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Oh boy, cant believe I´m actually doing this.
I blame it all on "Nerdfest09", he made me do it so if I screw up it´s not my fault

The point of this, should I actually finish it is to finally get some hours of "fun" in my work weeks and take pics of how the painting progresses kinda step by step as I toy around with 3 GK minis.

At first I planned on making this a top effort job with as much effort as I could muster but pretty soon I realized I only have like 30m a day (make it some 2 hour sitting painting every second or third day) sitting down, whipping up my camera with as good light setting as I can manage with a few seconds notice and them paint away some to do it all again 1-3 days later.
Thus this is just a fun thing to do to break up my day with and hopefully some of you will find something in this worth of interest and inspiration.

Bear in mind, I will play with strong highlites and grays and I have no clue of what the final result will look like, the method for painting cloth will be something new that I never tried for instance as will painting pieces of armour white, I have zero experience with these things so if some of you feel like correcting me please do, I want to learn too.

The last GK mini that I did (mostly with gf help to shave hours of) was this:






So if you dont like the style it is painted in you wont like this blog at all
If you do then cheer me on or else I´ll probably just lazy of again.








First of all I dont like the new plastic GK minis, the PA GKs are nice I grant GW that but I hate those blocky stormbolter clips so the PA GK painting wont be done until I figure out a way to fix those ammo clips.
Secondly the plastic GK termies lack the detail the old metals ones have, the ornamental text on the lower chest plate and leg joint covers is nowhere seen and I dont like that.
First of all I had to sculpt up some text/wards on the places GW didnt, the result is something like this:




Next part is the spray box, the minis I´ll do are Dragio, Crowe and a paladin apotechary with a halbeard:





Next little step a bit later, maybe tomorrow.

Good grief, how did you do that NMM?

I am always excited when you start something new, as it means we will eventually get some new bits

For the stormbolters, have you considered using the ammo boxes from the Rhino (Land raider, etc) Stormbolters?

Btw, 1st guy looks good, but the face is a bit flat looking. NMM is great though.

OMG that paintjob screams cel shaded to me,it looks class.Well done.

Wow. That GK up top is awesome.

Hi again, some updates:

Good grief, how did you do that NMM?

Well, lets find out by following the blog
Hopefully the minis will turn out to look nice.

shingouki:
Thanks

I am always excited when you start something new, as it means we will eventually get some new bits

Oh boy, if you´d only knew...*mwahaha*

bunnygurl:
Glad you like it.

These are the colours I had at hand.
codex grey, black and white. Normally I do my GKs using vallejo paints and a different gray but I couldnt be arsed to go downtown just to buy three pots so this is it.



Everything base sprayed black and base coated with a mix of codex gray and black:
Thing is I realized I have no white primer spray at home so the bitz that are supposed to be painted white are also sprayed black, a crappy start to the project already, using unfamiliar colours and the wrong basecote *sigh*



The first subtle layer of highlite is added, a slightly lighter gray tone made from the basic first coat. This lets me see where I choose the light to fall and how I want my minis to look finished as I need a lightning guide to make me remember how to shade all the zillion little pieces. The downside of this is that sometime I do the layers to subtle and miss out on where I put the previous one as I keep adding layers.

Pyriel- wrote:

I am always excited when you start something new, as it means we will eventually get some new bits

Oh boy, if you´d only knew...*mwahaha*

Any hints? More GK specific doors, hatches, etc? Pads? The codex is pretty complete for non-sc models, so I'm really curious now.

So, the start of making the grey armour details. I want the minis to look good from a tabletop distance rather then holding in your hand distance, thus the highlites will be somewhat exxagerated but I like that, gives the minis more depth and they look like shiny grey polished metal rather then boltgun metal grey knights.

Crowe will be made to look more "white" overall as he is a purifyer.

The first few highlite layers hardly seen act as guides to where I put the next sets of layers and blends.

I didnt take pics every step of the way but a few in between to still show the progress.









Now for the final stretch and last highlites and making Crowe glow a little bit more then the others.









