Tuesday, June 23, 2015

INQ28: Painting Beltran Destrieux

We are all but a weapon in the right hand of the Emperor.

The release of the Skitarii Rangers was an exciting time for the Inq28 community, giving a wealth of excellent conversion opportunities (and finally some plastic Adeptus Mechanicus models!). They where also the perfect models to base Lucanus Molnár’s first companion, Beltran Destrieux, a soldier in one of Stygies VIII Explorator Fleets. Having finished all the conversion work on the model, the next step was to devise a color scheme and then get to painting him. The backstory that Eric and I created proved a good place to start. Thankfully we were able to find Stygies VIII color scheme in the Skitarii codex. Unsurprisingly, it had a major emphasis on red (Hail Mars!), with all of the armor being a deep crimson. Unlike the other Forge Worlds, it also had a large amount of black, with all their coats and robes sable.

Color scheme from Forge World Stygies VIII

Now that Beltran is painted, I must say that the model was much trickier to paint than I initially anticipated. The Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard are very detailed models with a huge amount of depth and hard to reach places when it comes to painting. To partly surmount this problem, I painted the inside of Beltran’s coat and legs separately before gluing the two pieces together. This is all but essential if you want to paint the inside of a Skitarii’s coat a different color than the outside. Also, it would have been much easier to have painted his backpack separately and then glued it on the model (but everything still turned out ok in the end).

I decided to spend a little extra time painting Beltran’s modified rifle, painting the stock to look like it was made out of wood. For the silver on the rifle (and the rest of the model) I used SCALE75’s line of metallic paints. I was very impressed with their metallics, particularly the vast range of silver colors they offer (all of which are airbrush ready). They have darker silvers than GW’s well-loved Boltgun metal and lighter than their Mithril silver (Black Metal and White Alchemy, respectively)!

While Beltran’s color scheme is similar to the Skitarii of Forge World Stygies VIII, there are a few modifications to signal he is an outsider. 

One of the aspects of the model’s color scheme that worried me was the black trench coat. Black is a notoriously difficult color to paint because it can easily end up looking grey if you go overboard with applying highlights. For this model in particular, there are very few seams and creases in the coat (which would be obvious points for highlighting). I opted to keep the grey highlights very subtle on the model, keeping only to the creases and outer edges of the coat. Overall, I am reasonably happy with how it turned out. I am considering doing some free-hand work on his jacket to break up some of the black and make it a little more interesting. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Currently I am leaning towards painting the crest of the Stygies VIII forge world at the front corner of his jacket (and maybe an Inquisitor =I= at the other corner).

To make his rifle look more like it was a masterfully crafted weapon, I decided to paint it to have wooden furniture.

With Beltran complete, Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár’s  retinue slowly grows in size! Next in my painting queue will probably be another member of Molnár’s retinue, Guardsman Arkan Vell. Outside of painting, I want to start considering conversion ideas for new members of Molnár’s retinue, possibly some outlandish constructions that could only come from the warped minds of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

- Adam Wier

16 comments:

  1. That is one fine model. The conversion work is exceptional and the paintjob and colour scheme is spot on. Well done, sir!

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    1. Thank you for the kind words! I think the color scheme turned out well. :)

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  2. I think the crests would look really nice. maybe with a simple thin line around the bottom edge, kind of mimicking the AdMechs gear tooth, but clearly less then an ordained tech priest. maybe gold? IDK I just like black and gold, very gothic.

    And I've been looking for a real dark metal, I'll give SCALE75 a try.

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    1. Thanks for all of the thoughts and suggestions about painting the crests on Beltran's coat. I simple thin line trimming the coat could work pretty well. In terms of the color, I lean towards either white or gold.

      Certainly look into SCALE75 for their metallic paints. They are really nice. Vallejo also makes a really nice dark metallic called Black Metal that you could look into as well.

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  3. He's looking excellent! While the colour scheme doesn't look quite convincing in the illustration, it ends up working beautifully on the actual model! I particularly like the red armour plates (which also recall Molnar's armour). Excellent work! :)

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    1. Thanks for the support! I was a little questionable about the color scheme initially too. I think my reservations were primarily focused around the exceedingly bright red in the scheme. I think the darker red tones I used on Beltran's armor look much nicer and fit the grim dark of 40k better. :)

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  4. Great paint job, and the more serious I get about painting, the more I start to think that I should paint the damn things before I assemble them... which of course has its own problems.

    And Outlandish Constructions! Sounds fascinating.

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    1. Leaving models partially unassembled can certainly make your life much easier when when painting. I have always been a little reluctant to do so because you can screw up your paint job something fierce if you apply too much glue. Ha ha

      Also, I am glad you are excited to see the coming members of Molnár’s retinue!

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  5. I'm so happy you're continuing to paint Adam as it really brings those excellent builds to life :)

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    1. Thanks for the vote of confidence! It is good to be painting again.

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  6. One more time a beautiful figurine, a beautiful conversion and a beautiful paint! Really a lot of talent!

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    1. Thanks for the kind words! I need to finish painting the emblems on him now!

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  7. I really love your conversion work. This model just oozes character. He reminds me of a fellow on safari, with that kinda of gumption with getting the foe he's hunting. Great work!

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    1. Thanks! I am glad you like the conversion. He really does have a big game hunter look to him. :)

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  8. Hey there! Incredible work on the model. I wanted to ask, what colors did you use to achieve the color on the pants? I am starting to paint Skitarii with the Stygies color scheme and am wondering about the combination you used. My initial thought was to maybe try The Fang as a basecoat color. Now i'm thinking more Eshin Grey with a blue wash over it. Yours looks exactly what I'm trying to go for, however. Thank you in advance!

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    1. I am glad you like the model and the painting! The Stygies color scheme is a great one.

      For this model the base color I used was Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey (994). I then did a series of highlights to the grey mixing in more and more Citadel Fenrisian Grey. Finally, I did some small highlights with straight Fenrisian grey. I did not use any washes, but they could work I think. Hopefully this helps!

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