How to Paint Steel Legion Tanks (Astra Militarum Painting/Weathering Guide)

Today, I'm presenting my step-by-step guide to painting a Steel Legion tank (a Deathstrike missile). I created this scheme for a new army I'm working on and I've kept it as succinct as possible. There are a lot of layers in here, but I've maximised the impact to time spent ratio to create a scheme that packs a punch fast. I have used an airbrush, but all of this could be done with a brush, it would just take more time. Speaking of time, the total painting time from start to finish for this tank was only 4 hours and 30 minutes. I've spent longer than that on single infantrymen for some armies! 

Even if you're not interested in painting steel legion, it'll probably still be an interesting article, as I'm going to really hammer through a lot of techniques that you may have never used before. With that out of the way, let's get started.

1) I gave the whole model a basecoat with Vllejo German Grey using the airbrush. It covers well, but some placed needed 2 coats to really get it good. I should mention that I started first with a Chaos Black undercoat to make sure that the paint would adhere.

 2) I applied a highlight to the whole model with the airbrush focussing on the upper areas. For this stage, I used a 50/50 mix of German Grey and Dark Sea Grey (which despite the name looks a lot like codex grey).

 3) A final highlight was applied using pure Dark Sea Grey. I was quite sparing with this paint as it is quite light (despite the misleading name).

 4) Time for some cammo. It looks a bit green at first, but don't worry we're just using this mix as a basecoat. Speaking of the mix, I used a 50/50 mix of Orange Brown and Scrofulous Brown for this stage. These are still all Vallejo paints applied with the airbrush.

 5) Looking a lot better after this one. I applied a highlight of Ice Yellow (A paint that looks suspiciously like bleached bone) to the cammo stripes; basically covering the first layer I had put down except for the very edges. It looks almost battle ready (Did someone just say Tabletop Standard, as this would definitely do).

 6) This stage is optional, and if you don't want Retro stripes on your tank then skip to stage 10. I used Tamiya masking tape to mask off an area on the front of the tank. I only really trust the Tamiya stuff not to take the paint off when you peel it off later.

 7) I applied a few coats of Scarlet Blood towards the front of the tank using the masking tape as a barrier. When it was completely dry, I peeled the tape off (no damage, thank god).

 8) In order to create more stripes, I waited for the paint to dry completely before applying another strip of masking tape; this time closer to the front of the tank. I also used some plastic wrap to mask the missile off for painting.

 9) I applied a few coats of Dead White to the front of the tank to create a white stripe. I then peeled off the tape and admired my handiwork. I also used this  stage to paint the missile in white.

 10) With the basic colours down, I decided that it was time to add some weathering to the tank. For this, I used a mix of 50/50 Cavalry Brown and Black. I applied this to the lower areas of the hull around the tracks. I was fairly sparing with this colour, as I will be weathering more later on.

 11) I also used my mix from stage 10 to make some mud splashes. For this, I just dipped my paint brush in the colour, wiped of the excess and then held it up about 3 inches away from the model. Then I used the airbrush to blast my paintbrush with air; dislodgeing the paint from the bristles and spattering my tank's hull for a good dirty look. If you're going to try this, test it a few times first to make sure you don't just drown your tank with brown when you pull the trigger, as results vary a lot if you try it with too much paint on the brush!

 12) Probably my favourite part is the final step with the airbrush. I used pure black to go in and shade the brown weathering that I had put on. I also shaded some of the panels. I was vary sparing in this stage, as you just want to make the thing look worn and sooty, but not actually black.

I've added two pictures below that show how things are going so far. At this point, I was only an hour and a half into the tank and things were really looking good. It would be even faster without the red and white stripes as that stage took about 20 minutes.

A closer shot of the side, so you can get an idea of how the weathering has gone. Interestingly, pure black works great for blending the white and red into the hull adds a lot of depth to them.