Next step will be the gold ornamental details, maybe even today as this step is very easy and quick to do.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I also choose to have the paladin apotechary head painted white. Apotecharies are supposed to have this as their sacred colour.

Mwhahahahah! glad I pushed you to do this pyriel! I can honestly remember seeing your Salamanders In the gallery and pm'ing you because I felt they were too good to just leave a short comment and lo and behold! you replied and inspired me and now we're mates and I haven't stopped painting since! i've learnt new skills from you and even colour harmony, so this blog will be absolute gold to anyone who wants to learn how to paint like a pro even from what you posted to date I can already get a feel for where you add your highlights and shading, you must have a good eye for where the 'light' falls on them? I can only do that with a spray of primer and an assembled marine!

I will be following this in the hopes it will help me with my new stuff i'm doing? and i'll be following because it's your blog of course! so, gold next! nmm gold? or I could just be patient and wait until you do it eh!


see you soon!


nerdfest09

(did you read about your exploits in your last battle against Blood angels?)

not bad , now do the gold and power weapons

maan i hate painting power weapons

Wow those are really inspiring!

Fantastic work on the Grey Knight on the first pic. Such a clean style!

I use 4 types of gold on these minis.

The first type used on the ornamental letters is a light one that will go with the light gray armour highlites.
This gold was made using scorched brown, golden yellow and white.



I try to use as many GW paints as I can since most people tend to have a hard time correlating all the vallejo names.
Normally I use vallejo colours.


First a watered down base of scorched brown.
The first layers are carefully drybrushed on with more and more yellow added using thick paint far from flowing or watered. The less paint flows down between the letters the better they are seen in the end.







The banner top icons will go with the same gold colour, those are a bit more tricky since I have so much gold to paint that it becomes a rush job to add all the layers on all bitz without the colour drying up to much.
















The last parts of the golden letters are made using white as highlite colour addon. Afterwards everything tends to look blurry and overpainted so once again watered down scorched brown is applied horizontally to separate the rows of letters from each others and from all other coloured otherwise, even inside and between individual letters there is a need to apply breaking up scorched brown.


The banner icon progress looks something like this:








Finished banner icon gold:



The banner icon skulls were tricky to find the right colour for.
I thought using natural skull but that would look to similar to the gold around, then I decided for red gold, maybe that was a bad idea since silver would have contrasted much better:

The same red gold is also choosen for the letters on Dragios shield:








Finished red(s) on the banners and some on the backpack and finished letters on the shield:

Looking good Pyriel! I love the way a brush of lighter color across draigo's shield really makes such a massive diference to the nmm look! at first I was wondering how you were going to get it to look gold instead of brown but the addition of the watered down scorched brown and white highlights is all it needed to just go 'pop' and turn into nmm gold! you my friend are really quite amazingly good!

You seem to be a very patient painter too! I couldn't paint that intricate on an army, it'd drive me insane and i'd lose interest too quickly! but i'm more than happy to learn from you and the nmm technique is something i want to try on the chest eagles of a couple of marines, not sure how to put the highlight though? any suggestions? across like the shield or just highlighted up on the edges of the bits?

now stop sleeping and sculpting and get painting!


catch you soon dude


Nerdfest09

Claim:
Power weapons are a real pesky thing to paint, I tend to save them for last or else I loose interest in finishing the mini.

Nerd:
Thanks.
The eagle featehrs should be painted lighter at the tips.
Examples:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/114357-salamanders%20librarian%20with%20magnetized%20wargear.html

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/65084-Salamanders%20librarian%20with%20custom%20stuff.html

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/62860-Salamanders%20TDA%20chaplain.html

What on earth did you do to your poor cat to get that shot?!! BANZAI KITTY!

*ahem* sorry dude, thanks for the links that's exactly what i'm searching for! more updates soon? this is good stuff for everyone!

have you been in jail or something? I haven't heard from you in aaaaaaages!


