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So I finally decided on painting my dark angels from the DV set as the Angels of absolution. Wanted a a nice contrasting colour set to the black templars or my DIY chapter and liked the idea that no one knows what their great victory was. My next problem though is how to paint them

Does anyone know how to get a good bone coloured armour. I was just thinking a brown, bleached bone over it leaving the recesses brown and then highlighting with skull white? I have no idea how to go about this properly. Also they have green robes, so I was thinking painting the robes the same way as how GW paints the dark angels armour. Reckon this would be a good idea?

Has anyone actually done any Angels of Absolution, it would be awesome to see some. Help me Dakka, you're my only hope.

Well, currently I'm undercoating my Deathwing with Tamiya Linoleum Deck Brown spray, then heavily wetbrushing with Bleached Bone (whatever it's called now, I have an old bottle), then mixing 1:1 Skull White:Bleached Bone for a thick highlight and then a thin highlight with Skull White.

This gives me the following in about 20 minutes:


More advanced painters usually go with washes over Bleached Bone followed by highlighting from what I've seen. Heck, Armypainter.com has a nice Bone spray primer followed by a Strong tone dipping that produces good results from what I've seen.

That looks sweet man thanks a lot for the pics and guide, I am a complete noob when it comes to non GW paints so thanks for giving me the name of the brown paint.

 unmercifulconker wrote:
That looks sweet man thanks a lot for the pics and guide, I am a complete noob when it comes to non GW paints so thanks for giving me the name of the brown paint.

You're welcome. Also, something that's vital with Deathwing from everything I've read and experienced with my first few models:

Make sure that bone layer is smooth and covers completely. Leave the brown in the crevasses and not poking through the bone color otherwise it looks awful. I made sure to add a second coat of it.

Hehe yeah I hate seeing patchy whites, although I need plenty more practice, my whites used to look rather 'lumpy' or uneven.

Just look up some tutorials on painting deathwing. I'm sure you'll find tons of options. The Vanus Temple guy's deathwing I've always been a fan of, but you don't sound like you like the streaky look.

If you have access to an iPad, the Dark Vengeance painting guide is excellent. from memory the deathwing bone is Ushabti bone, seraphim sepia, ushabti, screaming skull highlights, something like that.

Yeah was thinking they would just look a lot like the deathwing but even them and im not 100% how to do them properly.

How could I forget the DV painting guide thanks will look into this aswell, especially since the seargent has a green robe too.

Thanks all.

I won't be able to post a photo until I get home but what I do is this, I used to do it with old colours but here are the new names:

White Basecoat
Very Heavy Seraphim Sepia Wash
Ushabti Bone (minding the reccesses)
Seraphim Sepia Wash again
Very light drybrush of white or screaming skull.

Comes out pretty well I think but I aimed to make mines look a little darker as I found the pale bone made it just look like I'd sprayed them

I have been playing Angels of Absolution for a bit...

I do a 4 color airbrush blend from an earth brown to Vallejo's Bonewhite. The 4th color is a Pale Sand for certain highlights. The basecoat looks almost good enough without any additions, but I add small white highlights and either line the recesses with the same earth brown or do a dark wash if it's less accessible. The backpacks and weapons are black (obviously) but instead of plain grey highlights I used a blue. It looks great and adds a little extra color to the models.

The only downside to this is that there aren't easily accessible AoA decals. I use the DA sword/Wings instead because I think they look sweet, but I have to freehand them all since there also aren't any green decals.

Good luck, and welcome to the Angels of Absolution!

I found working with and finding decals bothersome also, so I used the normal DA shoulderpads also as it seemed like the best thing to do, but I have freehanded the symbol onto my tanks and some sergeants just to show some respect.

Thanks Rysaer although im not too awesome with drybrushing as a layer, would you just drybrush the white over the model until its fully covered?
Hehe yeah I am gunna leave the symbols from the DV pads and just freehand the symbol on any space, used to sketching stuff onto the models now so shouldnt be too hard


Just had a look at your Angels of Absolution objective marker Millicant and gotta say it looks awesome love how airbrushes make models look but I have yet to get one.

Bit off topic to the painting question, the Lexicanum page states the chapter is very very similar to their father chapter, do you reckon they would still have black ravenwing and well bone white deathwing? Or would they probably just keep the ravenwing and deathwing as their own scheme?

I questioned this also when I started AoA and I decided that I would paint my Deathwing as deathwing as it's close enough to the AoA scheme anyways, but my Ravenwing are the same bone as my other models.

I did this to make them a bit more involved in my AoA, plus I felt the black would be too big a contrast, although it could look really good if done right, (my blacks are always flat/dull). The main reason I did this however is simply as it stands I don't use too many bikes. With the new book if bikes become as awesome as I hear I'll be redoing my ravenwing in black for that cool contrast.

On the matter of drybrushing, I don't do the whole model, I only do raised edges, like above the knees, around shoulder pads and on helmets, the rest is either robed or left with the bone.

When I get home tonight, I'll try to remember to get some pictures up, I'd have done it sooner but working is dogging me a lot lately.

If you have any other questions feel free to throw them in or PM me, I've been playing AoA for 4-5 years, I'm by no means an expert in any matter of anything but I'm always happy to help out

If you want another method that's really easy you can try this:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/413788.page

Results:

That looks pretty awesome, and is a fair bit higher than my painting quality, maybe thats the way to go

Ah ha thanks guys for the drybrushing tip, that does seem to be what I am looking for and seems easy enough.

I dunno, think I might do the Ravenwing in black still or maybe do a mix not sure yet

Edit: Shouldnt say easy as nothing that looks like that is an easy job

Dark Angel Terminators were originally Black, and so the successor chapters would probably also be black if they were to follow the founders ways.
The Dark Angels ones painted their black armour white as some sort of respect to ancestral traditions when a group of Terminators had to cleanse one of their recruitment worlds of a genestealer infestation. It was a story in the Deathwing expansion for the old Space Hulk I believe... failing to still have a copy I cant check what I have said, So if anyone else can dig out their book and tell us how/why they changed it from black to white that would be ace!

Although, saying that...my own Dark Angels successor's have Purple with Yellow trim and gun casings in place of the usual green, Bone terminators, black bikes with purple riders, same with speeders... I pretty much painted them how i wanted to rather than following the fluff even though I know they probably 'should' be black terminators, and bikers with my colours for everything else.

Just paint them how you want them too look that way you will be happier with them!

Oh duh yes how could I forget they changed the Deathwing to white I believe it is in the codex, aint read it in ages but I do remember reading the story that they changed the colour to honour the fallen IIRC it was they painted themselves white to free slaves or signify their freedom, really cant remember.