# Chaos Cultist WIP



## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

So due to the new starter set my local GW shop is having a painting competition where you have until the 8th of September to paint a model from the starter set and the best looking one wins.

Now I haven't painted for ages and I never painted humans (Nids for me  but I also haven't painted these for a long long time :fool so I want to give it a try.

Mr. Sniffles:











Basically each day I'm going to set 10-20 minutes aside, probably at the end of the day, to painting the Cultist and trying to make it look as good as possible. I got a free Painting DVD set from MiniWarGaming so I might look at that too and maybe learn a bit too.

Now since I didn't buy paints I have to use the paints I have in my possession at the time:
*Paints* (added links to the paints equivalent to them because I have mostly old paints):
*GW: *
Skull White
Ice Blue
Shadow Grey
Chaos Black 
Mithril Silver
Chainmail 
Caliban Green

*Formula P3:*
'Jack Bone
Battledress Green
Thrall Flesh 
Battlefield Brown

*Washes/Inks:*
P3 Brown Ink
P3 Armour Wash

So I was thinking of Cowl and hood in a fleshy green (I imagine a mix between Thrall and Battlefield with highlights of Jack Bone).
The Cape and shoes will be in black but the end of hte sleeves and the edge of the cape would be in the same colour of the cowl.
The amulet will be a metallic icy blue (more Shadow Grey than Ice Blue though).
Pants will be in Shadow Grey with Ice Blue highlights.

As for the face the eyes would also be in Ice Blue and the mask from metal. The gun as well 

Here is a little concept thingiemajing I've done in photoshop to try the colours and I gotta say I love it!









The pants will be in the icy colour (you can only see the knee cap there) and the autogun is going to be in metal (tried to make it look metallic but alas, I couldn't ).

Tonight I will work on mostly priming it. I will prime the Icy blue parts and bandages with white and the rest in black.

Then I imagine I'd base it or should I do something else? Washes perhaps? Any tips of how to paint such a small and detailed miniature? Should the brush be very wet so the paint won't clog all the nooks and crannies?

Thanks!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Excellent choice of model; the new cultists are some of the best looking models in the set.



Viciator said:


> Any tips of how to paint such a small and detailed miniature?


Several thin coats of paint is better than one thicker coat, both for control and not swamping detail.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Dave T Hobbit said:


> Excellent choice of model; the new cultists are some of the best looking models in the set.
> 
> 
> 
> Several thin coats of paint is better than one thicker coat, both for control and not swamping detail.


Yea I love the hooded models! (Also why I love the DA! Robes and hoods )

So I should add a few drops of water to the paints on the pallets?

Thanks for the tip!


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## Lethiathan (Nov 11, 2011)

Which novel eh? I believe that one is the First Heretic, no? Also follow Dave's advice, thin paints down then apply them in repeated layers.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Lethiathan said:


> Which novel eh? I believe that one is the First Heretic, no? Also follow Dave's advice, thin paints down then apply them in repeated layers.


Horus Rising  Second time I hear First Heretic though, no idea what it's about or if it's even the same Samus I'm talking about xD


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## Lethiathan (Nov 11, 2011)

I know It's the first in the horus heresy series, just forgot the title


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## Eleven (Nov 6, 2008)

Viciator said:


> Horus Rising  Second time I hear First Heretic though, no idea what it's about or if it's even the same Samus I'm talking about xD


the daemon samus who repeatedly shouts, "Samus is here!" is a bloodthirster that appears in several horus heresy novels.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Eleven said:


> the daemon samus who repeatedly shouts, "Samus is here!" is a bloodthirster that appears in several horus heresy novels.


Well thanks for telling...

Back to topic, I'm happy there are two Mr. Sniffles in the Starter Set so in case I mess one up I'll always have the second one (only difference is the gun pose).


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Viciator said:


> So I should add a few drops of water to the paints on the pallets?


Yes.

