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Sons Of Orar Army

Over the last couple of months I have been thinking about starting a Sons of Orar army Painted and converted to a similar standard to my Golden Demon entry for 2009...

This is no small task as you probably have guessed.

I decided to start with the land raider battle tank. I have always wanted to do some serious converting with plasticard on this kit and here was my excuse. I first filled in all the wholes and dips in the areas I wanted to convert with milliput (a fast setting 2 part putty like green stuff) after this had set I set about sanding down the sides in preparation for the new armour plates. Once I had finished the sanding I cut out the plates mainly by eye then trimmed them down to the exact size with a craft knife once they were on the model. I then used some thin strips around the edges to add a bit of decoration.

Unfortunately I got so carried away when I was modelling I forgot to take any pics... but anyway here are a few from when I started the painting.









This is after the basecoat spray of blood red and the first highlight of orangey red (all spraying is done with an air brush) note the highlights run down under and around the rivets and weld join to simulate water and sun bleaching. This is also where the rust streaks will eventually go.






after the second highlight and low lights had been applied






These pics show the initial grey tones on the white areas, then the final very light grey tone. Note the very light orange highlight along near the road wheels where the paint would get bleached and scratched by the mud and dirt. Also have a look at some of the battle damage.






I had the idea to do some Latin script on the side of the tank but unfortunately it didn’t turn out quite the way I planned so after 3 hours work (the 2nd picture) I decided to spray over the text in white. This was a hard choice but it was for the better. I think if I do text on a tank again then I will have to laser etch the parts to get it exactly right






Work finished for the day (15th jan 2010). The sons of Orar emblem stencilled on though not as neatly as I would have hoped, though that can be easily cleared up with a bit of brushwork.






after tidying up the iconography and carefully painting on the text.







Another shot of some of the heraldry... not bad






After sponging on the brown and black mix on the battle damage, and then a light sponging of boltgun metal to represent more recent paint chips.






some rust streaks were added with thinned down artists oils






2 more shots of the wear and tear on the vehicle






The gold highlights are done. Tomorrow I plan to move on to some more detailed and refined weathering and details. I may even start on the weapons.






The results at the end of Saturday(16th jan). Definitely taking shape. The bearings were painted with thinned down inks to replicate oil and grease.









Some detailed shot of today’s improvements. Note the soot on the engine vents.






A view of the rear of the tank. I discoloured the exhausts with yellows, greens and purples to replicate the heat from the engine but unfortunately I over did the soot a bit so it isnt that clear but that can be easily improved.



After the lascannons had been painted and assembled. The area around the right sponson had to be filled with milliput because of the gap between the components. The heat residue was built up with layers of washed: gryphon sepia, then green, the blue, then purple. They were built up in stepped layers.

Super cool. I'm not generally a fan of dirty and weathered paint jobs, but that's done really well so I'll make an exception in this case.

nice one chris!! i seriously think you should incorporate some of the latin into that raider, its AWSOME!!

I know :S for some reason I thought it was scruffy but then I looked in the codex at Calgar’s raider and it’s neater than the script on that. Maybe on the sponsons... it'll give me something to do before my weathering powders arrive so i can do the mud.

Wow, exceptional work.

Can't wait to see more.

Excellent work as always. Question did you use the techniques form the forge world book or entirely of your own accord? Just curious as I love the work.

I really like the text you should haev stuck with it

WOW that is so AWESOME good sir

One word: Awesome. I was thinking about starting a Sons of Orar army, but wasn't convinced seeing as they have basically no fluff. Anyway, I seriously love their colour scheme. I'll definitely be watching this thread

Love it, can not wait to see more.

Amazing. The weathering looks great. The symbol is very precise.

Did you detail the interior?

Very sweet work as always. I have to ask the same question as million, did you paint the interior?

I'll be sponging some rust and damage onto my tanks soon!! Hope to see more of your great work on here!

