When you get it all tuned the quality of output is superb – it takes a LOT of zooming in to see the layer lines on this particular print:
Imperceptible unless you have a macro lens pointed at it. Really quite incredible, particularly coming from FDM where layer lines are a fact of life.
This is my current favoured formula for very weathered/aged/battle damaged Imperial Knight miniatures. It’ll work on vehicles like tanks or armoured miniatures like Space Marines as well, but it’s probably easiest on the scale of a tank or Knight!
I undercoated with Vallejo Mecha Primer in black, then base coated the silver section with Citadel Iron Hands Steel. The blue was Citadel Thousand Sons Blue. I used thinned paints to build up a smooth and solid colour.
Next comes Citadel Rhinox Hide on a sponge (actually a torn out piece of a pick ‘n pluck-style miniature storage case) applied along any raised edges and across the center of any broad surfaces.
After that, I heavily stippled Citadel Mournfang Brown in smaller areas than the Rhinox hide, generally staying within the Rhinox Hide-covered areas. After that, a lighter stippling of Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet and Citadel Zandri Dust added in a couple more variations on the rusted look. I’m on the fence as to whether Evil Sunz is too bright or not – the next time I’m going to try something a touch darker to try and make the red pop less.
A heavy wash of Citadel Agrax Earthshade really took the brightness out of the colours and made the Knight look like he’d been fighting for some time on an acid-rain world.
For the chassis beneath, I used the same technique but did a heavy drybrush of Citadel Ironbreaker after the Agrax Earthshade wash to differentiate the frame from the carapace.
After the drybrush I did a light drybrush of Citadel Ryza Rust on select areas such as below the eye lenses.
More in progress shots next time!
Here’s how I paint the Raven Guard Primaris Eliminators.
This is one of my early attempts at a Raven Guard paint scheme – I currently use a darker shade of grey but I like this one still.
Undercoat: Vallejo Mecha Primer, Black 73.642
Armour base coat: Vallejo Model Color Black Grey 70.862
Recess shading: Citadel Black Templar Contrast
Armor drybrushing and edge highlighting: Vallejo Model Color Basalt Grey 70.869
Leather base: Citadel Rhinox Hide
Leather highlight: Citadel Gorthor Brown
Weapon base: Citadel Khorne Red and Citadel Leadbelcher
Weapon wash: Citadel Carroburg Crimson and Citadel Black Templar Contrast
Weapon drybrush: Citadel Leadbelcher
Lenses: Citadel Khorne Red
Camo Cloak Base: Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey 70.994
Camo Cloak Splotches: Vallejo Model Color London Grey 70.836
Camo Cloak Wash: Citadel Nuln Oil
Base: Vallejo Earth Texture Dark Earth 26.218
Base basecoat: Vallejo Model Color London Grey 70.836
Base wash: Citadel Nuln Oil
Metal part of base: Citadel Leadbelcher
Base bullet casings: Citadel Runelord Brass, highlights of Citadel Canoptek Alloy
Base bullet casings wash: Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Skin layer: Citadel Rakarth Flesh
Skin wash: Citadel Seraphim Sepia
Purity Seal Base: Citadel Wraithbone
Purity Seal Wash: Citadel Agrax Earthshade
Purity Seal Text: Citadel Rhinox hide mixed to varying extents with Citadel Rakarth Flesh
Painting up a sneaky beaky! Trying to mix a road base with the ash-waste style bases of some of the other Phobos RG units I have.
Marble base piece: Ushabti Bone/Pallid Wych Flesh/Agrax/Terminatus/Longbeard
Base ash: London Grey/Longbeard Grey
Armour: Black Grey, edge highlights London Grey, drybrush Dawnstone for the dust, Light Slate Grey pigment for recess dust
Battle damage armour: Abaddon Black/Stormhost Silver
Company Colour: 50/50 Naggaroth Night and Warlord Purple
Eye lenses: Moot Green/Warpstone Green/White Scar
Vox cable on chest: Black Red/Phalanx Yellow/Evil Sunz Scarlet
Leather pouches: Doombull Brown/Agrax/Skrag Brown
Writing on scrolls: Rhinox Hide
Edge highlight on gun: Grey Knights Steel then smaller Stormhost
Helmet: Khorne Red for stripe
Played a 500pt combat patrol game today with a Raven Guard successor force vs. some Space Wolves. Nobody had a fully painted force and some of the SW were borrowed RG units, so no 10pts for either team.
The game was a Combat Patrol Incisive Attack and the RG’s secondaries were Cut Off The Head, Domination and Attrition. SW chose Attrition, Engage On All Fronts and Raise The Banners High.
