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I like the horses they look great.

That marble effect though is amazing really looks like the real thing

Yeah, fantastic work on the marble!

Yep the diorama bases are excellent, horsies look good too.

Thanks guys. Have learned a lot for that technique and already know how I would do it better in the future (if I ever use the technique again). But for a first attempt I am pretty happy with it.

We had an 8 hour black out last night so I made zero progress on the Silverhelms.

The high elf horses look great, and the marble looks outstanding, especially for a new technique. The primarch is going to come up fantastically.

Hi all, me again.

Just wanted to say that the Scarecrow you have done Grim is a frightening model and looking at your new avatar picture creeps me out.

This update is more tooting my own horn as I have had a couple of people ask how I did the marble effect. Don't get me wrong there are plenty of fantastic tutorials out there, but I figure it can't hurt to show people how someone of my painting skills went about the marble effect. May give people an idea to give it a go and develop there own ideas. So bear with me as I throw a few photos up......

I unfortunately didn't take any photos during the actual model painting stage as I didn't expect it to turn out well enough to bother letting anyone know how it went on, so I knocked out a mock up.

So........you need to start with this........


A white background, but there is no reason that it needs to be white, but I wanted white marble so surprise, surprise I started with white.
Then, you need one of these......


Wait, stop looking at the half built primarch in the background, or the other messy things on my paint tray. I mean the rather old paint brush thats a little fuzzy in the foreground. I chose to cut the bristles down as it was seriously dog eared and felt it help me stipple a little better.


The next step is to stipple on a light grey (I used space wolf grey which I am not sure GW sell anymore). It isn't a whole lot darker than the white, so feel free to go a little nuts. I think the effect is enhanced if you try to be a little random and "organic" as opposed to really even. So just do what feels right. Please note that when doing this stippling you want about as much paint as you would use for dry brushing.


Next you do exactly the same thing but with a slightly darker grey (I used a current GW paint called Administratum Grey). You want to be a little less than the previous color and I tried to see where natural "veins" of color would fit.


You may have guessed the next step, yup, more stippling, this time I used the darkest grey I have this time (another current GW paint Eshin Grey). This time I tried to be more sparing, but as you can see failed and it was quite dark. But it can be brought back from the brink.


I stippled white over again (this can be a good trick if you feel it looks to uniform as well).

So the stippling is now done and it is up for the detailing stage.


Now I use a fine paint brush and using the Eshin Grey again to paint veins. I try to make the lines uneven and a little random. The constant lines on the bottom of the image are the method I used on the Primarch base, but I gave a different concept a go on the top. I think either would work quite well.


Then using the same brush I paint a fine (well try to paint a fine) white highlight along one edge of the dark grey line. Now I decided that it was a little too bold for what I wanted so went back to a previous technique....


I got a very big brush and drybrushed the area with white again. I actually did this to the scenic base as well and feel it went a long way to "dulling" the veins and stippling further and gave a kind of chalky look to the edges of the stone.


Then finally, apply a coat of gloss varnish (I ran the brush over it as it dried to give it that textured grain, not sure it added to the effect or not, but I liked the idea).

So there you have it. Thanks for indulging me as I put up my little tutorial, hope it encourages someone to give it a go as if I can manage an ok result anyone can.

Thanks for reading.

Hang on a moment, you can't just leave a half-painted Primarch in the back of a shot and not show us loads of WIPs!

Cheers for the tutorial.

Thanks for the marble tutorial, may have to try it!

The marble effect looks good. I've used a feather for the veining effects. Something I learned when the whole 'faux finish' fad was in force. Also, try 'floating' some of colors with glazing liquid, to give a sense of depth.

The high elf cavalry is progressing nicely.

Ok maybe I will put a couple of WIP of the primarch up. I am now pretty happy with the armour it was just too dark and wouldn't have suited the leader of the Ultramarines. (So I had to do it again, although I have now figured out a great way to do Konrad Curze in the dark blue and glossy armor when I get to him). I am happy with how the gold is shaping up. Just need to figure out a way to define it better without losing how bright I have it......

So I have caved to putting up some WIP pics. Sort of........






The above photo is me messing around with the gold over the blue armour. I found I kept going back and forth and ended up layering a great many layers to get things looking the part.




Here you can see me starting to add the red and white onto the model.






And finally we see here, the almost finished body of Robute. I am really happy with how he has come together and am soon to assemble the final model and I hope he looks as good as I think. It has taken a while of slow progress to get him to this stage. But think he is worth it.

Stay tuned and soon there will be an assembled Primarch.

Thanks for reading.

Hi all,

Progress from my previous WIP pics of the Primarch and that means some exciting news........I present to you all, my take on Roboute Guilliman, Primarch of the Ultramarines









So there you have him on the small base in all his gaming glory. But since my Brother isn't a gamer per se, he is unlikely to be found on this base very often. So instead, its better to look at him on this one.......











I am very happy with how he has turned out. It took some thought and a few false starts. But I feel I have done justice to an amazing sculpt. Looking forward to getting onto Horus and certainly hope I can get him together in time for Christmas. Although I am going to take a slight breather and get at least the Silverhelms knocked off for the High Elves as I would like to also get that army done before Christmas as well. You never know I may manage to get onto the next army before New Years Eve.......and it crawls........on six legs.........

Thanks very much for reading and your thoughts on the Primarch are most welcome.

Robbie G-man looks great! If you haven't posted him in Showcase, get on that pronto! He deserves to be seen!

He looks superb Archer, excellent work all round.

Thanks for the kind comments.

Have no idea what showcase is. So haven't put him up there.

I meant the showcase forum here on Dakka, I find it's always worth posting particularly good stuff there just so its gets a wider audience and you can get more feedback than just those who follow your blog:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/forums/show/73.page

Cheers Paradigm, will have a look at it. Might be fun to see what the wider community can offer.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Have now posted in the Showcase area. Thanks again fr the link to the forum.

