Grey Knights: DaBoyz GT 2011 Project Army T-14 Days

Two weeks from today I will be rolling some dice, moving around some toy soldiers, and enjoying one of the highlights of 2011.  I squeezed in a couple practice games last week and a friend said something interesting to me.  Someone had asked him if I had the army commissioned because it looked so good.  What a compliment huh?

Anyways, this week's GT prep article focuses on painting one model from start to finish so y'all can see how I go about it.



I start with the model primed skull white.  I usually prime the entire sprue lightly, then assemble it and prime it again.

Then, I block out the area that will be dark or silver with pure black.  I use the cheap Folk Art paints from the hobby shop.  Some of the areas are painted with solid black, some are washed (see the banner).

I dry brush the arms and legs with metallic gunmetal.

Then, dry brush them with sterling silver as a highlight.  Here's the back where you see more silver.

Next, I paint in the gold areas.

Then I wash the gold with a 1:2 pure black/water mix.

Here I've started the red areas with barn red (multiple coats).

Then I paint all the books, parchment, and purity seals with dark brown.

I highlight the red areas with autumn leaves.

I use honeycomb to start lightening up the books, parchment, and purity seals.  Here I've also painted the knight on the banner with medium grey and dove grey.  His cloth is cobalt blue and aquamarine.

Then I use tapioca to finish the parchment and books.  Gold areas get highlighted with a 50/50 mix of gold and silver.

I finish the model with blues in the eyes and psycannon.  All books and purity seals get fine lines of text.  Stripes are added to the psycannon and black areas are highlighted with medium grey and dove grey.  I dry brush a blend of blues and whites around the lower right side of the model to serve as blue glow from the psycannon.

Here's my wet palette and dry palette (and my foot!).  No fancy paint station for me, just a $6 lap tray from the craft store, a goose neck lamp, and my recliner in front of the TV.

And here's the finished terminator squad on Battle Ready Fig Tech bases.

There you go, one model start to finish.  That guy took 3 days, about 12 hours of free time.  The army is nearly finished now so stay tuned for more finished units and pics.