Community Black Templars Army! :D

11/1/2011

Hello there! Today, I present you with the army painted by Lucion for Implausible Nature and the Black Templars community. Lucion and I value the community we've helped to build, so he felt it was a good way to give back to everyone that has contributed! I agree! He even went as far as to name the characters in the army after several of the Black Templars players in the community!

Definitely some serious skill here and a pleasure to show off to you all. As you will notice, the paint job is exquisite. Maybe someday I'll be able to paint as well. It looks like it was a lot of fun to convert and paint up! Enjoy the army everyone! :)

11 Comments

Lucion

11/1/2011 09:20:28 am

Thanks for posting Laeroth. Since you mentioned it was the Implausible natures birthday I wanted to make an army which featured contributors names to the online BT community.

I aimed to name every character which had something to write on - except the champion and the neophytes.

Its been very inspiring to read people over the years, so here was an opportunity to create something to mark the date.

Paint Tip #1:

Heres a quote relevant to painting by Sun Tzu.

Therefore, a victorious army first obtains conditions for victory, then seeks to do battle. A defeated army first seeks to do battle, then obtains conditions for victory.
Thus test and experiment on important colours before you go into mass production. Aim to get the colour of effect right on one or two test models or something small like a spare back pack. Even if it takes you a couple of days - its a better investment than going all in and becoming frustrated half way through.
The most frustrating part of painting the Templars was the robes. It took me 2 days to work out one formula that I was happy with, that would change the way I did it in the future.

Example: The white cloaks.

First attempt: I painted one cloak astronomican grey (or deneb stone on another), the next highlight was simply a tiny bit of that base colour with the majority of white, like a 10% compared to 90% mix. It provided some contrast and was very nice, but not what I was looking for.

Second attempt: I tried copying games Workshop which has like 4 LAYERS beginning with brown. I quickly became frustrated at how much time it was taking, with very little in the sense of advantage due to how long it took.

Third attempt: This one was great. Very simply I went khemri brown to begin with for the that brownish colour. I then painted astromonican over it. The two foundations meant I didn’t need to layer , layer and layer. People only have so long to paint but I think most people are ok with 2 layers.

Fourth Attempt: I began with astronomican grey as the base colour. I then went up to white again. I put sepia in the recesses’s. It looked terrible and messy. I went to put white again to clean up the high light – however, decided to try adding some flow improver from the master reaper series. That cracked the code because it made the paint extremely smooth, quick to apply, and carried the benefits of the foundation (cover in a single coat) and the white highlight.

So MOST IMPORTANTLY is practice that attitude that creates a sense of “this could go wrong.. and I am OK with that.. ”-because people need to take a step to the left in order to find the right formula.

Trignama

11/1/2011 01:17:16 pm

Good lookin army you got there Lucion, I like how you displayed them as a video too, gives the whole army viewing a more in depth feel I guess is how you would put it.

Lucion

11/2/2011 01:11:46 am

Thanks Trig. That little webcam is really good and gives a different sense than still pictures.

On Black armour:

I wanted to talk about some alternative ways to paint black. Below I will go into the way I used for the models above. There is also a step formula which shows how you can paint a model by REMOVING paint.

The GW technique in the book is rather drawn out. 3 layers of highlights is unneccesary and time consuming.

At the same time grey looks nice on the faces. I pretty much used a teeny codex grey line followed by a fine line of fortress grey on the heads. These heads were painted separately and its much easier to do so for the eyes too.

On everything else on the armour - simply chain mail was used. The chain mail is enough for a highlight, its a silvery grey and gives the feeling of wear and tear.

I do not high light everything, just the upper knees, a little bit of the feet, and the back of the legs. Also a little of the upper torso. Not every single line. Just interesting shapes which catch the eye.

For the tanks I used a military modelling technique. The hair spray technique. This is easier than it looks. Best to test on a scrap model.

1.
I sprayed the tank mithril silver + tamiya thinner - about 90% silver/10% thinner mix.
I then sprayed it with gloss - about 14 inches away (winsor and newton high gloss varnish - green spray can).

This provides a glossed mithril layer which is very durable. This is used as a tool, we do not want to finish with that kind of surface!

2. I then sprayed hair spray softly on the tank at about 14 inches away. *practice on a scrap model following the steps above fist!*

3. The hair spray is left to dry for around an hour.

4. Black was sprayed over the model.

5. Now the fun and easy part. Instead of painting each line on the highlights, which is incredibly time consuming, and unrealistic -

I used a knife in hot water to scrape of the black on some edges.
I then used a brush or other tools to bash/scrape against certain edges. It depends what effect your trying to create.

The heat of the water will break through the black, meaning the gloss/protected silver will show through.

After getting that damaged and random look I added highlights on certain sharp lines - noticeable ones like tank lights, and long edges - but not every single line, it is not necessary.

carcharodon carcarias

11/2/2011 01:55:30 am

Inspiring, and inspired. Great work Lucion, I'll be breaking out the paints and the army tonight!

Algesan link

11/3/2011 02:22:34 am

I use non-GW paints, but for the next time you are fiddling around, try out a metallic white. I base coat in black, then with a layer of metallic white, I get a great gunmetal type finish on weapons. I also use it as a thin layer on anything white to give it an extra bit of shine.

Lucion

11/4/2011 10:16:10 am

Thanks for sharing Algesan. Which paints do you use?

Great stuff, silver is a nice finish on armour.

As for Red, dont go scab red>red gore>blood red>blazing orange

Go something like - Iyaden darksun (the yellow foundation paint)

2 drops or brush worth.
5 drops blood red
2 drops warlock purple

Then you get a vibrant red that goes on in ONE go.