Yeah that's fancy . I especially like how seamlessly the base sockets in, but the painting overall is good and impressive.

Fantastic work Archer. Your brother will be absolutely stoked. You've done justice to the sculpt, and the final result is very impressive. The final piece and composition work really nicely. Great job!

Cheers guys. Appreciate the words. Will try to knuckle down and knock off the Silverhelms, but Horus is calling. Think I am leaning towards the black armour option not the traditional sons of Horus scheme.

Great stuff. You've captured the face detail very well.

Hi all,

Managed to be somewhat busy on the hobby front and here is some of the results.

First up a teaser of something to come, well ok, not much of a teaser its pretty obvious who it is........



And back on to the Army Plan (where in all honesty I have let the Primarch's really derail me). I have now finished 21 of the 36 models in this army. Damn, does that show how stupidly small this army is. Would love to get a game in with them to see if they are even remotely competitive.......


The horses are all mounted now by the Silverhelms.


I stuck with the super traditional Blue, White and Silver approach. although I kept the silver to a more grey look as to not be too shiny.


This lucky regiment has shields as points wise I just couldn't afford to put them on both units.


So here is the poor disposable, shieldless regiment, ready to try and survive the dangers of the world.


The riders actually came together faster than the horses. Probably because they are about a fifth the size......


I like the look of the white lances, really helps them stand out from the unit.


The massed ranks of the Silverhelm charge. Unfortunately from my experiences with the Knightly Order I did a while ago I fear they will prove unable to break big blocks of infantry without some serious luck and help.


But at the very least, they will look pretty good doing it.

So there you have 20 more High Elves to fill my army and I started to play with the Dragon Princes as well. All of these models have been rescues from eBay and the condition of a couple of Silverhelms were terrible and I didn't even try to rescue them, just straight in the bin. But I got them for a steal so wasn't too concerned. The Dragon Princes are in a lot better condition, but still need a bit of TLC before I throw paint at them.

Thanks for reading and hopefully I can get some momentum up leading into the festive season.

Nice wall of elven cavalry! In my own elven dabblings I couldn't get on with the Silver Helms at all paint-wise, those are very impressive! Looking forward to seeing the Dragon Princes as well, some of my favourite HE models!

Looking great Archer. I think you blew the primarch model out of the water. It really looks excellent. Especially the sword, as it honestly looks like the light is reflecting off of it in bands.

The Silverhelms are solid as well. They definitely look great as a unit. That was always one of my favorite parts of WHF, as the big blocks of models just look so intimidating facing off against each other. I'm looking forward to see your take on the dragon princes.

Good luck mate

Thanks guys. Found the Silverhelms pretty punishing to convince myself to finish. Not sure why. enjoyed painting the horses and then just hit a road block with the riders. But they are done now and am just finishing off the repairs to the reclaimed Dragon Princes.

Nice work on the elf horsedudes.

Great work, Archer!

Thanks Grimdork and good to see you around EyeamRai. With the Silverhelms complete I think that takes me to 346 models for the year.....may be close to see if I can hit 365, but we will see what happens.

19 models and I have 16 left in the high elves and of course Horus. So that means I will need to do two models in the next army on the block.

So as can be seen by my neglect of my blog all progress has been slowed to the point of non-existence. I am battling a bad flu again (seems this has been a worse year for my health than I usually expect). Plus I am grappling with what direction to go career wise which is causing a little angst. But I thought the best thing for me to do was to show of the limited progress I have managed to achieve since my last activity in a way to sort of give me a kick start and return to normal operation......so, here is what I have managed recently.


I have a table full of Dragon Princes. Half of them blue and the other half red. The grand plan is that I am having two dragons in this army (as previously mentioned) and therefore, one is going to be blue and the other red. So I figured I would paint the Dragon Princes to sort of show their "loyalty" to one or other Dragon, since High Elves are so political after all.......you can also see the base for Horus in its very early stages in the background of this photo too.


This is pretty much where I am up to on the horses. I decided that since they are elite cavalry all of the horses will be white under the armour. This will help distinguish them further from the Silverhelms whose horses are a mix of colours.


The only things left on the blue horses are the horse bodies themselves and the red gems and gold gem settings. The red Princes will have a similar yellowy fabric (although they will be more yellow and they will have bronze armour rather than iron for the scales. I am also thinking blue gems with a silver setting as an opposite to the blue ones.

And I couldn't leave this update without some progress on Horus. I have really enjoyed the few moments I have managed to spend painting him. I feel there are more defined "areas" on him than Roboute. But I have just not been able to get enough brush time with him yet.


Its a pity that there is so much detail on the back of his head, as once its fitted to his armour you will never see it again. So I thought I would take a couple of photos to remember the details that will never be seen. I struggled and struggled with the head, repainting it I think 4 times and the photos have done a great job of making him appear bug eyed. But I am trying to resist doing it again.........


Here is the wolf pelt pretty much done. May give the gums and teeth another highlight, but haven't quite decided yet. Its pretty basic. But I think it needs to be quite light to contrast to the mostly black armour. Yes I have decided to go with the black armour of the Forgeworld samples as that I think is what my brother would prefer. I hope.


The final update is the cloak. Again, the skulls and chain probably need another highlight. But I will look at that when I get a brush back in hand. I am pretty happy with the reds on the cloak and feel that this is the colour Roboute really needed instead of the white cloak. But not much to do about that now.

So I have not disappeared completely, just been struggling to get much done.

THanks for reading and still holding out hope I can get Horus finished for Christmas and the High Elves done by the end of the year.

Elves are looking good! Should be excellent when they're done! Get well.