Step-By-Step Fire Dragon

I went for a slightly different take on GW's Fire Dragons. I didn't like how bright the orange-red body-suit was, so I decided to darken it up a bit.

Step 1: Basecoat


Step 2: Iyanden Darksun
I was going to be dealing with yellows here, so I wanted a good foundation paint to go down first to make this easier.

Step 3: Golden Yellow

I wasn't worried about edging here, just get it all over where the foundation paint was.

Step 4: Baal Red

This might be where I'd stop for the kind of look that the GW site generally shows for them.

Step 5: Devlan Mud

I washed both the body and the helmet. At this point, the main body armor is done.

Step 6: Golden Yellow

I re-worked the helmet up, staying out of the crevices.

Step 7: Sunburst Yellow

This was to really make that yellow helmet pop, contrasting with the darkened body armor.

Step 8: Charadon Granite

This was used on the gun and the face-plate as a base.

Step 9: Fortress Grey

I highlighted the areas based in Charadon Granite. I built bright with the intention of washing down... but first another color that will be washed.

Step 10: Brazen Brass

For the business end of that Firepike.

Step 11: Badab Black

Here we go. I washed the gun, faceplate and brass bit on the end. The main colors are mostly done; the rest is all detail work to bring the model more to life.

Step 12: Boltgun Metal

Normally, I'd wash this area in black as well, but there's a different effect I like for my Eldar metallic weaponry...

Step 13: Gryphonne Sepia

This was washed over the metal bits. Note that I did not wash this over the tank-treads he's standing on, just the gun's metal bits.

Step 14: Hawk Turquoise

Adding some color for the groin flags. Sorry, I don't know what else to call them, lol.

Step 15: Bleached Bone / Hawk Turquoise

The highlight for the groin flags was a 1:1 mix of the two paints.

Step 16: Shining Gold

This was for the casings around gems as well as for the clasps on the groin flags. Why not, right? Might as well make them the blingest groin flags out there. Haters gonna hate.

Step 17: Codex Grey

This is a basecoat for the rocks he's standing on.

Step 18: Skull White

This was drybrushed lightly over the rock. You want an uneven grainy texture to it.

Step 19: Devlan Mud

This was washed over the gold bits, the rock and the tank tread piece he's standing on.
Ok, let's get started on all those gems...

Step 20: Enchanted Blue

Basecoat for any blue gems.

Step 21: Regal Blue

I added a dark upper section to the blue gems.

Step 22: Ice Blue

A highlight line in the lower section of the blue gems.

Step 23: Snot Green

GW's scheme for the gems on the helmets were alternating red and green, which I kinda dug. Green gems were based in Snot Green.

Step 24: Dark Angels Green

This was the dark section for the green gems.

Step 25: Scorpion Green

This was the highlight line for the green gems. Also, I did the eye-lenses while I had this out.

Step 26: Blood Red

This was the base for the red gems.

Step 27: Scab Red

This was the darker area for the red gems.

Step 28: Fiery Orange

This was for the highlight line in the red gems.

Step 29: Skull White

I applied a small dot of white in the midst of the dark section of each gem.

Step 30: Chaos Black

This was for the large rune on his helmet, though you could leave it yellow if you liked the way the previous step looked.

Step 31: Bleached Bone

This was for those funny little tabs on the wrists and ankles that all the Eldar seem to have. I've been keeping them bone colored across the whole army really for no reason other than consistency's sake.

With the model done, there's just a couple more steps to top off the base, and he'll be done...

Step 32: Calthan Brown

For the dirt.

Step 33: Static Grass

Glue down some grass on that brown!

Well, there we are, my Fire Dragon Exarch is all painted up and ready to point menacingly at his foes! Tell me what you guys think.

Gaming Table!

Behold the new table:
It may not look like much at first, but this is a Geek Chic gaming table.

As you can see, the leaves are removable, revealing a sunken playing surface (that is 6'x4'). I decided not to get the shelves so that I could instead get the deeper playing surface. What I did get instead is several rail accessories that attach to the sides of the table:

Like a dice rolling bin with craps rubbers on the sides (I got two of them, actually), two attachable tables to hold rulebooks/codices, and 6 cup holders (not pictured) for lulz.

The wife and I decided to break it in over the weekend with a small skirmish. After our last battle, she agreed to a simpler setup so that she can better familarize herself with the rules. We both played the exact same list from the same codex (SM) to help minimize any advantage I would have due to list building experience. It was fun, with the highlight being our SM Captains in melee, both taking each other out first turn with powerfists. Game ended (annihilation) with her in the lead, 2 kill points to 1. Dead captains on both sides, but she popped my Rhino (not a euphemism!) to boot.

The arrival of the table was just too exciting not to share. :) I ordered this thing back in November of last year, so it's been almost a full year in the works.

5-Step Fur

Following off of the Frostblade tutorial, I figured the other thing to really pick out in this model is the fur, given that the actual Wolf Lord is covered under the Step-By-Step Space Wolf.

