Be'lakor, the Dark Master

Last month, I started painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master and I also posted an update about it. Well, it is finished now and I can proudly say that this is one of the best paintjobs that I've done recently. During the past few months, I have managed to paint a lot more models than I thought possible and I am very happy because of that. In the span of 5 weeks, I've painted Be'lakor, Yndrasta and almost finished my Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis. I still work in smaller batches (from 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on time available) and I try to keep it consistent as much as possible. The results are definitely showing - and I think I will be able to finish quite a few miniatures by the end of the year.

As for Be'lakor, I really like the model and paintjob itself was fun and very enjoyable - especially because I was able to paint most of the model using drybrushing (my favorite technique). The colour scheme I chose is a bit different from the original one - as I mentioned in the previous update, I think that the original scheme is too dark and you have a hard time trying to visually separate the different parts of the model. In the same time, I tried not to go to another extreme and make model too bright, because Be'lakor is, after all, the Dark Master (so I tried to keep it "dark", but not too dark). Below are the pictures of the fully painted model.

And besides looking great, Be'lakor can be included in several of my Warhammer 40K armies, so I look forward to fielding it (I really want to try Disciples of Be'lakor list). Unfortunately, seems like the most interesting list that I wanted to try in Age of Sigmar - Legion of the First Prince - will be completely changed in the new battletome, so I won't be able to run demonic legion in AoS once the new book is released. Ah well, Be'lakor will now have to hang out with my Chaos Warriors, Knights and Varanguard (and that should be a pretty good company after all :D )

Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear

In one of my previous posts, I mentioned taking a break when working on a particularly complex paintjob and painting something completely different during that break. This was an advice on miniature painting that have read somewhere long time ago - but started using it only recently. Now I wish I've done that earlier!

In the past, I've struggled a lot with some of the models that I've painted, because certain phases of the process were either very complex and demanding or easy but time-consuming (and usually, utterly boring). Also, there were situations when I had time to paint, but I simply did not feel like it. In all of these situations, I usually pushed myself to continue working on the model - but, on multiple occasions, that led to the results that I was not happy with. And it's really bad f you take a look at the model later, knowing that you half-assed it. It's normal to burn out a bit when you work on something demanding for a longer periods of time, but forcing yourself is really not the solution. What I should have done was taking a break. And during that break, you either do something else and leave painting aside, or (if you still want to paint) you work on a different model. There is a good chance that you will feel refreshed and motivated when you return to the model that you were originally working on.   

And that is exactly what I did when I decided to make a break from painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master.

As I have mentioned in my previous post, I really enjoyed working on Be'lakor. I have also painted most of the model very quickly (which motivated me a lot), but when I needed to paint his wings, I had to stop and think on what exactly I wanted to do with them. And because I liked the model a lot, I did not want to hurry. And so - I made a break.

During this break, I did a bit of research on how to paint demonic wings (by looking at a lot of pictures of not only Be'lakor, but other similar models as well) and I kept momentum when it comes to painting by working on Yndrasta, the Celestial Spear. I knew from the start how I wanted to paint Yndrasta and I also knew that I could finish the model fairly quickly. The whole paintjob took 6 - 8 hours (done as multiple smaller sessions over the course of the week) and I was very satisfied with the result. In the same time, working on something entirely different kept the painting (as an activity) fresh and fun. It is important to note that, if you want to do something similar, this "plan B" should be a less complex/smaller model - it may not be a good idea to switch from working on one complex model to another. I would aim for something smaller in scope, that would shake the things up and give you an opportunity to actually finish something. The worst possible scenario is to start working on two difficult models - and give up on both of them out of frustration.

 

So, here's how my Yndrasta looks like:

And since I have figured out how I want Be'lakor's wings to look like - I can't wait to finish the model now!

Painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master - WIP update

Two weeks ago, I started painting Be'lakor, the Dark Master. I really like this model - not only because it looks great, but also because it can fit in multiple armies I play for both Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K. However, I think that the paint scheme on the box cover is not the best one, so I decided to paint it in a bit different way. My main complaints regarding the box cover paint scheme are lack of contrast and the model being too dark. In my opinion, certain parts of the model could be much more emphasized (base, sword and parts of the armour, for example) but instead, they are not easily distinguishable from everything else. Wings are particularly problematic, because they are a large surface with not much going on (except for the chains). So, with that in mind, I started working on the model. It's still far from finished, but I am really satisfied with the progress so far. Here are some pictures:

I tried to address all of the mentioned issues. I opted to use gold for the armour and the anklets/bracelets - because I think it works much better and it was also used on the old Be'lakor model. From the very beginning, I knew that I wanted to paint the sword in very bright colours (and match it with the eyes) so I opted for this "green warpflame" effect that I used on my Lord of Change. When it comes to wings, my plan is to paint the membrane in some lighter colour and then add shading and maybe spots (similar to ones that the reptiles have on their skin). 

So far, I have really enjoyed working on this model and I can't wait to have it fully painted and put on the table. Of course, I'll post some pictures here as soon as it's finished :)

Painting Stormcast Eternals Annihlators

Recently I painted two units of Annihilators for my small Stormcast Eternals army. I wanted to take a break from working on Kairos Fateweaver and I was also pretty confident that after painting Adeptus Custodes, I was able to quickly paint gold armour. 

I really like the Annihilators - actually, I like a lot of the new Stormcast models that were released when the Age of Sigmar 3rd edition came out. However, the Annihilators with shields and Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis really stand out. Initially, I bought a unit of annihilators because I wanted to use them as allies for my Sylvaneth or Idoneth, but I ended up building a 1000-points Knights Excelsior force (because I like the idea of all-paladin army). Below you can see the picture of one of the units I painted.

I wanted to keep the paint scheme simple and effective, and use the shields as the main contrasting part of the miniature. The general process is described below: 

• Miniatures were primed with GW Retributor Gold
• Armour was washed with GW Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur
• Armour was drybrushed with GW Retributor Gold
  
• Armour was drybrushed with Vallejo Game Color Polished Gold
• Armour was highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
  
• Chainmail was painted with Vallejo Game Color Silver and washed with GW Nuln Oil
• Hammers were painted with Vallejo Game Color Gunmetal, washed with GW Nuln Oil and then highlighted with Vallejo Game Color Silver
• Shields were painted with Stormvermin Fur and washed with several layers of Nuln Oil
• Central part of each shield was painted with GW Moot Green, washed with GW Contrast Warp Lightning and highlighted again with Moot Green. 
• Belts and leather straps were painted with Vallejo Game Color Leather Brown and highlighted with GW Cadian Fleshtone

With this colour scheme, I was able to work very quickly: in total, I spent about 2 hours on each model, including basing. 

Painting Warsong Revenant

During the past two months, I had a lot more time for painting than usual. However, since there was a lot of models/units that I wanted to paint, I decided to try a different approach - so I started working on multiple things at once. In the past, I usually focused on one thing at the time, but in some cases it wasn't a good approach, because sometimes you need an alternate project (or two) to break down the monotony a bit if you get "stuck" (or burned out) working on a particularly challenging model. Turns out that this was the right choice - and all of the models I'm currently working on are either finished or progressing nicely! 

Here are some pictures of my Warsong Revenant - it was one of the models that was painted using this approach. I really enjoyed working on this model and it was done fairly quickly because I use my standard Sylvaneth coulour scheme. It's a great looking model and I can't wait to try it out once the new Sylvaneth battletome comes out. 

And here's the picture of a fully finished model: