The Thin Beige Line

I had originally planned to paint the droid weapons in grey and give them a black ink wash. However, as I had started using contrast paints, I figured there may be an easier solution. I hadn’t tried the Contrast Black Templar before, but it seemed to be one of the more popular colours, so I figured it was worth a go.

My initial thought was that I would need to go back over the droids guns with Wraithbone (from a pot), to touch in any areas that had been hit with the Skeleton Hoard. Instead I did a test on one of the B1’s and found the Black Templar went straight over the Primer and Skeleton Hoard no problem!

This would save me a lot of time as I now only needed to go over each of the blasters with a single colour.

Once I had worked through the E-5’s I moved to the heavy weapons. I gave the E-5C’s silver barrels to help them stand out from the standard rifles. For this I used Iron Breaker washed with nuln oil and a little Drakenhorf Nightshade at the tip.

The E-60R’s were initially given a coat of Black Templar but as they are quite large and smooth, the effect wasn’t as dark as the other weapons. I decided to give them a Nuln Oil wash as well, to even them out.

After checking a few reference images I noted that the Binoculars carried by the unit leaders should be ivory or white. This would help the unit leaders stand out from the basic troops. Sticking with the contrasts method I had already employed, I used Apothecary White. As this is a much lighter contrast paint, I did take the time to tidy up the paintwork with Wraithbone to ensure a clean finish.

As I had anticipated, this was the longest stage of the process so far. I had definitely saved a lot of time by using the Contrast BlackTemplar, but working around the guns, particularly on the inside where they come close to the body, took a few hours. I spread this task over a weekend and spent a good 4-5 hours in total.

Now the guns were painted I had colour on every part of the model. Next I would add unit markings.