Simple Free-Hand Step-by-Step

So at WargamesCon I saw Duke's Blood Angels and they have some absolutely bad ass free hand work. I've done some before, but I have always been pretty conservative. So he inspired to push a little more at it.

I picked a nice symbol from the Blood Angel Codex (I think Moriars banner) and added a little Lamenters flavor in the form of the bleeding heart. My first step was to draw the design in pencil. Obviously I filled in the blank space with checkers.


Next I block in the pencil lines with Chaos Black and start to add a little colour to the picture with the red.


Once the black is all filled in I used Bleached Bone to make a base colour for the chalice.


Here I added some Dheneb Stone to the chalice as a highlight and used Blood Red to bring out the heart and blood drop.


In my final stage I used Bubonic Brown as a shade and cleaned up all the checkers with Skull white.

All in all, extremely simple, done in under an hour, and looks great on the battlefield, especially when you have a lot of it...

Project Unknown Tyranid Beasties Vol. 4: The Doom of Malantai

Well I have to give most credit here to Hive Trygon at Trollforged Miniatures. I saw his Alien Skimmer and thought it would make a great protective throne/hood for my vision of the Doom. From there I just chopped off the Zoanthrope head, and stuck on the arms, job done! I should also mention the Alien Brain piece, which would make a good Doom with no conversion.

Tutorial: Hivefleet Calavera

So I have had a few people ask, so I though I'd knock out a tutorial for my new Nid paint scheme.

Step 1: First off I undercoat the model. I undercoat 100% by hand using basic paints. Some people say you need true 'primer' but in my expierience there is no real difference.



Step 2: Next I paint the black sections with Bestial Brown. Even at this stage you have to start the underwork for the striated carapace. Basically you just paint it on in lines. All the white parts are given a coat of Blazing Orange, mixed with a heavy dose of Gloss Medium. Also the tongue and tubes are hit with a little Red Gore.



Step 3: For the next step I use my 'rust wash'. This is made of a 1:1 mix of black and brown ink, with two drops each of Bestial Brown and Blazing Orange, and a small drop of dishwashing liquid. This is used to wash the orange areas. The striations are continued with Kommando Khaki. The Red Gore sections are washed with Purple Ink.



Step 4: I almost finish off the striated carapace with Bleached Bone at this stage. The washed orange is highlighted up with Fiery Orange, again with a heavy mix of Gloss Medium. The tongue and tubes are re-highlighted with Red Gore.



Step 5: Only the details left at this point. I completely finish the carapace with a small edging of Skull White. The eyes are painted Hawk Turquoise. And voila.