Today we have the pleasure of Lucifer's first hobby article where he takes us through the techniques he has used to paint his new Storm Raven. Enjoy.

Hi guys,

Lucifer here to bring you my first article on BLOODYdice. At the moment, I have been working to bring my Grey Knights in line with 6th Ed and decided it was time to play with some of the other units offered in the ol' GK codex. My first foray into Grey Knights was towards the last 6 months of 5th Ed and the list then consisted mainly of terminator based infantry supported by Interceptors and a teleporting Nemesis Dreadknight.

Since then, I decided to invest in a Stormraven and dust my off my old Coteaz, Vindicare and Cadian Kasrkins who have been collecting dust in a box for around 6-7 years. So, my next few articles will focus on getting these models and some new ones built and painted as I add some henchman flavour to the list!



First up, my major project at the moment has been the Stormraven; this was a really nice kit to build and presented me with an excellent opportunity to start learning the mystical ways of airbrushing. After an initial base coat of Chainmail and some basic weathering with a really nice Tamiya Matt Black I started to work on the detail. The details being the cockpit interiors and minor weathering on the leading edges of the aerofoils, as well as the various vents and exhausts.

I decided I wanted to replicate the traditional Grey Knight geared strip seen on a lot of the GW pictures so I dived onto GIMP and generated a couple of patterns. Then used my girlfriend's Silhouette to cut them out on some sticky vinyl which could then be applied to the desired area. I applied them to the shielding on the gun servitor's Assault Cannons and began applying Mech red.


 I was pretty pleased with the final result and resolved to use this method again!



Next I moved onto the pilots cockpit - there were loads of little dials, screens and buttons. Learning from my initial attempts with the servitor's screen which looked OK but nothing special I went to town on these adding readouts and sliding scales to all the various bits and finally applying colour to the pilot himself. These bits were quite fiddly and I may consider painting prior to building if I have to do one again but I was pleased with the result.



The next to tackle was the weathering and scoring along the edges of the aerofoils. This was done rather simply with some Abaddon Black, Mithril Silver and piece of foam sponge. Starting with the black, I sponged on a liberal amount. Once this was fully dried, I repeated the process with the silver although in rather less quantities. The contrast between the light and dark silvers gives a nice impression that it has been stripped to the base metal.



Lastly, I began the mammoth task of scoring all the vents and exhausts. This took a long time as I had to drybrush all the affected areas brown, slowly building up the colour so that it left a totally opaque layer near the ends.



Then, after allowing it to dry, repeat the process with black but starting halfway up the brown layer. The overall effect is totally worth it as it adds some real life to the model!



Apologies if the pictures aren't great, I am still learning and didn't have the SLR to hand. Old camera phones comes in handy in a pinch though!

-Lucifer

Lucifer's next post will likely follow up with the finished model and loads of pictures!!! Of course you could take a look at the Battle Report posted earlier to see some sneak peeks of some of Lucifer's models in action!