Sons Of Horus Reaver Squad - Painting Guide Part 3

Part 3 - Painting the Helms 

First stage was to prime the model with GW Chaos Black spray paint. 

Please follow the instructions provided as this can be trickier than it seems, weather and temp can really play havoc with the finish. 

First part I painted after that was the lenses, I did this as it was easier to tidy up around them rather than try to fit it in post armour. 

A few layers went into this stage.....

I mixed a little Lahmian Medium with White Scar and painted two layers on each eye piece. 

After this I used an Agrax Earthshade wash, this added a touch of shading to the recesses. 

Next up is three layers of Tamiya Clear Red, try to keep each layer thin and build up rather than one big blob. 

I then painted another white layer, keeping it to a smaller area, follow this with another two layers of Clear Red. Finally add a dot or two white to represent light reflecting off the glass and glaze with Bloodletter. 

The layers of Clear Red should hopefully give you a nice shiny lenses with a touch of depth. 

Ok this is where things get a little experimental for me. 

Hairspray technique....

I've tried this only once recently and it could go either way. The theory is it to get nice natural looking wear and tear. 

Basically you paint the areas you want to weather in a contrasting colour, in this case with the black armour I went with a primer grey look. 

First off I painted a thinned out layer of Dawnstone, I wasn't too bothered about getting a uniform colour. Next I added 50% Ulthuan Grey to the mix, again this was added in a random thin layer. 

My reason for that was I wanted different shades of grey to come through when weathered,  hopefully adding to the effect. 

A wash of Agrax and Nuln Oil in a 50/50 ratio was added to bring out further depth and randomness to the primer shades .

So here's the fun part.......

Seal the model with a few light coats of Purity Seal, try not to overload with this and it'll eat your details down the line. This will protect the paint below and make the chipping phase possible. 

Once that's out of the way the hairspray layers can go on. 

Spray a few thin layers of this all over the model, let each layer dry and keep the same logic with this as the seal as it will clog the details up if too thick. Bonus is you can wash it off and go again if it goes wrong. 

The armour was then painted in two thin layers of Abaddon Black. 

Now on the art work I was looking at, which I think was pulled from one of ForgeWorld books, depicted a green tint to the helm.  

This was my guide for the colours and look.

I mixed a small amount of Castellan Green into my black from earlier, this was thinned to a glaze type mix and applied in thin layers and built up. This will aid with blending. Remember we're aiming for a green tint. 

A Nuln Oil wash was added to the recesses. 

The final highlights can now be added. 

I used a layer of Castellan Green, again thinned to a glaze type mix. This was added in smaller areas where the tint had been placed. 

Now I go off on a gamble and add Ulthuan Grey since it was a black green I was after. Keep this as an hard edge highlight and very slight. This was toned with a glaze made from Beil-Tan Green and medium. Aim for a GW type glaze. 

Right, now we go back to the hairspray....So if everything went to plan we can start to chip these suckers.

Below are the tools I used, although a toothpick will do.  

For this you'll need some lukewarm water and a bit of restraint, it is very easy to over do this bit. 

Wet an area of armour and leave it for a few moments to soak into the paint layer. 

Once you've done that take your tool and scrape with the edge or tip, do this with a steady hand with a good idea where you think wear and tear would be. All being well the hairspray below the top layers will lift and show you the nice primer layers below. The Purity Seal will protect that to a degree, unless you go to heavy with the scraping. 

Alrighty now we move on to the metal areas. 

Boltgun Metal was mixed with Abaddon Black and painted to the lower face plate and spikes. 

 We then move on to highlights and weathering.
Below are the paints and powders I'll use. I'll be using a technical paint from GW as well, Typhus Corrosion. This range they have brought out is quality and adds good effects with minimal fuss. Blood For The Blood God is awesome..I'll use that in a future episode of this series.

I highlight the  metal with a drybrush of Boltgun Metal and picked out the edges with Leadbreaker. 

I then followed that with a wash of Nuln Oil. 

Now for weathering, mix the Typus Corrosion with Lahmian Medium and apply a few thin layers to the very bottom of the face plate. Around the vents and where the breather pipes are. Then I used the Tamiya Weathering Master, Burnt Red was rubbed in to the lower half of the metal and the in the upper half I used the  Burnt Blue. I like to think it adds a bit of something to the highlights. 

Then with Mithril Sliver I picked out the edges in a random fashion to imply chipping. I then used a coat of Lahmian Medium to seal the powders .

