Fireblarney’s Seraphon Spring Clean

I don’t seem to have a lot of photos of this project pre dusting it off. When I put it aside for the 40k Hobby Weekend (which is still yet to be returned too) I had primed the entire box with Grey Seer. The Saurus champion, Skink caster and the unit of Skinks had been painted to what I thought at the time would be pretty much where I was going to leave them and I was stumped as to how to proceed with the basing.

The idea of the project was to see how a simple contrast paint scheme would look and how much time I saved on a more traditional paint job.

The main colours where Flesh Tearer Red for the skin and at the time I think it was Leviadon Blue for the shields which I have now changed.

Over the course of the first weekish I finished off the started foot troops, basically the box minus the Troglodon and the Bastiladon.

I did end up deciding the Contrast paints needed a little bit of a lift so I have given them all a bit of a dry brush.

Skintone: Fleshtearer Red with a Cadian Fleshtone drybrush

Shields: Akhelian Green with a Fenrisian Grey drybrush

I was still on the fence on basing until I gave in and bought the Battletome and upon reading the fluff about the terraforming around landed Seraphon forces I decided I’d just go with a junglish theme, but I’m aiming for the outskirts of their territory where things are still transitioning and not as overgrown as they could be.

I have been a little lax in taking work in progress pictures with this blog mostly as I’m tending to hobby a lot alongside my daughter who is currently trying to “assemble everything she currently owns so she can see what she has before starting a project” to quote her so I tend to forget the photo part until the end of each session.

In my head the Seraphon are using the cured skins of the Teradons for the shields of their warriors so the skin tone is again Akhelian Green with the Fenrisian Grey drybrush. When I get around to it I’ll get some better shots of everything as I’m fairly happy with the flaming bola one of them is wielding (I do happen to have a work in progress shot included for it) and the little bombs they’re carrying.

The Ripperdactyls were next and the final models before the two monsters of my initial box.

I decided I’d go for a much brighter colour scheme for these guys given their psychotic nature in the fluff so I went for Gryph-hound Orange (contrast) with a dry brush of Fire Orange (reaper paints). I also wanted to have a crack at some Obsidian looking weapons but this time it looks like I forgot to take finished pictures so they’ll be coming soon.

I’ve got the Troglodon finished over the past few days except for the basing, which I’ll tackle tomorrow, and the poison spit which I’ve started but I want to finish with Nurgle Rot which I gave away so I’ll have to wait for GW to start shipping again. I’ve decided to play with some plastic aquarium style plants on the base which I haven’t tried before which after reading I’ll need a hot glue gun which I normally borrow from a mate but I’ll just pick one up this time.

Palette

Skin: Plaguebearer Flesh with an Ogryn Camo Drybrush

Underbelly: Nazdreg Yellow

Scales and Spines in sail: two coats of Basilicanum Grey

Sail: Magos Purple

Tusks: Tusk Ivory (reaper) and Seraphim Sepia wash

The Bastiladon has just the first few starting touches, his skin which is Warp Lightning with a Moot Green drybrush. I also used this on the arm-guards on the Skink flyers (sticking with my idea of the Seraphon recycling what they can of their large beasts) and the first colour down on his carapace Black Templar.

This post now brings me up to date with my progress over the last 3 and a bit weeks. I had meant to start the project up back then but I never quite got there. I’ll get out tomorrow at some stage and get some better shots of the finished bits and pieces and do another post with them. Hopefully I’ll get the Troglodon finished off and some decent progress on the Bastiladon as well.

I decided to duck down quickly while there was still daylight and get a few quick shots outside. Here’s the end results so far, although I may go back now and fix up the Skink Priests dagger.

I’ll start with him and the Saurus Champion.

The Skinks

And the flyers

I saw finished but once I get a hold of some Nurgle’s Rot I’m going to touch up the venom spit a little. But the colours on it are just the Dark Angels colour scheme off the GW painting app at the moment. Caliban Green for the base, a wash of Nuln oil, then progressively lighter hits with Warpstone Glow then Moot Green.

I’m happy with how the plastic plants came out. I did have the wash pool slightly, it shows up badly in the photos but in the flesh it’s not too bad but it’s something to work on.

For the darker plants I’ve used Agrax Earthshade and on the lighter ones it was Seraphim Sepia. The tufts are just a mix of Gamer Grass tufts I picked up down at Cancon with this project in mind.

I’ve made a bit of progress on the Bastiladon over the last couple of days. I’ve finished of the gold areas, and the base coats on the Skinks. I’ve decided to play around with some stippled effect on the edge of the carapace to try to give it a bit of a lift. I’ve used Mephiston Red, then lightly touched around it with Wild Rider Red, I’m planning to use some more of the darker aquarium plants on the base so the splashes of colour should contrast nicely against that.

I’m going with the Solar Engine for this one. I’m pretty much sticking with the paint scheme in the book for this one, though I’ll need to find a sub for Dorn Yellow. So far I’ve got the Iyanden Yellow down and finished off a first layer of edge highlighting with Yriel Yellow.

