I'm sorry but boarding derelict Space Hulks is kinda dangerous and should be left to the true professionals... the Deathwing. Don't get me wrong, I like Blood Angels but Deathwing is where it's at.
With the release of Space Hulk, I decided I was going to sit down and actually paint up a true Deathwing force. Not for 40k mind you, for Space Hulk. These days, I'm more likely to get a game of Space Hulk in than a game of 40k.
I actually decided I was going to do this a long time ago and I started the work of figuring out just how I was going to do it. The biggest hurdle with this army is painting them. They aren't like most colors where it only takes a coat or two and you're good. White/Bone/Tan/Whatever is a killer. That's why you don't see many of those armies out there do you.
Just like everyone else, I cruise the blogsphere daily. Every now and then I hit something that really catches my interest.
The first one of these was this post by Tower of Heroes. It could easily be overlooked seeing as the picture is at the bottom of the post. These guys are painted great. As soon as I saw them, I asked how it was done. I love the look of these guys.
The second one or few were the collected Deathing posts by The Vanus Temple. I absolutely love the weathered look these guys have.
And the third one was the one that sealed the deal for me. On a whim, I decided to check out this post by Bushido in the 41st Millenium. Not that I like the Red Scorpions, but it's about a Librarian and I've been painting these guys like crazy lately. Talk about a really, really interesting technique in this one.
And that got me thinking about how to paint my Deathwing.
If you remember the first picture, I managed to swing by the local craft store and I picked up some plastic screen used for needlepoint or something. It makes the perfect space hulk "deck" with little to no work. And to top it off, it fits perfectly.
That problem solved, I glued my five man squad down and decided to give it a go with a couple volunteer test models.
I wanted to make sure I could get the color scheme down and I could do it quickly. I don't want to spend the next decade painting these guys, there are hulks that need to be cleared out.
And here he is, I wish the pics were better but this is all I have right now.
Here's how I did it...
The model is based coated with two colors.
Light grey for the armour
Dark grey for EVERYTHING else (including freehand work)
Give him a liberal wash of Devlan Mud
Then partially line highlight with all the actual colors
For example, Tan on the edges of the armour, gold on the trinkets, red on the lenses and purity seals, etc.
I used muted highlight colors and that combined with the washed greys gives him a look like he's just finished clearing space hulks for the last 72 hours straight.
And to top it all off, the Wife loves him. Says I should "build a whole army like this." Great idea Dear, I'll get right to it. And even better, this guy was a test model as well and he only took about 45 minutes to finish.
So the moral of the story is, always keep a look out for new things and when you find them, write them down or make sure to keep them somewhere that you can go back to them. If it weren't for those other Blogger's posts, I wouldn't have been able to do this model.