Nerdfest09

Nah just sculpting and painting some at the side.
Will probably only show pics of the power weapons later since this is the only thing that has been requested (saving me time too since I no longer do pics of every step of everything)

Reds are being done, I´m skipping a lot of steps and will skip even more.
Since nobody is requesting anything special nor showing interest in any particular step of the paint process I wont show anything special either and save a lot of time *mwahaha*.

Well, you can't get much redder than that! not much else to say i suppose is there! :-) that appears to be a rather good looking apothecary so far! is it weird if i say 'nice helmet'?


Nerdfest09

Blades done, a little insight into the process:

Very clever stuff, pyriel.

I absolutely love NMM GK. Yours look fantastic. I like the extreme contrast. Not 100% sold on the blade. It looks a little dull compared to the rest of the minis. If you have an airbrush I would recommend using that. Also Cattatafish posted an excellent thunder hammer tutorial that would look stunning on the nemesis weaps. Great work! Keep it up.

Cosmic:
thanks

Rabid Ferret:
The blade is just a WIP the finished version looks much different.
I am skipping a lot of pics due to the lack of interest so only parts of the steps are shown.

Well, we wait with baited breath to see the end results! still bloody good stuff dude! hurry up and pic us into submission! :-)

Sorry for forgetting the final blade pics, here it is hot it looks after all was done:






Also as bad luck struck I found the parchments pretty hard to paint since my core colour pot was all dried up. After adding some water and kneading for a while I got this result:



Full of chunks and crap, the final result suffered because of it and I´m not happy about it but it was all my fault for being to lazy to go downtown just to get one pot of colour.
You´ll be the judges later when you see the final minis.

Steel and blue metal next:

I start by painting all surfaces black and also add a little more area to it so that when I paint in the blue I will leave a thin black edge around almost every object. This is far more easy then to paint on thin black lines around the finished areas afterwards.






Here is blue being applied, sorry for not showing all the steps but you get the point.

As for what colours I am using well, it tends to be different from time to time but for more subtle blues I use regal blue, black and white as highlite.

for more intense blues like the eyes and psychic conduit cables I use magical blue (valejjo I think)

(the rims and back of the stromshields are also started on with gold but a different gold then on the ornamental letters)







Here are some final steel details plus greenstuff joints being worked on as prep for final assembly.



And Dragios joint needed filling as well:
(they all did but these are the ones most visible, more pics of the joints will be coming soon)



Note, I always use greenstuff as "glue" when it comes to metal minis, it´s far superior to any glue out there and creates a perfect contact zone. For this to work properly you need to use about 60% yellow and 40% blue stuff AND prepare a good way to support the mini and its GS "glued" parts so that it can cure without bending out of shape).
This thing will last even if it falls to the floor and the limbs will be firmly in place.
The one weak link using this method is the paint itself that the greenstuff adheres to can loosen and the limb fall of, if this happens simply use superglue to attach it again, the GS created a perfect contact zone so this will be permanently stuck.



Here is a blurry pic of the final blue metal on the back of the apotecharies legs as well as WIPs of the more intense blue psychic conduit cables:



Note the jagged transition edges between the colour highlite layers on the hood. From a distance (and even up close) this creates a nice blur rather then the easily to spot straight highlining that I use whenever I feel too lazy.

A very very thin wash of a medium grey might help smooth out the transitions a bit more?

Other than that, these guys are looking great. An entire force painted up like that would look very different to the usual silver that you see around.

Pyriel, I'm glad I found this thread. I've voted many times on your salamanders, especially the LR. I've been curious to see more of your work and when you posted those bone examples in Nerdfest09's thread I thought I'd track you down and see what you're up to. Pumped that I did. Now Subbed to this thread. Look forward to seeing where this one goes.

Looking great dude! that armor is really looking smooth now, the progressions are amazing watching how you do it, you really have a certain and very distinctive style i've never seen anyone do before and it works a charm! can't wait to see what you do with the sword this time! ;-)

and thanks again for the bone recipe! I hope to try it soon as i can! just got to finish my house! lol

Nerdfest09

I'm in. (pushes chips to center of table)