 13) With the airbrushing stage out of the way, I took my tank indoors to work on the bodywork. The first port of call was to add definition to the panels. For this, I applied a directed wash using Agrax Earthshade. Essentially this meant that I used a small brush wash round all the rivets, and down the panel lines of the tank. It's important not to just wash the whole tank or it will ruin all of the careful. If you want to see this stage in more detail, Warhammer TV did a video tutorial of a more basic Steel Legion scheme that has this exact same stage (see this video at about 1.10 to see how this is done: Warhammer TV Steel Legion Tank Tutorial).

After that, I used a really big square ended brush that was about 1 inch across to very lightly drybrush Ice Yellow over the top of the whole tank (except for that white missile). This picked up the very edges of the armour plates and the rivets and brought the whole look together.

For painting tanks, I like my brush the way I like my like my Martinis; dry … and almost unnecessarily large.

You can see the impact the Agrax wash has had from all of those rivets. I've added some little grease trails here and there to them to give the impression of age. It's got the patina!

14) To finish the hull off, I went to another painting technique. I used some German Grey on a dry sponge to add some paint chipping and weathering to the edges. I then followed this up doing the same thing with Leadbelcher. I have to admit that I don't usually watch painting videos, but I did some research planning this scheme out and I lifted this technique directly from Warhammer TV as well. As it's already been described in great detail in their video, I'll add a like. The part you want is at about 3 minutes in. Link to Weathering Video.

15) With all of that work out of the way, I finally entered the end game for this model. By this point about 2 and a quarter hours had elapsed. So time wise, I was about half way there. The next steps would be a bit more long winded and finnicky as there really is no way to cut down on the hard work after a certain point and you just have to stick with it. I didn't continue taking pictures of every step as all the next steps are quite basic and just the same kind of things you'd do to paint an ordinary infantryman. I am going to list the methods and colours that I used though, as I'll want to know when I come back to paint another tank for the army (hopefully a basilisk will be coming up next!). Ok, so the remaining colours go something like this:

• Silver areas (including Tracks): Basecoat Leadbelcher, wash with Dryad Bark, Highlight with Army Painter Plate Mail Metal, wash with Nuln Oil.
• White Areas (Banners): Basecoat Rakarth Flesh, Highlight 50/50 Rakarth Flesh and White, Wash with Agrax Earthshade, Highlight with White.
• Blue Areas (Lenses): Basecoat Dark Prussian Blue, Highlight successively with White. Gloss Varnish lenses when complete.
• Black Areas (Gun Bodies): Basecoat with Abaddon Black. Edge Highlight with Dark Sea Grey.

16) With all of the colours down and ready to go, the last stage was to apply the decals and add a final light stippled weathering with Dryad Bark just to blend in the transfers a bit and to unify anything that it looking just a little bit too clean.

The weathering as it appears on the finished model.

Well, that's it. The tank is complete. I hope somebody actually bothers to read to the end of this article! Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or if you want to know anything about the painting methods that I've used. 

If you found this article interesting, don't forget to follow the blog or check back later to see how the rest of the Steel Legion come out. I might even write out a tutorial for the infantry!

Airbrushing and Masking Miniatures - Plus Blue Steel NMM Technique

Masking, is there anything worse? It just never seems to go quite right, and no matter what fancy product you use it can be a bit of a battleground. Most of the time, it tends to go two ways; you either mask so well that you end up peeling the paint off when you take the tape away, or you do it too tentatively and end up with overspray and a bad finish.

Despite these concerns, I've been working on a technique that gives good coverage and protection, whilst not doing any damage. I managed to try it out this weekend on my Infinity Guijia, and it worked wonders.

I started by painting the orange armour sections with the airbrush (as orange is the main colour I didn't do any masking). I completely finished these by adding in edge highlights with the standard brush, and when I was happy, I gave them a coat of Vallejo Satin Varnish. This has the same lustre as the regular paint, but helps protect it from the next steps (It is also very important for my secret overspray defence technique, but more on that later). I painted in the areas that I wanted to do in Steel NMM in black with a regular brush as I was going to add a blend with various greys to them.

