+ inload: Painting Astral Claws +
+ Painting small groups of figures – whether for skirmish games like Shadespire or Kill Team, or for board games like Blackstone Fortress – is a different challenge to painting armies for bigger games. With fewer figures, it's a great change to experiment. Whether you use complex mixes or experiment with new (or old and tested) techniques, you can bring something new to your painting desk. As the old adage has it, a change is as good as a rest. +
+ The spirit of experimentation is particularly important for figures like this. The Astral Claw scheme is harmonious [+noosphericinloadlink {PENDING}+]: silver with blue and gold accents. I've used silver a lot on the Iron Warriors of Officio Monstrosa [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], and both blue and gold in the Ultramarines of the Praetors of Calth [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], so this should be a doddle, right? +
+ Well, the problem I find with following recipes or set procedures is that you get very predictable results. It's easy to get into a rut, and never move on anywhere. Besides, the silver of the Astral Claws' plate is not the battered aeons-old gunmetal of the Iron Warriors. Trying something new extends your repertoire. +
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| + Work in progress Sergeant + |
+ I also tried priming grey – though I think that's robbed the effect of some depth, so I'll be turning to black for future figures. +
+ Note that because Payne's grey is blue-tinged, it works nicely with both the metal and the blue shoulder pads. For my Ultramarines, I shaded with purple; a hue that enriches the blue. Here, the Payne's grey deadens it, again giving a neutral effect. +
+ Why do I want the figure to look neutral? As I've mentioned in earlier inloads, warm colours advance and appear inviting, while the opposite is true of cool figures. This can help to give an unconscious effect that the figure is 'good' or 'bad' – or at least the protagonist or antagonist – because the viewer has an instinctive reaction to this. The Badab War is an example of a 40k event where you can see noble aims on both sides, and complexity in the moral issues. I wanted to hint at this in the scheme by keeping things neutral. +
+ Of course, this has the potential side effect of making the figure a bit boring, so I'll need to incorporate some eye-catching 'hot spots' or warm areas into the scheme: a perfect excuse for the warm, opulent gold accents. Note also the eyes are a piercing acid green, intended to catch the eye. +
3 comments:
What do you make of the general shift in loyalist heraldry to use metallics?
In 3rd ed and prior, It seemed that in the main, only traitors used metallics in their base heraldry, for company markings, trim and so on. (Exceptions included the silver skulls and doom eagles and gold embellishment was common enough)
The change was most evident in the Ultramarines 4th ed- suddenly sporting gold trim for the second company. At the time I thought this was GW trying to get the Ultras to be taken more seriously, but perhaps they were trying to visually pull them to a more morally grey direction? We saw the official colour scheme also change from ultramarine to darker shades of blue.
Very nice indeed!
Nice, I like where this is going :)
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