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Evening all!

Great conversion overall. Though I feel that you can push the shadows on the model with a few washes here and there, to add depth to it. Then again, maybe it's the photo?

Somewhat offtopic, but I've been wondering...
Why do you(and many other conversions) portray Meph as vampire-like being. Reading his story, he appears to have mastered and suppressed his thirst for blood, which makes him an anathema of vampirism, if anythingh. Anyone can clarify?

Pretty cool. Reminds me of Nosferatu

Awesome conversion. I agree that the red of the armor seems kind of flat, but maybe that's the photo.

I really like the model. Very clean and competent composition.
I agree that it would look truly awesome with som deeper shading.
The colour of the head is properly vampiric pale, but somehow it dont go well with the wings being almost the same colour IMO.

Over all a very clean and well done paintjob. I love the details on the parchment hanging from the back.

Hmmm

the red's still quite flat, maybe a quick wash with badab black and a highlight?

I disagree with what everyone i saying. Zooming in on the pictures I can see the transition from the darker reds to orange in various parts. And i think throwing a wash on there may ruin the great clean looking effect you have achieved. IMHO the armor is great as is. Great job!

OK thanks for feedback! Opinions vary, as always.

Red is a difficult color to work with, I would never put black wash over it. Furthermore I think that's a very cheap technique, and a simple answer to everything: just blackwash it.

When I painted this I used blended highlights and red ink and gryphon sepia as well afterward to ad depth. I had to be careful not to highlight to much as it can make a red model twinge into orange pretty fast, especially with all the thin line detail this model has, it had to match my other marines, which have the classic broad flat areas.

As another commentary I took a lot of inspiration from this piece from Bram Stokers Dracula:



Which to me, looks like the source material for Astorath the Grim's entire sculpt. A modern model I think captures much more what most of the surviving blood angels would actually become over time.

Looks different now, though I find the colors a bit too light and/or needing a bit more contrast/depth. It does not give me the same subtle "blood" feel of Stoker's armor.

But don't get me wrong, it is still a damn good job.

Augustine wrote:Looks different now, though I find the colors a bit too light and/or needing a bit more contrast/depth. It does not give me the same subtle "blood" feel of Stoker's armor.

Looking at it side by side with the other images of the Stoker piece and the Astorath I have to agree, it is very light. The Astorath looks almost... brown? maybe, in the recess areas.

I will probably add an Astorath to the army as well, I never did get around to adding Death company to the army, something I regret thematically (but I really didn't like the idea of an expensive troop unit that doesn't score, play wise). Maybe when I paint the Astorath I will try for a darker shade, and match the GW piece.

I was curious about experimenting with Darker reds as well, with some similar thinking to a few comments here, and I did so on my Vanguard squad. Perhaps this will satisfy some better? Here is an example form the squad leader (also the only NON WHITE wing model in the army):



I like how this squad stands out in the army and is still red, but after painting them, I wasn't sure they still looked like blood angels. What do you think?

EDIT: The magnified close up of that sargent looks pretty coarse to me, I thought I was a bit more precise than that when I painted it, guess not. Here's the sqaud:

While your Mephiston is very cool, he has one major flaw.. he has a jump pack.

I also believe he would look better with black wings

Using Reaper MS reds by any chance? Asking since the reds on the Sarge give off subtle purple hue(though it may be the camera flash). I've been wrestling with them lately.

Purple-red is a bit cold for BA scheme, but it can be warmed up easily with some careful thin highlights of red mixed with orange (1:3 or so, by orange I mean Blazing Orange/Phoenix Red or an equivalent). Not too much, just enough to give warmth.
This will also create a great contrast with the blue in the wings, giving a strong color triad (yellows in gold, blues in wings, with orange-red on armour).

Excellent technique on the Sarge, mate!

Illumini wrote:While your Mephiston is very cool, he has one major flaw.. he has a jump pack.

You should see my other one:

Yup. Remember that Bram Stoker's Dracula predates this sculpt too, and was considerably more recent when it came out.

I think the reds on your Mephs are a bit orangey for my tastes, but I like the reds on that squad. I use Devlan Mud for shading red on my BA (then clean up a bit with Blood Red), and find it gets a nice rich tone while still being red.

You know what else I think would help your converted Meph? If the iron halo were gold. That would create more contrast, and would create a nice visual triangle of gold with the hilt of the sword and the muzzle of the pistol.

Wow.