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How to Paint: Horus Heresy Dark Angels Space Marines - I (1st) Legion
30K views
Nov 30, 2022
Are you after the fastest way to paint your Legion of Dark Angels Space Marines in the Horus Heresy? Look no further. With some basic colour theory applied and some easily accessible techniques, this guide adds a touch more interest to what is essentially a plain black model. Our How to Paint Horus Heresy Dark Angels Space Marines guide was painted with the Artis Opus FauxHammer Starter Set: https://store.artis-opus.com/products/fauxhammer-mixed-brush-set-5-brush-deluxe Get all the armour paints in a Bunde here: https://elementgames.co.uk/paints-hobby-and-scenery/element-essentials/egaps/paints-hobby-and-scenery/element-essentials/egaps/fauxhammer/fauxhammer-30k-dark-angels?d=10279 See all 18 heresy Armours Painted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8da2kKhI4zk&ab_channel=FauxHammer Print your own conversion parts with The best 3D printer for Miniatures https://www.fauxhammer.com/top-10/the-best-3d-printer-for-miniatures-models/ FauxHammer Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/fauxhammerblog Parts from TheCustomBit https://thecustombit.com/ FauxHammer Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/PaintHub FauxHammer Discord - https://discord.gg/dPexM9SeN4 Artis Opus Brush Set and texture Palette Bundle: https://store.artis-opus.com/products/fauxhammer-starter-set-bundle-mixed-5-brush-deluxe-set-texture-pallet?_pos=3&_sid=368f68ad4&_ss=r Get Your Artis Opus+FauxHammer Brush Set Here: https://store.artis-opus.com/products/fauxhammer-mixed-brush-set-5-brush-deluxe Matching FauxHammer Texture Palette: https://store.artis-opus.com/products/xl-texture-palette-fauxhammer-edition Best Airbrush For Miniatures: https://www.fauxhammer.com/top-10/best-airbrushes-for-miniatures-wargames-models/
View Video Transcript
0:00
Hello guys and welcome once again to Fowhammer videos
0:03
If you haven't already guessed, which I'm sure it's obvious, today we're going to be painting some Dark Angels, the first legion in the Horace heresy
0:10
And we're going to be going through some speed painting techniques. If you've seen any of other videos or our big video showing you how to paint the armor stages on all 18 legions
0:18
then by now you should have already subscribed. So if you haven't, please go and hit that subscribe button and ideally the notification bell
0:25
Without any more, let's get into it. So start by priming your model in black
0:29
I'm using an airbrush primer here, which I'll list on the screen what I'm using. But honestly, any black primer will do
0:35
Just get down a good solid covering on the miniature. A couple of customisations I've done on this
0:39
One of them you can't see here. So the first is the shoulder pad. I highly recommend people go out and buy the official Games Workshop shoulder pad
0:47
I cheated a bit and got a 3D printed part, but I'm only doing one of each Legion of all 18 legions
0:53
So no offence, Games Workshop. I'm not going to pay out 18 pound for a shoulder pad when I
0:59
for 10 shoulder pads when I only want one of them. So I hope you can forgive me this little artistic cheat that I've done here
1:05
just so we can get through the video. So, yeah, I've put this on the left-hand side
1:10
Yes, with Mark 6 armour, it's more traditionally a studded shoulder pad
1:13
But I just wanted something that was going to be a bit more interesting. So it's a bit more setup-wise, a traditional, a more 40K style
1:21
and some of the other armor types, we're going to have the insignia on the left-hand side
1:27
like a traditional space marine that people are used. used to. The other thing, which I haven't added here yet, I'll go on to in a minute, is a 3D printed
1:34
helmet. I didn't actually print this one myself. It was supplied to me, and I'll get onto that
1:39
later in the video. And if you haven't seen my videos before, I'm going to explain what and why I'm
1:44
painting. So here I'm using Corvus Black. I'm not using Abadon Black, and I'm certainly not using
1:49
the black primer that's on the model already. If you want to save time, you can do that, but the reason
1:53
I'm using Corvus Black is Corvus Black is not actually black. It's more of a really, really dark
1:59
grey and what this does is it's going to let us shade that coat down later on so if you use abidon
2:04
black if you use a primer black you can't actually make any of the recesses darker but with corvus black
2:09
your eyes still read it as black and then you can actually shade down the recesses to a true black
2:14
later on as for applying this i'm using an airbrush but if you prefer a dry brush method
2:19
you can also stipple this on which would be a good way of doing it i've seen somebody on twitter
