Pedro Kantor completed

I haven't done a whole lot of painting recently - partly due to attending the 2011 Fforde Ffiesta, which was a whole load of fun, and work, which wasn't.

Pedro Kantor is finished, and I'm pretty pleased with him, to be honest he wasn't actually a lot of fun to paint, and he became a bit of a chore after a while.  I have no idea why this is - maybe I've painted too many space marines?  The base came out OK in the end, but it was a pretty dull part to paint, I could possibly have made more of the metallic bits (and I may do yet if the inspiration takes me), but other than that, there's not much to it.  Does it look any better than a flat base with static grass?  I'd have to say no - maybe I just didn't use it right?

The blue is probably a little too bright in the end, I think I went too light over too large an area - the actual blending I'm really chuffed with though. 

• Basecoat: Regal Blue 
• First stage highlighting: Blending Ultramarine Blue into the Regal Blue 
• Second stage highlighting: Blending Ice Blue into the Ultramarine Blue 

I wanted the "loin cloth" thing (I used to know what that was called) to look like leather, so went for:

• Basecoat: Scorched Brown
• Shade: Devlan Mud
• First highlight: Bestial Brown
• Final highlight: Snakebite Leather.

I decided to make "Dorn's Arrow" (the storm bolter) a little bit flash and paint it gold - this is supposed to be a highly valuable and powerful relic, so I thought gold was a befitting colour for it.  The laurel leaves dotted across the model were  painted with the following steps:

• Basecoat: Knarloc Green
• Shade: Thraka Green
• First Highlight: Knarloc Green
• Second Highlight: Gretchin Green
• Final Highlight: Gretchin Green and Dheneb Stone

The metal work started follows the normal pattern I've been using recently:

• Basecoat of Charadon Granite
• Shade: Badab Black
• First highlight: Boltgun Metal
• Second highlight: Chainmail
• Final highlight: Mithril Silver

I wouldn't usually use Mithril Silver these days as it's a little too bright for my tastes, but as Pedro is a bit special, it made sense to put a little sparkle (non-Twilight) in there.  It's amazing how pictures show up mistakes that you'd missed previously - the banner pole is pretty dreadful, I'm not sure what happened there, but it's going to need redoing...

The red is maybe not quite as Crimson as I'd hoped for, but it's come out fairly well.  I started off with Scab Red as it's always covered better than Mechrite Red - which is bizarre.  Maybe I just got a ropey pot, but it's the only foundation paint I have that doesn't do the business.  After the base coat:

• Shade: Devlan Mud
• First highlight: Scab Red
• Second highlight: Blood Red
• Final Highlight: Solar Macharius Orange.
• Glaze: To tone this down a little, as it was a little too orange, I glazed all the red elements with watered down Leviathan Purple wash.

I'm not a huge fan of back banners on space marines, but this one felt a little more important as he's the chapter master (and it has his name on it...).  Having the symbol molded on to it made painting it a breeze, and the front was one of the more enjoyable parts of the miniature.

So as always, comments and criticism welcome!  Coming up is my latest attempt at painting a Legion of the Damned marine (which is completed now, including glowing eyepieces), something fragile from Rackham, "Boris the Evil Warrior" from Reaper, Gandalf on his cart full of fireworks (for the Mother-in-law, no, really...), and my newly purchased "finecast" Eldar Harlequin Shadowseer which actually looks to have no casting defects (he says without inspecting it thoroughly yet).  Oh and I'm on to the next article for the Ancible too.

I may be taking some time off work...

A little progress for Pedro

Nothing finished this week, but I've made some good progress on Pedro Kantor.  The photograph isn't great, especially as the blends don't come out very well - blame the lighting (or lack of it)!

The blue is a little brighter than I intended, so some Necron Abyss is going to be used to add some darkness and depth (I'm trying to avoid him looking too much like an Ultramarine, and failing a bit at the moment).  I don't want there to be too much red - the GW studio scheme has overdone the red in my opinion.  The base has kind of worked, but needs some more shading added, and I'll do the rim Graveyard Earth like the rest of my Crimson Fists.  Everything else I'm pleased with, The braiding has come out well in yellow (although this maybe contributing to the Ultramarine look), and I'm really seeing the benefits of using a Windsor & Newton Series 7.  I don't understand why it makes things better, and I wouldn't believe it if someone told me, but it really does.

As always comments and criticism welcome!