How I painted the Forgeworld Abaddon

So now that my method of blending is down I will explain what colours I used and why I highlighted up to the point I did. As I said earlier I based the armour in a darkened UB so that I would have a satisfactory contrast between the armour joints, rims and broad plate areas. Some amazing painters actually start at the middle shade in a blend and then highlight in one direction and shade in another. While I did this for the Space Wolf dreadnought I entered at USGD it is not really my preferred method of doing a blend. I find that starting at the darkest shade and working up is just easier for my style and temperament. The colour blends I used to achieve the blend on the armour is as follows: 30/70 RB/UB, 10/90 RB/UB, 90/5/5 UB/Hideous Blue [HB]/BB, 70/25/5 UB/HB/BB, 50/45/5 UB/HB/BB, 20/75/5 UB/HB/BB, 90/10 HB/BB, 85/10/5 HB/BB/SW.

Ok, so at this point I have joined the rank of the truly mad painters. One thing to realize is that each of the above blends as applied approximately 6 times in sequential layers until a new blend is required so that translates into around 48 layers on the armour. And some of the layers are actually done more than once for emphasis. Like I said blending with this method is very time consuming! So when I was at the 90/10 step I did the ‘water painting’ with the 50/45/5 blend. This helped to give the huge plates a smoother transition from shade to shade.

The reason I chose to do the blend with Hideous Blue is because it complimets the UB very well. It has a bit of sheen that sets off the colour better than other blues that I have in my collection. The Bleached Bone was added early on in the blend and carried through the entire process as a way to lighten the highlight in a softer way than Skull White would have done. Usually I would have highlighted a figure up even further so that there was a kind of ‘glow’ to the armour. However, for this figure I decided for a more subdued look as the armour is nothing more than rubble and the lighting effects should reflect this. Also, the shoulder has a broad band of white and this is effective as a super-highlight without actually being a highlight. Even at this scale it is important to create illusions of lighting so that your eye moves over the model in a smooth flowing fashion.

So after the blue I did the yellow of the omega on the shoulder. I based it in BuB until all the black was covered and none ghosted through. By ghosting I mean that when looking at the area under strong light I was unable to see any black at all, as this would cause problems with the yellow blend above. I then applied Golden Yellow [GY] to the area covered in BuB. While this colour is much different from the final colour I wanted it was a good yellow base to work on. I then did the following blend, leaving very little of the original GY showing through, Sunburst Yellow [SY], 80/20 SY/SW, 70/30 SY/SW, and so on in 10% increases of SW until I was at pure SW at the outer edge of the omega.

With the omega finished I decided to finish the shoulder rim. This was likely not the best decision looking back but I was anxious to finish the shoulder. The reason why it wasn’t such a good idea is that the white of the shoulder rim is actually what I call a ‘pivot point’ and so I had to be alter how I hold a model after I did the white. A pivot point is a section of a figure that allows me to rotate my grip on for the best angles of painting. It is actually extremely important to study a figure, especially a large model, and identify where you will hold the figure and plan your painting based on this.

The white rim is extremely simple, being only 5-6 coats of white until no black ghosted through and then rim highlighting in Space Wolf Grey [SG]. At this point I was forced to decide if I wanted to ‘dirty’ the white and yellow or leave them unnaturally clean. I decided that the final look would be better served by a clean look so even though I wanted a high degree of realism I had to accept this. Why? Well, it is basically an issue of a final vision of a dark and brooding figure and a need to provide a focal point on the base so it wasn’t a blur of skulls.

At this point I was feeling very good about the base and knew this was going to turn into on of my best figures to date. I decided to take a break from the blending and painted the metallic I beams and damaged armour bits. I based all the metal areas in Tin Bitz [TB] and then they were done simply with a darkened Boltgun Metal [BM] that is 70/30 BM/CB. This layer was done so that some of the TB ghosted through. Then I did 3 layers of metallics as highlights starting at 100% BM, 70/30 BM/ Chain Mail [CM], 50/50 BM/CM. My intent here was to provide a very muted metallic that reflected the damaged quality of the metal.

So that I could have all the little stuff out of the way when I did the eyes [2 at the back of the base and one between his legs] I decided to do the power cables. I decided to add an artificial ‘organic’ element to the bases by doing the cables in green. They were based in a few coats of Snot Green [SG] and then the ridges of the cables were done in Goblin Green [GG]. I then did a focused highlight to the middle of each ridge using: 50/50 GG/ Scorpion Green [ScG], 100% ScG, 50/50 ScG/ Bilious Green [BG]. I knew these cables were destined to fade into the skulls of the base but they do provide a twisted sense of ‘life’ that was appealing to me.

Lastly I did the eyes of the base. Reflective eyes and gems are done in pretty much the same way in that I start with a medium dark shade and work to the highlights and then go back and work up the shadow. I find that on small areas this is a better way to do blends than what I described above for broad areas. So I based the eyes in Scab Red [SR] and then did the following highlight blend in a crescent shape at the lower edge of the eye. 100% Red Gore [RG], 80/20 RG/ Blood Red [BR], 70/30 RG/BR, 50/50 RG/BR, 30/70 RG/BR, 100% BR, 50/50 BR/ Blazing Orange [BO], 100% BO, 100% GY, 100% SY.

Notice that as I come to the end of the highlight I start to add the colours in much sharper layers. This is done to create an iridium effect at the highlight and is complimented by a few layers of gloss varnish. So the base is finished and to keep myself from wearing it down I sprayed it with a dusting of GW matte varnish before I did the gloss of the eyes. I also taped a layer of the big bubble wrap around the base to that I would protect it that much more from wear during painting.

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