Painting Pre Heresy Blood Angels. Part 1

Forgeworld Blood Angels Part 1

I will be honest there isn't much difference if any in how I would paint 40k Blood Angels or 30k Blood Angels. But as I am going to be mainly buying Forge World pre-heresy kits I am going to call it a pre-heresy project.

So first off I built the armour and stuck them to the bases, minus the heads which I have already painted and are in a previous post, the packs I will do separately afterwards. As you can see I also used some cork for the bases. I have a big roll of scenic cork I bought from my local model shop. Its cheap and I've had it now for about two years and still have loads left. I tore off bits of cork to partially cover the 25mm bases, basically enough to fit the marines onto, and stuck the cork to the bases using super glue. There will be more to come on these as I progress but for now thats it as far as the bases are concerned.

For the primer I used coloured primer called "Dragon Red" by The Army Painter. As you can see in the pictures I have mounted each model on a cork bung using blu-tac. It helps both with priming and painting as it gives something to hold onto rather than the base whilst doing both. I know many of you guys will already do something similar but it took me a good few years painting before I picked this up. It makes life so much easier.

After the primer had dried I painted a coat of "Khorne Red" all over the models, this was thinned using water at about a 50/50 ratio. The models were then painted all over with this making sure to get into the hard to reach areas that you see some painters forget.

I let that dry completely and then painted all the areas of the armour with Druchii Violet Shade. I know some use the black washes, and I had on my trial model myself but a year ago I painted some Khador Warjacks and I used this wash then to shade the red armour and I liked the results. The shade seemed more natural with the dark purple.

Once this too was fully dry I then used some paint called "German Grey" by Vallejo thinned 50:50 with water again. This is from the model colour range. I used this to paint all the areas I want to be black or metallic. This included the weapons, armour joints and any badges that will be painted later. I really love this colour and much prefer to use it than a pure black. I find that when you apply a black wash to it afterwards your able to achieve an effect that looks like black but still has some depth from the shade.

Thats it for today, more very soon. I guess some of you are thinking "what the hell ?" "the armour looks a mess". Sure it does now but the next stage will erase cure that and I promise eventually I will have a nice bright vibrant Blood Angels colour scheme that will look great as a table top playing piece and will really pop.

Below is a recap of the paints and brushes I have used so far.

The Army Painter
Dragon Red Primer

Games Workshop
Khorne Red Base
Druchii Violet Shade

Vallejo Game Colour
German Grey

Brushes
Series 7 by Winsor & Newton. Sizes 2, 00 and 000. Fantastic brushes and well worth the extra cost. I've had mine now for 2 years and they are still in tip top shape.

Happy New Year.

Well 2013 is nearly over, but what a year it's been for us hobby fans. Games Workshop and Forge World have both really ramped up the release schedule this year and I think there has been some great new models in 2013. 2014 looks like it's off to a big monstrous start with the Tyranids getting an early January release. For myself I started my Iyanden Ghost army back in June and although it's been very slow going I'm pleased with what I have so far. The army as it stands needs more troops but with my house move and Christmas soon after I'm struggling to set up my airbrushing area and finding somewhere suitable for it. Once the decorations are down I'm sure I will be able to fit it in somewhere in our new home. But for now I've been struck with the Forge World pre heresy bug. I'm embarking on a Blood Angels army and as mentioned in previous posts I'm going back to using paint brushes for this project. You can follow its progress both here and on the BoLs forums hobby section. I will post some pictures there and  more in depth posts here.

So my plans for 2014 will be more Iyanden and Blood Angels, but if neither of those armies paint schemes don't interest you don't worry. I plan to do one off models for other 40k armies and may even have a stab at some fantasy models too. I'm definitely open to requests so if you have any please feel free to suggest them. Paint schemes and technique requests would be great, but don't forget to mention if it's with my airbrush or paint brush you want the scheme painted in.

I would lastly like to say Happy New Year to you all, I've had some great support from many of the guys and gals in our online community. But I would especially like to thank Big Red over on BoLs for his support of my writing and it's his influence that got me blogging. Thanks Big Red.

Blood Angels 2014, 1st set of heads.

