Helbrute finished

Painting a big Helbrute dude

After trying the color scheme on a squad of Horse Heads, I felt confident to paint up one of the bigger models. I have a soft spot for this sad looking fellow, so started with him. Tried to simplify things even more, and paint certain layers in more reasonable order than I did earlier with the Horsies. Also tried to do pale / necrotic skin with thin layers of Khaki, Pale Grey Blue, Aethermatic Blue & Bone White. It's working out great so far! Didn't feel like taking notes, so just went for the good old "include the paint pots being used" in the pictures to save time and effort. I'll take a break to let the sharpie & brush markers dry for a while before continuing later this evening. 

Horse headed troopers painted

I think I had a sensible plan for painting these poor sods. And I didn't stick to it. Should have added the yellow highlights and bloody wash on the red areas before anything else. I was just so anxious to get adding decals and tiny decorations, that they were the next thing I did (after some Gloss Varnish on those areas to provide smooth base to work on). I used Skitarii and Chaos Space Marine (mostly Word Bearer) transfers and Pigma & Centropen sharpie & brush markers. Sealed with spray fixative. 

Flash Gitz Yellow provided highlights for the reds (the consistency was also perfect straight out of the pot), and was followed by a slightly watered down wash of Blood for the Blood God. Seraphim Sepia for dirtying the checkers patterns, shading metals and the scroll. Wyldwood on the horse skin parts, barrel holes and some details such as rivets (those also got tiny Off White dots on). Also Off White for retouching the checker patterns, tweaking some of the transfers and highlighting plasma coils. Not much else, I think? 

Spray Satin Varnish allover. Horse skin parts and the scroll got cheap acrylic hobby matt varnish (by Creotime I suppose) painted on. I've succesully used this on terrain, but it left a pale grey residue showing on the recess (so should have used less I guess. Or just a different brand). Army Painter Gloss Varnish on the most prominent armored red areas (mostly horse heads & shoulder pads).

Sand, flock & static grass on the bases, with some Athonian Camoshade & Mortarion Green washes on few spots, highlighted with drybrushed Moot Green & Poisonous Cloud. The dead grass tufts and some of the static grass were drybrushed with Khaki. I also tried Burnt Umber & Dark Yellow Ochre pigment powders, sealed with Vallejo Pigment Binder. Used so little they don't show much. Matt Black base rim.

Trying a paint scheme

I'm trying to make things simple and quick here, again. I notice that has become almost a habit for me recently. It's so easy for me to start making things too complicated when painting. Not necessarily with any difficult techniques, but by using quite a lot of layers that are probably not that important in the end. So it's a constant struggle to try and keep things simple and the number of layers in check.

When painting, some of the main goals for me are 1) getting things finished and 2) enjoy doing it. And I've noticed that if something takes too much time, I tend to find other things to do. A new project perhaps. This leads to a situation where I feel the need for having a rather fast method for painting a small army. I like to get things finished in a regular basis. A unit of rank and file troops or one bigger model over maybe a two days (few hours a day, sometimes more) is very much okay. I'm not trying to break any records or be super fast here, just efficient enough to get things done and not get bored. Also try new things occasionally and have fun.

So I've got this unit of troops on the painting table. They'll be used as regular Chaos Space Marines most likely. Primed with cheap Matt Black spray, with Army Painters Pure Red droplets sprayed on from above. Then I did touch ups with Matt Black and very rough overbrush with Pure Red on a few important looking spots. Red Tone wash all over, with Evil Sunz Red dots and splashes while it was still wet, to create kind of a marbling effect in places. Need to practise this more. Basecoat skulls, scrolls and such with Khaki. Greedy Gold & Oily Steel on metals, followed with Dark Tone, Skeleton Horde, Shining Silver and Bright Gold. Then Bone White & Off White highlights on skulls & scrolls. Off White also for base coating plasma coils, eyes and certain areas of armor that will get checker patterns painted on later. Aethermatic Blue on the plasma coils. Careful Fire Dragon Crimson drybrushes on the red areas. Should have done this stage a lot earlier and not have to bother messing up other areas. I think that's all I've done at this point. 

Still to do: Sharp yellow highlights on a few choice red areas. Satin or Gloss varnish sprayed allover. Blood for the Blood God or Red Tone wash on red parts. Decals. Checker patterns (black sharpie marker with brush, then retouch with Off White). Simple freehand sigils and runes, if I can fit such things anywhere. Touch-ups and picking out details, such as rivets. Maybe Wyldwood all the horse skin areas to make them just plain dark? Or try some unhealthy and pale skin tone? Paint the bases brow, then glue on sand, flock, soil, static grass, tufts, lichen, dirt, rocks and whatnot. Maybe tie those togehter with subtle washes and drybrushed highlights? Try weathering the bases and lower parts of the models with pigment powders. Finally more varnish(es). That's the rough plan!

Chaotic Overlords ready for painting!

The core of this new "big guys" "army" of mine is now almost ready to to get some paint on. I'm currently just waiting for the clay on their bases and some Green Stuff details to dry. So might actually get painting this evening! 

It has been a fun journey to come up with the final looks for these miniatures. The big guys (Demon Prince and Helbrute types) are quite close to the initial blurry picture I had in my head some time ago. One major element I like a lot are the curved lines that can be seen on many places (such as the boot tips, noses, claws etc.), that evolved very naturally from the myriad toy scorpion parts, armoured horse bits and horns.

Latest arrivals here are the trio of centauroids I plan to use as Chaos Bikers. I can see a futuristic Beasts of Chaos type of theme emerging here. Glad I've got dozens of old and new Beastmen miniatures, horses, boars, more toy scorpions and other animals waiting somewhere. Also started scratch building a trio of Obliterator types back at home (no pictures taken yet). They are bloated blobs of flesh and Lego guns wobbling on thin legs. Yet to add or sculpt big heads on them. 

Plans for painting? I'll start with black basecoat, maybe spray some red droplets on from above. Unhealthy and pale flesh on the faces. Skulls, iron, gold, bronze and parchments as usual. Bright orangey red for demonic scorpion parts. Maybe bright cyan/blue for glow effects and eyes? Marbling red & black on the robes. And for the final touches as many black & white checker patterns, runes, sigils and symbols everywhere as I can comfortably fit. 

Just a tiny bit of progress with the Chaotic Overlords

It feels like this project is progressing super slowly. But I have to remind myself it's only an odd two hours work a day, and not even every day. Sometimes a bit more for sure. Usually I'll be gluing a few more tiny bits (such as skulls, crab claws and whatnot) here and there. Then sculpt in some shoulder pads, nostrils and spikes, before leaving to dry overnight. There are positive sides in this kind of layer-by-layer method of working. The process is fun and intuitive, and I'm not completely sure how the end results will look like even though I have some vague ideas and feel where I'm constantly aiming at. Certain things are also very easy to sculpt one piece or an area at a time. It requires lots of waiting however, and results are showing very slowly. But I'm getting there! Very happy and exited with how the squad of 5 horse-headed troopers (maybe just regular Chaos Space Marines?) are turning out. Together with the Centaur "bikers" I'm planning this army is accumulating some obvious Beasts of Chaos vibes. Glad I got some old Beastmen miniatures hiding somewhere...