Since I’m unhappy with Elon’s acquisition of Tweeter (on account of him being a massive scum sucking corporate douche) I decided to try out this new internet thingy the kids are calling “blogging” or whatever.
Let’s talk Imperial Guard. I realized while fussing with Gdubs list builder app that my command squad needed a banner dude. Since my guard are a mix of guys sculpted from the early 80’s up to the present I wanted their standard bearer to represent all of them. Time to bust out the bits box, hobby knife, and super glue.
The body is from the Rogue Trader plastic imperial guard kit released, I believe, in 1987. The plastic is a bit worse for the wear but most of the detail is still there. His wicked cool gas mask head is from the new Cadian upgrade sprue GW just released. I also thought it would be a good idea to give him one beefy arm (Strongbad reference) with chainsword which I got from the new Necromunda Underhive Outcasts. The less beefy of his arms, the one holding the banner pole is from Northstar Miniature’s Oathmark Humans box (heresy I know, and I’m not even sorry). I also glued him on a tactical rock made from cork because he’s a short little dude and I wanted him to feel better about himself. Since I had the bits box out I also found enough parts to assemble a comms guy for my Adeptus Arbites squad. He’s for painting another day though.
Enjoy this picture of the old plastic guard box I shamelessly stole from google image search.
Next I brush on a base coat of Vallejo Model Air: US Dark Green. I use airbrush paints whenever I can, even when I’m not airbrushing. They just go on so much smoother. You could also use Citadel: Castalan Green for this step, the color is similar but like most Citadel paints it has the consistency of cottage cheese, no thanks.
Next I heavily dry brush the model using a cheap makeup brush from CVS and a mixture of Vallejo Model Air Insignia White and Citadel Elysian Green. This I do really quickly and not carefully at all. Most of the highlights I will immediately destroy by slathering on a heavy glaze of Liquitex Sap Green ink so there’s no reason to take to much time on this. He looks ridiculous now, like a plastic army man from the toy store, but trust the process, always trust the process. It’s so easy to get discouraged while painting in layers like this, I have to constantly remind myself that I have a plan, and it will all come together in the end (most likely).
Next I begin picking out some details in basic colors. I try to be as neat as possible here, giving myself a good base to work from. I use Citadel Cadian Fleshtone for his one beefy arm. I hate this paint because like the Castalan Green it also has that cottage cheese thing going on. I cut it with some (okay, a lot of) contrast medium and water and that seems to calm it down. Yellows go on with Citadel Air Averland Sunset. This is a much nicer, more well behaved paint. Thanks Gdubs.
I wash the whole model with a 60/40 mix of Citadel Contrast Medium and Citadel Guillamen Flesh Tone. This adds some easy shades, and also tones down the plastic army man green to a nice olive drab. once that dries I apply some very chunky edge highlights of Citadel Elysian Green. Good edge highlighting isn’t nearly as difficult as people would have you believe. I water down the paint a lot to get it flowing nicely, use a very thin sable brush. Using just a dab of paint for each line I slowly drag the point of the brush along the edges. It takes forever but I put on a good podcast and it’s no stress painting fun.
Next I add some thinner edge highlights. Citadel Air: Ogryn Camo on the cloth, Citadel Dorn Yellow on the corners of the armor. I also get over ambitious and paint some wood grain on the banner pole. Next I glaze the leathers with a few different inks, so the different leather bits have slight variations in color. Why do I do this? I can’t answer that. No one will ever notice but me. I also remember I have this waterslide decal. It fits perfectly on his badge. I decided the “C” must be for command squad. Perfect. I paint his visor three different kinds of blues with little dot of white ink (for the sparkles)! I Also clumsily sculpt a flag from expensive green play-doh. It looks terrible. I will do this differently next time.
So there it is, my command squad is at least 50% more rad now. I’m going to keep posting hobby stuff here since Twitter is getting so weird. It’s fun being able to write more than 280 characters. I hope reading them is also fun.