The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Cal... iban!!

January isn’t a great month for hobby and me to get time together. These guys were started January 18, now Feb 11 and still not quite done. Nevermind, onwards!

I’ve assembled the unit, and based them with green stuff. This was textured with a base stamp from a little company called Happy Seppuku (http://www.happyseppuku.com)

They were then primed with a black primer, just a hardware store black, but it was a little too glossy. I dulled them down with a thin coat of Vallejo Model Colour Black. This would come back to bite me later, as this colour is too matt…

Red Eyes and Markings

• Vallaejo German Camo Brown
• Citadel Mechrite Red
• Citadel Blood Red
• Citadel Brown Ink

Paint on the stripe and the eye lenses in German Camo Brown.

Layer on Mechrite Red, thinned of course.

A thin layer of Blood Red to bring out the brightness.

Finish with a thin glaze of Brown Ink to mute the brightness a little, add some depth to the colour and tie the layers together.

I also went over the armour with a glaze of Citadel Black Ink to try and add a little of a satin sheen, so the black wasn’t so flat.

Black armour highlights:

• Army Painter Black
• Army Painter Skeleton Bone

Start with 1:2 Black to Bone. I prefer thin,  hard highlights for dark armour. Thin lines near the corners, on the high points and some edges.

I don’t really consider this edge highlighting, as I only want to catch the higher points, not every hard edge.

Then 1:3 or 1:4 Black to Bone. Thinner, smaller highlights.

Go back and tidy up any highlight lines that are too wide with pure black. Really make sure those lines are thin.

This is where the very matt Vallejo black got me… pic 4 is really the most obvious. In the right light the other paints reflect as more glossy. D’oh!

Once I’ve varnished this unit, I hope it will be less obvious. But I’ll chalk it up to experience and move on.

In pic 1 you may also see the start of the white on the Sergeants pauldron.