The exact dilution is a matter of taste; however you are aiming for approximately the consistency of milk.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

OK Basing is (kinda) done! 

Didn't have a lot of time for painting today so I ended up just priming it all with Black. Tomorrow though I will start earlier and prime the parts that should be icy blue White and base the Brown parts. Hopefully I'd also have time to base the blue parts.

On Tuesday I'd do the washes and hopefully first highlights. On Wednesday I hope to finish the mini with the final Highlights and then I'll have 3 days of being able to fix or improve things! (Like giving him glowy eyes etc.).

So for the boring part where you get to look at the primed Mr. Sniffles:

































Gave him two thinned down coats of Chaos Black  And well he looks great! 

Somewhere in the warp a Lord of Change looks at an image of future Mr. Sniffles and sheds a tear. Whether it is a tear of happiness or profound disgust and sadness I am not sure! What I am sure of is that I am going to try hard and make the Lord of Change proud! roud:


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

I do have a question: What should I do with the cloak? It will be black but how do I highlight black stuff? Is there another way I should paint the cloak with?

Thanks!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Viciator said:


> I do have a question: What should I do with the cloak? It will be black but how do I highlight black stuff? Is there another way I should paint the cloak with?


I highlight black by layering several progressively lighter greys on smaller and smaller areas, then applying thin coats of black wash to draw it together and darken down.

If you are looking for a quicker less effective method then Charadon Granite works as a single layer highlight.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

I swear they should allow doctors to give their patients painting as a therapeutic! I spent lots of time painting today - I primed the blue parts white, based everything and highlighted everything! I feel very very very good  

The plan for tomorrow is to do the washes and second highlighting unless you guys will come with comments and criticisms (very welcome to do so!) and I will have to change stuff!

Wednesday is 40k Painting day in my local GW shop so I might go there to to ask for advice 

So! Now now, you! YES YOU! Be patient and don't eat your nails! The photos will come....

HERE:

































I think it all looks great and being able to highlight the black cloak made me feel great! I thought it was difficult but it was rather simple.
The only two things I'm mostly disappointed from is that highlighting the metals was impossible! The Mithril did not shine through the Chainmail :/
Secondly the bandages on the legs clogged up from the paint so there is not a lot of details there.

Otherwise I think everything's going super well!  WOOT WOOT :yahoo::yahoo:


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## Spawner105 (Jul 27, 2012)

Looks really good my only thing is the face mask looks like kinda globby it very well could be just picture quality. Still looks really good though and tell us how you do in the competition.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Well... I finished painting the model. I also kinda ruined it :/ Clogged the mask and just think that generally I did too much (being scared what I'm doing is wrong or doesn't look good so not thinking about adding another layer of paint or washing too much etc.).

Doesn't matter though, I'm done and that's all that matters. Tomorrow I'll bring it to the GW shop for comments and hopefully I'll also receive some from you guys. I think I will try to paint another cultist and see how it goes (I'm still not too confident about painting the Chaos Chosen... I really want to but the amount of detail on them is terrifying :O


































Thanks for the support and tips! Hopefully I won't make the same mistakes with my next model!


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The colour palette looks good.

It is hard to tell whether the mask in clogged as the light is shining on it in that photograph. If it is I suggest carefully running a pin down the slots to abrade away some of the paint.

Your highlights seem to be in the correct place; however some of them (especially on the black cloth) look a touch heavy. I suggest trying to apply highlights with the brush barely touching the model; if some do not show up after the first pass you can go back and add light layers until it is bright enough. Alternatively a dark wash will blend them in.


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## Hellados (Sep 16, 2009)

when i apply a highlight to black i tend to dislike my work and go over it with a black was to tone it down and help tie it in

Otherwise he looks very cool, very dark, mysterious and scary


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

I like how it came out but I guess I was just expecting 'Eavy Metal quality from the first mini I painted in a long time. 









Is this better Dave? 

Alright! I decided what the next model will be!









