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So I've started a blood angels army, and I thought I would hopefully gain some insightful tips and tricks as I built and painted this army. As it stands I have all of my infantry built and primed, I'm trying for a grittier red than your standard blood angels, but a talented painter I am not... I would love critiques and comments, as well as inspiration... I have plenty of pics in my gallery, but I'm just going to post a few here to get this thread rolling.

To start it off, I've got a Dante I've bashed together with the backpack from Astorath


And a few test models to check color scheme, etc...

This first one is basically step 1 and 2... I primed my models, both Sanguinary Guard and my Assault Marines (though they look a lot like death company ) with this rust color. Then I took Vallejo Electric Blue as the base for the wings. I'll be painting white over this, but my test model had some issues with bad paint. :-/


So after the priming and the blue, I took some Burnt Cadmium and began to work on a Sanguinary Priest. Yes, I know he has some mold lines. I needed an assault marine to stand in as my Sang priest, and this model was one that I had built when I first started, I'm not too happy with how he turned out, lots of mistakes, the red isn't as vibrant as I wanted. He'll probably be taking a simple green bath.



I'm happier with how my Sanguinary Guard/Honor Guard turned out though




Please leave C&C I need the help

Your painting is good, the only suggestion I have is to give the sang guard a wash of gryphonne sepia to give it some depth and then go back and give him some highlights with a mix of 50/50 shining gold/mithril silver (I don't claim that this method is the only way to do it or the best, its just the way I do my golds).

Also I'd try leaving some of the blue showing on the very tips of the feathers of the wings to give them some depth (or a wash), they look a bit flat as they are now. Keep up the good work, can't wait to see your progress.

I completely agree with the wings. I had an old jar of Dragon White from Reaper (the closest thing I have to an actual white color), and the durned thing was terrible, so everything became splotchy and covered up too much of the blue. If you look at Eggroll's Blood Angels his wings are what I'm trying to replicate without the use of an airbrush (just ain't in the cards money wise atm).

A simpler way to get the shading in the wings would be to paint them white to start with and do a few washes of blue into the recesses. By mixing the blue with gloss varnish (1:3 blue/gloss should be about right) it will flow more easily and allow you time to gently wipe the wash off the tips of the wings with a dry brush.

I'll have to look into that, I haven't quite given up on my blue under the wings, I've ordered some more reds, a white, and a color I've never owned before... orange (because apparently I only had mostly blues and metallics).

I want to give it a few more tries to get the wings down as to how they are in my head.

Hey Alf!

Definitely some promise here. As you've already mentioned, cleaning up the mold lines is critical as they're really hard to "get past" when you're looking at a figure. You might not even see them when the figure is on the table, but the camera (and the internet) is unforgiving.

I like the sanguinary but as mentioned already, he'd benefit from a wash of some sort. I usually use sepia for gold but you could also try delvan mud. He'll need some highlighting as well to make the upper edges of the plates pop. You can do this either before or after washing depending on how subtle or extreme you want the highlights to appear.

Sounds like endtrans has got you pointed in the right direction on the wings.

I might recommend starting of with more simplistic models, work on the colors with a model you can pitch into the simplegreen/bits bin/where ever to really get to where you want to be with the base colors. Maybe a AoBR marine Squad or similar. Practice the red on them, with different combinations until you find a recipe you like, and can duplicate with relative ease. The strip them and try it with the gold and black. I do this for every army I start. The whole time you will be improving your brush control too, as a bonus.

If you want to change the shade of the red, try a Baal Red wash. Then use a Sephia or Devlin wash on top of that to tone it down if needed. Skip the red, but try some washes on the gold as well. Experimenting with a yellow or brown basecoat will change the gold as well.

Actually, gretar gets a really dynamic gold by just using mithril silver and washing it repeatedly with sepia until he gets the tone he wants. Works really well... going to try it myself actually.

Just echoing here.

Mold lines - definately the issue with metallics as well. Horrible things that can ruin a mini when you least expect them to!

The gold - again, agreed. Shading with washes can help - of course sepia washing silver is pretty neat too (I know someone who has done an amazing Pre-Heresy SW army with gold trims....shaded from silver).

