"We Live to Serve" - Helbrecht - Part 2 - Servitors

High Marshal Helbrecht is accompanied 

by two attendant thralls, 

one of which carries his powerful combi-melta, Ferocity, 

while the other wipes clean 

the Sword of the High Marshals.

- Games Workshop

Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Last week we started our look at the epic leader of the Black Templars, High Marshal Helbrecht!

We managed to cover all of the painting of Helbrecht himself (as well as the poor unfortunate Ork on his base) so today we'll turn our attention to his servitors. They have quite a different palate than the big man himself - I painted them in muted cold tones to contrast his warm golden armour. Luckily there wasn't much fear of them drawing attention away from an 8 foot golden giant! I also wanted Helbrecht's weapons to stand out against the servitors so I kept these dudes quite neutral. 

From a zenithal undercoat (spray black then spray off-white from 45 degrees above), I painted their clothes Contrast Space Wolves Grey. 

I love servitors. They are so creepy, but also have a bit of black humour about them - in a future where paranoia around A.I. has reached the dizzying heights that it has in the 41st millennium, they now have monotask cyborgs to do any old banal task: fax machine, calculator, heavy lifting...they have servitors for that. 

I really wanted them to look quite inhuman, so after an initial basecoat of Cadian Fleshtone mixed with Grey Seer, I gave an all over wash of Apothecary White - this created an eerie, translucent quality to the skin. I then highlighted his skin with S75 Pale Skin and then Corax White. The pictures below show them up to this point. 

Next, I turned my attention to the hazard stripe tubes. I base coated them with Kimera's Yellow Oxide and the black stripes with Carbon Black. Don't be afraid to do a little backing and forthing at this stage (touching up the yellow and / or black) to get even, regular lines. 

With the hazard stripes in, I coated the whole tube with Agrax Earthshade - encouraging it to run off the most prominent areas. Finally, I painted a line of pure white straight over the yellow and black stripes for a light reflection. Simple and effective. 

I painted all of the metal elements on the servitors with a very dark metal, ***, highlighted up with Leadbelcher, so as not to draw too much attention to them and to contrast their pale skin. 

All that remained were the other small details. As a note, on Ferocity, you might be able to make out that the chain and cuff that would connect the gun to Helbrecht's wrist is painted using the same metal as that attaching the Sword of the High Marshals to his other wrist (a bright bluey-silver), compared to the darker, grubbier steel of the gun, or the darker still metal of the servitor. 

The pictures above, got us about 90% of the way there. To see the complete model fully assembled, tune in next week to The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Slow Horses (Season 3)

Reading: The Obstacle is the Way - Ryan Holiday

Next Week:

"Hi, Marshal"...