2:23
who's actually done that using our recipe or you can just slap it on with a brush if that's your preferred
2:29
way. To highlight the main body of the armour, I'm using Incubi darkness. And the reason for that is because
2:34
the Dark Angels have quite a few red elements on them. So red is directly complementary on the
2:40
colour wheel to blue. So what I'm doing here, I'm not painting the model blue, but by using really
2:46
really dark blue as the highlight, you've still got that blue essence to it. So you end up with a cool
2:51
black. And what it does is that also complements the red elements on the armour, of which I'm going
2:56
to do the shoulder pad. So the shoulder pad was just attached with a little bit of silly putty during the priming stage
3:02
and the initial base coat, but now I'm covering it completely in incubi darkness because the
3:07
shadows of the shoulder pad are going to tie in with the highlights of the armour
3:12
As for the armour itself, I'm just going to be painting the extremities and the highest raised
3:16
details on them. So things like the tops of the heads, the tops of the shoulder pad, the tops of the hands and
3:21
the arms and the sides of the legs. And I'm just going really subtle with this. I'm not trying to get, I'm sort of trying to paint it
3:26
50% incuby darkness rather than completely cover it in that colour, because I just want to give
3:31
a suggestion of it more than anything else. For the shoulder pads themselves, and sorry about the
3:36
footage here, it went out of focus. I made sure to orient these the same way that it would be when
3:41
it's on the model. So here, when I'm spraying it, I know which direction the light's coming from
3:45
So I'm adding initially 75% down the shoulder pad, Mephiston Red from above, making sure to lead
3:52
mostly incubi darkness in the shadows. To spot highlight this, I'm using
3:56
using Evil Sun Scala and I'm painting approximately 25% of the top of the shoulder pad
4:02
Again, letting this fade into the earlier stage of Mephistan Red. Going back to the model, I'm using some more incubide darkness and this time I'm dry brushing it
4:11
Now, arguably, you can do what I did as the airbrush stage and this stage all in one go
4:16
but I wanted a smoother transition on the armor surfaces that than dry brushing would actually allow
4:21
You can glaze it however you want, just follow the recipe. But what I'm going to do with this is just pick out
4:26
all of the edges on the model to start to highlight the transition of the sharp details
4:31
So this makes sure that the forms like a leg, like an arm, like a hand, the head, etc., the feet
4:36
all of those things actually stick out to you as individual shapes
4:41
And for anyone like me who loves painting minis but hates edge highlighting, here we're going to do all of the edge highlighting on this model in just a few minutes
4:48
So using Celestra Grey and a dry brush, we're going to pick out only the finest edges on the model
4:54
So we're not trying to pick out every single edge because then it'll start to smush into the surface
4:58
But using the celestial grey, we're going to make sure that the sharpest details really, really stand out
5:03
So just get as much paint off your brush as you can and then work it slowly and steadily into all of the outermost details, all of the extremities
5:11
and let the model essentially paint itself. So here's a quick segue and a recap into the helmet that I chose for this model
5:19
With the Dark Angels being somewhat based on Old English night, I really would
5:24
wanted one of those Templar-star bucket helms, not black Templar style, but old English night
5:29
templar style. So I actually got this from Archie's Forge, who he was nice enough to send me a few of
5:35
these, and even though he was expecting to go off any minute to have his child with his partner
5:41
So really thanks Archie I just want to say cheers thank you I hope people go and visit your site because there some great customization and conversion components on there But it took no time at all to get this painted up just following my earlier steps So black primer then some corvus black then some incubi darkness then dry brushing inky by darkness
5:59
and then finally some celestial grey on the edges. And I made the head a lot brighter than the rest of the model because it's a part that I really
6:06
really want to stand out. So with it being lighter, it should naturally draw your eye more than any other part of the miniature
6:13
So now taking Celestra Grey once again, I'm actually going to be doing some painting
6:17
The good thing about Celestra Grey is the coverage is absolutely excellent. So thin this 50-50 with water and then just go over the insignia on the shoulder pad and this should pop out nicely
