How to Paint: Adeptus Custodes - Quick, Easy Army Painting

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Hi guys, welcome back to Farhammer videos. Today I'm going to go through a quick one with you
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We're going to be painting an Adeptus Custodys model, but I'm going to show you what to do and what not to do when it comes to using things like oil paints on miniatures and doing things like shading and pre-highlights
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And because we're painting a custodys, I decided to use one of my 3D printed Henry Cableheads just to see if I could get the guy's attention. But now that didn't work
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So start off by priming the model in black. You can use any black spray for this
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I use the Vallejo Airbrush black just because I've got plenty of it and it covers the miniature nice and thin
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Next I use some Liquidex white ink, some titanium white ink. And this was a kind of pointless state, so I don't recommend you follow this
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I'll show you why in the next step. Next up, I'm using some Retrobuter armor thinned down quite heavily with Vileo's airbrush thinner
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Now, a lot of people say you can't actually airbrush with this colour, but so long as you go with thin white coats, you actually get a really, really rich and vibrant covering
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And the reason why I said the earlier stage was completely irrelevant and not to follow it is because in order to get that really rich vibrant colour, you actually need the black undercoat so that the gold metallic or any metallic really pops out on the model and stands out
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Now, unfortunately here, because I've used the white, there's no reflection. It doesn't actually give the vibrancy in. Because I have to cover this with so much retributor armour, it completely negates that earlier step. It's entirely pointless. And this is just part of the properties of retrobuter armour as a paint. And I know I'm a massive fan of oil paints, which will come to later, but there is no better way to shade down the retributor armour than using rikin flesh shades. So I highly recommend just some of these
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paint mix it and thin it down with some water and then slap it on the entire model and just pull it off
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to make sure it doesn't pull in any particular area so once that's dry i would go over it again with
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some more wrightland flesh shade and this is again just focus on the form so if you look at things
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like the leg on these custodies so they do go to a very very clear point at the front so i would paint
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like the shaded area of the leg with another coat of seraph and sepia to darken that down so at least then
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the leg as a form or things like the undersides of the arms have a clear graduation, for lack
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of a better word, a clear graduation from the light to the dark. So you can see from the light
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coming down from the top angle going across each individual part of the miniature rather than
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just shading the miniature as a whole. And then the next little tip is to use some drushy violet
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or drouki violet however you want to pronounce it. Use this very sparingly in the deepest shadows. So
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the places where the Rital and Flesh shade has settled most heavily. And just drop this in there
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and then using a wet brush, just feather it out so it fades in rather than leaves those
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tied marks around the edge of a wash. And put this again in the deepest part of the darkest shadows
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So what this will do is not only add a bit more color modulation and interest to those shadows
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but it will also cool them down a bit, which is quite natural for a shadow colour. You're
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RISE won't actually see the purple of the drushy violet, but you will see on the armor when it's finished in a minute
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You'll see that coolness to the shade and it'll add a lot more interest and a lot more contrast and vibrance to the armor itself
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And then once that's dry, we're going back in again with Retributor armor and one of the Artis Opa's Series D dry brushes
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This is the medium dry brush. It's part of our starter set. and we're using this here because the Reitland flesh shade will have discolored all of the areas of the armour
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and it will have started to mat it down as well. So using this lightly all over the model, focusing kind of on the uppermost pieces
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is going to bring back that beautiful gold colour. Next I using some silver from the Vallejo model air range And yes this is an airbrush paint However it is one of the most strong and vibrant silvers you can get which lends itself brilliantly to things like dry brushing
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or even just normal painting, edge highlighting. It's not the most reflective silver, but if we
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mix it into the retributor armour, it's almost a 50-50 mix. I kind of want halfway between
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silver and the retributer armour. So mixing this in gives us a much lighter, almost liberator
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gold color that's still nice and vibrant. It's not too thin. It's very, very opaque. So dry brushing
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this onto the model gives us some really good highlights in very little time. As you're dry brushing
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with this though, make sure you are moving closer and closer to that pure silver color. So your
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final highlight or edge highlight using this dry brush technique needs to be the pure Vallejo airbrush
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silver. And this you want to focus essentially coming from the opposite direction to where you put the
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drushy violet shadows so if you put facing the model here if you put the drushy violet in the bottom left
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corner of the leg then you want to be highlighting that same leg from the top right downwards and then
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even where you've put the drushy violet directly next to that just add a bit of highlight color so you've
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got that immediate shine of bright silver to dark deep cool drushy violet in the shaded areas just
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pick out the edge and you'll get some great contrast on your armor in no time at all
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And I think you'll agree at this stage, once all of those elements are completed, this is literally an airbrush, a wash and two dry brush stages. This armour looks absolutely gorgeous. So if you like the look of this, stop watching the video right now. So what I'm going to do now is paint from the inside out. So I'm going to try my best not to touch any of that gold armour, but go for the most, the innermost pieces. And I'm using some bold pyro red from pro acral or monument hobbies proackle range
