approaching, my wife has decided that now is the time to tackle the redecorating of the living room – the second largest room in the house, and the one we've been putting off since we moved in five years ago.

With that in mind I expect progress to be slow, but I hit my self-induced deadline of the end of the month for the armour to be complete. OMG, I may actually painting some models here people – I may actually be able to tick something off the Hobby Bingo list (soon)!


24 March 2019

Kill Team – Crimson Fists Primaris Sergeant


The image above is the one you've already seen of Primaris Veteran Sergeant Vorn. He is the last of my 7-man Crimson Fists Kill Team to see any kind of undercoat, the reason being that I wanted to adorn his armour with a few unique elements so that he stands out on the tabletop.

Now I've not done any greenstuff sculpting for a very long time, so my skills are quite rusty, but I had my list of additions and gave it a go.


First on the list was a loin cloth. I wanted to add a bit of movement to the model and another colour, as they are turning out to be very blue! I supplemented this with some purity seals – on the belt and the shoulder pad.


I managed to find a rather nifty skull with roman numerals etched into it from the Primaris Apothecary model, so I added that to the shoulder pad first. I then also sculpted a (crude) skull to the opposite knee pad. I like the idea that this is some kind of icon for the team – Skull and VI – so may have to use it on the other models in various forms.

He is now on the painting table and should have caught up with the rest of the team's completed blue armour in the next couple of days!


20 March 2019

Painting my Crimson Fists – Blue Armour

After the success of my terrain sponge painting, I pondered the prospect of using the same technique for painting space marine armour. The 7 members of my Crimson Fists Kill Team were the perfect opportunity to give it a try!

I picked out two extremes from my team – my Comms Intercessor and one of my Scouts. This should give me an idea of whether the sponge technique will work for models or not.


Step 1
As always, a spray undercoat was the first order of business. In this instance I chose Chaos Black as I wanted a dark feel to the armour.




Step 2
A solid base coat of Kantor Blue, applied as several thinner layers, came next. This should give me a sound starting point for my experiment.




Step 3
Next came a liberal coating in Drakenhof Nightshade – my new favourite wash! It gave the blue armour a boost in saturation as well as darkening the whole model and settling in the recesses.




Step 4
Now, this was the fun bit. Unlike my previous sponge experiments, I used a very small piece of sponge (which pretty much meant it went all over my fingers!). I started off by putting the smallest amount of raw Kantor Blue onto the palette and dabbing it around with my sponge. I then dabbed a large proportion onto a wipe, so the application on the model would be subtle. I then slowly build up the layers of Kantor Blue until I had a nice balance. I then mixed in some Alaitoc Blue in with the colour still on my palette and continued the process. Finally I used pure Alaitoc Blue in some key areas.

What I find interesting is that the sponge physically won't fit into spaces that would naturally be in shadow, so it's pretty hard to go wrong. The only mistake I made initially was too much paint on the sponge and it swamped the model. The effects look a little bit like dry brushing in these close-up photos, but from the tabletop it looks quite smooth.




Step 5
Finally I added some edge highlights with a fine brush. I started with Alaitoc Blue and moved on to Lothern Blue. I may go back a do a couple of tiny off-white highlights. I was also considering pushing the highlights back a bit with another wash before re-applying Lothern Blue to the most prominent edges. We will see. 

Again, the colours seem rather extreme close-up, but it looks quite smart on the table. My problem in the past has always been that I'm too subtle with the highlights – they look great up close but non-existent on the tabletop.

And that is it for the armour.

The whole process took about 15 minutes for these two models (excluding drying time for the wash). I just need to rinse and repeat for the other five members of the team and I can move onto some red, or rather crimson, fists!



17 March 2019

Painting my Kill Team Terrain… with a Sponge!


Having acquired a rather large amount of GW's Sector Mechanicus terrain for my new Kill Team board, I had to face the task I normally fail at – painting it all!

I no longer have access to my airbrush, so I needed to find a quick way to get some colours down that would also satisfy my nitpicking attitude towards details and 'looking cool'. I decided to go down the route of the sponge technique I'd used on my board.

I spray undercoated everything with Leadbelcher (what an awesome spray can that is!). Immediately things looked better. I then painted the area I wanted to colour up un Rhinox Brown. A couple of thin coats later we were ready to rock and roll.



I started by mixing Rhinox Brown and Mephiston Red on my palette and began sponging the colour on, subtly at first but then I got bolder. I added more Mephiston Red and let the sponge do the mixing. The colour was beginning to focus around the central part of each segment, leaving wonderful dark shadows at the edges.

I gave the red areas a wash of Baal Red (now sadly no longer available) then, once thoroughly dry, applied more Mephiston Red, moving up gradually to Evil Sunz Scarlet and even a little Wild Rider Red.


I retired the sponges and tried out some edging colours with a fine brush, going through my cycle of reds, and things were starting to look good. However it was not dark or dirty enough.

Next I touched up the Leadbelcher where the sponge had contaminated the metal with red, and washed the metal areas in Nuln Oil then, once dry, the whole thing in Agrax Earthshade, concentrating on the recesses and clearing the glaze away from the central highlight areas almost completely. Understandably I had to leave it 24hrs to dry!


I was very happy now, but felt I needed to highlight the individual plates within each segment. Again, I cycled through my reds, but pushed on to a Fire Dragon Bright and even touches of a flesh tone (don't recall white one – Kislev?). I finished with some Agrax Earthshade in the recesses between the plates to add contrast to the highlights.


I'm calling these red sections done, except for maybe a huge stencilled number and sone distressing at a later date. The plan is to approach the metal parts in a similar fashion, getting the overall highlights to a mid-tone then some edge highlights quite bright.

I'm just happy that I'm close to my first piece of painted terrain in almost 15 years!!