6:28
The good thing about Celestra Grey as well is you may not have noticed, but it's actually got a very slight blue tint to it
6:34
It's a light cool grey. And once again, those cool tones like the armour will contrast nicely against the red shoulder pad
6:41
but we're going to enhance this more later further on with some more blues in there
6:46
For the soft parts of the armour, I wanted something quite dark and dim and muted
6:50
It's not something you want bright and colourful because it'll take the eyes away from the rest of the armour too much
6:55
Now, if I went with black, that I'd look a bit boring and dull. The armour's already black
6:59
So I chose Rhinox Hide once again. The armour's blue. Rhinox hide has some red tones, so it's going to give us some contrast, but only slight
7:06
contrast to the armour plates on the model. And it's just going to help everything else stand out
7:11
and make the colours pop just a little bit more. For the metal colours, I'm using Vallejo's metal colour, dual aluminium
7:19
and this is an incredible range of paints. If you haven't used them, they are excellent
7:23
The coverage, they're made for an airbrush, but they go on with a brush just so perfectly
7:27
and they operate almost like metallic contrast paints, which when GW recently said, we're releasing new paints
7:34
I was really hoping some kind of metallic contrast based on this sort of formula was coming out, alas, we didn't get it
7:40
So until that time, start using these things. And for base coats, it's perfect
7:44
So I'm covering things like the little trinket on the gun, the weapon barrel, the magazine
7:48
and I'm even going to do the grill on the power pack itself, just to kind of have something behind the head to make the head stand out that little bit more
7:56
Now, one thing I forgot to do, and you should really do before the metallic stage, is use some corax white to highlight the gun
8:02
Now, whilst the armour's got a cool black, the gun itself, the weapon is actually a more neutral black
8:07
So with this, I'm using the more neutral Corax Y, a slightly darker than white white
8:13
in order to highlight the edges on the bun. It doesn't really matter here that I've done the silver stage because silver's metallic grey anyway
8:20
So if I do end up picking up some paint on the silver parts, you're not going to notice it in the final step
8:26
To shade the silvers, I'm going to make myself what I like to dub Nolngrax oil shade
8:31
Yep, that's a mouthful, but it's basically Agrax Earthshade with a couple of drops of nuln oil put in
8:36
in order to make it darker. And this mix will basically cover all of the metallic parts on the armour
8:42
giving us a really, really dark and dirty brown colour, which is just, it's a little bit more interesting than black
8:48
and a little bit more darker than the natural brown. And I know I tend to favour oil paints when it comes to shading models
8:55
but with oil paints, you tend to get a very sharp transition a lot of the times
9:00
especially on metallics, whereas I want a very smooth and faded transition
9:04
so that the metallics themselves actually look worn and weathered and you can see a lot of fade and natural color across the surface of the metal parts
9:15
So I am going to use an oil wash later, but this just gives us a first stage of shading down
9:21
So with the eyes, we're going to copy most of the recipe that we used on the shoulder pad
9:25
And yes, I know that this is a loyalist marine, and really red eyes should be reserved for the traitors, soon to be heretics
9:31
But honestly, I think this contrasts nicely, And with this being speed painting, one of the keys is reducing and limiting our color palette
9:39
So to do this, just paint out the entire eye. Don't worry about getting some on the edges as well because it looks like glow
9:45
But just with a nice wet Mephiston red, paint out the entire eye using this paint
9:51
And we'll darken it down later. And then for the next bit, just like the shoulder pad, we're going to take Evil Sun's Scarlet
9:58
And we're going to paint maybe 25 to 50%, so somewhere around 30, 40% of the front of the front of the
10:04
eye just to try and give it a glow. If you can really be controlled with this, I've stepped down to
10:08
my artist opus size one brush because this gives me a lot more control and stops the paint being
10:13
as watery, so I can get a nice neat line within this tiny little gap on the head
10:25
And then for the really bright part, I'm using Yariol yellow. And I need to say here
10:29
the last few steps you've seen, including this one, was actually done on the hottest
10:34
day in the UK of record. So I think it was about 38 degrees outside and probably about 42 in the
10:40
room I was doing this in. So as you watch me struggle here, it's because the paint was so dry on my