Wow! That looks great, good work

Love your LR very realistic! but I must ask, what paints did you use on the sponged battle damage? and also, what kind of sponge do you use? because Iv'e heard people using the sponge thing that come from the blisters and such, so just wondering

Thanks for all the compliments guys!

As to your questions:

I got the forgeworld model master class at GD 2008 and have used it as my tank painting bible ever since though it is not my only inspiration. I often look at rusty vehicles when I’m out and about and try and mimic the real things as much as possible.

I noticed some of you have been sceptical of the sons of Orar as they lack "fluff" I had the same view before I did my GD piece, it’s amazing how far that extra little bit of gold on a model goes to making it an awesome model.

After a long time of inner turmoil I decided not to do the interior... I just couldn't put of doing the outside any longer.

the sponge I use is a selection of the stuff from the blisters and some spare bits from my carry case... you can use any sponge its worth experimenting as you can get all sorts of different effects from different types of sponges it’s also worth trying things like wire wool and small bets of coarse carpet.

Awesome....love the weathering.

Took a few more pics this evening.


I didn’t have a huge amount of modelling time today so all I got round to doing was tidying the paint up where I had puttied around the sponson. Should be finished by Saturday if my weathering powders arrive...



Here are a couple of pics of my first Sons of Orar marine... my entry into golden demon UK 2009 which finalised in the single mini category


And here are some of my ideas I was experimenting with over the Christmas break, I quite like how the terminators are looking though the sergeant's torso is a little too far forward so may need some re-positioning.

Sorry, but I'm going to have to disqualify that first marine. I'm pretty sure that's not the base he came with.

hahaha lol... not yet game legal but a proper gaming base of a similar standard is on its way don't you worry

Nice stuff, keep it up

I love it. Where did you get the head of the terminator on the right? is it the resin black templar one? its sweet.

Also, I thought your original Sons of Orar marine (which I study as an example of an amazing paintjob) had a gas mask thing on his face? is this just a different head on the same model?

Keep on rockin.

wow very impressive work =D

its nice to see someone do a successor chapter from the Ultrasmurfs rather than just another Ultrasmurfs SM player

See now I have to officially declare that I hate you.

These models look soo nice, I love armies that look really gritty and worn down adn these are perfect. Those Termie's are definatly going to look amazing.

Great stuff mate
Lookforward to seeing more

p.s I dont really hate you if anything i <3 you for doign a really really nice army so far

The supplies have arrived and painting can continue!


The rest of the tank was weathered with oil paints to get a rusty effect then sprayed with white spirit thinners to make the rust blotches spread out naturally. I then dried excess white spirit off with a hair dryer. Though the hairdryer seems to be the main subject of the photo rather than the tank.


The vehicle was covered in a light weathering power which was fixed in place with acrylic thinners


A mud mix was created with a mix of various colour pigments, plaster and acrylic resin. It was generously applied to the tracks and surrounding area (though I may have got a little carried away)


A layer of accumulated dust was painted onto the model by brushing bleached bone paint into the cracks and join on the vehicle's armour.

@s.j.mccartney: the original model had a gas mask but shortly before GD I learnt how to use tones on faces e.g. purples near the nose/eyes etc. so I removed the gas mask head and replaced it with this one. Apart from that all is how it originally was.

Holy. Crap. That Land Raider is just amazing. I love quality airbrush, painting, and weathering like that. Solid details, too! I am going to blatantly steal as much of this as I can.

It is fantastic. The way the paint has faded through all the weathering is awe inspiring. I love it. If you're going to paint a full army though I suggest you do it two tanks at a time. So you can work the same techniques on both models. It'll keep the army uniform and you'll have an assembly line going on.

I think I need to get that forgeworld masterclass book!

That is so beautiful that I want to go red. And im a DA guy.

Awesome work, you're a terrific painter.

The skin on the sergeant is among the best I've seen, it's simply great.

I see I have found someone else who uses Tamiya paints I find them better than the GW citadel ones. Do you have any tips for using weathering powders I bet you would make an excellent tutorial for the dakka site