+ Scythian in the paint-chamber +
+ Theoretical +
Scythian's an exercise in building up a Titan with a bit more background and depth – you'll have spotted
some notes on the 40k-scale version (and his crew) that's going up. (And if you haven't, you can inload it at your leisure: [+noopshericinloadlink embedded+])
Why? Well, simple enough: digging deep into a particular individual throws light on the broader setting, so by really thinking through how events – both everyday and with broader impact – affect the Titan, I'll get more of an understanding about how they work. As an example, I have a vague understanding that there must be some sort of promotion track (and likely politics) for Titan crews, so it'll be fun to play out an example of that.
Likewise, writing stuff to develop the background will let me make up answers for what various bits of heraldry mean to the men and women of Legio Tempestus; how Titans actually work; and similar sundry interesting bits and bobs.
For the record, I don't think it's necessary (or even desirable) to do this for every Titan – apart from anything else, eventually you run out of good ideas and stories, and end up going through the motions – Scythian will be a bit of an outlier, but hopefully an entertaining one. To me, this is the essence of what a Titan of Legend (or, for that matter, a 40k Special Character) should be – an archetypical figure that tells you more about the faction, rather than having different/better rules.
+ Practical +
Anyway, I've been building up the paintwork on the Epic-scale maniple, on the basis that a big 40k-scale one is scary to start, and having a little one to make mistakes on is a good idea!
As noted, the story shouldn't compromise or direct the paintjob, but it should help if I get stuck.
+ Base colours in place +
I worked on the Warbringer Nemesis, Warlord and Scythian all together, gradually building up the colours section by section. While there will inevitably be some real-world variation in colours, having some consistency is good to make sure they work as a group.
For quick reference, here's a snap of the paints I've used for the blue:
One of the nice things about painting big robots (or armour) is that they often fall into distinct sections, so you can work on a bit at a time, either to make things more approachable or simply to keep your interest levels up.
Here's a detail of Scythian's head, worked up from the Colour Forge's Republic blue spray base coat:
... and a little while later, the missile launcher:
... and later still, when I got bored with painting blue, I swapped over to establishing the white areas. I actually used a slightly dirty grey mix produced by adding some of the muck on my palette to white. This'll give me some tonal space for highlights – but as you can see, it still reads as white against the deep blue.
+ Into the detail +
From here I continued building up the blue areas, then turned to a small brush and began painting lots of tiny squares.
... and I'm very glad I did. All the way through the early stage, I'd had a nagging feeling that it was looking too 'Ultramarines', even though I'd deliberately picked a cooler blue and more brassy gold than I'd use for the XIIIth. It's a good example of having to trust the process and pushing through, even when I was feeling less than confident.
Being an important part of the Legio Tempestus' livery, the chequers seemed to give the piece more of a Stormlords feel, and more so as they built up. It was at this point that I felt myself relaxing into the painting and enjoying myself – probably why there's quite a jump in painting at this point!
The big sculpted detail on the top of the carapace matches that of the 40k-scale one (as do the other sculpted details), so this was high on my list of details to play around with. The plan, after all, is to replicate all of this on the big'un.
Ultimately, there's not a great deal of creativity on display here – I've given it a fairly simple and conservative treatment; though one I hope will look good both at Epic and 40k scale.
I didn't want to throw in lots of colours, as that would take away from the blue, white, black and silver scheme; but nor did I want to paint the whole device in the same hue, as that would look monolithic at the larger scale. In the end, I decided to use cool grey on the eagle, warm grey on the scrollwork, and kept the cog 'halo' at the top in bronze. This adds some variety without drawing the eye too much.
You'll notice the heraldic shield is thus far left blank. Partly this was simply because I needed to move on to the other Titans, as they needed to be at least base-coated for our game up at Warhammer World!
However, before I stopped, I did want to try some slightly fancy lettering on the name; something that I hope to be able to refine and superdetail on the larger version.
+++
For the moment, then, here's how Scythian stands.
Certainly alright for a Walk; but lots to do to refine and improve him.
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