10:45
brush before I could even get it to the model. And yes, I know there's thousands of people out there
10:49
in different cultures, different countries who are used to these sorts of temperatures
10:54
but here in the UK, we are not equipped for it. We don't have air conditioning. We don't have anything
10:59
So all we do is complain that it's too hot. And believe me, in about three days from now
11:04
I'm going to be complaining that it's too cold. So welcome to the UK. We complain a lot
11:12
Oh yeah, do a dart right at the front of the eye. So now as a pre-decal and pre-oil wash stage
11:18
I'm going to cover the entire model in gloss varnish. Again, I'm using an airbrush here
11:22
but if you've got a spray gloss varnish, ideally the shinier and more reflective and glossy
11:27
the better for the next stage. So if you've got any acrylic, not acrylic, this is acrylic
11:31
If you got any enamel based spray varnishes then they would be a lot better than this because you get a much more hydrophobic surface which is brilliant for any type of wash that we apply in the next stage So to apply decals we using MicroSet and MicroSol
11:47
and you are going to apply them in that order. So start off as you would by soaking your transfer
11:52
and getting it completely wet and ready to transfer onto the model. But before you do, completely cover the part that it's going on in MicroSet
12:00
then all you need to do is transfer the transfer. I have just realized that's there
12:05
transfer the transfer onto the part where you want it to sit and use your brush
12:09
continue coating it in MicroSet the entire time. Now, a lot of people have complained on earlier videos
12:14
MicroSet isn't the best stuff because it's not very adhesive. Well, personally, I find that to be a good thing because it gives me a lot of playtime
12:21
to move the transfer around on the model. And the best thing about MicroSet is, yeah, it's not the best adhesive
12:27
Once it dries, it does adhere, but the best thing about it is that the micro set fully evaporates
12:33
so you don't get water-staining bubbles beneath the surface that tend to, you know, leave marred parts of the transfer
12:41
and it actually looks truly embedded into the model. So, you know, if you've got a better product for it, yeah, go and use that
12:48
But my preferred, well, my known product is microset. It does the job, and I'm happy with it
12:54
So with this transfer, which is a checkerboard pattern, quite common on the heresy era, Dark Angels
12:59
Once I've got it in place, I let it dry for about five minutes until it started to adhere
13:03
And as you can see here, I started to just gently cut away around the edge with a knife
13:08
Now, this is a bit of a pain to do, but it's much easier to do it this way than it is to try and measure it up and get it accurately the right size before
13:15
So once I've got it on there, I just gently cut around the edge of the transfer until it came away from the part, the shoulder pad that I didn't want it on
13:24
And then using a cotton swab or Q-tip, whatever you want to call it, I press the model into the surface to get it lined up exactly where I needed it to be
13:33
I also did the same thing on the arm just to get a bit more interest on there and give it a bit more of a heresy era Dark Angel's look
13:42
Now, I did struggle with this. I actually ended up doing it mostly off camera
13:46
You're seeing the failed attempt here. But yeah, it took me a while
13:50
But I just want to remind people once again, yeah, did this on the hottest day in the UK of record
13:55
I had sweat dripping down my back the entire time. So whilst I've made a few mistakes here, please forgive me and understand that it was mainly due to the
14:03
the weather. But yeah, do whatever you want to get the decals onto the model
14:10
Now, once they're on there, it's really simple. Get some micro-soul down there. So once you've
14:15
done the microset bit, leave them a few, maybe a few hours to dry. To be honest, in this heat
14:19
I left them 20 minutes and it seemed to work. You can tell they're dry because you'll see that
14:25
there's no air bubbles underneath and when you try to move them, they'll be stuck in place
14:29
Get some micro-soul on there. This is a solvent. And what this will do is, is a solvent. And what this will do is
14:33
slowly melt the transfer and embed it fully into the surface on the model
14:37
And what's good with this is it helped it to conform to things like the contours in the arm
14:42
and also on the shoulder pad. So when we do the wash stage, they'll come out quite naturally
14:47
Just be careful with it because if you apply too much pressure, you'll actually start to smudge it like I have
14:52