At this point, I usually find that something strange will happen. I'll be sitting there at my painting table and the airbrush will start to talk. It'll eye up the masking tape and say "Hey buddy, I thought you were a real man ... you don't need to mask anything, I wouldn't overspray on you". Try not to listen though - it's a trick. Even when it brings up all the progress you've made, and how nice your last mini was...

I find that Tamiya make good masking tape. It's pretty much as simple as that. I've used a few different brands, but it's the only one I trust not to weld itself on and come off with all of my hard work stuck to it. I have the varnish too for protection and I try not to leave it on there too long (an hour or so should be enough time to get what I need done). It does take a bit of time to get the tape on there and get coverage that you're happy with, but you really can't cut any corners. If you only need to mask the model to paint one thing that sticks out, I recommend using some plastic wrap like you used to have for your sandwiches, as the coverage is good and fast and I've never had any problems with peeling it off.

Blue-Steel NMM (Non Metallic Metal)

Top tip for mixing paint for the airbrush - mix it separately, not in the airbrush's cup and the consistency is right when it runs freely.

For the blue steel effect, I painted 4 layers over the black with the airbrush:

1. A general highlight with a mix of black, Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue and white. This is a pretty dark mix, and the blue seems to help get some interest into it as well as aids the non metallic metal appearance.
2. I followed up with another highlight, mixing in a greater quantity of white this time, and focusing on the upper areas and places that seemed like they should be reflective.
3. I finished up with 2 highlight layers of pure white. The reason for the second coat was to try to intensify the "shine" that I was going for.

This was the colour that I used for the original mix (although this picture is from when I was painting it with the normal brush later)

After that, I painted his sword in blue, and then it was time for the moment of truth; peeling the tape. Luckily, thanks to all that preparation, it went rather well.

Even with all of that masking, I still had a little overspray on some of the orange parts to contend with. This was quite noticeable on the pilot's arm, where the end had got speckled with white unintentionally. Luckily though, I was prepared to deal with it, and that varnish was a real time saver.

Dealing with Overspray

Remember that varnish? If you're looking to make this work, I hope you applied it!

Like I said, this only works if you added varnish during the earlier step. This is because it protects the paint from what I'm about to do. Working quickly, I grab my airbrush cleaning fluid. This stuff is designed to break down paint in the mechanism, so it'll eat the paint right off. I take a fairly soft old brush, dip it into the fluid and then apply it directly to the overspray. I rub it for about 10 seconds, or until I see it dissolve and then wash the whole area out with a lot of clean water. I want to make sure that there won't be any cleaning solution left as I have no idea what it would do, so I recommend a lot of water (so obviously only do this once the paint you were applying is dry!).

Finishing Up

After a delicate scrubbing, the few little bits of overspray were gone and the mini was ready for the final steps. In this instance, that meant painting in some of the steel bits that I couldn't reach with the airbrush and then finishing up the steel with a final shade in the recesses and sharp highlight to get a bit more shine on it. For these steps, I used pure black and pure white respectively.

Texture Paints - Valhallan Blizzard Review

Recently, in an effort to give some bases a little more interest, I bought a pot of Games Workshop's Valhallan Blizzard. This stuff is specially formulated to give a snow effect to the top of your bases. I was interested to see what could be achieved, as it's a relatively easy step that has the potential to add a lot of impact to an otherwise bland base. I'm using my recently completed Wrack as an example miniature for this review.

With the intro out of the way, lets take a closer look at the product.

Ease of Application

This stuff is really thick. I know they say that the new texture paints can be applied with a brush, but in this case only quite a stiff bristled one. That said, there's a bit of leeway in the drying time, so you get plenty of time to adjust it on the model and it spreads ok. It doesn't take long to apply and overall has a satisfying effect for the amount of time it takes.

After a bit of experimentation, I found that digging a bit out of the pot on a sculpting tool worked well, and that once I'd separated it out from the whole it was easier to manipulate with a brush.

