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As foreshadowed at the conclusion to my last blog, I've been commissioned to paint up the fantastic Inquisitor Hector Rex model for a friend's Daemonhunters army. I've done a fair bit of work with forgeworld's vehicle parts, but this is the first figure I've had the chance to work on. So I thought I'd blog about the process, from first assembly to final painting.

PART ONE: IF YOU ASSEMBLE IT, THEY WILL COME

The parts all arrived in good order, and were largely free of deformities:




Cleaning them was a breeze, there were no major mould-line issues, and very few air-bubbles (I only discovered two). Only his sword was a little warped, which is understandable for such a thin piece of resin. Overall I'm impressed with the wealth of detail on these models. I assembled them using Araldite epoxy glue and also pinned Mr. Rex's arms to help keep them in place.

Things I learned during assembly:

The cape takes quite a bit of trimming to get it to sit snugly, as does the loincloth.

Trimming the cable piece that runs from this arm to the storm shield is a little bit tricky - constantly test fit the piece and shave it down slowly.

When using hot water to straighten the blade, don't forget to pay attention to the long narrow hilt of the sword, or you will discover the next day that it drooped while you weren't looking and have to do the whole thing again.

There will be a large gap across his back where the cloak is attached that will need filling

And so here are the models I will be painting - assembled, cleaned, filled, washed and based, ready for priming:


The plan is to start with Hector himself, as he will be the most time-consuming of the models, and will set the colour tones for the rest of his retinue. Tomorrow, I'll be able to do the initial blocking and washes on his armour which will give me a good base to work from.

As always, questions and comments are welcome

I like this guy, but I've only seen the FW photos, so I'm looking forward to seeing someone else's take on it. Good luck!

Hi Unistoo,

Having recently purchased my first forge world figure recently ( the nurgle daemon prince ) i will be watching this closely... i do feel however you will be able to these great minis the paint job they deserve better than i have the ability to do

Thanks, Overlord

Will be following this closely... They're great models, so let's see what becomes of them!

Cheers,

First of all, thanks for the kind words guys
Now, as usual, I'm going to be updating this thread with pics on a daily basis, so you'll be able to see how the mini is progressing in real-time. check back every day

PART TWO: PRIME TIME

I managed to get him primed today, and as hoped, got the initial blocking done. One thing that I realised was that picking out all of the intricate detail out of a flat black undercoat will make your eyes fall out. so it's best to do your initial colours roughly and wash it do bring out the detail - this way you're less likely to miss anything.

While I was waiting for the primer to cure I thought about colour selection. He's going to be heading an army of Grey Knights, whose colours are obviously silver, gold and red. But if I just carried the colours across to this model, he would look like too much like a Grey Knight. So instead of using silver, I'll be making him stand out by using a warm white (based on Dheneb Stone) for his armour, with the details in gold. Red and silver will be used as well to help connect him to the army, and his retinue will use even more of the army colours to help bridge the colour gap - the idea being (in theory) if you put him in the middle of the army, surrounded by his retinue, and surround them with Grey Knights, there should be a transition between the 'hot spot' of the inquisitor and the rest of the army.

The other thing you'll notice about this model is that his armour and shield are covered in little nicks and scrapes, so I'm going to try for an 'aged' white - kind of like old porcelain, with a few stains here and there in the corners - I'll see how that goes.

So, what you see here is the end of the rough blocking process - three colours, Dheneb Stone, Iyanden Darksun (I like to base my golds with yellow) and Mithril Silver, with the whole lot washed with Devlan Mud. Now you can begin to see how much detail there is much more clearly:



Tomorrow I'm going to do the first level of highlighting of his armour, and get the base work on the gold out of the way.

Wow, by the pic he looks like a giant next to the other
Inq mini. If he's that big I might have to pick him up.

Looking foward to seeing him finished.

Looking good so far. I can't wait to see how this progresses.

Looking great so far! If the retinue looks anything this then this thread is made of pure win

You're right, even just looking at the photo that's a lot of detail to deal with. I've not tried the Delvian Mud wash yet, but it looks like a great way to start something that intricate

BigJon wrote:Wow, by the pic he looks like a giant next to the other
Inq mini. If he's that big I might have to pick him up.

Looking foward to seeing him finished.

He is in Terminator Armor (with a Termie base), and is described as a "huge man."

Would it be possible to get a picture of him next to a GK termie or similar sized model?

I'm glad you guys are liking it so far - it's going to be a long ride I think, but hopefully worth it

Platuan4th wrote:Would it be possible to get a picture of him next to a GK termie or similar sized model?

I can't show him next to a modern GK (I don't own any), but I'll get a pic of him next to a plastic terminator and a regular space marine for tomorrow's update, if that helps

Platuan4th wrote:Would it be possible to get a picture of him next to a GK termie or similar sized model?

I can get him next to a Grey Knight Terminator or 20.

Mattlov wrote:

Platuan4th wrote:Would it be possible to get a picture of him next to a GK termie or similar sized model?

I can get him next to a Grey Knight Terminator or 20.