Well I’ve finished off my initial box of Seraphon now. I’ll get some better photos tomorrow. I ended up managing to get a hold of Dorn Yellow so a fine line of that combined with some spot highlights of Pallid Wych Flesh finished off the the gems. The Bloat Toads are basically just tokens to I kept it simple, Blood Angels Red on the heads, Iyanden Yellow Throats and Warp Lightning for the bulk of model then a drybrush of White Scar over the lot.

I’ll get some better photos of them at some stage over the next few days. Now that they’re all done I’ve started on the Start Collecting box with the Saurus Warriors. Just the flesh and the base coat on the shields so far but I’m hoping to get them knocked over fairly quickly.

I finally got around to taking better photos of the now finished Battleforce box. I’ve added some Nurgle’s Rot to the Troglodon’s poison spit and while it doesn’t show up brilliantly in the photo it looks rather nice in the flesh. I’ve also gone back and touched up a few bits on the Saurus commander on foot bringing him more inline with what I’m doing on the rest of the Saurus currently.

I’ve finished off the Saurus Warrior’s shields with a drybrush of Reaper Sky Blue over the base coat of Leviadon Blue contrast. The gold trim on them and the weapons has been done the same as previously in the project. On the banner I’ve used Agrax Earthshade rather than the Riekland Fleshshade to give it a darker shade. The metal capping on the spines and the tails as well as the shoulder pads on the unit commander I’ve started with a base coat of Stormhost Silver.

With isolation restrictions relaxing I’m hoping to get a game in with my brother next week depending on his days off. Give me a chance to see how they perform on the table and work out possible expansions.

Well I didn’t manage to get that game in after all, but I have managed to finish off the Saurus Warriors and make a small start on the Knights this morning. I made a mistake in the last post the metal capping and shoulder pads etc where actually Leadbelcher as the base coat, followed by Nuln oil and finished with a touch of Stormhost Silver. I also added a very slight drybrush of Leadbelcher to the trailing banner and coloured bits on the shield to give them a more realistic weathered look.

I’ve also got some nicer shots of the completed unit outside today as well. I was having some issues with the balance of the banner bearer, but the addition of the larger plant on the back has fixed that up nicely :).

I haven’t had the motivation to get around to publishing an entry on the blog for a couple of weeks, but the painting has been ongoing. I’ll be honest these tested my painting motivation as well mostly because of my incredible job at posing them into the most awkward positions for painting possible. I’d like to say this has finally taught me a valuable lesson about sub-assemblies but I honestly doubt it :).

Colour palate wise I’ve stuck with the colours I’ve been using throughout. For the Cold Ones I’ve gone with a Militarum Green contrast finished with an Elysian Green drybrush followed by a very light Ogryn Camo drybrush. I’ve forgotten what I used for what I imagine to be thicker spiny sort of scales around the necks and back ridges as at first I wasn’t overly fond of it but as I pushed through it grew on me and I forgot to note it down.

For the Saddles the underblanket is the Snakebite Leather again and the actual saddles are Shyish Purple. I had toyed with mixing up the colours slightly but ended up sticking with the one colour.

I have of course finished them now and moved onto the last unit for this project as it currently stands, the Saurus Scar Veteran on Carnosaur. I’ll get some WIP photos up soon for it. The Carnosaur is not too far off being done then it’s just the Scar Veteran himself. It looks like that game with my brother should be happening in about two weeks time so I’ll very likely have a fully painted army ready to go. (Along with a full coat of varnish(His young fella likes to play too so generally rolls the dice for us, unfortunately he still thinks he needs to knock the figures over to get kills)).

I really want to highlight how much fun it is to do the feathers with contrast paints. Drop a blog of paint at either end and blending it just a dream. Can’t mention enough how enjoyable I found them.

I’m entering the final stages of this project with just the one model left. I toyed with a few ideas for the Carnosaur, but ended up going for a rather bright scheme based off the idea that this here is an alpha predator and didn’t feel the need for stealth relying just on sheer power.

The underbelly has been done with Aethermatic Blue contrast. The bulk of the scales are done with Ultramarines Blue contrast with very light army painter Crystal Blue drybrush, with the thicker looking scales near his spine done in Leviadon Blue. The spines on his back and arms are Talassar Blue and the lines of orange scales are Gryph-hound Orange.

I’m super happy with how he’s looking and once I’ve finished the Scar Veteran rider that’ll be my current Seraphon force painted in it’s entirety.

Well that’s it, all my Seraphon are finished. Pretty happy with the look of the force as a whole. I’ve picked up a tripod this morning so I’m going to play around and get a shot of the whole force, but for the moment here’s the completed Scar-Veteran on Carnosaur. He’s been painted the same way as my early Saurus warriors so the various paints used are listed in previous entries. The throne was just done with Basilicanum Grey. I had toyed with using Wyldwood, but ended up going with a stone look.

Well I still need some practice with the camera settings and such and I’ll need to play with lighting, but here it is the finished project in one “glorious” photo :).