Drying Time

Like I mentioned above, it does take a few minutes to cure, and even then I think it takes longer to fully harden. This helps a bit actually as it gives you some extra time to adjust it and as the effect is a finishing touch for bases, there's no problems with letting them sit on the side while the snow cures.

Durability

I found that the snow could sometimes come off on my finger when handling the base (I specifically handled the snow directly to test it). The majority of it stayed on there and I think it would be pretty hard to shift, but one or 2 tiny grains came off the top of some of the "heaps" when handling and I could see it wearing a bit in the long-term. To combat this I gave it a quick coat with some PVA to seal it; which didn't seem to do any harm to the aesthetic qualities, so I'd probably recommend it, especially for models that will see a lot of play.

Look

Lumpy, snowy, check out the pictures for more. In person, I was happy with the effect and it combines well with a painted base to add a nice finishing touch. I added an extra layer of gloss varnish to mine in the end (not too thickly) to add a bit of wet shine to it. I don't think it's necessary though, and its really a matter of preference and what you're going for.

What I particularly liked was that it naturally makes small clumps that look very realistic when you apply it to a base; like little remnants of melting snow. It's a nice effect that gives a strong finish.

Just for fun, I combined in a few blood effects too!

Cost

At the time of writing, it's being marketed at £4.55 a pot (24ml). I think that whether you consider that a good deal or not probably depends on your approach. For me, I wanted to add a dash of snow to a few bases; meaning  it would go a long way. If you were looking to completely cover your bases, or to do scenery, you might want to look at other options as I could see you might end up getting through a lot of pots!

Conclusion

A good product, but one that needs a bit of thought and TLC to reach its full potential. Great fun though and well worth a shot if you're looking to spice up some bland bases. If I was rating it out of 10, I'd probably say 7/10. It looks good, but could be a bit more durable, although this can be treated and it isn't likely to come off easily. I also think that it could be a bit pricey for some uses; particularly scenery or application to larger bases and models. Well worth a punt though for anyone interested.

Shirtless Wrack says "it's cold out here, I need a nice cup of soup!"

How to Paint Non Metallic Metals

As part of my latest project, I've been working on painting Inquisitor Greyfax in Non Metallic Metal Gold. As a relative newcomer to this technique, I thought I'd share the insight I've managed to get so far and a few of the techniques I've been using to pull it together. I had initially planned this to be a fairly succinct article, but it has grown into a bit of a Behemoth as there are so many facets to the technique; so you'd better get your thinking caps on and your specs ready for this one!

Initially, I found one or two tutorials online to get an idea of how the technique is done. These varied greatly in quality, but the one that I found most helpful was:

http://razzaminipainting.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/non-metallic-metals.html Darren Latham's blog, he doesn't post very often, but it's very interesting, well worth following especially for painters or anyone who is interested in Games Workshop.

It was especially useful, not only as good reference material, but also as he discussed the actual paints and colours used. From the tutorial, it was obvious that the keys were smooth blending (fairly obvious), contrast from dark to light, and adding pure white highlights in relevant places (probably the hardest parts). The whole pattern of shading had to be carefully considered as well if it was to look realistic. I won't bother to go into too much detail (ok some detail is covered later), as these points are discussed ad-nauseum all over the internet and for my part I'd rather talk mechanics, blending, and how I did it!

The other tutorial that I used was from Angel Giraldez's Painting Miniatures from A-Z Part 2. He covers creating a range of Non-Metallic colours using an airbrush and brush style. Unfortunately, you'll have to buy the book if you want to know the ins-and-outs of it as I'm not sharing his copyrighted material. Needless to say that my own method below was inspired by his book and draws on the techniques I built up after reading both volumes and experimenting with his style (which I've since combined into my own style as they were surprisingly compatible; a rare thing for me as I find a lot of painting tutorials clash with my own style and techniques).

I don't have exact paint names for a lot of this, as I did a lot of mixing and improvising as I went, although if you do want to follow a set of specific colours, they're listed on Darren Latham's blog and I was basing my work on his. It's important to note that there is no way to apply this technique "by the numbers" anyway as any application is going to take considerable artistic skill (and I'm still learning too). Even with those restrictions, I'm going to break things down as succinctly as possible and I hope people will find it some help, or at least interesting.