The RG’s Phobos Librarian warlord deployed in what looked like a vulnerable position, luring a couple of the SW units into deploying in what looked like an advantageous position. The Librarian’s Master of Ambush shenanigans proved to have fooled them, however, as he turned out to be deployed on one of the mid-board objective markers while a squad of Intercessors were placed on the other.
This board control advantage proved hard for the SW to shake, and the game went to the RG who maxed their primaries along with Domination. The SW warlord was a very lucky Battle Leader who survived being targeted by a Predator two turns running, only being taken out in the very last round and providing the RG with a measly 1pt for Cut Off The Head.
SW did well with Engage On All Fronts, almost maxxing it via use of Outriders to rapidly move up the board.
Terrain takeaways – some buildings with higher levels to get up onto that are more complex than stacks of shipping containers would be nice.
Last night saw the Raven Guard face off against Chaos in a 500pt Combat Patrol game. Raven Guard won on points, though they were certainly losing in terms of casualties.
Takeaways: The new ruined walls set of six was the MVP as far as terrain goes, with just the one set making a meaningful difference to each side of the mid-board. Tactics-wise the RG were managed horribly. The army makeup was more based around what was painted than what was effective, and it showed – a second lieutenant ended up being wasted points in this particular battle as he didn’t make a single point back for. the ~75pts expended.
The lack of AT weaponry also hurt when it came to taking out the Rhino, which Mrs. Griffin positioned inconveniently right in the face of one of the Intercessor squads. Auto bolt rifles were disappointingly ineffective against a squad of CSM in light cover (15 shots and one wound? Aaaaaa) yet the Stalker bolt rifle squad of Intercessors kept on rolling 2s to hit. Yeesh.
Terrain ideas: Need some multi-level ruined buildings to contest in the center of the battlefield. Also, I need to assemble some Eradicators/Hellblasters/Plasma Inceptors/anything that has more shots and better AP.
Primaris vs. Primaris this time around! Raven Guard took on Space Wolves.
Takeaways for the Space Wolves – the Easy To Build 3x Reiver + 3x Intercessor squad combo lacks punch vs. a more customised set of Primaris marines.
Takeaways for the Raven Guard – Thunder Hammer + Intercessor Sergeant = very threatening. Auto Bolt Rifles seem to be superior to Stalker Bolt Rifles, at least in this game – the former dealt out a handful of wounds where the latter didn’t succeed in wounding once.
The Raven Guard sergeant with the Thunder Hammer took out two of the Reivers single handedly – the AP and damage of that weapon certainly makes it a threat to Primaris.
General takeaways – need to come up with some rulers and a score counter. Oh, and some tokens.
Gav Thorpe’s Corax anthology provides an explanation for this in the Weregeld story on p. 461:
It used to be that the Shadowmasters had hunted in squads, using their unique Corax-gifted abilities to sow discord and terror amongst their foes. Now they worked alone, their number reduced to a handful amongst all the legionaires of the Raven Guard.
That particular story takes place during the Horus Heresey, not too long before Horus makes his advance on Terra. So, after the decimation of the XIX Legion on Istvaan V their numbers would have been somewhat depleted – the number of surviving Raven Guard was something like 3,000 from memory – and it would seem that attrition had reduced the Mor Deythan numbers further throughout the remainder of the Heresy.
That does not answer the question as to why more were not found amongst the future geneseed-enhanced warriors of the Raven Guard, though…
Trying to figure out from lore what the various “correct” paint schemes have been for the Raven Guard. This will be updated as I get to painting the various models.
While the GW painted models show them as having white helmets, the stories I have read so far don’t ever mention this – and while it looks good on the models (imho) I think it flies in the face of the Raven Guard doctrine, unless you use some kind of head-canon adjustment. Perhaps the sergeants are so good at being sneaky that the white is not an impediment – would the Mor Deythan have been significantly hampered if they were parading around in white?
P.381 of Corax by Gav Thorpe one of the Horus Heresy-era Librarians is described as having a blue right pauldron, where the rest of his armour is presumably the typical Raven Guard black.
Today’s Kill Team battle consisted of Master Griffin’s Khorne Bersekers fighting Raven Guard Primaris units.
The Khorne side had a bit of bad luck with the dice rolls and largely failed to get into close combat before being fired upon by the RG team. The Raven Guard did suffer from their own bad luck, though, and in one shooting phase every single model except the Eliminator managed to spectacularly miss. The Eliminator did somewhat make up for that by managing a spectacular shot that took out the Khorne Aspiring Champion with a mortal wound scored from an Executioner round.
We introduced command points for this battle and they were well received – tactical reroll in particular was popular. Raven Guard came out on top points-wise, though it would probably have been a different story had the Berserkers managed to close like they intended.
Terrain thoughts: Need more light cover for close combat Kill Teams to utilise en-route to their opponents.