Death of a Rubricist

+ inload: The Avenging Son continued +

+ Work continues on Guilliman. I finished construction on Sunday night: 

+ A couple of people have asked for a run-down of the parts used, so here we go:

• +Backpack+  Vulkan's, plus additional bits from a backpack from the Rapier set (targeter/sensor thing plus additional vents) and a vexilla from Forge World's Mark II command set.
• +Torso+  Ferrus Manus' with greenstuff lower abdomen.
• +Arms and hands+  Vulkan's. The left arm has a scanner from the Volkite Caliver set. The right hand (and sword) is from the Grey Knight Terminator set, with some GS to sharpen up the detailing. Not sure about this... tempted to find a different, more distinctive sword.
• +Shoulder pads+  Privateer Press' Vlad, from the Warmachine line. These took quite a bit of filing and ProCreate to get to fit right! The leather straps are from Vulkan, and the Ultramarine symbol is from Marneus Calgar.
• +Legs+  Vulkan's; reposed with hot water. The scabbard is from Sevrin Loth's Honour Guard, I think. The pistol's grip is from an old Inquisitor scale weapon pack, and the body of it is from a limited edition figure from the now-defunct AT-43 line. The grenades are from FW – the holstered Phobos boltpistol pack.
• +Head+  Vulkan's, with greenstuff hair.
• +Base+  Ferrus Manus', with a bit of modification to fit the rubble to the reposed legs.

+ I hasten to add at this point that Vulkan was a prize, and I managed to snag Ferrus cheap on ebay. The remaining bits were mostly in my bits box. I imagine I'd be rather less extravagant if I were buying all the bits new! +

+ Here's a few shots from various directions. Note that the hilt of the sword had snapped off between priming and photography. It's since been replaced – and pinned! +

+ The scaling seems to work fairly well. Here's a picture of Guilliman next to one of his men:

+ Taking the base height into account, the marine's eye level is roughly on par with Guilliman's torso, which seems about right. +

+ Painting +

+ With a one-off model like this, I thought I'd just treat myself, so I got stuck straight into painting the face. Before I began, I added a base layer to the armour around the neck. There's quite a recess here, and I didn't fancy the prospect of getting paint in there once the face was done! +

+ The whole head – face, hair and neck – was built up starting with a wet tonal base slapped on – in this case, a mix of an olive green (a Vallejo colour, I think 'russian tank crew' or similar) and Vallejo Dark Red. The GW equivalents would be Catachan Green and Scab Red or similar. 

+ While wet, I dropped in touches of GW Dark Flesh to the recesses and neck, and pulled the paint about a bit with the brush to remove any flat planes. Next, I used a damp brush to lift away some paint from highlight areas and left it to dry.

+ Once dry, I used various combinations of Vallejo Dark Red, Vallejo White and GW Golden Yellow to build up the skin, using dilute mixes so that the previous layers showed through a little. I find this the best way to get a sense that the flesh is organic, as it gives the paint depth and translucency. Placement here is important – look at a friend (or yourself) to get the areas of colour right. For example, the back of the neck is typically browner than the front, and the cheeks, nose and tips of the ears will be slightly redder than the forehead and sides of the face. Keep this subtle, and err towards a slightly pale yellow skintone at this stage.

+ I then added a touch of yellow to white to make a very pale cream, and used this to paint the eyes and teeth. Once dry, I added a little Mordian blue to the darker skintone mixes on my palette. This makes a blue-grey (and also ties in with the armour, making a coherent palette) which I used to redefine the eyelids and glaze the beard area. Since Guilliman's blond, I made sure this was pretty subtle. The creamy colour was lightly drybrushed onto the hair at this point in two or three passes, each gradually covering less of the hair area – the sides and back should be darker than the top, so give the top more layers.

+ Using either a very dilute red mix or a a red glaze (I used GW's Bloodletter Glaze), build up the colour in the cheeks and lower lip with repeated applications. Work gradually. The colour will build up, and it's better to do it over a long time than have to remix the base colour if you go too rosy. 

+ Beyond this, it's simply working with washes to get an expression. Use the tip of a fine brush to touch in the pupils of the eyes with a dark (near but not quite black) mix, then apply washes (I used GW's Devlan Mud) using the tip of the same brush. Washes don't have to be sloshed over. Using them in small areas lets you build up slightly dirty detailing in creases, wrinkles and areas like under the cheekbones to give a battleworn feel. 

+ With the face complete – currently, at least; I might return to tweak it – I painted the armour with Mordian Blue and gave it a wash of Asurmen Blue. This'll be the basecoat over which I'll build up the rest. +