Khador Warjacks painted with new Citadel Paints!

This weekend I met with Brian from A Gentleman's Ones for some much-deserved hobby time and for the first time since I've know Brian we actually hung out for a reason that was not terrain-building or Special Operations: KILLZONE. And it was Glorious!

Those of you who read my blog on a regular basis know that I don't usually post about my painted models simply because.. well.. I don't paint a lot. It's not because I can't or I don't want to - it's just that whenever I start an army I can never decide how to paint it. I'm very familiar with color theory and the different types of brushes and paints, mind you. It's just my indecisiveness and inability to commit to a decision that usually leads to a lot of my stuff being factory gray. That is why I decided to let Brian teach me how to paint my Khadoran army. His stuff is always so astonishing and from the few times I've seen him paint, his entire process seems so spontaneous and carefree. I wanted my hobby to be like his, so I made the trip to his place with "Frozencore" Joe to get stuff done!

Green has always been my favorite color and I wanted my Khador stuff to be green. It's not the most original idea, but I like the look of it, so I wanted to do that. I wanted my army to be dirty, gritty and covered with rust and dust from months and months of constant warfare in the trenches. I didn't want pristine-looking 'jacks, I wanted them scratched and damaged, but still ready to punish the enemies of the Motherland!

After I explained to Brian what I wanted, he went and primed the models. He grabbed the Destroyer and I got to paint the Juggernaut. The rest is magic..

What you see below is the result of ~3 hours of painting. There are a lot of touch-ups, highlights and other things to add and fix on the models, but for now I am definitely happy with the results.

Destroyer and Juggernaut - 80% done!
OH! AND THEY ARE ALL PAINTED WITH THE NEW CITADEL PAINTS!!!

Priming: The models were primed black, using Krylon Flat Black Primer, but honestly any black primer will do. Then they were barely hit with a very dark green primer, but it was almost unnoticeable. It is not necessary.

Watered-down Rhinox Hide base paint was then applied to the model to give some of the recesses that brownish tint. It wasn't applied over the whole model, just in the recesses to give them some definition.

Rust effect: The following colors were then added to the models using sponges, but I'm sure that stippling will do the same job. But sponging is way more exciting. Obviously focus on the areas that are metal - the joints, the legs, under the various armor plates, the weapons, the exhausts, the little boiler hatches, etc. etc. Feel free to rust-up the armor plates as well, but only if you plan to leave some of those areas untouched when you add your base colors. I did that, but then I ended up covering most of it with green anyways.. 4 paints were used for the rust effect, each one applied with a sponge, starting with a generous amount of Doombull Brown layer, then a smaller amount of Bestigor Flesh layer, then Fire Dragon Bright layer and last and certainly least (when it comes to the amount that was used) - Averland Sunset layer. As you can see the progression is from brown, to oranges to yellow.
Then: a wash. Brian is a big fan of mixing up his own lashes, and rather than using a simple brown, he decided to mix one, by combining Fuegan Orange shade, Druchii Violet shade and Biel-tan Green shade. This was then applied generously over all the rusted parts! 

Green Armor Plates: To start with, Castellan Green base was painted over all the areas where the armor plates are. Death World Forest was then painted on top of that, leaving some of the Castellan Green in the recesses. Don't worry about avoiding all the spikes and bolts, though - you'll have to touch them up later. Next is the actual armor color and the only paint mix - 50/50 Death World Forest and Elysian Green. Then highlight with Elysian Green.

Red Areas: Decided to do an odd number of red areas, to complement the green. I chose to do the heads, shoulder pieces and the knee plates under the armor plates on each leg. Using the Mephiston Red base, which is basically like a 50/50 Mechrite Red and Blood Red color, I based the areas. It's ridiculous how good of a paint Mephiston Red is! It's bright, vibrant, covers like a charm - it doesn't have the dull, dark and slightly chalky texture which Mechrite Red had. When that dried I covered the base color with Evil Sunz Scarlet, which is a slightly orange red and it also covered very well!

Then all of the Green Armor plates and the Red Areas were washed with the same watered-down Rhinox Hide paint, trying to focus on some of the details that need the depth and definition.

Battle Damage - Using a sponge I then did some battle damage, using Rhinox Hide all over the model. I then went over that with some Boltgun Metal or whatever the equivalent of it is called now.. err.. Ironbreaker layer, I guess.

Metal - Ironbreaker layer again, maybe some dry-brushing with Necron Compound. Honestly, here you can experiment with the different metallic paints - copper, tin, metal. My metals are still not finished and there's plenty of black left where all the rusted parts are. At this point you just cover all the rust you don't want with metal and dry-brush to bring out all the various details.

There's some more washing that's needed to enhance the models' rust and the details of the armors, but that's for another article! :)