I recently acquired a squad of 10 Legion of the Damned, so yesterday I sat down and decided to knock one out as a test model whilst I tied up some drivers for my Krios Venators and prepped and primed the Scyllax. I have been very keen to paint something other than my mechanicum, not because I'm bored but because I really wanted to see if I could replicate that level and quality of painting or if it was just me fluking out on a good technique.
My fruits are below:
I think I thought he would look better to be honest. I don't think he is up to the scratch of my mechanicum but I do think that he a step forward in quality from my Dark and Blood Angels. But I am open to persuasion either way!? Thoughts?
The choice of helmet was because I originally had it black and then I just felt it was bland and I've decided to try and really emphasise the bone colours.
Peace out,
Rob
I always reckon the LotD are tricky to pull off, because the flames will never have that feeling of the armour being on fire... They end up looking painted on. That said I rather like this test model, the flames aren't over done, the skeletal bits work, for me the helmet isnt right... I feel flat black with the glowing eyes will work better, or highlight the bone colour a bit more?
ReplyDeleteAgreed, the black did turn out better!
DeleteI dunno, there's a subtlety to this that I think you might be overlooking. Initially the helmet looks 'unfinished' but on second glance I think it looks like it's old scorched bone, with the eye lenses helping to reinforce the realism in the effect.
ReplyDeleteThe flames are again quite subtle, but compared to the OTT cartoon nature of the flames you usually see I like these 'glowing embers'.
I also love the bone on the right shoulder, again very naturalistic and the limited highlights on the black is also very subtle and effective, I wish I had the confidence to do black like this.
Cheers Dave, its always nice to have insight from a painter of our skills. I'm pleased you like the bone, I've always had a preference for the dirty look than the picked clean.
DeleteI did like the bone helmet but the black one looks a bit better to me, but more importantly I think I can reproduce it a lot easier!
Following on... I reckon it might be worth trying the bone on a non beaky helmet. That could work really well.
DeleteAlso, just as a note, I was reading through Index Astartes: Apocrypha, and in the article where the LotD were first introduced, it's made clear that the flames and skulls are painted-on iconography, not the armour actually being on fire.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted by that book, don't think any left in my area. Good buy? Nice little nugget there :)
DeleteI got it via BitTorrent, so in my case it was an excellent value. Kinda wish I had got an actual copy, because there's some really cool stuff in there, but they were sold out on the GW website by the time I made it out of bed that morning :P
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