With all that done and dusted we have all 5 heads ready to go. 

Hopefully this is helpful and gives you some inspiration. 

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 Cheers James .

Sons Of Horus Reaver Squad - Painting Guide Part 2

Part 2 - Facial details. 

Last time I covered the fleshtones I use to build up a bit of depth, Now with that out of the way it's time to bring a touch of life to the model. 

Below a group of paints I used for the next phases, this includes teeth, tongue, and eyes. 

I mixed some Rhinox Hide and some Medium, with this I coloured the hair and eyebrows. 

I then moved on to the basecoats on all the details. I used a mix of Rhinox and Brass Scorpion for the brass areas and Boltgun Metal with Chaos Black for the metal areas. 

The Tongue was painted using a mix of Rhinox and Emperors Children, this was also given a wash of Agrax Earthshade. 

The eyes were painted with a thinned mix of white, but be mindful not to overload the brush otherwise you'll flood the area. Slow build up of colour and control is a must. 

Now for this guy I wanted to depict blue eyes, so I used a blue glaze over the whites of the eyes to give the colour I wanted. Once this was dry I reapplied the white mix into the corners of the eye. Finally a small dot of black was placed for each pupil, this bit is tricky. Many a time I have ended up with shocked or boss-eyed SpaceMarines. 

 Next along, I wanted to bring some small details out on the metal areas.
On the Boltgun parts I used Ironbreaker to highlight the egdes

 I then used the Tamiya weathering master (if you haven't used this product before I highly recommend it, fantastic results) I rubbed areas on the metal with the Burnt Blue and the Burnt Red, Both give metals a depth I can't get through washes. 

.This was then followed with a watery wash of Rhinox and Nuln Oil, to give a slighty oily look. And finally, with a sponge, I added Mithril Sliver and a blue glaze to give it a hard metal look.

 Next up the brass work, Two colours were used. Brass Scorpion and Runelord Brass.

Highlight layers of these two were added respectively. Also to finish this part of the kit off I used a mix of Rhinox, Screaming Skull and highlighted the hair, a wash of Agrax Earthshade wash added to pul the colours in better. 

Below are a few mugshots. 

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Feel free to fire off any questions you might have. 

Many Thanks James. 

Sons Of Horus Reaver Squad - Painting Guide Part 1

Part 1 - Set up notes and Flesh tones.

I'm working on this nice set of ForgeWorld models, The Horus Heresy stuff is some of the best Astartes kits going. 

First of all I cleaned all of the sprues and cleaned them up, made a couple of changes to the arms for better poses later on. Since the armour on the Reaver squad is black I went with a chaos black undercoat. The same was done for the Sergeants helm free face, except I then gave it a dusting with skull white spray. Making sure it was at an angle and retained the black coat in the recesses. 

The first colours to go with the brush were a thin mix of  50% Rhinox Hide, 25% Bugmans Glow, and finally 25% Agrax Earthshade (this was the thinning medium in this case). 

This was applied to the scar, around the neck and hairline, and also anywhere there's natural shadows. 

Next stage after that was to fill in the base colour. For this I used a thinned mix of Bugmans Glow and Lahmian Medium. At least 2 coats is needed minimum.

Paint out the flesh, be mindfull to leave some of that nice pre-shading coming through. 

Next a glaze was made to smooth out and accent the shading. 

 You want this mix to hint not over power, around 75% Medium to 25% Agrax.

Following that a thinned mix of Cadian Fleshtone was made. 

This was painted around the same areas as before but decrease and accent the higher parts of the face. Three layers were done with the areas getting smaller everytime. The new Citadel layer paints lend themselves well to this as it builds in a touch of blendng for you with transparent coats. 

Next I mixed a small amount of Kislev Flesh with water, this was almost like a wash. Don't overload the brush as you could flood your details, think of this a tint not a thick layer. 

This was painted over the higher details and a few passes were made taking care to bring out the features on the face. 

I made a similar mix with Screaming Skull and water. 

I painted this on the very edges of all the details, just tinting and accenting the face rather then broad edge highlights. 

Finally to bring everything together and settle the colours a glaze made from Reikland Fleshshade and Lahmian Medium was made, 25% to 75% respectively. 

Two thin coats of this mix was applied to the model and helped smooth out the look. 

I hope this helps anyone about to tackle some flesh painting. Over the next day or two I hope to cover the rest of the facial details. Then I'll move onto the armour painting.  

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Many Thanks James.