Fire Warriors Start to Finish Part 3

The next step in my fire warrior series is the green armor. This will actually be the main color of my army, being extremely prevalent on my vehicles and Crisis Suits.

As with everything I paint, I will offer the obligatory reminder to use wet paint in every step (Though you could probably skip it in the first step.) and to make sure that you are using a brush that can hold a lot of paint, but keep a good tip.

Lastly, it should be noted, that I felt like I was settling on the green for these fire warriors during the entire process. That is not necessarily a bad thing. I can't conceivably spend the amount of time I want on each model and hope to finish in a reasonable time. I have stated the goal of this armor is to finish, and my own personal notions of "needs more" need to take a back seat to economy of time. I kept on keeping on and didn't mind the finished product one bit. That being said, the vehicles and suits are gonna get at least two more shades.

Without further ado and bitching I give you the next installment.

Step 1

From Stuff I Have Painted

Nice and easy...but it took me a really long time. Using a Citadel Basecoat Brush I went for full coverage with Citadel Foundation Color Knarloc Green. This step took so long for me because this is where my painting style of one color before the other comes back to bite me in the ass. I could not cover as quickly because I had to keep careful brush control near the already painted fatigues.

I did water down the Knarloc Green, and it took two coats to cover, but I probably will not on the rest of the fire warriors. This stuff was designed to cover, and it does it well. I see no reason to get in its way.

Step 2

From Stuff I Have Painted

After I got the coverage I wanted on the armor (as well as the few round pieces on the gators) I washed all my Knarloc Green down with Citadel Wash Thraka Green. I used the wash straight out of the pot with my Basecoat brush. The wash was there to unify and smooth out the base coat (It looked a little thick to me) as well as establish the recesses in the armor. In some of the deeper spots I waited for the first wash to dry then applied another.

At this point I become a little bit of a hypocrite, diverting from what I preach. I needed to backtrack a color, I used the Citadel Detail Brush (ZOMG!!!), and I didn't work inside out. I used the same color progression as the fatigues on the Tau sept badge on the shoulder plate of the armor. I used the smaller Detail brush to get into the recess so as not to leave the blue on the armor I had just painted.

Step 3
I switched up to my Citadel Standard Brush and used VGC Goblin Green. I thinned it with water and VMC Matte Medium and began highlighting. The Tau armor was pretty intuitive as to where to highlight, where they bothered to sculpt it. On a few of the legs those greaves just kind of melded together and a lot of the detail was lost. Maybe a bad mold, I dunno? I will have to look at my other fire warriors.

From Stuff I Have Painted

I focused heavily on the edges of the armor plates in highly visual areas like the the top of the helmet and the larger shoulder pad. The highlight is drastic and, on larger projects where this color is the majority, I will probably add a step between Two and Three. It will be the same as the step above only with a 1:1 CF Knarloc Green and VGC Goblin Green before going straight into VGC Goblin green.

Step 4
In the name of economy of time I will call this the last one. Still using my Standard brush I make sure it has a good tip and go to work with a 1:2 mix of VGC Goblin Green and VGC Dead Flesh mix (I used my usual water and matte medium to thin this mix as well). For this highlight I am only going to hit the highest areas on the model. There is a time saver trick that goes a long way. The fire warriors lend themselves well to this trick, which is to paint the corners. Anywhere on the armor where there is a lit corner, hit it with your highest color.

From Stuff I Have Painted

I am way in (4x digital macro) on that shoulder pad so it looks far more splotchy in the photography. Looking at the bottom corner of the shoulder pad the highest color is evident. I also added little dots of it on the Tau sept symbol. I used the mix to add the extra "gleam" to the fire warriors and make them look interesting from four feet away.

I am thinking, again, on the larger models that will display so much of this green, that I might add a few more steps. Certainly adding just a small bit of watery VGC Dead Flesh to the tips of the corners would add that extra "pop". I will try some glazing as well, as that can go a long way to unifying shades. Dependent on how well the glazing works these guys might be revisited.

Settling and shoulda-woulda-coulda's aside, I am happy with the way they are turning out so far. All that is left now is the black and the finishing touches, which we will look at in the next installment in the series.

From Stuff I Have Painted

Thanks for reading,
T