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Hi Dakka,

My friendly local Games Workshop is holding a painting competition which I have decided to enter. This one is for big models and I have decided to paint the Helbrute Dreadnought, Mortis Metalikus from the Dark Vengeance starter set. It will be the first model I've entered into a competition and I will be keeping a progress log here and also on the my personal blog. I don't expect to do any good but I think it will be a challenge and I think that I will learn a lot from trying to paint to a good standard under a deadline. The competition ends on the 30th of April and so I have plenty of time, however I am going to get started right now.

Here's the beast, ready for priming:



I will be going with the default Crimson Slaughter paint job as I quite enjoy the fluff surrounding the Dark Vengeance kit. Firstly, I'll be painting up two of the Chosen that came with the kit so that I get a bit of practice on the overall colour scheme that I'll be going with. One will be primed black, the other white:



Here are the steps I'm going to use on my first test model:

1) Prime with Citadel Chaos Black spray paint
2) Base entire model in Mephiston Red
3) Heavy black wash
4) Paint all metallics
5) Block red back in with Mephiston Red
6) Highlight red with either Evil Sunz Scarlet or Wazdakka Red.

I haven't yet decided how I am going to do the detail work such as the horns or the flesh tones on the Helbrute itself. I am looking for a reasonably bright arterial look for the red on the armor like fresh blood and so I was thinking of a paler, deader looking skin to contrast. Any ideas?

I have also made myself a wet pallette using the tutorial I found here. It works great so far.



Stay tuned as I will try and post at least one update a week on how this is going.


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Got pretty carried away and excited last night and so the test models have been primed and the first one has been base coated Mephiston Red. Next step will be a heavy black wash.

Got home tonight and got stuck into it. Based the white model in Mephiston. I really like the brightness of the white model.



I then gave them both a Nuln Oil wash:




I'm not sure I'm happy with the results. I think my Nuln Oil may be a bit dodge as it looked kind of grey on the models and seemed to pool up really strangely. Didn't seem uniform, it was almost as if it were actually oil. Is that normal?

First layer of trim done. Going to do the next layer in a lighter gold and also a thin layer of lighter red on the armor to make it pop a bit more and get that bright red blood look. Apologies for the pic quality. My lightbox should be here soon fingers crossed! I've started blocking the red on the white model and I have to say that so far I prefer it to this black primed one. The red seems to go on cleaner and easier over the white.

Okay so I worked on the black model a bit more tonight. I finished off the gold trim and started highlighting with silver, buffed up the red, painted the bolter and painted the eyes/breastplate eye. I really hope my lightbox comes soon because these photos are crap.

I'm really looking forward to painting these guys - so much delicious detail!

Yeah, I must admit that I've had more fun painting this dude that I did most of my Dark Angels. I've also been hearing whispers lately... just late at night when I'm painting... something about... blood... and skulls... Is that normal?

Okay I haven't been able to paint much the last few days but I managed to finish off the gold highlights and the bolter (although I see a bit I missed now, d'oh!) and also do the bone shoulder. It's my first attempt at a large piece of bone and also at blending, where the shoulder pad and the bone meet:



Any thoughts? I think I've run the blend a little too high into the bone. Might try to tone it back a bit tomorrow.

An interesting thread. Really digging the colour scheme. The blend seems alittle off? Seems a little pink. Maybe it's just my eyes
Keep up the good work

Thanks Nash. Yeah I'm not really sure with the blend. I mixed the bone with the base red in increasingly lighter colours which did make it go a bit pink. I think I am going to tone it back until there is only a very thin line of the lighter blend colour and more of the bone.