To improve my ork army for Warhammer 40.000, i´m always looking for imperial vehicules or wargear to kustomize and adapt to something purely orky (lootin´). In this comprehensive SBS i´ll show you how to pass from a proud Contemptor Pattern Dreadnough of the Imperial Space Marines to a proud and mighty ork mega warboss.
First of all, we must have an idea of the color scheme: I´ll use bone and white tones, very worn and dirty, with well contrasted shades in black and brown. For metal parts I'll repeat with whitish NMMs and, of course, with lots of rust and dirt.
Beginning with the cleaning of the Dreadnought: Burrs, mold lines, fix any bubbles in the resin, etc. And finally we washed it well with dish soap and a toothbrush.
The next step is the removal of all Marine symbols and everything that reminds the Empire, with a modeling knife and a tiny metal file. I also anchored with bolts the main parts of the structure of the dread (especially the legs).
Here we can see the anchor bolts while I'm adding some Ork parts.
Also I put a lot of texture to simulate the rust: I prepare a mixture with PVA glue, water, talc and very (VERY) thin sand, possibly heterogeneous (which has grains of different sizes). I apply it in the parts where I will oxidize, trying to blur the boundaries of the oxide with a damp brush while the mixture is still fresh, so it is well integrated and not as a blob.
More rust and more pieces added (smoke obtained from Skaven miniatures).
The front part, with spikes, skulls, glyphs and a big ork head (typical). It took me quite work to engaging the head in the gap, but the result is fine for me.
Loads and loads of rust:
Starting with the base: I glue many small rocks of different sizes (they are chunks of dentist plaster), debris, mechanical remains (to give more variety), and a pair of putty pieces to get both feet firmly stuck to the base (along with bolts, of course). After all this, I cover the most with a layer of fine sand, made in the same way as the oxide, to homogenize it all.
Here is all primed in very dark brown (covering with blue-tack the putty pieces where the miniature will stick, not to be covered with paint and glue it down firmly).
And now the paint: progressively lighter layers of brown, focusing more light on the rocks at the front. The metallic junk is in dark and dull colors, so do not call much attention compared to the dread (although I will paint them with reddish tones, which will be also in the miniature in a minor proportion). Finally, I give a very light wash of green to the whole, so that the brown tones of the base will be slightly different from the brown ones bearing the dread.
Now, priming all the miniature with a very dark brown. One tip: give a quick shot of spray matt varnish before, to set the texture created and avoid it from take off due to the wet paint primer.
I remind to cover with bluetack the areas where arms will be glued, to preserve their subsequent adhesion.
Now I give several layers with a mix of Bleached Bone and a little brown, applied with airbrush, to the whole model. I specially focus at the top and front parts of the miniature (zenithal lighting). The purpose of this first lighting is double:
- Will be the base layer onto which I´ll create the main scheme of tones and colors.
- Also will be a perfect guide of the lights and shadows position. In such geometric figures is all very well defined.
The photos are very saturated, there really exists more contrast of shadow and light that is seen in the picture.
The next step is to give a couple of washes to the entire miniature (very diluted and removing potential accumulations of water before they dry), with reddish brown tones. Thus, by the contrast created by the airbrush layer, the miniature is gathering the look I want. I also work the rusty areas, with several glazes of orange, applied to a certain density.
As I did earlier and before all this work, I give a quick shot with spray matt varnish to fix the paint airbrushed, which is very fine and delicate. So I can work on it aggressively (dotting, washes, lot of brush work), not afraid to lost some parts.
For now, just playing with the orange tones to create a first contrast, reaching an average intensity (do not want a very saturate orange). In fact, I give a final layer adding a little white to orange, to desaturate a bit (since the miniature in itself is very desaturated).
Now I begin to work in a more specific way: any area of main armor plates shall be illuminated by successive dotting, beginning with bone + some brown, and reaching pure white in light points edges and borders. Here only I worked the body frame.
