When Codex: Chaos Space Marines came
out I was struck by the appearance of this guy;
The Dark Apostle. He seems to embody
all the fluff surrounding the infamous Word Bearers legion. A dark
parody of the grim-faced Space Marine Chaplains, this guy preaches
the word of the slavering beasts of the Warp.
I picked him up the week after he came
out, and then he joined the lead and resin mountain. I got to talking
with Sgt Longbeard a few weeks ago, who while mainly known for being
a Warhammer Fantasy collector, mentioned that he liked the look and
feel of the Word Bearers after reading the trilogy of novels by Anthony Reynolds sometime
last year. He also mentioned he had been thinking about picking up a
40k army, but this wouldn't happen till next year.
Off I went to the miniature mountain
with a gleam in my eye....
I wish I'd taken on-sprue pictures, but
after the horror stories of Finecast (possibly more on which in an upcoming
post by SabbatWolf, if I can get her out of the catatonic state that cleaning and straightening 10 Incubi has put her in) in the early days, I was a bit surprised by how
well this guy was cast, on the whole. There seem to be tonnes
of feeds (to ensure the resin feeds into the nooks and crannies
properly, for the uninitiated), and I'm sure that's overkill, but
relatively few airbubbles to speak of.
There
are some gaps here and there when assembled, but probably less than
if he'd been a metal cast.
I have
two big issues with the material;
- Flexibility – normal, real, unfilled resin does not bend the way this stuff does. I suspect the use of a filler is the main reason for the masses of feeds, and also the main reason for this aspect. The icon to mount on the guys backpack wilts in a stiff breeze. Not good. This may have to be replaced.
- Use of triangular blocks in places to ensure filling – now for the most part these aren't a problem, they slice off easily, but in a couple of spots they are across detail, particularly the cuneiform symbols etched into his greaves. Irritating, especially when you've airbrushed the basecoat on and spot one you missed!All that aside, he's a great mini. Loads of character, and some really nice touches to tie him into the cultist models he'll eventually lead (the chaos star pendants and similar).
Once I'd done with the assembly, it
was on to the painting!
I used my trusty airbrush (just a
cheap chinese-made Badger copy I bought for basecoating) and these colours:
 |
| Vallejo Model Air. Love 'em :) |
I applied a solid basecoat of the
surface primer straight over the resin. It's what it's designed for!
I followed this up with a roughly
zenithal highlight of the Fire Red, followed by the Ferrari Red,
giving particular attention to the chestplate and shoulder pauldrons.
I want the legion symbol to pop when I get it on there.
We end up with this:
 |
| Total time so far - probably less than 30 minutes |
A note on basing; he's pinned onto a
bit of spare sprue. This is a tip I got from a Youtube video (by
Buypainted, I think) as a cheap and easy way to avoid handling an
unbased figure. He'll eventually be based on a nice scenic base (of
which another article soon) but for now this will do.
Next job, block in the areas to be
dark colours in black. For this I prefer Vallejo Model Colour black.
It's the flattest consistent finish I have found, and I will travel
out of my way to buy more. The face I blocked in in Privateer Press
P3 Midlund Flesh. I've been looking for a replacement for Cadian
Fleshtone, and this is it! He's going to end up pretty pale, so this
is a good start.
Next step – Ink wash with an old
pot of GW Baal Red. I could have used Carroburg Crimson, but I had
this to hand. You can't see much of a difference in my dodgy
pictures, so I didn't bother uploading one one.
Once the ink was dry (I left it a
good 2 hours) I picked out all the areas to be metallic in GW
Chainmail. Sadly departed and replaced, but still available from Coat
d'Arms. Try Black Hat Models for yours. I tend to get mine from them
at shows - great range, and good quality too.
So this is where we stand. Still to
do – details! Books on the ground will be dark brown, the Book Of
Lorgar at his belt will get some special treatment (maybe it's bound
in Space Marine skin?) The parchments will be the traditional
off-white and I haven't quite decided what I'm doing with the
staff/dark crozius yet. First I need to bend the parchment streamers
on his pack into shape (ironic, as Finecast is most often out of
shape) as they currently try to occupy the came space as his right
leg. The pack will probably just end up black with sharp edge
highlighting. Who knows, if I'm feeling really brave i might do some
tattoos on that nice big bald pate of his.....
Posted by The Doc
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