Method 

 

Airbrush Blending

I used an airbrush, but it isn't necessary. If you don't have one, the same colours can still be applied, but you'll have to blend by hand from the start. I've written a section on blending later on, which I hope will be of some help. It'll just take a long time!

1. I started with a coat of black primer (pretty standard for most models).
2. I then added another layer of primer. This time with the airbrush using Vallejo Grey Primer. This stuff is almost white and I sprayed downwards and from the directions that light would shine in. This served 2 purposes; first as a pre-shade, but second to help me see the volume of the areas I was working on as well as to demo the lighting effect/highlights that I would later add. It sounds like a superfluous step, but it really did help me process the effect I was trying to create.
3. After that excitement, I added thin a basecoat to the whole model with the airbrush using a ruddy brown (a mix of red, black and Vallejo Dark Flesh). This would give me a base to work from for the darker tones.
4. Progressively mixing in lighter colours (Pale flesh) I layered lighter browns with the airbrush. 
5. This was following in the footsteps of my favourite internet tutorial that said to start with browns and then glaze in the yellow tones. As I worked I added in some more yellow to the mix, but it was still very woody.
6. I finished the initial blending with some tentative white highlights using the airbrush.
7. The moment of truth came next as I glazed the model with pure yellow - again using a thin mix and the airbrush at a good distance. This was a nail biting step as if I got the mix too thick it'd obliterate all of that blending.
8. To finish up the airbrush work, I came back in and did a final spot highlight using pure white to create points of light on the armour.

And with that, my quest came to an end .... or so I'd like to say, but honestly it was just getting started and I switched to the regular paint brush and set to work. To make it look like less work though, I'm going to start numbering again. I bet you feel motivated now...

Paintbrush Time

1. In order to enhance the contrast, I painted Rhinox Hide round all of the edges of the armour. This gave visual definition between the plates and is a bit of a classic technique from Angel Giraldez's work (always then combined with a sharp highlight). I used a mix of 1/3 Rhinox Hide to 2/3 Lahmian Medium for this as I wanted to keep the paint nice and pliable.
2. With a series of glazes, I set to work improving the contrast. The airbrush had worked well, but the colour gradient between dark and light wasn't sharp enough yet. I blended with various browns and reds to darken the plates in the appropriate places. The reds also helped to enrich the tone.
3. I used a thin glaze of yellow over the lighter areas in order to adjust the tone (to make it more yellow and vibrant, rather than brown). This can be as strong, or not as you see fit, depending on the end result you're going for.
4. After the blending (which I'm still adjusting even now, so I keep going back to this stage really, but in the ideal world...) I added a sharp highlight of pure white to the reflective surfaces to add the "shine". The first layer of white was glazed in with a mix of white and Lahmian Medium, with the second added using pure white to get a stronger tone.

If you're still reading this, then kudos, you might actually have enough attention span to make this work. I know I'm getting tired just talking about it, but the mini isn't done yet and there'll be endless layers of paint till we're done. I'm still adjusting mine as we speak (that makes it sound like I have my hand down my pants... but whatever). It really is all about hitting those highlights and going for contrast though, so keep at it. With that in mind, I think I should add a bit to the end on techniques and stuff.

Blending

Everyone paints differently, so I can't hand any technique to you on a platter, but I can give you an idea of how I blend. You may have noticed my fairly heavy airbrush use these days. I use an Infinity CR Plus airbrush with a cheap compressor and Vallejo products (both thinner and cleaner). This allows me to lay down a highlight as fine as about 1mm radius; although control at that level is still a nail biting experience. I know I always advocate it, but if you are serious about airbrushing, Angel Giraldez's Painting Miniatures from A-Z books are a good source of knowledge; although they don't tend to cover too much in the way of mechanics, but mostly just walk you through how he goes about painting various colours as well as stuff for NMM etc. I bought the first book about a year ago, and haven't looked back since (although I had no idea what I was getting myself into at the time).