You can repeat that for any colour, get a mix
1. of a foundation colour supporting it
2. the colour you like (For red, dont use mechrite red, its a bit dark, go yellow - this will make it more vibrant
3. Something vibrant like Magnetic, cyan or blue (printers use this)

The idea is to paint as LITTLE as possible - but get maximum effect. Then you save time if you only paint once per model, and not 4 layers per red or white..

All mixes done in that way will work in an airbrush with some acrylic thinner. Tamiya is ok.

Yes foundation paint + any colour in an airbrush will go WELL.

same for white

You can go

Astronomican 10-15% - and the rest skull white.

Best to spray white though or finish it with master series flow improver - makes its dead smooth.

Black armour: everything except the faces mithril silver. Then faces are codex/fortress.

As for brushes I recommend the winsor and newton miniature 7 series

http://www.winsornewton.com/products/brushes/for-water-colour--gouache/series-7-kolinsky-sable/series-7-miniatures-short-handle/

size 0-2 is enough.

These brushes have very small end bits, so their easy to work with.

If I was to use the GW brushes for the details I would struggle.

Gw brushes are good for mixing paint, and they have a good large dry brush which you can use with powders.

As for hobby - I will help Laeroth get up a hobby section for us to create a Black Templar dedicated hobby section.

Lucion

11/5/2011 01:51:02 am

An extract of inspirational text.

Sonshi.com - Sonshi daily quote subscription

-----------------------------------

How can you be so sure you will succeed just by asking yourself these
questions? First, the process of stepping back and analyzing both sides
will give you another perspective you otherwise would not have if you
didn't take the time. You will see beyond yourself.

Second, you know before you do. Instead of finding out where you are
lacking when you actually do it, which can be costly, you have time during
this evaluation stage to correct mistakes or bridge gaps. You will see
beyond the present and its problems.

Third, you took time and made the effort, which is more than most anyone
else would do. People don't normally exhibit a high degree of dedication
toward any one thing. Especially in our modern world, they get pulled by
many areas, causing them to stretch themselves thin to cover many areas. As
a result, it causes them to take short cuts and be satisfied with "good
enough" instead of "as perfect as I can make it." By you taking the time to
ask these questions, you are certain to be ahead of anyone in competition.
Do not be enamored with or afraid of other people's natural talent because
it doesn't exist. Spend more time and gain more experience and you will
surpass their talents.

-------------------------

Algesan link

11/5/2011 03:26:43 am

Generic stuff from Hobby Lobby. Americana, Anita's metallics, maybe a couple of strays, I was picking for color.

One major flaw to note: THESE ARE NOT PLASTIC MODEL ACRYLICS! The paint will NOT bond to the plastic for base coats. It will dry there, but is just "laying" on top of the plastic.

Not a big deal as long as you are aware of it. Which means thin coats to base, insure 100% coverage and let it dry well between coats for the first couple of coats. After that, paint as normally, the paints will bind to other paint. Then make sure you put a good seal on the mini. Otherwise you will it prone to chipping or excessive wear. I'm happy with it, but I had to learn that lesson early on. It does tend to enforce doing painting by squad though...

If you find that annoying to base coat the mini, you can always pick up an actual model acrylic to do the first coat.

The good news for me is that with the Necrons out now, I'll be forced to play with some of my darker colors to check for some effects. I know that a deep, deep blue/purple either mixed in a semigloss black or layered(?) on top of a still slightly damp base coat of black will be sharp.

Lucion

11/15/2011 01:50:38 am

Hi Algesan.

If you could get some names/brands for the paints I'd be curious. I am always interested in trying new paints out, but wont go and buy anything without getting an idea of what they do.

I've moved from GW paints to VJ and gone as far as trying out humbrol for certain effects.

The paint you are using sounds more like humbrol oil paint if it covers like that. Is that right?
If that is so - you might find turpentine/ white spirit or mig thinner will give you some excellent effects.

Something else which may be of interest for Necrons is using a light metallic colour as your base coat

And ontop of that putting your purple.

You can get an effect like so - see the image on the far left -
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/7/4/9/6/7496617/1318455456.png

The paint I used was daler rowney acrylic artists ink over mithril silver.

Algesan link

11/15/2011 04:07:44 pm

Actually I'm not trying for purple (although I like the effect you got, I might have to think where I could experiment with that), but for a "blacker than black" effect. Little trick from the military: Several layers of Kiwi black polish buffing each as you go, then a final coat of Kiwi blue polish buffed to a high spit shine. They literally looked "blacker than black".

I tried for a similar effect on a couple of my BT Marines by washing with a deep dark blue, but it was somewhat spoiled by giving my white shoulderpads a light blue highlight around the edge, but I could fix that by not trying to wash the black trim on the shoulders.

OTOH, the effect wasn't real dramatic and I had other minis to work on, so I let it slide after the one experiment. <sigh> I wish I could take more time to experiment.

Paints: Anita's All Purpose Metallics for my metals (including the metallic white), bunch of Americana brand, one FolkArt 938 Licorice (a contrasting black to my regular Americana Lamp (Ebony) Black, Ceramcoat Magnolia White and I forget what I used for my flesh/parchment/etc. base. Some kind of light tan/flesh color. All of these are acrylics.

Hmmm, you've got me thinking of using silver with purple wash for my Necron weapons when I paint them. I've got a couple of spare Gauss flayers, I might just give it a try.

Lucion

11/17/2011 01:16:20 am

Algesan are you having a laugh? :o) Shoe polish?

Community Black Templars Army! :D

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