More progress on the Blood Angels

   In a previous post, we started my brother's Blood Angles combat patrol with the basing and basecoating steps.  This week, we focused on layering and highlighting.  

  The first step is to layer a brighter red on top of the Mephiston Red we used last time.  In this case, we used Evil Sunz Scarlet and applied a couple of this coats over the basecoat, being very keen on leaving the recesses and bottom areas alone.  This allowed a kind of blend to really make the red 'pop' and start to show some of that detail.  

 The next step is the ever-dreaded 'line highlighting'- the key to painting space marines of all colours for generations now.  It's simple, yet so difficult when you're just getting into the painting aspect.  My brother believes he struggled mightily- and he did, but understanding how to use the tip of the brush versus the edge of the brush and how to lay down the right consistency of paint, all, takes practice.  He sat there and watched me churn the example model out and propositioned me to paint the army.  Oh no, I learned a thing or two in Sunday School...

  With the concept of 'focus' in mind, we stopped there.  Unfortunately, my painting OCD got to me and chose to baseboat the black bits, and yellow on the helmet.  Since yellow is difficult to paint, we had to put down a few layers to make it solid and smooth.  Again- "water is your friend", especially for light colours like this.  

  After the multiple coats of Yriel Yellow dried, we lined-in some Seraphim Sepia into the recesses and eyes.  Not wanting to be too garish with the helmets (easy to get carried away when you have the yellow working with you on those rare occasions), we then line-highlighted the edges of all the helmet plates with Flash Gitz Yellow.  

 Of course, once the helmet is done, the marine needed eyes as well!  Instead of trying to teach the 'gemming' technique for the eye lenses, I pulled out the old technical paint for simplicity and effectiveness.  Very easily, we watered down the Waystone Green and painted it into the eyes.  There was definitely some spillover, but a bit of touch-up can easily fix all the mistakes.  And that comes later.  

  Now we stopped.  The models actually looked like Blood Angel Assault Intercessors.  Now we have to paint the weapons and the details, with some focus on drybrushing and repetition on the wash-and-highlight steps.  But that can wait for next session and I really just wanted to see some of my old boyz-in-red on the table again.  Plus, my brother can see the results of his work already- great work for a noob!

Happy Hobbying!