So be a bit more careful than I've been with this, but it is pretty easy to use and you shouldn't fail too often with transfers doing it this way
15:01
Next, I'm making a couple of oil washers. make a black oil wash and a really dark blue oil wash. These Winder and Newton colors are quite
15:08
popular. You'll see them in a Winder and Newton oil color starter set. Loads of people have got these and it's
15:14
a really great place to start. I think you get about nine or ten colors in there and the only thing
15:18
missing is a burnt umber brown. You actually get burnt sienna. So you could do with picking one of
15:23
those up as well. I'm actually trying to thin this up, thin this quite heavily. The thing is with
15:28
oil paints is especially blacks. If you go too thin, it ends up breaking down and going a bit
15:33
bit bit bity. So two options with this. You can either apply it thicker, but you'll have a lot more to
15:37
wipe off, or you can just let it dry and apply a second pass, which is my preferred method and what I did
15:43
here. So with this, just make a really thin black. And then also I'm adding some of this blue and then
15:49
I'm putting some of this blue down and then I'm going to add a touch of black to it to make it a really
15:53
really dark blue. And I'll show you how to apply these in a second. So with the thin black
16:00
I'm covering all of the armour with a focus especially on the recesses
16:05
which is why I'm targeting those first, and then I'm just doing an overall wash because that will help fade out
16:10
And this is going to go everywhere. It's going to go on all of the armor plates
16:14
It's going to go on the weapon. It's going to go on the hands. The only place we're not putting it is on the shoulder pad
16:19
because that we don't want to shade down to a black. We want to shade it down with blue, and we'll apply that next
16:25
One thing to note is definitely get it into the eyes because this will help surround the eyes
16:30
and give you a bit of a rim round the edge of the eyes, separating the eyes from the rest of the helmet
16:35
and letting them stand out a lot more. So when you do that, when you put it in the eyes
16:40
it should actually soak in, just dry your brush off on a palette or some kitchen towel
16:44
and then use the dryer brush to wick it out and then wipe it off again and keep going like that
16:49
So that should give you a nice detailed surround on the eyes as if instead of painting them all and then putting this round
16:57
it actually looks like you've been really, really detailed, and you've managed to paint a really thin line on the inside of the eye
17:03
So there you go. You think oils and, sorry, not oils, you think washers are talent in a bottle
17:08
Well, oil washers are a whole different ballgame altogether. This makes you look like an instant pro
17:14
To finish off this stage, just take some of that dark blue and cover the entire shoulder pad on the model and especially the insignia
17:21
And again, even though we've got that grey blue in there already, we've also now added blue
17:27
because that give us even more contrast against the red shoulder pad helping everything to just stand out and stick out more and complement each other One thing to note here if you weren aware already
17:36
blue pigments are generally incredibly strong. So whether it's an acrylic paint or an oil paint
17:41
they are really, really good at coverage. And with oil paints especially, they can stain quite heavily
17:48
So be quite controlled when you apply this, but also when you're making your wash
17:53
only put a little bit of the blue in there. So I've thinned this down quite heavily before I darkened it down with some of the black
17:59
because what I don't want is the blue to heavily stain the insignia
18:03
and then I'll just turn it into an off blue insignia, which is not what we want
18:07
We need it to stay white. After that, get a cotton bud or cue tip and coat it in mineral spirits
18:13
and use this to wick away any of the paint that's settled on the surfaces. And this is the absolute beauty of oil-based paints and enamel-based paints
18:21
that you simply don't get with acrylics. If you commit something like Agrax Earth's shade to this, it's on and done, whereas this, you can wick it away and you can return to that natural colour you've got underneath, leaving a fade
18:32
Let some of the paint even build up on the actual Q-tip so that you can actually start to modulate it and blend it in a bit more than just having a smooth transition from light to dark
18:45
Then using some Corax White again, which we used to highlight the weapon earlier, we're going to go in and start to highlight the insignia on the shoulder pad
18:52
Some of this will naturally end up on the shoulder pad itself, not just on the insignia
18:57