So I managed to clean my 1st Forgeworld resin kit today, if you have never painted forgeworld models before I can't recommend this enough. Forgeworld use a release agent to stop the casts from sticking to the mould. However it can also stop paint and primer from sticking to your models too. If that happens it can make a real mess and make painting impossible. GW do the same with their plastics and others recommend washing these too but I've never had any trouble with GW plastics and paint not sticking. Forgeworld though, its pretty common. I get a tupperware container, add a little washing up liquid to some warm water and give the sprues a good soak, I gave mine an hour.  If your careful with a toothbrush its a good idea to give the parts a gentle scrub too. Afterwards I get some kitchen towel and let the parts air dry on it. Its what works for me.

Anyway back to the heads, I couldn't resist giving the sarge a bare head, I've wanted to play about with skin tones and stubble before and decided this was as good a time as any.

The other 4 helmets were given a light dusting of Army Painters yellow primer and then a wash of Reikland Fleshshade to add shadow to the helmet. On my trial I used soft body black by Secret Weapon but I felt this wash was a bit more natural for a yellow paint job. I also dabbled a bit with some battle damage on the helms. Nothing too fancy or over the top, just the suggestion really that these guys aren't factory fresh.

The yellows used are exactly the same as in my previous post.

Thats it for now, but I plan on making a start on the red armour in the next day or 2.

Cheers

Joe

1st Trial Blood Angel

So I made a start, this guys just a prototype and really just a paint test to get my "recipe" down. I have gone back to using some GW paints for this guy and so far I really like him

For the reds I used

Khorne Red
Evil Sunz Scarlet
Wild Rider Red

For the yellow helmet I used

Averland Sunset
Yriel Yellow
Flash Gitz Yellow


The wash I used is called "soft body black" and its by secret weapon. I used this to shade the armour and applied it after the base of Khorne red. Once it was dry I then went back in with the Khorne red to clean up the model but leaving the wash in the recesses. After that it was thin coats of evil sunz to highlight the base red and this was followed by a further highlight using wild rider. I thin my paints with water and I use a 2:1 ratio of water to paint. It makes it quite thin but I get a nice smooth transition though the shades.

I used a very similar way of painting a couple years ago with my Salamanders but obviously using green instead of red. I really liked the way they looked and despite being quite time consuming I enjoyed the results. Obviously trying to have a pure FW model army isn't going to be cheap either so I don't mind spending the extra time.

Now I just have to put some new models together and I will be back with a progress post in the next day or two. Hopefully with some pictures too.

A new year and a new project for 2014. Pre-Heresy Blood Angels

 So its soon to be the end of 2013, and for me that means the start of a new project. I was heavily leaning towards Iron Hands, but as much as I love that chapter somethings always niggled me about them and the rather uninteresting colour scheme. I went and set up a poll on BoLs with both the Death Guard and World Eaters included to see what the community there would like to see me paint this year. Blood Angels got nearly 50% of the vote. Im not disappointed.

I did back in 2010 have a go at a Blood Angels army, well Knights of the Blood to be specific and whilst I enjoyed it I really wanted to do a founding chapter this coming year. Below are some pics from back then and I hope i can improve on the painting from 4 years ago. Also I'm going to attempt to make this a pre-heresy model army so all Forge World stuff. Also no airbrush this time round. As much as I love it I think its time to "brush up" (sorry) on my actual painting skills. I have a trial model on the table ready to go which I will start tomorrow. I will post this both there and on BoLs to gauge some reaction to see if I'm in the right ball park so to speak.


Happy New Year Guys and I hope you all had a great Christmas too.

Getting Started With Airbrushing Part 8, Cleaning Part 2

Cleaning our Airbrush Part 2

So our airbrush has been cleaned in the ultrasonic cleaner and we have scrubbed carefully with out little cleaning brush to get any flakes of paint out of our airbrush. Sometimes some areas of paint especially in the paint cap and nozzle area are a bit stubborn. If thats the case we could use some airbrush cleaner thats helps break down bits that are a pain.
In the top right hand corner you can see the Airbrush cleaner I am using at the moment. They are all really quite good. Vallejo do one that I would use again.