Please do


Automatically Appended Next Post:

endtransmission wrote:You're right, even just looking at the photo that's a lot of detail to deal with. I've not tried the Delvian Mud wash yet, but it looks like a great way to start something that intricate

It's great stuff - and very versatile. Since it's a neutral/cool brown it goes with most colours. You can use it to shade, as an ink, thinning another colour with it gets interesting effects, you can brush it on when softlining and when stippled makes good stains or a base for dirt layering over any colour.

Put it this way - I went through three pots of it before I finished my first pot of black wash

PART THREE: GETTIN' ROUGH

I managed to spend a couple of hours on him today, so I've gone over all the gold parts with actual gold, and washed them with Gryphonne Sepia and Devlan Mud. I did this now to avoid trickiness after I've finished the surface of the armour itself. Then I started roughing out the highlighting using Dheneb Stone. I also used a little Sepia in the crevices here and there to make it look nice and dirty. I also haven't worried too much about the armour colours getting onto the gold, all that will be neatened up after the next stage.

I know it looks rough now, but trust me - the next set of highlights and blending will smooth it all out:



Also, for Platuan4th and anyone else who's interested, here's a pic of him for scale - standing next to an AoBR Tactical Marine and a standard plastic Terminator - I've raised him up on a wodge of blu-tack so his feet are about the same level as the other models:



As you can see, he's quite imposing - he's slightly larger than a Terminator and much bulkier too.

Yep. Definitely going on my shopping list along with a couple of pots of Delvian mud. Somehow I think my project needs lots of that!

@endtransmission: You'll find it adds a lot and is dead simple to use to boot

PART FOUR: LITTLE THINGS TAKE THE LONGEST

I got a good run at him today - maybe two and a half hours - most of which was spent on the armour plates, blending them up to the nice light colour I want (basically Dheneb Stone + Skull White). I also gave the gold it's first treatment; an over-highlight of shining gold (the old, bright second ed colour - yes the pots are at least ten years old and still good!) which I will shade with glazes later on:



Tomorrow I'm going to start on the details, which will be quite complex, since there's so much layered stuff on him. At least you'll get to see a splash of colour at last! I'm also leaning towards painting the little statuettes on his breastplate as alabaster since I suspect if they were also gold it would be too much. I'll have to have a think about it.

Just want to chime in and what good work this is.

This is quite amazing. QUITE.

This is a beautiful job already !!

I got the model a while ago but have been too afraid to start it given all the detail !!! I've painted for years but my paint-fu may not be strong enough to defeat this one !!!

Thanks for the inspiration !!!

Looking awesome so far. This is one of my favorite models ever, I hope it turns out fantastic.

sA

Thanks for the encouragement! It makes it worth the effort

This model is taking quite a bit longer than I originally estimated, but it has the advantage of having so many different things to paint, I'm not bored of it (yet), so if you have one or want to get one you'll get the best results by taking it slow and focusing on small areas at a time. If you try and tackle it as a normal model (like I started out doing) it was really easy to miss or forget bits, so I started doing it a section at a time where possible and that helped a lot. Now, on with the show:

PART FIVE: THE DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS

I started on the detailing today, roughing in where everything is going, and deciding on the overall colours - I like the splash of colour the red gives it, a kind of diagonal stripe running diagonally across the body breaking up the large amounts of red and gold, which will match up with the cloak nicely. Keep in mind that the red may look a little off because I've been deliberately boosting the levels so you guys can see the details better.



I've got quite a way to go with the details yet, and a fair bit of neatening up to do, but hopefully tomorrow you'll see something more finished in terms of all his little bits and bobs.

Sweet! Can't wait to see this one finished.

Wow, really nice colour transitions on the armour.

@The Lost Hobbit: Thanks I use a layering-derived technique that I call 'feathering', which is applying a thinned highlight of paint, then drying my brush and then using it to 'tease' the colour out. Because the paint is quite thin, the further it is spread, the more transparent it gets, and the more it blurs the lines between 'layers' .

PART SIX: THAT OL' TEXTUAL FEELING

As you may have guessed, some of the details I got around to doing today include the purity seals - and though you can't see them here, there are quite a few of them! I also had a bit of fun doing the rest of the details which are almost finished and only require a few more little bits and pieces here and there. I use a mix of scorched brown and black to do the text on my purity seals, because I find black too stark and scorched brown too, well, brown!

I also started getting his mask out of the way because I want to do his face and hair tomorrow. I also had the idea of doing some subtle detailing on the scrolls, which you can see a little bit on the enlarged photo - I've highlighted them with fine vertical lines to represent crackling, aged parchment - not weatherbeaten, but as if they'd lain in some vault somewhere for a couple of hundred years:



I think I'll finish this guy in two or three more sessions (not counting basing, which I'll do to them all at the end), then I can get started on the retinue which I'll be doing a couple at a time since they're much simpler!

Fantastic job, I really like the color, I'm looking forward to seeing the end result.

That bone armour is gorgeous.

sA

This is like my favorite modle ever! Its looking down right amazing! Now I want Rex even more.

WoW , cant wait to see a finsihed product !!

that looks GREAT. too bad they don't have any rules for him yet.

Anyways, I always think its interesting when people deviate from the original paint scheme (in this case the one forgeworld did, lots of gold and red stuff.)