44 - Blood Ravens Sternguard Tutorial Part VI

Well, I'm going to make this the last post in my Blood Ravens Sternguard tutorial for a couple of reasons: 1) I'm personally getting bored with the model! 2) I intended to do a tutorial on free-handing the Blood Ravens insignia onto the banner, but realized that I really, really stink at free-handing! So I quickly wiped the offending blotch off the banner and decided to keep quietly working on my free-hand on unfortunate pieces of plasticard rather than ruin perfectly good models. 3) A 6 part tutorial on a single model seems like more than enough. Too much perhaps.

So, what I have here (pictured on the upper left) is my Blood Ravens Sternguard, 95% complete. After basecoating the fiddly bits with 3-4 thin layers, I applied controlled washes over the whole model - Devlan Mud was used on the Old Parchment (except for the shoulder pads - I wanted to keep them pristine) and Antique Gold parts; Badab Black on the Bridge Gray and White; and Baal Red was applied liberally over Opaque Red of the power armour and the banner. When I apply washes, I try to maintain as much control over the flow of the ink as much as possible. I'll load up the tip of a 0 or 00 brush with some of the wash, then carefully let it run along the recesses and cracks of the area I plan on shading. I just find a more controlled wash helps you cut some time off the next step when you bring the basecoat colors back up plus it also avoids the dreaded dried pooling effect that sloppy application of washes can sometimes produce. (I've read that adding a small drop of dishwashing detergent to the wash can help avoid the pooling effect, but I've only tried it once or twice. I don't know - I'm sure it works, but the result was so marginal for me that I just stopped doing it, mostly out of forgetfulness. Usually, unless something is so amazingly effective and obvious, I won't try to integrate it into my everyday practice.)

Overall, I was happy with how the Citadel Washes worked, as I have been since buying them 4 months ago. Games Workshop may rightfully get slammed for a lot of things, but they done good with their Washes, in my opinion. The only thing I wasn't happy with regarding this model was the liberal Baal Red wash I applied on the power armour. The result was splotchy, darkened areas all over the armor as opposed to just in the recesses. My thought process was that since the basecoat was a bit flat and the coverage of the Opaque Red wasn't 100% perfect, the Baal Red wash would fill in the coverage for the Opaque Red while at the same time adding some shine and depth to the armor. Well, it did add shine, but it didn't add uniform coverage, that's for sure. I had to go over the wash with more Opaque Red basecoat to minimize some of the splotchiness, but as you can see, I wasn't completely successful. I think I've learned a valuable lesson for any future Blood Ravens I'll be painting up: do not use a liberal application of the Baal Red wash on the power armor; instead, apply a controlled wash of Badab Black to the recessed, then use paint layering (from dark to light) to give the illusion of depth.

The base was basically decorative sand glued on with white glue, then painted over with a basecoat of Brown Velvet followed by a drybrush of Desert Sand and light wash of Devlan Mud. The thorny bush looking thing was decorative moss purchased at Michael's glued down with superglue, and the small brown rock bit was a piece of cork also held down with superglue.

Looking back, I'm not completely satisfied with either the model or the tutorial. I tried to make the tutorial as comprehensive as possible, and I think that was partially why it might not have been effective as it could be. It seemed too sprawling, included too much repetition and the laying out of too obvious steps. As I said in my last post, I think in the future, my tutorials will focus more on highlighting interesting things I might have picked up in regards to the various aspects of the hobby rather than on the more mundane things. Tutorials focused on clever conversions seem to be very popular with readers, so I might focus on that. As for the model itself - well, my interest in it waxed and waned as this process trudged along. This is the longest I've ever spent on a model. The first tutorial was posted on July 24, and it's taken 6 days to reach the end. I'm usually able to paint up a model in 2 or 3 days. By the Part VI, I did not want to even look at the miniature let alone paint it.

Okay, so as for what's up next on the blog? I have no idea! I have the Skaven Plague Monk and the Kroot Auxiliary still left over from the also-rans of the poll, but I also have an Imperial Guard Platoon Commander beckoning to me from my workshelf. We'll see...

Click here for more pics on the Sternguard WIP.