Warp Wyrms Project Log - Entry 1

Greetings Gamers, 

Gravius here with a small update to my Warp Wyrms Project Log (which started here). This week I’ll be delving into the process I used to slap a bit of paint onto my Heldrake.

First off I’ve got to say the Heldrake was an instant favourite of mine when it was released. I know it’s a controversial model both in terms of its power on the board and it’s aesthetics but my reason for liking it was simple. It’s a dragon! In fact, better than that, it’s a warplane dragon!

Anyway, on to my paint scheme.

The main scheme for my warband is a simple deep red and contrasting bone colour. It’s something I’ve not really seen before on Chaos Marines and I think its looks pretty cool. I’ve yet to paint any infantry in this scheme (except for a few random test models) but my Daemon Prince and Maulerfiend turned out pretty well, so I was looking forward to applying it to the Heldrake.

So without further ado my step by step…

Step One – Undercoat

To start I sprayed the whole model (his wings are magnetised so I could fit him into a sensible carry case, which is why you might see some pictures of separate wings and body) in army painter black spray paint. Once that had dried (properly) I sprayed the model again, from a bit more of a distance with army painter dragon red. This red coat over black goes on very dark, and that’s exactly what I wanted. If you’re going for a similar dark red, it’s better to err on the side of caution. Once you spray too much red, there’s very little you can do to darken it down again, without considerable effort. The picture you can see to the right is after the red spray.

Step Two – Red Highlights

Ember Orange Applied

Khador Red Applied

Next I applied an edge highlight of P3 Khador Red to the recessed sections of the wings, carapace and underside of the Heldrake.

After the Khador Red dried, I went back in with P3 Ember Orange and highlighted the red up a little in places.

I love the stark contrast from the dark (almost black) red, right up to this bright red/orange. It’s a pretty simple process and doesn’t need a whole heap of painting skill, just a good quality brush which will hold its shape well and a bit of patience.

Also, at this stage I painted the baleflamer in the same colours to represent an intense heat.

Step Three – Fleshy Bits

Tatacle Pink applied

After a wash of Asurman Blue

Compared to the other Daemon Engines there’s not a lot of flesh on the Heldrake, but I painted it in the same colour as the flesh on my Maulerfiend. The look I was trying to achieve was that of a bluish-pink. As my warband is Tzeentchian I figured the Daemon-flesh bits would be the same Daemon-flesh as makes up the material form of Tzeentches servants, the pink and blue horrors. The first step is simple, paint all the flesh-bits in tentacle pink. Two coats gives a nice even finish over the dark red undercoat. After the pink dried I applied a wash of Asurmen Blue to get that hint of blue-horror beneath the surface. Finally, I applied a highlight of 50/50 mix of tentacle pink and army painter Skeleton Bone, to a few raised areas of the flesh.

Step Four – Carapace

Next I painted the raised areas of the wings and carapace, as well as the head and pretty much all of the rest of the model that wasn’t claws or spikes. These areas I gave two coats of Army Painter  Skeleton Bone, which gave a clean even finish. This bright bone colour contrasts nicely with the dark red parts of the carapace but this is one area where I have a little left to do. On both my Daemon Prince and the Maulerfiend I’ve used washes to give the bone colour some depth (using Devlan Mud wash), however, I’m not entirely happy with the result as it does too much to dull the brightness, which at this stage I think is providing really good contrast. If anyone out there has any great technique for highlighting bone, without ‘browning’ it out too much, I’d love to hear it.

Step Five – Metal Bits

For this final step I applied, Citadel Boltgun Metal (by far and away the best metallic paint I have ever used, you shall be missed) to all of the metal parts of the heldrake such as claws, spikes, teeth etc. With this dry I the used a highlight of Citadel Chainmail and then a final edge of Citadel Mithril Silver to give a sense of sharpness.

And there you have it, my Warp Wyrms have their very own Heldrake to rain fire upon their enemies. Nothing I’ve done in the steps above involved any particular painting skills, and that’s pretty much the same with everything I paint. I’m not the most talented painter but I do have patience, and when working to table-top standard patience can take you a pretty long way.

 

I’m hoping to actually get some Chaos Marines painted up for the next instalment, so I’ll look forward to seeing you there. And as always, if you’ve any comments or techniques you’d like to share, we’re always glad to hear them.