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because the coverage of these paints is absolutely incredible and honestly it's unrivaled
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And then I'm also using some coal black from pro-acral again. Yep, once again, coverage is absolutely excellent
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But what I love about this black, particularly on a model, is that it's not a true black
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So if we use something that's a deeper black, we can still shade this down later on and give it a much, much darker shadow area
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And then here for any of the brown areas, I'm using mahogany by pro-acral
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So this is just really going to do the gloves on this model
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I'm trying to keep it a very limited colour palette. I really want that gold to stand out the most
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and then everything else is just a very minimal accent to it. And then I'm going to use some olive flesh to paint the pelts on what I believe is name is
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I believe his name is. Forgive me if I've mispronounced the name there
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But I think this is a pretty unique element specific to this Custodis model
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So you don't really need to follow this, but here's a quick guide on painting lion pelts
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And now for some army level highlighting. So I'm going to start with orange again by pro-acral
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This isn't the best colour for coverage. It's not one. I mean, not in any range
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I'm yet to see a good vibrant orange for coverage. So I'm going to start off mixing this in with some of the bold parol red from earlier
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And I'm just going to dry brush across all the highlights of the cape
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And then as I start to build up the highlight area, I'm going to go more and more into pure orange
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Next, I'm going to be doing some dry brushing with dark grey blue. again from pro-acrall. Now, I've talked about the strengths of prior acral quite a lot. The coverage is
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absolutely excellent. So if you're just doing general base coats of specific colours, then they're
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absolutely great with a normal brush. I tend to grab them now just because they're closest to my desk
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because it's what I paint with most frequently. But I'll be honest, when it comes to dry brushing
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you know, with these artists open's dry brushes, you've seen the likes of Byron doing really soft and
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smooth blends. I must admit that pro-acral aren't the best colours for those, because
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it's a really matte finish so it ends up having quite a lot of bite to it so both with the base layers
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and with the dry brush layers on top you get a much chalkier finish whereas with a more glossy or soft sheen color you will get a much smoother blend so when you picking your colors don worry too much about it not being Mephistan red or whatever blue or black
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Just go with dark blue, you know, whatever feels right, pick the right color. But be aware of the texture of the paint that you're using when doing these techniques
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because a softer sheen color would give you a much smoother, softer blend
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So next, I'm taking bold titanium white. Now, I know I'd never say use pure white on a model
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and I'm not here, not specifically, but I really want the contrast of the black parts to stand out
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So whilst I'm leaving some of the previous dark grey blue on my brush, I am putting some of the titanium white down
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and then I am letting that mix in as I start to use my dry brush on the texture palette
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So whilst I've used a white paint, I am actually influencing it with some of the dark blue that was on the brush before
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So if I do want to go up to a pure white at any point, I can still still. do that on some of the points. But honestly, I won't. This is army painting. It's getting it done
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quick. So I just don't want it too striking where it's absolutely pure white. Just nipping back
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to that lion pelt again while I'm doing some washes before going on to the metallic stage
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I'm using some seraphim sepia or sepia in order to paint over the lion pelt. So this is
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going to change its colour from a pure like pale, pale sandy colour to a nice more vibrant, almost
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liony flesh tone. So I'm going to paint the entire pelt with this. Next up, I'm taking some Agrax
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Earthshade, and I'm going to apply this to the pelt again, but only in the shadowy areas. So anywhere
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where the skin overlaps and folds, or really anywhere just underneath the model, so where there
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would be natural shadow. Around the main as well, around the inner side of the main, I just want to
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make sure that that stands out a bit more as a deeper, thicker, more richer body of hair. So
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kind of some of these areas and I'm just mixing in some Agrax earth shades slowly around the model as I look at it
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to see where it looks the best. And then to bring back the more natural tones of the pelt here
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I'm just going to dry brush it again. And once again, this is using that olive flesh that we used earlier
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And the good thing about this is, as I mentioned before, you know, if you're wanting smooth blends
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use a paint with more a machine, whereas these peracral paints are more matte. They end up with a lot more chalky texture
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This actually works really well for the pelts where the hair would, the hair, well, pelts and capes where, you know, it's material. Unlike armour, it wouldn't be as sort of shiny and natural. It would actually have some texture to it. So this is a good way of adding that texture to the model in a really quick way whilst highlighting it at the same time. So next up, I'm going to take some of the aptly named blue by proacral. And this is a lovely blue. Like if you were back in primary school, this is the blue that they tell you blue is. And with this
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I'm going to paint all of the gemstones and tubes on the model. I don't want it to stand out too much because then I've got to paint them all as gems
