Painting with Aodhán

Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, 

and a push in the right direction. 

- John Crosby

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

Today we're going to take a quick break from all of the Hellboy that I have been painting recently to take a look at a cool landmark in my hobby journey last month. But just before we do, seeing as how we've been covering so much Hellboy content recently, I just wanted to let you know about an insane Humble Bundle running at the moment for PDFs of ALL of the Hellboy and BPRD graphic novels! For 30 euro! Now, onto the good stuff. 

For the first time, I'm helping someone get into the hobby! My friends, Ruairí and Vanessa, have an eight year-old son, Aodhán, who has been playing fairly involved board games for years and has begun to show a keen interest in Warhammer 40k. My heart melted with joy when I heard this! 

I still remember my first fledgling steps into the hobby and I think many of us remember "that person" who we look back on fondly as the person who helped us out in getting started in this wonderful hobby. Now is my chance to be "that person"!! So I didn't want to mess it up!

Luckily, the kid is already hooked. He has picked the implacable Ultramarines as his faction of choice, and though I lent him the codex and rulebook, he has already gone out and got his own copies to pour through - and pour through he does! Vanessa told me that story times have evolved into them reading him excerpts from the books and back issues of White Dwarf - photo captions and all! And that brushing teeth now involves watching 40k battle reports! I love it. 

For our first hobby meet-up I thought it would be fun to have a painting session (painting being the aspect of the hobby that I most enjoy and the aspect that I felt I could be most helpful with). Prior to our session, Aodhán and Ruairí had practiced a bit with paint consistency, but I don't believe he had actually painted a full model up to that point. So I set my goal for our session to be him getting to walk away with a fully painted mini that he could be proud of, in an amount of time befitting the attention-span of an active 8 year-old - and being cognizant that the Vanessa was earning her halo by entertaining her daughter and two of my daughters while us guys got our hobby on!

I had prepared for the session by getting some of those 5-packs of synthetic brushes from the dollar store for Aodhán and Ruairí  (those are the very brushes that I use). I set up a couple dry palettes (zip lock bags) for them and had cleaned, assembled, primed, and undercoated 3 intercessors. And away we went!

I apologize that this has been a text-heavy post. But I was so preoccupied, trying to ensure that everything was working out and that everyone was having a good time that I forgot to take many pictures of the actual process, but don't worry, I did get our finished minis. 

So first up (and most importantly) is Aodhán's very first fully painted Warhammer model! I think it looks awesome, and I especially like the black helmet crest! Even more importantly, I think he had fun!

Reflecting back on my role that day, I think I was perhaps a little too goal-oriented rather than being more process-oriented. What I mean by that, is that my main objective was for Aodhán to have a great time and get to go home with 3 cool, fully-painted Ultramarines to fuel the grá for painting. I didn't really give much tutelage, per se, except to reinforce ideas of thinning paint, layering and brush control and discussing order of operations, and which areas might be which colours. 

Ruairí and I popped the decals on at the end, but Aodhán did literally everything else in about 40 minutes:

***

Next up is Ruairí's Ultramarine. Now, Ruairí has painted a few minis in his time. He has painted minis from a few board games and, I believe, a Guild Ball team back in the day. But it had been many years since he had last painted, and I don't think he had ever painted any Space Marines.

It is a really nice, clean model and his brush control really shows - I mean look at the cleanliness of the tiny Imperialis on the Bolt Rifle! From the Macragge Blue basecoat, he used an all over wash of (I believe) Army Painter Strong Tone which provided some nice depth and panel lining.

The now darker blue provided the perfect foundation to layer back in with Macragge blue to give some depth to the armour. We discussed volumatic vs. edge highlighting and I think he did an awesome job of this, especially on the head, back pack and legs.

 I think my advice on consistency of paint was a tiny bit off - I think he would have had even more success and ease of application if I had encouraged him to thin the paints slightly more. 

***

And lastly...yours truly. I had never painted an Ultramarine before, but I was looking forward to it. I went into it with the intention of painting it using the exact same techniques that I use for my Black Templars, just with a different colour palette - and I think I succeeded.

From my Macragge Blue base coat, I dropped Doom Bull Brown and then Skrag Brown into the crevices, which worked as nicely against the complimentary blue armour as it does against my usual black. 

I then started stippling on lighter and lighter blues, moving up through Vallejo's Magic Blue and Citadel's Lothern Blue. My red recipe was the same as always: Mephiston Red then Contrast Fleshtearers Red, back to Mephiston for some stippled on weathering, and then Evil Sunz Scarlet. I've always wanted to paint my take on that classic Ultramarine look with the red weapons, and now I got to! 

For the metals, I used Vallejo Metal Colour Dark Aluminum, and for the gold trim and Imperialis I just coated this silver tone with Contrast Snakebite Leather. Looking at the model now, I would actually change the Chainsword Grip tape. This is how I paint it on my Templars (Screamer Pink with Nuln Oil) and I think it works pretty well, but on the Ultramarines there are a few too many competing bright primary colours to make room for this bright hue, so instead I would probably opt for a dark, cool brown tone. 

Speaking of brown tones, his hair is Mournfang Brown and skin is Cadian Fleshtone washed with Contrast Guilliman Flesh and highlighted with Cadian Fleshtone again. 

As I said, he was completed in around about an hour, and it was great fun applying my painting techniques to a different colour scheme. I would love to do an Imperial Fist in this style...I'll have to find an excuse!

All-in-all it was a great day and I can't wait for the next one. It was an honour being that guy for someone getting into the hobby. 

Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next week right here on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: The Invitation (2022) - Jessica M. Thompson

Listening: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Cover) - Pomplamoose

Next Week: 

Found on Gamefound...