The past weekend I was looking forward to completing the Dreadknight project by finishing the force weapons, however I couldn’t decide on which technique to use and was unsure of the color scheme for all the blends. So I switched to the primed Maulerfiend sub-assemblies and started applying basecoats. Not the most exciting news to be honest but this lets me keep the work flowing. Find out my progress on this beast and the work plan after the jump.

The flesh color is Khorne Red and the metal parts have Leadbelcher on them. It seems I missed some spots on the hand. While it is not extremely difficult, some portions of the model have flesh fusing with metal which makes determining the transitions. An easy application of Leadbelcher on the tentacles. On these large parts I had to use two coats of the paint, thinned with Lahmian Medium. I'm planning brass or gold for the tentacle tips. The chassis is still a question mark for me as I am not sure what color scheme I want to use on the chimneys and how things will transition. I'm also not sure about the colors of the belly plates yet. I wasn't particularly neat with the application so some touch up will be required. I'm also planning to apply sharper highlights to the flesh areas, similar to the GW store pics.

I opted for the red demon flesh color I used in the Possessed marines and the Heldrake projects to keep coherence with the army, however I’m not entirely convinced that this is really the color scheme I want to apply to the model. The few reference pictures I have for the Black Legion schemes on the internet show high contrast tan colors which look a little more appealing. Then again this means I’ll have to update my color collection to apply it. GW used a fully black scheme on their shop page for the Forgefiend and on the box art which I think is overdone and not very original. At such an early stage in the project I’m open to suggestions for the color scheme. If all else fails I’ll go for the Khornate daemon look.

Also you’ll see I left out all the armor plates from the model and the gold is missing. I’ll once again go with Vallejo Liquid Gold for the trims and the armor and plan to finish it off in a single session. If all goes to plan and I can finish work on the Dreadknight within the week, I’ll have the weekend to apply the VLM in one go. With so many armor plates and the huge Chaos star I think I’ll have a lot of surfaces to work on and will need to think of a way to break up all the gold. I read that the VLM series are difficult to shade with acrylic paints convincingly so I’ll have to think of a solution for that too. Any recommendations are welcome.

In this project I also want to try new methods:

  • Two brush blending for the flesh highlights. I have ample space on arms and legs that should work nicely.
  • Oil paint washes. The applications I see look stunning, but I’m worried about how messy it is.
  • Panoramic or large base to elevate the model. Should be easy with all the rocks I collected and the cork I have.
  • Weathering and battle damage. I have already messed up the model a little with the primer, perhaps I can mask that.

Not the tallest order but enough to keep me busy and on my toes. No deadlines involved so I should be able to take my time and work cleanly. Here’s to hoping I’ll greet you with a Showcase post next time!


Filed under: Black Legion, Chaos Space Marines, Chat, Maulerfiend, WIP Tagged: black legion, chaos, chaos space marines, daemons, games workshop, maulerfiend, miniature hobby, new releases, painting, vallejo liquid metal, warhammer40k, WIP