As far as red goes - For a Mechrite base - red wash and devlan mud can make it quite rich. The Mud darkens and shades and the red brings the warmth of the red back out.

Gitsplitta wrote:Definitely some promise here. As you've already mentioned, cleaning up the mold lines is critical as they're really hard to "get past" when you're looking at a figure. You might not even see them when the figure is on the table, but the camera (and the internet) is unforgiving.

its pretty much decided that the sanguinary priest is going to take a dip in the simple green, I just have to find a container I can throw him in... Might see if someone has a butter tub or something like that.

Gitsplitta wrote:I like the sanguinary but as mentioned already, he'd benefit from a wash of some sort. I usually use sepia for gold but you could also try delvan mud. He'll need some highlighting as well to make the upper edges of the plates pop. You can do this either before or after washing depending on how subtle or extreme you want the highlights to appear.

I've used both of those washes on gold before, and I want a "shinier" looking gold so I'll probably use the sepia, because I've used devlan on the gold of my Daemon Prince (pics in my gallery) to give it a 'tarnished' look. I'll wash it tonight, but I don't have mithril silver >_< to try mixing with my gold... I have chainmail so I'll probably see how that looks

whalemusic360 wrote:I might recommend starting of with more simplistic models, work on the colors with a model you can pitch into the simplegreen/bits bin/where ever to really get to where you want to be with the base colors. Maybe a AoBR marine Squad or similar. Practice the red on them, with different combinations until you find a recipe you like, and can duplicate with relative ease. The strip them and try it with the gold and black. I do this for every army I start. The whole time you will be improving your brush control too, as a bonus.

I'm unhappy with the red, but if for nothing more than a lack of colors to provide layers/highlights.

whalemusic360 wrote:Experimenting with a yellow or brown basecoat will change the gold as well.

I've done golds with brown basecoats before, and I like the result, and I took a 'risk' hoping that the rust color primer would be a good base, and I like how the gold turned out on the sanguinary guard, but there is a level of flatness to him (now that I see it in photo form).

DarkStarSabre wrote:Mold lines - definately the issue with metallics as well. Horrible things that can ruin a mini when you least expect them to!

I know that the sanguinary priest has mold lines, did I miss some lines on the guard? I tried to get them as much as possible

DarkStarSabre wrote:As far as red goes - For a Mechrite base - red wash and devlan mud can make it quite rich. The Mud darkens and shades and the red brings the warmth of the red back out.

I'll have to keep this in mind for tonight.

Alfndrate wrote:

DarkStarSabre wrote:Mold lines - definately the issue with metallics as well. Horrible things that can ruin a mini when you least expect them to!

I know that the sanguinary priest has mold lines, did I miss some lines on the guard? I tried to get them as much as possible

DarkStarSabre wrote:As far as red goes - For a Mechrite base - red wash and devlan mud can make it quite rich. The Mud darkens and shades and the red brings the warmth of the red back out.

I'll have to keep this in mind for tonight.

On the Guard - the legs and helmet in particular. They will become frightening obvious when you wash it.

And the red can make it quite rich.

I'll see if I can find pictures of a friend's Crimson Wolf I painted a few years back - same tricks. Alternatively my Eldar use the same sort of red style.

So got off of work today, grabbed a haircut, and sat down to see if I couldn't do a little more work on the gold. I'm going to preface these images with a story, a story about my unsteady painting hand. I had washed the model in sepia, and it darkened up quite a bit, I went away, talked to some friends on my floor, came back and mixed up some chainmail and gold, just to test the color combination...

I don't have any pictures of the pre screw up, but I have a 'finished' product... i.e. after my goof and before I go back and do ANYTHING to it. I was adding some high lights to places that might be getting hit by a top-down light, so picking out pieces here and there, went to apply it to the top of the knee pad, and my hand slipped, spreading a line of paint over the leg... I sat and stared at it, wondering what to do... SO in an effort of seeing what sort of fun I could have, I painted the whole model in this brighter mix of gold. leaving some areas of the old color gold exposed... so here is my test atm...







I think he's getting there, but there is still some work to be done.

Oh, see?? Now I like that! Good work Alf.

Is that what you meant by the "top plate"??

