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)!

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!

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!