That's just part of the dry brushing technique, but you can use some isopropal and an old brush and start to wick that away
19:04
And another benefit of that gloss layer we put down earlier is this will protect the red layer we put underneath so long as I don't push down too hard
19:12
The final stage is to tie everything together and I'm on about getting rid of the shine and also things like the decals
19:18
This really helps to embed them. Any mistakes on the model texture-wise, then this will come
19:22
completely hide them. So using some matte varnish, again, I'm using the airbrush acrylic version
19:27
You can use a spray one. I know people seem to love Tester's dull coat, games workshop, do their own
19:32
sprays. I think there's ard coat, but I think that's glossy. But anyway, just apply a matte
19:36
varnish across the entire model, not too heavy because it'll look like a chalkboard, but just a
19:41
light coating of matte varnish across the entire model will bring everything together. So as for
19:46
basing the model, I've absolutely fallen in love with these base ready products from geek gaming scenics. You
19:52
probably no geek gaming, Luke formerly Luke's APS, but Luke sent me some of their base ready range
19:58
And this pine forest cover cover is absolutely excellent. And the reason I love these is with the texture paints, you've got to put the texture paint down whilst
20:06
and it's really hard to do whilst avoiding parts of the actual model that it, the base, you know
20:11
that's on the base with it. But then you've also got to paint it whilst avoiding the model and do all the other things
20:16
With this, it is literally apply some of their quick drying glue, not PVA, because after time
20:21
that'll curl and go hot. horrible, but this rubbery, almost elasticy glue that you can get from geek gaming is absolutely
20:28
perfect from this. Much easier to control on the base of a model, and it is just a case of coat
20:33
the base in it and then dip it into a pot of one of these products, and there you go, instant base
20:39
So if you're like me and you're into speed painting, I think this looks great with this Deathguard
20:44
and he does a huge range. I've already used the Martian Earth on a previous video, and he's got
20:48
a grim dark earth, which I'm probably going to end up using for the majority of these legions
20:53
when I come to paint them, because it just gets, you know, they're somewhat impressive-looking
20:58
bases in absolutely no time at all. Really, really controlled thanks to the glue. I absolutely love
21:05
them. So I hope that's enough of an endorsement, Luke. I know you sent me these for free with
21:10
no expectations, but I'm telling people I absolutely love them, and I hope they come and buy some as well
21:16
To finish the model, just paint the rim of the base in Vallejo 950 black
21:21
You can paint it whatever color you like. I prefer black for my models. I think kind of like the mount in a picture frame
21:27
It helps the models stand out as an artwork. But if you want to do something that matches the style or theme of your army
21:33
go ahead and do that. But if you're painting it black, Vallejo model color 950 black is definitely the way to go
21:40
And that's it, guys. That's my attempt at a space marine. Obviously, you can go whatever way you want with this
21:45
You can leave it with the standard beaky helms or get the Games Workshop upgrade spruce
21:49
But I hope you like the approach and the color theory applied here as to why we've gone with a blue hue to the armour because it contrasts nicely against the red
21:58
And you don't need to paint it this way. You know, obviously a lot of the ways that they've done it is they just paint all of the armor blue
22:04
The shoulder pad itself is blue and then only the insignia is painted in red
22:08
But I wanted to do something a little bit more striking with a lot more red contrast on the model
22:13
And I think this has come out really nice. Let me know what your thoughts are. I'm quite impressed with it
22:18
I like it myself. But let me know what you think down in the comments. Please give thanks to our patrons and consider becoming one there on the screen as you can see now
22:26
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22:31
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22:40
You know what? I say this with every video. Subscribe if you want. Honestly, I can't force you to do it or just lurk and see what videos you like when you come across them
22:48
I'd love it if you would subscribe. It'll help me grow the channel. You do you
22:53
Your call. Anyway, thanks a lot for your time. I really hope you like this
22:57
See you all next time. Foham out. Oh yeah, check out on your outro screen
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