The first challenge month of the IC HPC is February, but with an unpredictable school schedule on the horizon I was determined to get ahead to give myself some cushion room in the event that I need it. To that end, I’ve spent the month of January working on my first squad; a unit of five Deathwing Terminators armed with thunder hammers and storm shields.

 

As usual, I spent a good amount of time prepping and cleaning these models. I found that getting them into dynamic and natural looking poses proved to be challenging, especially the one with a cyclone missile launcher. I used poster-tac to try out a bunch of poses until I settled on the above. I left the shields off for painting access, and mounted the parts to cork for handling.

 

I did zenithal highlighting for the bone colored parts, starting with VMA Medium Camo Brown and working through  four colors up to VMA Sand to get a smooth transition.

 

I then did all of the base colors using a brush, trying to get even coverage.

 

Next I did shading by oil washes.

 

To get smooth transitions on the cape I chose to use many watered down layers of paint rather than using the airbrush. This allows more control and can give a more dramatic effect when done well.

After multiple highlights, the models were almost done. The golds still needed to be painted using Vallejo’s “Liquid Gold” alcohol paint line.

The urban rubble bases were then done. A tutorial for these is covered here- http://www.leagueofpainters.com/?p=872.

 

The finished models were then mounted on the bases.

 

 

 

With the February unit finished I now plan to start on the Deathwing Knights that are lined up next in the queue. If you’d like to see a tutorial on any of the techniques seen here or that will likely be seen on the Knights, let me know and I’ll do my best to make it.