Monday, December 1, 2008

Promethean Hammer - Chaos Vindicator

My entry to GT2008 earlier this year featured two vindicators. This is the first of the two, with the enigmatic name of "Promethean Hammer".

Aims and Model.
The vindicator is a standard model, with chaotic spikey bits added on for effect to distinguish it from its loyalist counterparts. There were two overall broad aims for the model. Firstly, it must blend in with a Death Guard force (i.e. the GT2008 army). Secondly, it shouldn't be so Nurglesque as to be un-usable in an undivided chaos marine army.

At first glace, I thought that those two aims were in some serious amount of tension with one another. A Nurgle vindicator, but not too Nurgly!?!? How can that be achieved? Then I got thinking about the sorts of adjectives that described Nurgle: decaying, decrepit, sore-covered, fungi-covered, ugly, nurgling-infested, rusted.... (etc.). Out of them, the word rusted appealed a lot! Nurgle need not be an over-the-top paint job of grossness. It can be as simple as making a model appear rusted, in a poor state of repair, and old.

Then I got thinking about the consequences of that. What if some part of the vehicle rusted away completely, what would a traitor techmarine do? Why, replace it of course. I hit upon this idea: the vindicator would be a patchwork of old rusted bits of metal alongside newer, pristine metallic sheets that represent recent replacements (ready to rust over!).

Painting.
After undercoating in black, the vindicator was basecoated in a dabbed on layer of dull (graveyard) brown colour. A layer of mixed brown and black ink was then applied unevenly all over the surface of the tank. This inked layer took a fair amount of time to dry thoroughly.

Next, I started selecting out single sheets of "metal" on the tank. Some were coated in pure silver - to represent newly replaced parts. Others were given a variety of dull brown, black and dark green colours to politely suggest different rates of decay arising from the piecemeal manner in which the tank has been repaired by patchwork over the centuries. However, the bulk of the colour of the tank remained dull brown.

A number of areas of the tank were drybrushed in a slightly lighter tone of brown and worked up toward bleached bone. Other, thinner parts of metal on the tank were coated in pure bleached bone to suggest recent work to keep the tank together and whole.

The fine details included applying the name of the tank to the scroll on the side; rust features on the front, black horizontal marks from scratches on the front dozer blade, highlighting of external wiring and fans, and highlighting of various nuts and bolts.

Evaluation.
Positives: It does fit in with both Death Guard and undivided chaos marine armies, but at the cost of looking slightly at odds with both.
Negatives: These are probably the same as the positives. I could have probably made the tank armour more piecemeal looking. Having most of the tank in the same colour suggests a young tank: not all the panels have required replacement yet.

4 comments:

Space Hulk Enthusiast said...

Looks good, you've got a very distinct style in painting and it makes for a nice finished effect.

I agree with maybe having a few more "different" colored panels to suggest age. Maybe you can pull it off with some varied weathering in some places.

Gamers World said...

I like the model a lot.

jabberjabber said...

Hi Ron, thanks for the constructive feedback as always. Varied weathering would be a great way to suggest age - cheers!

jabberjabber said...

Hi Gamers World,
Glad that you like it!

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