Another thing I've started to do is give small touches of color to create contrast, in this case turquoise: cold color and complementary to the overall scheme of browns, oranges and bone color. And it is perfect to simulate other types of oxides, so I will apply it in rivets and other elements (such the spikes). The turquoise will also give the ork head (which will be painted in a very saturated and vivid green) some common tones, so it does not look like one very isolated element.
Here there is already progress on two fronts:
- Shadowing the plates of the armor, using soft glazes of dark browns and oranges. With this, on the one hand I create more contrast and the other it softens much the effect of textured created by dotting, making it much smoother. If necessary, I re-light some parts.
- I painted the details (head, skulls, spikes) and continued with the turquoise spots around.
Another task is shading all parts of the armor that are not the plates themselves: gears, internal areas and so. I do this with several layers of diluted black paint. It will not totally cover all the light effects created with the airbrush, but give a much darker finish. And also creates a strong contrast with the clearer plates and main elements.
In the mechanisms and gears areas, I´ll use a Non Metallic Metal (NMM) effect based in steel/greased tones. Exceptionally, there is no rust in these parts: everything is based on dramatic contrasts of white, black and gray, and then a very thin layer of reddish-brown colors at last (to maintain overall tones).
Very important here to be aggressive in outlining edges and points of light in bolts: I'm looking for maximum sharpness and contrast of the structures, so I do with pure white. And of course, the external faces are much clearer and illuminated than internal ones.
For painting the rest of the armor plates, I repeat the same steps:
I painted the glyphs in a very saturated red tone, to have a primary color in the miniature, which combine very well with predominating browns and oranges.
I also painted the "shoes" with the same NMMs scheme used in the gears (they lack of dirt and mud, something I´ll do at the end of the process).
Another side view of the miniature:
Rear views, same processes: clear armor plates, rust, and many outlining and NMMs in the grids, edges and bolts.
I tried a blue NMM in the higher exhaust pipes, to continue with the scheme of putting details in cold tones (in this case, blue instead of turquoise). Although I still have to darken them a bit more from what they are in the picture.
Finally, I painted the lower escapes, following the same pattern: bone tones in the main parts, and turquoise on the metallic spikes.
And for the smoke, I'll try to create an interesting effect. I start with a base of dark blue and some brown.
Highlight adding bone and some white at the end, to obtain a desaturated blue.
Shading with intense reds, especially near the base and then, I progressively give intense orange tones. I want to create the sensation that the smoke goes almost incandescent from the engine (and the orange combines well with all the rust tones given all over the miniature).
The next step is to slightly desaturate the orange, adding some bone to the last light. And finally, I dull the whole giving a couple of glazes with the initial blue, very diluted.
The conversion of the two arms are also quite simple: attached bits and glyphs, bullet holes, skulls, etc.
As before, we insert a bolt to fix the arm, apply rust texture in different areas and give a primer with very dark brown. And then, several layers of airbrush with bone and some brown.
Now I focus on the gun: several layers of careful bone + white drybrush to mark all the details, and then a bit of blending to make it clean.
The next step is to shade: I start with general glazes of brownish orange. In addition, work with orange the texture of the shoulder pad.
I keep shading and giving tones, with increasingly darker glazes of orange and brown:
Finally, I turn to re-illuminate some areas for more light, with very aggressive outlining and some points of light. Also paint the different last details (cables, glyphs, etc.)
This is the result of complete painted left arm, following the same steps as for the rest of the armor, as explained above:
- Include some parts in a saturated red (the bones in the skull).
- Lots of orange rust, complemented by intense shaded in dark brown.
- Highlight with bone to white tones, by dotting.
- NMMs in joints, very contrasted and with very aggressive outlining.
- Scattered touches of turquoise, usually as oxide in rivets.
I have tried to be especially clean when lighting and shading mechanical fingers, so they are well defined and shaped.
At last, the final photos (I chose a light blue background to stand out the warm tone that dominates the miniature). I hope this step by step will be useful!
