"The Best of the Best" - Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant

Members of their Chapter’s elite 1st Company Veterans, 

each of these vastly experienced Space Marines 

has fought to preserve the Imperium across uncounted worlds.

- Games Workshop

Hello one and all, welcome back to your Friday fix of The Art of Caesura!

I mentioned, in the reflective intro to last week's post, that I have been thinking about my underpinning goal for this year. 

"Live like the kind of person who is making the most out of their life."

I am going to re-word it slightly:

"Live like the kind of person who is actively engaged in their life."

When I first wrote that goal, I phrased it as "Live like the kind of person who is more in control of their life." It didn't quite get across the feeling I was looking for, neither did the one above that I had amended it too. But after a bit more time and reflection, I think my newly phrased goal most accurately portrays what I am aiming for: to be a more active participant in my life rather than passively letting it pass me by. I am happy to say that so far, one quarter of the way through the year (and with lots of reading and deep introspection), I am living this way more and more. 

Let me set my deep ruminations to the side now so that I can tell you about my Bladeguard Veteran Sergeant!

Last week we looked at how I painted my other two Bladeguard Veterans. There is a tremendous amount of overlap between them and their leader here. So today, rather than reproduce everything I talked about last week, I will comment on the elements that differ. 

For all of the sergeants in my Black Templars army (so far only my Assault Intercessor Sergeant, although also my Sword Brother who is sort of a sergeant) two ways that I am differentiating them from the other members of the squad is to have them helmetless and also paint their pauldrons black instead of white. 

Again like the Sword Brother before him, I didn't love this guy's fohawk hairdo, so I decided to sculpt him a kind of swept over Mohawk like Thomas Jane's character from the expanse. 

I would consider my Green Stuff skills to be somewhat remedial, but hair is dead easy. 

More "Flock of Seagulls" 

With the hair sculpted, I moved on to painting the face. 

I start with a basecoat of 3:1 Cadian Fleshtone : Wraithbone.

Then I subtly glaze around the eyes and lower parts of the cheeks with pure Cadian Fleshtone.

I then add S75 Indian Shadow to Cadian Fleshtone (approx 1:3) and glaze this into the recesses and lower face. 

Then I mix Doombull Brown, Cadian Fleshtone and a tiny touch of Mephiston Red and glaze this warm tone on the cheeks and temples. 

Then I tend to paint the eyes (Corax White and Abaddon Black), before glazing below the eyes with Cadian Fleshtone + Sotek Green. I then highlight the upper face and smooth any blends with the original mix (Cadian Fleshtone and Wraithbone). 

I used a Black Templars decal on the cloth and then painted over it to highlight it. I have seen people paint chaos stars and things on this cloth (presumably implying that he has picked a rag off his latest victim, but I couldn't see a veteran Black Templar sullying his blade on any old rag, and I like to imagine that he carries this cloth expressly for this purpose (hence my painting it blood red). 

And that's it! I love how this guy (and his whole squad) turned out, and we'll take a closer look at them next week, right here on The Art of Caesura!

Reading: 4000 Weeks - Oliver Burkeman

Watching: The Last of Us

Next Week:

Behold! The Bladeguard!