Not sure I'd have time to finish it before the competition so I'll stick with Samus unless I finish this guy and like what came out 
Will be doing the same general theme I'm just thinking I'm going ot do the blues on the upper cloth, black in the middle and then the pants brown and shoes black. The Gun will be brown and boltgun metal and the bandages on the hands blue while the bandages on the gun will be 'Jack Bone.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Based Samus and primed Mr. Sniffles (decided to name the second model Mr. Siffles because of the cool nosy mask ) yesterday.

Today I started with basing:

































Still not sure what I'm gonna do with the middle part. I'm thinking a White + Shadow Grey mix for a very pale blue for a nice transition from the brown to the shadow grey or maybe just the black again but this time it's a big part so I don't know how nice a bigger area of black will look :/

I also added some green! (the Caliban green I bought with Dark Vengeance). Some to one part of the mask (which I might change because it's too dark but will probably pop out more once I give Mr. Sniffles a red cyborg eye!

I also made that flask and pipe green and I'm meaning to make it look liquid and poisonous. How? I have NO idea :grin: Any tips? 

I think I'm also going to change the colour of the rifle (boltgun metal is too much, maybe I'll still keep it metallic but mix it with another colour?).

Every Wednesday my local GW shop has 40k painting day (as I said before) so you are welcome to suggest paints I can use and while I wouldn't be able to do anything at home when I go there Wednesday I will do what you told me with the paints (because they have everything )


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Sooooo I'm almost done so here is a small (big) update!

I still need to do a few things like paint the metallic eye red and try to make the spaces between the stitches look like clotted blood.

What I'm proudest of is the liquid vial I managed to paint and it looks not bad! It wasn't blended enough and since I only had Caliban Green I mixed it with white so I think I'll be fixing that next Wednesday when I go to the GW shop. I'll use Warpstone Stone for the liquid and Moot Green for the highlight. White Scar would be used for the shine on the vial.

Of course there are also a few mistakes I've made like putting too much wash at some places and a few more you might notice 

Enjoy! (High-res photos HERE)


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

The quartered effect on the mask is a good touch.

I am looking forward to seeing the clotted blood.


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Dave T Hobbit said:


> The quartered effect on the mask is a good touch.
> 
> I am looking forward to seeing the clotted blood.


Thanks! Yea I think it makes him look like more of a psychopath 

Do you have any tips for how to paint the clotted blood? like making it look bloody rather than just paint or a wash?


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Three questions spring to mind for blood:

(1) Fresh or dried? Fresh blood is red and semi-transparent whereas dried blood is opaque, crusty, and brown.

(2) Why is the blood there? Depending on how the blood got there (e.g. soaked through form his face, splashed from a dead enemy, daubed on as part of a ritual) it will have a different pattern.

(3) Just blood or gore as well? Tearing weapons throw minced flesh as well as blood, so the spatter would contain thicker cast, whereas blood marks from ritual or facial wounds would probably be smoother.

What sort of blood would you like to simulate?


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## Viciator (Jul 12, 2012)

Well what I was thinking of doing is to give the mask the effect of being stitched on a recently flayed face so I want to spaces between the pieces of the mask to look bloody with somewhere between fresh and dried blood so sticky, a little bit glossy but starting to get dark and crusty.


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## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

Right, so an impermeable mask over a flayed face.

If he is up and fighting the blood will probably be clotting/clotted so you are looking for a dark rusty brown for most of it, with some fresh blood where it has not quite dried/a wound has reopened.

The consistency of blood alone is smooth enough that I do not think you need to add chunks at GW scale.

My suggestion is to apply several layers of thin brown paint starting at the seams and eye sockets and trickling downward to represent the older blood, trying not to overlap every time so it is thicker in places. Then add a small amount of dark red at the exit points to represent the blood starting to clot. Finally add a tiny amount of brighter red to a few points along the seam/edges of eye sockets and apply gloss varnish to the bright red to represent amounts of fresh blood.


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