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and I'm literally just going to give these a coat of blue and say done. The good thing about this paint, as I say, it's one coat
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And that doesn't mean, you know, you have to, if you thin it down too much, yeah, it'll still go on really thin
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But the beautiful thing about this is you can leave it quite thick and it'll reduce down really smooth
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And then finally, for all these metallic parts, I'm going to use the magnesium from Vallejo's metal color range
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Now, these paints are absolutely incredible. If you haven't seen it on my previous tutorials, they are once again
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They're pretty much one coat, but not only that, they also dry with a really nice metallic sheen
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So this magnesium colour has an ever so slight blue or cooler hint to it
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which is going to contrast lovely against the warm, rich and sort of darker, warmer, armour colour
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So that's why I've chosen to use the magnesium here. And finally, the part of the video you should not pay attention to
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So I've taken Abtelung 502's black, and for this, I'm going to create an oil wash, a kind of unifying oil wash
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And to do that, I'm just going to put a little bit on my palette and thin it down with some mineral spirits
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And my usual approach with this is just to coat the entire model with it
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Have it quite thin, you know, not too thin. The problem with these is and a lot of people don talk about it If you put these on too thin they end up very bity on the model So the paint itself actually separates The pigment actually separates So as you wipe it off the model in the
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final stage, the reductive stage of the process, you end up with it being very bity and chalky
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You don't get a smooth transition like you do with enamels. So thin it down, but not too much
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Obviously, you can see I've thinned it down quite heavily here and then coat the entire model
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But the problem I've got with this model is when doing this, I have absolutely ruined all of the detail that I did on the armour in the previous stage
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So when I get into the reductive stage, you'll see that this actually destroys all of that earlier step that I've done
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What I also didn't do here is I didn't use a gloss varnish because I wanted it a lot more grim dark, a lot more weathered
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and I wanted the pigment of the black oil wash to affect the parts of the model that I'd already painted
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But again, with gloss, it tends to. to be a bit more hydrophobic, so you'll end up with the shade, whether it's acrylic or oil
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you'll end up with it going into only the recesses. And then when you wipe it off, you get that
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nice, rich, bright, vibrant collar back. However, again, because I've used the proracral mats
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here, what I've done is you get those little micro-imperfections in the surface. The actual matte
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paint creates a texture. So trying to clear the mat, the oil paint out of that, you end up
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with a completely ruined color because it's essentially embedded within the acrylic paint
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So you end up with a really murky red. So what I should have done here, two things is I should have done it with a gloss paint first
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but I was trying something new and it failed. And what I also should have done is instead of painting over everywhere with the black
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I should have left the armour and only painted some of the more detailed areas with the black
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so things like the feathers, the blue areas, the cape itself. So if you are following this guide and want better results than me
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I want better results than me, but sometimes things don't work in this hobby, and I just don't have time to paint another one of these
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to show you the correct way of doing it. But basically my tip and my advice here would be
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make sure you gloss-coat it before you put something like this down, if you want to save that original base color
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And anywhere like the armour, especially on metallics, if you've already got a really, really good
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vibrant contrast on there between the shadows and the highlights, which we did in the first stages
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with the really simple airbrush, wash, couple of passes of dry brush. Do not shade this down
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further. It looked brilliant before and then it looked absolutely rubbish afterwards. So this is
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another case of do what I say, not what I do. So don't follow this part of the guide, or at least
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if you do, do it with those pieces of advice I've just given you. But this is how I ruined what was an
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absolutely beautiful model at one stage and you can avoid doing it in the future
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So again, sorry, the result here is not the best I can possibly come out with, which you'll
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probably agree with, but, you know, this happens. It's a hobby. We learn things every single
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day and I don't want to be one of those YouTubers who lies to you and says, yeah, this is
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this is perfect every single time. I'm the best painter. Every single one of us gets things
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wrong, every single one of us. And I'm sure even some of the most pro-god tier painters in the world
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do the same. So let me know what you think of this down in the comments. Are there any
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things you've got wrong that you would like to improve on or any issues you've had where you've
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gone, ah right, okay, that was a bad result, but actually I learned from it. Anyway, let me go down
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in the comments. I just want to finish off by saying, please say a big thank you to our patrons
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who allow us to make videos and content like this. So please consider subscribing. And if you can't
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do that much, then that's fine. But if you've enjoyed this video and like our content
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How to Paint: Adeptus Custodes - Quick, Easy Army Painting

fauxhammer.com