Step 1: Astronomican Grey
I covered the wolf entirely with this. Get out your ratty brush, too, all the crannies will mess up any good brush you have.

Step 2: Skull White

Mostly this was drybrushed rather heavily over the wolf. I'm going to bring the color down with a wash, so it's ok if it looks too bright.

Step 3: Badab Black

The wash was applied pretty liberally. If you're looking for a grey-ish kind of wolf you could stop here, but I'm looking for a little more variety so...

Step 4: Skull White

Two things are happening at this step. The head and ears are getting more of a watered down blend in successive layers to build up to what I want. The rest of the fur is getting drybrushed ...

...but you'll notice that I'm applying the drybrush heavier along the legs and underside of the wolf.

Step 5: Devlan Mud

To break up the black/white, I added some Devlan Mud in the areas (mostly the mane, along the back and tail) to get a bit of color in there.

There you have it. It's a relatively fast fur that comes out looking nice, IMO. The wolf isn't done, mind you, but the fur is. What methods do you guys have of painting fur?

Quick and Easy Frostblade

I'm in the process of painting up my Harald Deathwolf mini (using the Canis model) and whipped out the camera for some quick step-by-steps, the first of which being a 3 step Frostblade.

The blade has been based Boltgun Metal (I left the blade portion unwashed, unlike the rest of the haft).

Step 1: Skull White
What you see above is the result of two to three light drybrushes of white. I'm going for a frosted look, due to the name of the weapon, so the drybrushes are very light.

I do want there to be a bluish hue, despite that I know that frosted metal doesn't necessarily take on a blue color in real life.

Step 2: Asurmen Blue

Unlike with the method I use in standard power weapons, I do not dowse/flood the blade. The application is light; enough to make it blue and fill in cracks/crevices.

Step 3: Skull White

To finish off, I apply one or two more light drybrushes of white. This should be even lighter than the first step, like "dusting" the blade. I normally don't drybrush after a wash, as it tends to look grainy, but in this case I want that grainy look.

Tell me what you think. Do you have a method you like to depict Frostblades? Toss it in the comments, and I might post a link to it. :)

Step-By-Step Ultramarine

Sorry for the very infrequent posts, work's been hell lately. Up on the bench, an Ultramarines sergeant!



Step 1: Mordian Blue

Step 2: Ultramarines Blue
Step 3: Ice Blue Things should look overly bright and garish at this point. If you know my style, you'll know that this is when you hit it with a wash to bring the colors down a bit.

Step 4: Asurmen Blue wash I tried using Badab Black, but man does that destroy any kind of blue you had going for it.

Step 5: Mechrite Red For the helm.

Step 6: Blood Red
Step 7: Fiery Orange I just found out that Fiery Orange is discontinued. Blazing Orange should be a good substitute, though it might not be as bright ... I'll have to order some and look into it.

Step 8: Devlan Mud wash
Step 9: Shining Gold
Step 10: Mithril Silver I like to drybrush some silver over the gold as a small highlight, then follow with mud. However in this case, we're going to work up the leahter, bone,cloth and parchment first, as there's a mud step in those processes too...

Step 11: Dheneb Stone Step 1 of all bone, cloth and parchments.

Step 12: Vermin Brown Basecoat for the leather bits.

Step 13: Bronzed Flesh Another discontinued color, unfortunately. Before stumbling upon this, I used to use a 1:1 mix of Bleached Bone and Vermin Brown for this same step. This is a highlight for the leather bits.

Step 14: Devlan Mud Applied as the finishing touch on the leathers as well as the gold. This is also step 2 in the bone, cloth and parchment process.

Step 15: Bleached Bone Bringing back the mid-tones of the bone, cloth and parchments, this is step 3 in that process.

Step 16: Skull White This is the final highlight (though not the last step) on the bone, cloth and parchments. Try to stay near edges, or high raised areas.

Step 17: Gryphonne Sepia This is the final step on the bone, cloth and parchment process. This was applied close to where the Devlan Mud still showed (and on skull temples).

Step 18: Boltgun Metal
Step 19: Charadon Granite This is for the chainsword casing as well as the base (he'll be on an urban road like my Imperial Guard).

Step 20: Fortress Grey This is the highlight for the chainsword casing.

Step 21: Codex Grey It's hard to see in the pic, but this is stipled/drybrushed on the base to bring out some of the texture.

Step 22: Badab Black For the Boltgun Metal bits, as well as the chainsword casing. The base will be washed in mud.

Step 23: Scorpion Green Eye lenses.

Step 24: Skull White Squad markings.

Step 25: Asurmen Blue This was used to bring out some detail on the embossed shoulder markings (fig is from AoBR).

Step 26: Iyanden Darksun This makes for great street paint.

Step 27: Devlan Mud To finish off the base. Well, there we have it. It's a quick method for the boys in blue (especially when you're not dealing with all the extra steps the sarg takes) that has served me well so far. Let me know what you think.