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I have recently been giving my Deathwing and Ravenwing squads their well-deserved paint jobs after many months. I painted about 80% of them a year ago and they looked OK. Now i am much better and am continuing the painting at higher quality. I'd like any comments on what I have thus far, and as far as the 'old' deathwing models are concerned, any advice on how to do some easy touch-ups to make them fit better with the newly painted sergeant! Of course, I am also showing off the sgt of both my Ravenwing and Deathwing, as I have been working on them over the past few days. Enjoy and comments and tips are always welcome!

Ravenwing Sergeant




Here is his two-toned sword. I painted the whole sword black, then did one half a wash of DA green. Once dry, I put on another coat of 60/40 (or so) of DA green and Chaos Black. This gave a heraldic painted look to the sword. It's subtle, but it adds some flavor. I finished it up by running a line of chainmail around the edge to show the sharpness and make it look like the sword was glowing hot with energy. I hope you like it as much as I do (but then again simple things please me haha)


Now, onto the Deathwing!

Here's the 'old' models that need touch-ups. Any advice here is accepted



And here is the Sgt. I chose a darker skin color to represent the fact that Dark Angels recruit from all over the galaxy. Of course there would be some black guys in there. Plus I was sick of the standard 'bald screaming white guy' look. I do all the designs on the banner and on the chainfist freehand style. I like the human 'painted' element. Tell me what you think!


Chainfist! (before painting the banner)


Comments are appreciated! Thanks everyone!

-VardenV2

Looking pretty good to me, although paints seem to be a bit thick, although it may be just the picture.
The sergeant looks particulary good.
Take moar photoes of the entire army, eh'?

If I were you, I'd wash the deathwing terminators with devaln mud wash. The white on them doesn't really look right, and the wash will make your painting automagically look better

Agreed, a wash would do wonders. but be careful and use it sparingly. Devlan mud over pure white on all those flat surfaces is likely to leave blotchy patches of wash. Aim for all the creases and build up some sort contrast with the white. How did you do the robe on the sergeant? That might work on the terminators.

If I were you, I'd wash the deathwing terminators with devaln mud wash. The white on them doesn't really look right, and the wash will make your painting automagically look better

Do you mean to just use straight up devaln mud over the ENTIRE model or just apply a little bit to the areas where there are cracks etc? I tried to do this with some super thinned down black ink and then touch up areas with white. I'm not sure how to get the white to look clean enough and have highlights against the greyish creases. I prefer the white look as opposed to the bone/tan color that is usually used, but I will give the Devaln mud a try on an older model and see if I like it or not. Should i use it as is or add 50/50 water or what?

How did you do the robe on the sergeant? That might work on the terminators.

With the robe I did a a few layers of bleached bone until it made the entire robe a uniform color. Then I added about a 50/50 mix of the OLD chestnut ink that I had lying around (i looooooove the stuff). After it was dry, I made a mix of about 70/30 bleached bone and skull white which i drybrushed over the entirety of the robe with a particularly fluffy brush so that it looked very soft and not streaky and fibrous like so many other brushes I have tend to do. That got a pretty decent look. I just added more drybrush to areas I wanted lighter Seemed to work pretty dang good!

White is a hard color to use. Also, honestly you could stand to thin down your white by a lot. That way, it looks cleaner and the white looks better.

Do you go Fortress Grey > Skull White?

That's what I normally do for my guys. Or you could do Astronomican Grey (A foundation paint) >Fortress Grey > Skull White.

I feel like that would make them look even better. Nice work on them though. (Looking forward to taking out all of your newly painted models. )

Vladsimpaler wrote:White is a hard color to use. Also, honestly you could stand to thin down your white by a lot. That way, it looks cleaner and the white looks better.

Do you go Fortress Grey > Skull White?

That's what I normally do for my guys. Or you could do Astronomican Grey (A foundation paint) >Fortress Grey > Skull White.

I feel like that would make them look even better. Nice work on them though. (Looking forward to taking out all of your newly painted models. )

I actually basecoat them with a sort of Ivory color (not GW paint. HERESY! Not...) That way the white will go on easier. I do thin down the white a lot, it just sometimes is difficult to get the totally correct consistency. Sometimes it runs so much it becomes and ik and has the exact opposite effect even :/ If an area looks too bumpy etc, I will put a few really thin white washes over the problem area to try and smooth it out. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. I'll keep giving it a few coats of super thin white until it gets nice and smooth.

AS for the grey, I tried that, but the white never seemed to appear WHITE it always looks off-white because of the grey (maybe because my white was too thin, not enough coats etc etc) but it just didn't work quite right. Maybe If i based them black or SW grey then painted on some grey all over and then added the white to the highlighted areas? I'll figure it out. for the future (drop pods, more dreads etc).

As for now, I have gotten a cool idea from B&C as well as here. Either do the Devaln Mud was to get a more 'dirt' bone color OR mix hawk turqoise with black ink and add a butt ton of water to make a super duper thin greyish wash. Then add that to the creases and then go over it with white. I'll try em both out on a test model and see what I like best.

-VardenV2

OK, a quick update on how the touch-ups are going.

After I did a bit of experimentation, I decided to go with a 50/50 wash of Devlan mud and water. I covered the entire model with it, but made sure to get extra amounts in the cracks. It barely changes the color of the white and actually makes the armor look a lot smoother color. There are of course some blotchy spots on the flat surfaces which I tried to avoid by soaking up some of the excess wash with a dry fluffy brush. It worked out ok. The better painted models look a LOT better and the ok ones still look ok. I will have to do some drybrushing on the helmets and hands etc, and add some nice long smooth coats of paint to the flat areas (shin pads, knee caps, shoulders, chest) in order to pull even more out of the contrast. If this still doesn't work, I might do the process again and focus even more wash in the creases.

I'll post pictures tomorrow when I have some better quality light.

-VardenV2

OK! Here's the update with LOTS of photos. I need to go and drybrush and add white touch-ups to all the terminators, and add greyish highlights to all the bikes and the Dreadnought. Comments on how the devlan mud wash turned out are appreciated. I think it did add a good amount of detail. and that will only improve after the white is added

First off, here's soem pictures of the "good" parts of my army in it's entirety. I have another unpainted attack bike w/multi-melta as well as a whole six man ravenwing squad (3.5 edition) with a flamer. Unfortunately Sammael has broken for the FOURTH time yesterday and he looks like garbage becaus eof all the touch-ups and repairs I have had to do to him... ugh. As of now, the only high-quality squads I have are my deathwing terminators, Ravenwing Bikers, attack bike, land speeder, Chaplain, and Dreadnought. The other stuff is old and mediocre. Oh well!

I have a LOT of light on these guys and kind of a crappy camera so bear with me here :/

Most of my army




Here's the Ravenwing (need highlights)



Land Speeder (older photos)


Sammael


Chaplain


Forge World Chaplain Dreadnought (Venerable Dreadnought w/plasma cannon)


Deathwing Squads






SGT