The Airbrush is now all clean and ready to put back together again.

1st we put the nozzle assemble together and screw that back onto the airbrush

Then I reinsert the needle being very careful as its sharp.

Then I screw the paint cap back on and the rear body or the airbrush. If the trigger is getting a little stiff the put a little drop of airbrush lube onto it.

Then put your Airbrush away ready for next time. As I have said before I always flush mine out with water before use every time I go back to airbrushing.

Right then, I think I have covered all the basics. I will be back with some more “techniques” such as OSL, Zenithal Highlights and Ghost tints (Candy Paints) but for now thats it.

I would lastly like to say that there are many great brands of Airbrush once you feel you have outgrown your chinese generic. When you do it will cost you a bit more money, but look after your airbrush and its a great hobby tool. You will notice a huge difference in your painting too with a better brush.

Me I went with a Harder and Steenbeck after watching the Buypainted videos. Its splendid, very versatile and easy to maintain. I recommend it to anyone. The type I use is called the Evolution 2 in 1 and comes with 2 sizes of needle. 0.4mm and a 0.2mm and all the nozzles and caps too. Its £130 but really very very good. If I ever bought another this would be my choice again. You can buy spares for this airbrush too(as with others I am sure), so if you lose a nozzle or bend a needle it wont cost a fortune to replace.

Good luck with your painting and if just one of you guys gives it a go because of my posts then I am a happy man. I will be back with some demo marines and what not soon.

Cheers

Deadlift

Getting Started With Airbrushing Part 8, Cleaning.

Cleaning our Airbrush Part 1 of 2

Right then, we have done some painting and were finished for the day. We obviously shouldn't just plonk our airbrush down and leave the paint inside to render it useless for us next time. We need to give it a good clean. Takes about 10 or 20 mins maximum and its well worth the effort.

1st we need to flush any remaining paint out of our airbrush, I poor some water into the brush and turn up the psi to about 35. give it a good blast into your cleaning pot or onto some paper towel. I always go with my pot.

Next I take my airbrush out and dismantle it. whichever brand you buy your airbrush should come with instructions on how to do this. Some are easier than others but none are that hard. Heres my Harder and Steenbeck Evo stripped down. I have left the spring and trigger assemble in for this clean. its no issue to take it out and you only really need to if you need to lubricate it.

Now the next part can be done in one of two ways, you could get some clean water with a little dish soap and clean the individual parts by hand using a couple of airbrush cleaning tools like these.

I do this as well, but whilst I am cleaning each individual part I also have the other parts vibrating away in an “ultrasonic cleaner” sounds expensive right ? Wrong mine cost £20 and its brilliant. If you have a partner who moans at just how much you spend on your hobby you can easily justify this expense as its great for cleaning jewelry too.

I just drop a little dish soap or washing up liquid in the machine then top it up with warm water. Carefully place your dismantled airbrush parts in and switch it on. Most have a run cycle of 3 or 4 minutes. I give mine 3 or 4 cycles as I am removing parts cleaning them by hand and plonking them back in. This is how I do it and its worked for me every time.

Its hypnotic to watch and basically the machine vibrates all the hard to reach bits of paint out of your airbrush.

Recommended Airbrush YouTube Channels.

Recommended viewing.

Just a quick post to really give you guys some more reference on airbrushing your models. All the links below are from YouTube channels that I have been following over the past few years. They have helped me so much and I think for anyone looking to get into airbrushing they could help you too.

Schnauzerfaceminis
http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCPtFEqSumWcgmmLsF6cyFhA

Ichibanpainting
http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCdu8ZvFzRlCGSq1OU6FFmpw

Awesomepaintjob
http://m.youtube.com/channel/UC0vYyCks8CDWZBHz-qtZhbA

Buypainted
http://m.youtube.com/channel/UCsVtZ8SRClYf4tPzy8HjNtA

Once you get to grips with your airbrushing and surpass some of the basics I have written about, these guys and their videos will I hope inspire you as much as they have me.

There are of course many other guys out there with airbrushing tutorials but I think these 4 channels are some of the best.