Not sure... where did I say that? Can't find it in my other posts.

>_< So I've had it in my mind the ENTIRE day that you said I should try a lighter shade of gold on the top plate... I looked back and I mixed up when you said make the plates pop.... *sigh* I do like how he looks now though, even if if I apparently can't read English.

Actually I agree, the back of the jump pack looks tremendous in the lighter shade.

I need to figure out how to do eyes properly :( I can never get them right :-/

Any idea on how to do the droplets?

use vent's "black gem" technique. It's quite easy and gives great effect.

The gold shading looks nice.

Not kidnapping your thread but posting for you.

As promised - pictures of Mechrite Red - washed with baal red, Devlan mud and baal red in that order, highlighted with Mechrite.



And a group shot showing it next to an Imperial Paladin and a Crusader of Ultramar (so Midnight Blue highlighted up to Mordian and Regal to Enchanted - just so you see brightness of this red.)

Sweet jeebus thats a nice looking effect, simplistic, and dark and gritty... I'll have to test it... I've got paints coming in tomorrow

Have to agree... very nice.

Thanks guys. Those 3 were done for the local GW with the last SM codex release - the idea was having 1 Marine from as many chapters as possible in the cabinet and I volunteered 1 of my Imperial Paladins and to do 2 Marines from my friends' chapters.

It's a really easy way to get a nice rich red - the Devlan mud does the shading, the baal red just restores the warmth to it.

Just a quick update, my paints are arriving this morning (UPS has them at their store 20 minutes away, and they're coming to my university today), and I should have them in my possession by noon. I'll have to toy around with some more testing, and try Vent's gem technique (looks cool, but I might have to find some way to steady my hand, as there are a lot of gems on my models)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hopefully this doesn't autoappend :(

So I got everything in, but I haven't started assembling anything because honestly... I'm debating on getting the stormraven conversion kits from Chapterhouse Studios. But I looked at Vent's Gem tutorial, and thought I'd give it a try...

Things I noticed... those gems are a lot smaller than they look, and the fact that Vent has gotten them as AWESOME as he has, makes me cry a little (only a little). I painted them up, having to go back over and to the black a few times as I screwed up (luckily only hitting the gem, and nothing else). Second thing I noticed... I don't have a "high gloss varnish" BUT I do have a spray can of Krylon Gloss varnish (that I was going to use on some nids)... So I went into the stairwell outside my room, took an old Lysol Air Effects lid, and sprayed the gloss in there until I had a nice little puddle.

Then, getting high off of the fumes :( I went back in, and painted the gems with my little pool of gloss varnish... TA and DA!





I also forgot that I painted his eyes, using colors I had... I laid down a layer of Dark Angels green, then mixed a 1:1 ratio of Goblin Green and Dark Angels green, attempted to blend it (don't think it worked too well) and then put a dab of white in the back corner (a little too much... but I didn't totally screw up the eye, so I'm getting better)

I feel a 'warm' colour wash over the wings then a couple of drybrushes of white should help overcome the dark currently showing through.

Define warm color? I have Sepia, baal, devlan, badab, asurmen, leviathan, and thraka...

Or are you saying I should make my own... If so, what color... I kinda like how the blue shows through (as that was my original intent, but it didn't turn out right)... I'm thinking I might make a wash using Electrice Blue and use that.

Oh, that was intentional, then all is well. I thought it looked a lot like the effect you get painting white over a black undercoat in the pic.

What about asurman blue wash?

I might test it out, throwing white back over it if it doesn't look right might won't be too hard

Lot more progress, some painting, some building

I humbly introduce you to the first member of the 5th Company, 5th Squad







I've got a lot still more to do, and I've got a few touch ups on areas that I've done, most noticeably is the knee.... still a little splotchy.

I still need to work on the gems, I'm probably going to do this similarly to the basing, and knock out a large chunk as it currently wastes more paint than I'm using for a single model.

So here's my building progress (Note: I've had the codex for a while, but its looking pretty in this picture








I reaaaaaaalllllllyyyyy want to start building my storm ravens, BUT I want the Chapterhouse Studios conversion kits... but they're not released yet :(... Sad Day!

Here's what they look like from CHS:

Red looks much improved from the first batch!