Professor Wargamer: Completed Project: Grey Knights Terminator Squad

So at long last I have finished my unit of Grey Knight terminators after about a month and a half of fiddling around with them at a very casual pace. I was definitely slowed down by using so many unfamiliar techniques but I'm quite pleased with the finished result! Here they are as a unit:

Some quick thoughts on the painting aspects that were new for me here and that I didn't cover previously. Firstly, oil washes. I was deeply impressed by the effect that oils gave and they were wonderful to work with. After gloss varnishing the models I washed the cream armor with a straightforward mix of burnt umber thinned with low odor mineral spirits. I immediately noticed that the oil wash pooled in the recesses far more neatly and the finish over larger patches of of the model was extremely smooth and there was no "blotchiness" or tidemarks that usually accompany an acrylic wash over a large section of mini.

This is after the oil wash dried. The lighting is poor but it gives you a rough idea of how natural it looks.

Furthermore, because the oil wash takes so long to dry (about twelve hours to be completely dry) you can push it around as much as you like and wash off sections with straight white spirit, which I did to make sure not to darken the models too much. You can even do this after its totally dry as well! The control you have over the wash is unparalleled and combined with what is already a smooth coloring the result is strong yet subtle. I have simply never experienced such a realistic-looking wash.

I will absolutely be returning to work with oils in the future, especially considering that its relatively quick to move into and out of them, a coat of gloss varnish, apply the oils, and once its try a coat of matt, and your done!

The final new technique I experimented with was the use of resin bases. I decided to keep it very simple and ensure the bases were relatively dark in order to draw the eye to the cream armor, and by extension how mangled it is! This follows from roomie Byron's excellent tutorial on basing either for contrast (as in this instance) and cohesion. I decided to use a few simple drybrush layers on the stone and some burnt umber pigments from Vallejo to keep the "dirtiness" consistent with whats on the terminator's armor. The resin bases from micro arts studios were a dream to work with and the texture is exquisite!

Bases as they appear in natural light.

Bases under fluorescent light that shows more detail.

The last thing I want to show is my attempt to hand-blend an intense blue into the eyes and nemesis force weapons. The eyes came out nicely but the swords were much more of a challenge. However with enough glaze medium and time I was able to bang out something reasonable. The final edge higlight of white along the edge of the blade was rather messy, but a blue ink glaze tied everything together nicely. I know the quality would have been far better and the process easier had I just used my airbrush to do it, which I did for the force hammer, but I wanted to set a challenge for myself as blending has always felt rather elusive to me, like something only pros do. The fact I can even blend like this though, (poor as it is) is a sign of just how far I’ve come, as this stuff seemed downright impossible to me even six or eight months ago.