Anyway, I use the airbrush to lay down a basic blend (this is possible with a brush, but would take a lot longer). After that, I use a series of Glazes to blend the colours together further and to change the tones. A Glaze is a bit like a wash; only thicker. Instead of water I use 2 products, Lahmian Medium and Vallejo Glaze Medium. Interestingly, I've found that these both have very different properties, but both can be exploited depending on the situation. Both are a medium, which essentially means that they're paint with no pigment in it. This might sound like something that would be of no use, as they're completely clear, but they're both incredibly helpful products. Mixing the medium with regular paint lets you create a very thin translucent layer that doesn't run into the gaps like a wash or leave stains where it dries. It will allow you to "tint" the base layer with a colour that applies evenly across the surface. With multiple layers you can build up a completely smooth blend (it just takes a lot of time and patience!).

Lahmian Medium acts very much like GWs other paints; it dries quickly once applied and a thick mix can leave a strong edge. I tend to use it when I'm going for a stronger look, or where I want to be very direct about what I'm doing, but just want to get a smoother result; like when I did the dark edge on those panels, or later the white highlight.

100% Acrylic resin? I have no idea what that means, but rumour has it it'll make you a sexual Tyrannosaurus, just like me...

Vallejo's Glaze Medium is far more interesting. As well as the same thinning effect, it retards the drying time of your paint incredibly. A thin coat will dry in about 2 minutes (compared to a few seconds). I've had paint mixed on my pallet with this stuff that has still been fluid days later (and no I don't ever use a wet pallet, so its just out in the air). The advantage of this is that I can add a layer of paint and while it dries I wash my brush and go in (with a just barely moist brush) and adjust the paint before it dries. This allows me to blend it in so that it leaves no "watermark" where the edge of the paint lies. Essentially it's completely smooth and seamless, but takes a very long time to build up the colour. For the purpose of my mini, this is the technique I used to adjust the blending and contrast after the airbrushing was complete.

The other thing to consider is the direction you're moving your brush in. Paint tends to pool and be the strongest when the brush leaves the model (especially with these thin glazes), so you should be dragging the brush towards the point where you want the colour to be the strongest. It's a bit of an odd one as it seems to be counterintuitive; you'd think that the colour would be strongest where you first made contact as logically you'd think that would be where the most paint was deposited. To make it a bit simpler, if I was shading, I'd start at the middle of the panel and drag down towards the darkest point.

Lighting

As it is so central to NMM, I thought a quick discussion of light and direction would be appropriate. If you made it through my guide above (or are still even awake by this point), you might remember that layer of grey primer at the beginning, which I used to help me establish this. Anyway, generally you'll be thinking of creating multiple virtual light sources. By that I mean, you don't really have to shine a bunch of lights on the mini, but think of the direction that light would be coming from around it. In some ways I envy 2D painters as they can add light entirely from one direction, whereas working in 3D that'd leave half the mini pure black - not really ideal, but it does demonstrate the idea - that the colours will be stronger where the light hits and darker where it doesn't. While a mini, having a "dark side" isn't exactly ideal, it does give you some idea of how to work the shadows. For mine, the darkest parts would be the inner surfaces of the legs as even with 4 imaginary light sources (roughly evenly spaced around the mini) that area would still be dark. At this point I think I may have actually gone mad with all of this stuff as reading it back I sound like a lunatic, but anyway you'll either get what I'm saying or not. This stuff is hard to explain, but that's basically it. After that it's mostly that the light will hit any ridges, or bits that stick out.

I drew this terrible diagram of where the highlights are on my phone using a work in progress photo:




While I'm showing off, I might as well finish up with some work in progress shots of my other rediculous painting project.

I have a headache now...


Don't forget to leave any questions or comments below - I almost always answer, and I'll throw in my two cents on almost any topic/problem. I'll probably also develop this article in time as I personally gain more experience. I certainly plan to update the pictures at some point once I'm finished working on the miniature in question!