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Hi All! I just joined up and figured I'd post a little project I worked on this rainy day.

I got the Chaos Daemons spearhead awhile ago, and decided to get started with an all-Slaaneshi 40k Daemon army, The Glittering Host. Elsewhere I'll post the fluff for the sister-brother Chaos Space Marines army, but suffice to say it's a greed-themed Slaanesh army, all about the jewel tones, gold, silver, and actual jewels.

So, first up - the Soulgrinder.

I decided to try a couple new things with this project, namely starting with a metallic gold spray-paint basecoat, and Citadel Washes, which I hadn't used before but have been reading are totally awesome. We'll see if the results please the Great Secret Keeper in the Sky...

1. Basecoat:
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So you can see here the metallic basecoat. As a bonus, it gives you glittery lungs after you spray it on! I wanted to go with a metallic basecoate since I'd had some good results previously putting inks over painted-on metallics, and will be playing with that a bit on the SoulGrinder.

2. First Flesh:
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I'm using standard acrylics here, mixing my own as it were. For this color I used about 60% red + 40% blue.

3. Second Flesh:
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Mixed up another batch that was more... purply. So 45% red + 45% blue + 10% white. Didn't worry too much about solid coverage, because I wanted the gold metallic, purple-red, and new surface purple to work together to give the impression of the Soulgrinder's deteriorated and bruised flesh.
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Close up on the left shoulder, a great bit of sculpting here that i had big plans for.

4. Wash the Flesh:
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I'd read a bunch of good things about Citadel Washes online and got a set to try 'em out. Using a medium flat brush, I soaked the flesh areas in generous daubs of the Leviathan Purple right out of the bottle. I'm happy to report that the wash really brought the skin together and gave the deep crevices of the Soulgrinder's musculature an excellent deep purple color.
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And another closeup on that highly painful-looking Chaos symbol on the left shoulder. I went light on the wash over this spot, keeping it nice, swollen, red, and painful, with plenty of the metallic gold with the red-purple glaze showing through.

5. Wash the Metal (and some ink)
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Next it was time to take that golden metal body and give a good antiquing. Applying Badab (what's a Badab, anyway? ) Black wash liberally, it turned out great, popping the sculpt detail out just the way I hoped, with a good crusty gradient from crevice along large flat surfaces like the leg's armor plates. Go Citadel Washes ! I actually forgot to take a pic right after it dried and went on my next step a bit, applying GW Red Ink around the spots where the metal meets the flesh.
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Close up of the sweet Badab Black Wash goodness.

6. So Irritating!
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I got the idea to do this Red Ink application based on some cyborg makeup I found photos of - sort of irritated, infected skin where the metal was forced to merge with the flesh by the unholy power of Slaanesh! This was undiluted Red Ink freehanded into places where the sculpt made the muscle look attached or stretched to the point of splitting on the model. The ink dyed the purple a vivid red glaze, I love this kind of effect, it's like using a multiply filter in Photoshop... except it multiply's the Soulgrinder's gnarlyness AND Slaanesh's glory all at the same time!
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Owie! that sure looks painful now, don't it!

7. Shiny!
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Keeping things shiny is important for the Glittering Host, and so I spent about half the total time on this step, applying silver acrylic paint on rivets, tubing, pistons, etc. to set them off and pick them out from the gold basecoat. Where I to do this again, I'd probably go with this step before the Badab Black wash. At this point the metal areas are all done.
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And a penultimate close up on that shoulder Chaos mark, all picked out in silver against that painful soreness.

8. Drybrush over the top.
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Mixed up some more purple, but with 25% red + 25% blue + 50% white this time for some drybrush action. Concentrating on pulling out the sculptural detail once again, I gotta say the new plastic models coming out of GW are looking great. Can't wait for the Daemon Princes that are rumored to be coming up...
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Case in point, the claw/Reaper Cannon arm provides a great template to freehand drybrush and pick out the details.

9. Final details
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So yeah, I bet you never seen a Bedazzled (TM) Soulgrinder before, huh? These little gems are perfect for The Glittering Host - hell, I got three Rhinos with over 100 gemstones on 'em. I'll post that business some other time... I'll probably apply some Slaanesh decals before varnishing this heavy dude.

Hope y'all enjoyed this little step-by-step Soulgrinder action. Please feel free to suggest, comment and constructively criticize - I'm all for improving my technique in modeling and painting.

Cheers!

I definetly like what I'm seeing. Only problem I can see is that I would recommend smaller gems, but that's just me. Love the colours, and love the paintjob itself. The Soulgrinder's a wonderful model, and you did a very good job of it.

Gotta agree. Smaller gems. Great paint job however! Nice to see a great step by step. We thank you for that!

Excellent job, and I think the gems are a great addition.

Very nicely done!

It may be a matter of personal taste, but i would have gone for a more subtle drybrush. You did some splendid blending work, and then tossed it all out the window with the drybrush... Makes me kinda sad. Ther gems are abrilliant idea, and I don't mind the size at all. For marines, you need smaller ones, but for a soul grinde ror a rhino they're spot on.

Thanks all for the comments so far!
I have to agree with you there CommisarKhaine - I really should have gone way lighter on the drybrushing and done 2 shades. Next time I'll keep that in mind for sure.

That is one beautifully ugly mother fether. I do agree with one of the first posts though, that the gems are a bit too big. Or possibly, if you used a pin vice to drill a little bit in (I know, that sounds horrible with such a nicely painted model) that way you could seat the stones in a bit, so they don't like so much like they were glued on after...

wow, that look great, I like how the red and purple clash in such a chaosy daemonish way....
-pyro

Man that does look pritty sweet.

the souldgrinder is a great model and you really put a nice paint job on it, well done.

before that final drybrush this was probably the 2nd greatest soulgrinder i had ever seen, second to the soulgrinder with the giant wang, but the drybrush was too heavy for my tastes and lowered its ranking alot :(.

That's incredible! I would agree that smaller gems would really add to the look though.

Beautiful work. Can't wait to see what the rest of the force looks like.