Night Lords Havoc Test Model Completed

I was on vacation the better part of the last 2 weeks, so wasn't able to get any painting done for 11 days. However, I was able to work on a test model for my Night Lords Havocs which will be part of my Chaos Space Marine forces going to Valhalla on July 4th and 5th, and got him completed. Being a test model, it took quite a bit of time to actually get him done, as I had to wait for various stages to dry before going on to the next stage.

When I got to Empire on the morning of the 4th, it also took me a while to get back into the swing of painting. So, to get me going, I wrote up a recipe of the steps that I thought I'd need to go through in order to get each of the Havocs finished. That gave me an idea of what steps I needed to take, and in what order, and allowed me to get a lot of the details worked out.

Now that I have the test model completed, that recipe has gone through a few modifications and clarifications, and a few steps have been rearranged, but here's what it currently looks like:

== Organize models into as even number of groups of the same type(s) of models, and do the following steps to each group, coming back to the top after each group is done with these steps to start the next group through the cycle:

·         Drill out barrel tip of gun with hobby knife (plastic) or pin vise (metal).
·         Base coat all armor sections Kantor Blue.
·         Paint trim, shoulder pads & wings on heads & NL emblems, etc, with a base coat of Averland Sunset (Yellow).
·         Paint trim, shoulder pads & wings on heads & NL emblems, etc, with a layer coat of Auric Armour Gold.
·         Wash Gold with Druchii Violet.
·         Paint Autocannon & certain details on backpack & armor (e.g. Leg joints, pipes on helmet & armor, etc) with a base coat of Ironbreaker.
·         Touch up Blue areas with Kantor Blue after applying Gold, & then touch up Gold (& Ironbreaker) as needed if I got some Blue where it shouldn't be.
·         Pick out details on Autocannon with Hashut Copper.
·         Highlight armor areas with Lothern Blue.
·         Wash blue areas with Drakenhof Nightshade.
·         Paint eyes with White.
·         Paint skulls & any other appropriate things with a base coat of Mephiston Red.
·         Layer skulls & other red places with Evil Sunz Scarlet.
·         Wash red areas & eyes with Carroburg Crimson.
·         Wash Autocannon & metal "pipes" on backpacks, leg joints, etc, with Sepia.
·         Glaze red areas (except eyes!) with Bloodletter.
·         Highlight trim & other gold areas with a hard edge of Gold.
·         Highlight Autocannon with a hard edge of Ironbreaker.
·         Highlight Autocannon with a hard edge of Hashut Copper.
·         Clean up White (pink) around eyes with Kantor Blue.
·         Highlight armor areas with Kantor Blue???
·         Highlight armor areas with Lothern Blue???
·         Do any touch ups.
·         Paint lightning.
-- Make jagged, descending lines of Enchanted Blue (can't remember the name of the modern equivalent) across the right shoulder pads & down legs, front and back (one each facing), trying to vary it up a bit, using the Standard brush, with the tip flattened out.

-- Go over everything in your path, as Night Lords lightning is not painted on their armour, it is corruscating over their whole bodies constantly. Emphasize variety across models, and try to avoid curves in favor of jagged changes in direction, always progressing downward and branching & forking out, like the opposite flow that the tributaries of a river would look like as they collect into the larger body of the river. (Keep in mind that lightning "flows" from the ground up, too, and not always from the sky downwards, which can help provide some of that much needed diversity from model to model.)

--  Go over these lines with the lighter Lothern Blue using the Detail brush, making sure the paint is "thin-but-not-too-wet", and making sure not to cover all the Kantor Blue, but staying somewhat between the lines, with some straggles and off-shoots.

-- Go over these with a very, very thin, jagged line of White using the tip of the Detail brush, also thin but not too wet, and use a very light touch; sometimes lightly "stroking" the tip of the brush with paint that has dried slightly & the hairs have separated slightly, like a "scratching" effect, but leaving very thin traces of White. It's OK to have some small gaps in the White, and for the White to go "off the path" here and there, and to have little forks and barbs. - Base coat base with Warboss Green, straight from the pot & heavily.

== Batch complete

 -- Go back to first step in recipe and repeat with next batch, until you have all the batches finished to this point; then...

= Once all the groups of models that have gone through all of the above steps, assemble models into small groups suitable for varnishing, and:...

·         Matte varnish in groups until all done.
·         Flock bases of all models in one batch with green static grass (using watered down Elmer's glue).
·         Gloss varnish lightning & eyes of all models as one batch.
·         Touch up edge of any bases with Warboss Green, if necessary.

== Should be finished with all of the Havocs at this point...

As referrenced, there are two "batches" of Havocs that will be painted in order to keep my sanity but give one step enough time to dry on the first model of a batch by the time I've finished with the last model of the batch. Since I used one of the 7 Autocannon Havocs as a test model, there are 6 Autocannon Havocs left, three with the large, Cadian Autocannon and three with the "standard" CSM Autocannon. These 6 are Batch 1, while the three Missile Launcher Havocs and two Havoc Aspiring Champions are Batch 2, consisting of 5 models.

Between last Thursday and Friday it took me a total of about 4 hours of work time to paint up the test model. I figure the remaining models will take about 3.5 hours total each. Here are some pictures of the test model:

I was able to get the first Batch of 6 Autocannon base coated with Kantor Blue Saturday (not the most productive Saturday I've had), and three and a half of these got a base coat of Averland Sunset last night (Monday).

My wife and daughter left for a week in New York City this morning, so I've got all my evenings this week and all this weekend to spend working on getting this first Batch of 6 finished up, and as much of the second Batch of 5 done as possible. With any luck (and not too many distractions) I should be able to get the first Batch finished by the end of Wednesday night, but they might spill into Thursday. Then assuming I can get at least 5 hours of painting in on Thursday & Friday nights, I should have this last Batch of 5 finished by Saturday, or Sunday at the latest. However, I might need to do the basing, matte varnishing, flocking & gloss varnishing on Sunday, and it might possibly take Monday night, too, but I hope not, as I have to make a day trip to Santa Clara, CA on Monday, and I'm usually beat by the time I get back to the airport.

Then, my wife comes home some time on Tuesday, so I might not be able to paint again until Wednesday evening. By that time I hope to have all of the Havocs finshed, and have started working on the Plague Toads that I will be using as Beasts of Nurgle.

That's the plan, anyways! We'll see how it goes...

As always, please feel free to post a comment below...