A Commander Steps Forward

By TheGravemind

I always just liked the flavor text of this card.

More often then not, people like to have their HQs be the center piece of their army. I as well like my leaders to look good. I spend more time planning, assembling, and painting them. As I take more time on them, I feel I slowly improve and learn how to produce better looking models. I wanted to share the progress of some of this.

First lets take a look at my tyranids. They were my very first army. Back when I didn't know the first thing about assembling models or painting them.

Before

 This is one of my oldest models. Pretty much my very first paint job. I'm not even sure if I primed him or not. The brown is simply a very watered down brown, as this was before I knew about washes. The black is not watered down at all, and then there are solid white for the stripes. The base was fine sand glued on and then all painted in a dark brown. The green tongue wasn't added till years later.

After

 Here is my current Tyranid Prime. My "Alpha Warrior". Here, there are layered transitions on the white stripes. I've used ogryn flesh wash over Bleached bone to get about the same shading of brown with a much better result. There are edge highlights on the talons, the teeth are actually painted along with the eyes, and even the base has shading via dry brush.

Now this is no where near perfect, but it is a huge improvement. I still need to add more detail to the base, and finish the bonesword to make it less flat green.

Let's take a look now at my more recent army. I started collecting my marines a year and a half ago, some time after the Blood Angel book came out.

First marine

 Here is a generic assault marine from my first squad I've finished. The eyes are painted orange, there is a squad marking yellow band on his head.... but really the paint job is flat. It is just a solid blue layer, plain grey, some boltgun metal trim. The weapons are black with boltgun metal dry brush. I did manage to use my tyranid skin technique on the horns.

Most recent

Here is my librarian I have recently painted up. While the picture doesn't show it, again the base has some highlights, and there are line highlights on the edge of some of the armor pieces. This model really allowed me to use more washes and dry brushing as it had many more components to pick out. I even started using some Mithril Silver in addition to Boltgun metal to give some more contrast with the metal bits.

Now while I'm not near Sandwyrm's level of painting, I'm still improving and heading in a good direction. I am always looking for good articles on painting, and trying and learning new techniques. The internet is a great place to find inspiration and help. I still look back at the Color theory and wheel when I'm trying new color combinations. I encourage everyone to keep pushing themselves and try new things when it comes to the hobby.