Test Sanguinary Guard

[JetfireUK]

Hi Folks,

As a change from my Grey Knights I thought to start painting up a squad of Sanguinary Guard and here's the first one done:

You can see that I 'borrowed' from the Grey Knights I've done recently - in terms of the Glaive Encarmine and the style of the metallics. I've found that gold is a far more difficult colour to get a solid colour than the Boltgun metals. Hopefully they don't appear too clumpy.

In terms of colours I start with Tin Bitz, 50:50 Tin Bitz and Shining Gold and then worked on the edge highlights with a mix of Shining Gold and Mithril Silver. Finally I used a variety of washes to give the gold a unique colour and appear to be worn and ancient. Mostly achieved by using the Gryphonne Sepia and Leviathan Purple washes.

I know that this isn't a display piece and although I don't game I would like your opinions on how to improve.

Cheers!

 

[Avelorn]

Great quality on a squad! Keep up the good work!

 

[Brother Tom]

They look great so far, how long are you spending on each figure? The effects on the blades look very nice perhaps just a little bit more work with the blending is needed.
I really think you should look into getting some better pictures of your work however looking through your gallery I think this is the main thing that lets your work down and its not really too hard to get some good pictures =).

 

[supervike]

I can honestly say, you've passed the test!

 

[JetfireUK]

They look great so far, how long are you spending on each figure? The effects on the blades look very nice perhaps just a little bit more work with the blending is needed.
I really think you should look into getting some better pictures of your work however looking through your gallery I think this is the main thing that lets your work down and its not really too hard to get some good pictures =).

Cheers for the critique. I think that I spent around 6 hours painting this. The hardest part was trying to get a nice look to the Gold Armour. I referred to the Sanguinor NMM article in GW but used metallic paints to try and give the illusion of more depth to the armour. I also used the GW purple wash to give some added depth.

Blending is something I want to work towards. So far the blades I paint are layered with fine transitions between each shade.

What specifically would help with the photos? Are my images too large (and thus revealing flaws at very close range) or are they a little bleached and thus losing depth?

 

[Dragonsreach]

What specifically would help with the photos? Are my images too large (and thus revealing flaws at very close range) or are they a little bleached and thus losing depth?

If anything for me they are a little too dark:
View attachment 6740
Tweeked this a touch to get a better view.
Personally I'm not happy with the GW golds due to the graininess of the metallic particles, and I've been experimenting with Vallejo Airbrush Metals and Vallejo Model colour metals. V Airbrush metals are increadibly smooth particle wise, But their Gold and Brass are a bit weak in terms of colour. I've ended up mixing Airbrush & Model Colour and getting a compromise for the base colour after that its a case of washes and Airbrush metals as highlights for me.

 

[Avelorn]

Haven't found good golds either. I usually use mostly silvers and then glaze until I get the right colour. Vallejo Airbrush metals are otherwise great, always use the silver as a last highlight.

 

[JetfireUK]

Ta for the critique on the photos - I'll jiggle with the brightness settings once I've taken some photos and I'll upload them to see if they're any better. Dragonsreach thanks for your help!