Adding Character to your army: Using your Models like a canvas. Part 2

Previously I discussed using the large "empty" parts of models to add character to your army by painting more than just a simple color/highlights.  I discussed using the grieves of the legs on Space Marines, and Storm Shields as a place to paint scenes or iconography such as flames, lava, meteors etc.  I discussed this in reference to my Salamander army and primarily the 3 Siege Shields I painted with 3 differing sets of icons of the Salamander Chapter.  In this article I would like to take you through the process of painting the night sky/space using no black paint.  I won't be using my Salamanders for this article.  The Siege Shields on my Salamander Vindicators finally provided me with the inspiration I needed to add character to my Space Wolves.

The first thing I did was draw up rough sketches of what I wanted.  I hadn't done this with the Siege Shields because the lava, and flames were old hat for me and the Siege Shield is a large enough area that I felt confident I could easily fix any mistakes.  Rhino hatches are much smaller and what I had in mind for the 3 hatches was much more detailed, so I did something out of character for me when it comes to painting.  I planned ahead!

The key to night skies and space is to avoid using black.  Black is simply to stark and if you look up at the night sky you will notice it truly is a dark, dark blue not true black.  I decided to use GW's Necron Abyss color from the Foundation Paint set.  I am a huge proponent of GW Foundation Paints.  They provide excellent coverage and rich colors for a good base coat.

With the base coat down it is time to create the initial outlines of each hatches focal point.

With the focal points done up in Adeptus Grey and Calthan Brown, again Foundation Paints, it is time to start adding in layers of detail slowly.

I wanted the snow on the Fang on the hatch with the clouds to have dark blue undertones while the more close up view of the peak to have grey undertones.  I simply used an old beat up dry brush to stipple Skull White over the colors in the previous picture.  Since the scenes are all at night I wanted to capture the immensely dangerous, deep, darkness of Fenrisian oceans so I decided to make the water Chaos Black.

I began to layer the clouds on the Fang, and set up the meteors and constellations respectively.  I also added in some shield and gold detail to the Long Ship on the middle hatch along with waves.

I simply added detail bit by bit with each hatch.  The meteors are slowly being layered with color from dark red through orange and then yellow.  The clouds are getting varying layers of Adeptus Battlegrey, Shadow Grey, Codex Grey, and finally Skull White.  The sails on the Long Ship were touched up with white stripes and Blood Red.  The waves got another highlight of a slightly lighter grey.

Coming up on the final steps it just takes a little Skull White.  The last layer of the meteors, stars, and caps on the waves are all done with pure Skull White.

One of the keys to making this sort of work on your army look decent is to pick simple subject matter and simple color schemes.  Don't go way overboard with the colors or the subject matter at first.  Try out simple things to begin with.  Single icons or simple iconography and scenes.  Slowly work your way up to more complex things.  I will leave you with a look back at some of my previous attempts at "Free Hand."

 The "Templar" army was my first Space Marine army.  The symbols on the door were free hand, you can tell from top to bottom that my painting has improved.  The Word Bearers were my second army, both it and the "Templars" have long since gone to better homes through e-bay.  The Blood Angels were just completed a few weeks ago.  I don't plan to play the Blood Angels, just sell them, the play style doesn't fit with my gaming personality and I have too many Marine armies already.  Continually trying to improve your painting will definitely pay off.  Seek the advice of other, better painters.  A good source for painting advice is DakkaDakka.  There painting and modelling tutorial forum is a rich resource for how to paint including some very informative articles about free hand from people far more talented than my self.

My last article on the subject of "free hand" painting to add character to an army met with a bit of criticism.  As I have mentioned on several occasions I know my artistic skills are no where near Golden Daemon.  I think that using some pieces of your army as a canvas can add a lot of character to your army and attract attention during the "soft score" portion of tournament judging.  Free hand painting is usually a good way to attract attention even if it isn't the best.  The Word Bearer army seen above attracted a lot of attention because of the free hand painting I did; even though it isn't the best (it also convinced me to not try painting "people" on a model again until I had practiced some more).  Besides, in order to get good at something you have to keep trying it!