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For last week's league games, I wanted to try out a 3x lascannon sentinel squad. I already had two, so I went to the game store and snagged a third. The new kit is kind of nice, with the pose-able legs.

Anyways, once I got it put together, I decided to spend some real time with the paint scheme. As many of you know, I'm an infantry commander, and I have a near criminal lack of vehicles for as many points of guard I own. Among many reasons for this is, in fact my paint scheme. Basically, it's my same brown and white, except applied to armor instead. It looks okay, but I've never been happy with it. As such, I decided that this sentinel would be a nice small model to try out a new vehicular paint scheme that perhaps I'll be able to apply to my other vehicles in the future.

I had several ideas that were thematic. For example, a brown, or a white, or a grey. The problem with brown, other than the fact that I don't have much of my particular color left, is that brown doesn't show details well AT ALL, and any detail work I do just tends to make it look busy really fast. The great thing about white is that it shows detail very well, and weathering, and I like the idea of whitewashed leman russes (makes me think of the great white fleet. The main problem, though, is that it would also look like a snow camo theme, which would be off-putting, and I don't know how much I actually want to have a bunch of big white blobby things on the table.

And then it struck me. My guardsmen have a camo scheme - the grey and dark yellow on their pants. Some of my more elite units like snipers, vets, and stormtroopers don't even have white at all, but are all this camo color for their uniforms. Perhaps I could go with this. The end result wouldn't be the dawn-of-20th-century thing I like, but it would do the more contemporary side of things that I also like out of cadian models.

I decided to go for it, painting the vehicle my off-brand fortress grey, then swatching it with tallarn yellow, and edging it with rotting flesh, just like my guardsmen's pants.

But I didn't just want to go for a good color scheme, I also wanted to do some proper painting. I feel like the past several years of guard painting for me has been assembly-line levels of automation, with a basic tabletop scheme, and no more. For this, I wanted to actually make it look nice. As such, one of the things I did was to finally go out and buy some washes. I'd never used them before, and there was way more trial and error than I thought there would be (as in, any at all). I was also surprised with how agrax (formerly devlin) doesn't actually make things darker, it just makes things browner. It took a second trip to the game store to get some nuln oil to get the shading I want.

Anyways, after the base coat, I experimented with washes a bit, and then did the detail. As everybody says, washes really does make models look good fast. Of course, it wasn't until I figured out that you need to wash and then highlight that things really came together. In any case, this whole thing was done with pretty minimal effort, and I'm really happy with it. It's been a long time since I've been proud of how I've painted a mini, but this is definitely one of those times. This model is totally going to be my submission for "best painted" at the upcoming tournament.

Also, because I spent time making a mini that looked nice, I decided to make a light box. Basically a cardboard box lined with bristolboard, with squares cut out of the top and side, and the holes covered with muslin. It didn't give me the exact results I wanted, but I'm sure if I tinker with it more, I'll get the pictures I want. In any case, they certainly look better than my usual under-lamp shots.



And here it is with some minis from the rest of my army:



Still fits the theme well enough, while also being a color scheme that seems really realistic, as in, I could imagine seeing real fighting vehicles with a scheme like this, at least in a museum somewhere.

Looking good, the Sentinel does stand out from the rest of your vehicles and units though.

For instance, your Basilisks and Manticores are painted mostly with dark red to match your infantry so if you wanted the schemes to match (which I think would look great!) you'd have to repaint the vehicles you have.

The quality of this Sentinel v.s. the rest of your army is certainly different, I think all Footguard players know how it feels to crank out lines of Guardsmen one after another.

I too could see these in a museum. One for a National History Museum in the far future, and one for Fantastic Warhammer Painting Museum.

Amazing camo-job.

And the detail on the drivers is amazing, too. You've taken the detail to one of the less looked at areas. I could see you doing comissions.

Like others have said the mini looks great but photo is really bright. I'm fairly sure my screen setting are fine. Looks like Ass(asins)Greed bloom to me.

Great job.....

Excellent work Ailaros... very effective and well executed camo scheme. Tooks terrific with the way you've done the base.

First class work.

The models look snappy, but the light is a little too harsh. If you haven't yet, use a filter over your lamps to soften the lights a little more. Failing that, download GIMP 2.0 (poor-man's Photoshop-like freeware) and play with the saturation, color levels, and contrast.

Nice, scheme. I'm really liking the earthy tones. Even though it might not have the red your other vehicles have, it makes sense that they blend into the terrain better since these things are meant to sneak around and outflank. Speaking of which, you've done a nice job of getting it to blend with your basing while not entirely losing the model in it despite the camo.

Really, really nice upgrade to the vehicle paint scheme of your army. I remember a previous thread where you were seeking opinions on your vehicle paint, and I thought what you had was fine, but this is great. Keeps with the army nicely.

Firstly, I've been reading your narrative battle reports for a while now and absolutely love them! You've got a wonderful way with words and really capture the battle well. I've always wanted a foot slogging guard army but never got around to it - you've let me live out that dream vicariously, through your battle reports! Thanks.

I think the sentinel looks great, very well painted. My only critique would be that, next to your other units, it doesn't completely look coherent. I notice the camo theme throughout the unit but that's almost washed out as grey (of course up close, it's probably far more appearant). I would have imagined the drivers helmet being that nice red/brown you do. I think that little tidbit (while excusing the fact it'd probably be a bullseye for enemy snipers) would help tie everything together. That, or the blue insignia panel in red/brown... Just my 2 cents though. Thanks, again, for sharing.