Blood Angel Batch Painting from Horus Heresy Age of Darkness Box.

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In my continued effort to try to get some Blood Angels for Horus Heresy actually finished, I am continuing to batch paint the models from the Age of Darkness Box. In my last article I got them to Mephiston Red (with some Nuln Oil shading)… what’s next?

Last time I got here:

Orange is new…

But I needed to get the highlighting done. As I was around when the original Beakies were released, my normal go-to- method is to use edge highlighting… but it can take a long time and I only needed battle ready. Fortunately I had heard of some people using the hallowed technique of drybrushing for their marines! Strange, but I did some investigation and I found this by Sonic Sedgehammer:

They suggested two levels of drybrushing, but why do two when you can go straight to the end and pick up 1? Fortunately I had Ryza Rust from some Martian terrain I painted that I got as a gift from a friend, so I was ready to go and skip right to the end.

The technique is explained well in the video, but effectively just drybrush the edges only and leave the panels free of highlight. This gives a good overall impression and whilst I may do a bit of tidy up later I’m happy with the results at the table-top level.

Black Legion?

Not quite, but the next colour was Abaddon Black to get some contrasting colours onto the models. For this I wanted to keep it easy (and quick) which is rapidly becoming a theme. Some of the eagle-eyed readers will have noticed the black in the picture above, and that’s what I did. Pick out the joints, the cables and the back of the backpacks.

Whilst this may be sufficient I do want to add a little silver here and there, but it is a great start and the models are beginning to look like Blood Angels.

I’m really enjoying the batch-painting and seeing progress each time I sit down even if I’m only able to give 1 or 2 hours at a time. By now I’ve normally got bored and hived off some models, but I’m managing to keep with the 50 done to Mephiston Red level – and now they’re all highlighted and some black sections picked out.

But weren’t there 52?

Well yes, I’ve not done the Praetors but there’s a reason for that. In fact there are a few.

1. I don’t mind if they take longer to paint – they are characters and should have the glory and attention
2. I want to do a few more highlights, so I’ll like do some halfway colours on them to get there
3. There’s so much detail I can’t go into ‘automatic pilot’ with them and because I need to think about what colours I want they will take longer.

So the Praetors are out of the batch-painting process for now, but I’ll go back to them soon as I need them to complete the foot troops before I get to the tank and dreadnought.

What’s Next

Well, I’ve already alluded to it, but I’ll be adding some silver to some of the pipes. I think want to start on the cloth/leather for the Terminators and any that may appear on the Beaky Marines, and then I’ll have to move towards the weapons.

I am pleased with the black so far and the contrast it provides, so it’s likely that they will be black as a base as well — but still time to reconsider.

Stay tuned to see how I get on.

— Declan