this model has been languishing on my painting desk since a deptacon 2022 it's time it's time
to paint it up it is the Space Marine captain and gravis armor and I need a captain model to
lead my black Templar Crusade because currently I don't have one or at least I don't have one I
want to use this is my old Space Marine Captain I call him clarivox I kick bash this guy about
six years ago and he has been a good and Noble Commander to my black Templar Crusade but the
look of Space Marines has changed a lot over the last six years and the way I paint Space Marines
has changed a lot over the last six years so I want to paint this guy up to match and to be a
proper Flagship of my Army now your HQ Should Be A Cut Above the standard Rank and file there's
only one of them so they're a good opportunities to really pour your energy into one model and make
them look special an easy way to do this would be to change up your painting style my black Templar
painted with contrast paint so if I did nothing but layering and glazing it would lead to a better
looking model however changing up the painting style could lead to the models not really gelling
together very well take this Tabitha from Fallout Wasteland Warfare next to one of my black Templars
they look a little weird I think the way to make your hqs really stand out is you paint them
exactly like one of your normal Troopers and then you add to it this is good for two reasons number
one you don't have to develop any new skills you just do all the painting you know how to do and
then you add on top and number two you don't have to plan ahead and to get this guy all painted up
see what he looks like and then make decisions maybe a little something extra on the sword
maybe fancy up that Cape a little bit this guy has been sitting on painted on my desk for months and
months it's time to get to work I prep the model with a black primer and a xenathol and although
I don't like to do it I did some sub-assemblies the head and shoulders I have left off for now I
prefer models altogether but this dude has so many little tubes chains and dangly bits it's
just gonna make things a lot easier my black power armor recipe uses lots of contrast paint Leviathan
blue black Templar and contrast medium the black Templar is an obvious choice it's in the name but
the Leviathan blue tints the Blackness into dark blueness and that color makes things a little
darker than just Shades of Gray I've experimented using Army painter speed paint for this and they
do work better but I don't have the ratios nailed down quite yet so for this guy I'm going with the
tried and true applying a big wet coat to all all the black armor now the armor is nice and
tinted I base coated the cape I've never painted a cape I truly love it always takes mountains of
work or it just looks like I slapped on some speed paint usually because I just slapped on some speed
paints black and red are the main colors on this captain now for the gold I put Earth Brown yellow
and white onto my wet palette then I wet Blended these onto the mini with brown on the bottom
yellow in the middle and white on top just like candy corn I do this fast so I can wet blend them
together while the paint is still wet then a brown wash I usually thin this a little but I decided
to apply it straight from the pot I should have thinned it a little it's fine but ended up being a
little overpowering now the thing that makes this effect look like metal and not just dirty candy
corn is a dry brushing of light desaturated gold on Top This is a super light dusting to deposit
the metallic flakes on the edges and tips of each gold detail this might seem like a really fussy
way to do metallics but it's my favorite way on my contrast paint black Templar it does a really good
job make sure that everything is really cohesive and feels like it's in the same style it's
basically just a simple non-metallic metal with a dusting of true metallics on top for the glitter
Factor all the big steps are done it's time to pick out all the leftover bits and Bobs like the
belt on his chest you know where belts go now for The Capes peasant capes are one simple piece of
fabric but Royal capes have a lining so I want a different color for the inside of this cape and I
chose cream and I can't just leave the outside of the cape as one raggedy patchy base coat I took a
bright red and did some highlights thinning down the paint and going over the folds again and again
until I achieved full saturation and throwing a dark red in the recesses now I put down my paint
brushes for a little bit because Games Workshop has already painted some Templar symbols for me
in the form of decals I applied a nice golden white Templar symbol to the shoulder pad I want
to glue it down now it's a bit of a faux pod a glue sub assembly is on before the miniature is
complete but I need it there for later when I'm thinking about lighting after that decal detour
I painted the servo skull with a green gray green because I don't have any other green on
the miniature and I want the skull and his little Tails to be obviously different than the captain's
black armor then I drive off some dark tan over the base and followed it up with some light gray
dry brushing and just like that the miniature is done it looks just as good as any other black
Templar in my Army I could throw a decal on that Banner paint the base room Black and call it a day
but the day is Young And I want to take this miniature to the next level that's going to
mean lots of free handing perfecting this face and taking light into consideration to get a sense of
lighting I took a flashlight and shined it over the model this lets me see where the brightest
spots should be and it moved flashlight around until I found spots that I thought looked good
I made up some more black Templar medium and glazed this over the armor and all the spots the
flashlight didn't reach I did this over and over laying down a dark spot and then taking a clean
damp paint brush and smoothing the transition I did this individually to every single piece of
armor leaving the light blue gray showing through in only small spots now my Shadows are taken care
of it's time for the highlights I mix some light blue gray with the speed paint and contrast paint
and applied this sparingly everywhere that I didn't just shade this is the light reflecting
off the raised portions of the armor and on top of all that some white paint just a little bit
Edge highlights and spots of specular highlights on any round surfaces and that is black armor take
two I try to make it shiny black armor because usually shiny highlights are a lot smaller and a
lot brighter and so that leaves most of each panel black and so it has an overall darker appearance
but now I need to correct all the gold pieces because right now they kind of look like stickers
because their Shadows don't match the Shadows on the armor to this I used some speed paint Brown
this is a transparent color and I can put this over the gold and some of that original shading
and highlighting will show through just darker and Browner all the Shadows I just applied to
the armor will show me exactly where this brown pane should go I took the flashlight back out
to find out how the light would fall on the red cape draped over his shoulder and I am pleased to
report my armor is looking like I got all the highlights in the right spots red is a tricky
color to highlight because it becomes pink when you add white to it but there's an easy fix for
that I applied spotty squiggly highlights at the top of the cape thinning it down when it
got closer to the belt buckle and backpack and then I did the same thing with white panes a red
watery glaze over that brings the colors back to vibrant red it's still a little pink but
it does a good job of hiding the highlights and keeping the overall color red my light is finished
and now some Shadows I glazed Black Ops of the highlights and now the Cape is looking much more
realistic I did the exact same steps on the cape using the flashlight to give me an idea of where
the Highlight should go the scraggly highlights will give me a texture and that'll make the cape
stand out as a different softer material than the smoother armor properly lighting a scene is
definitely a skill I need to continue working on the flashlight helped a lot and when I get to the
base I'll probably use that as a way to reinforce some of my let's call them decisions now it's time
for lots and lots of free ending on the bottom of this cape I want to paint a small thin Gold Line
I find that's the easiest way to make capes look really really good I painted a bunch of brown dots
about one quarter inch away from the edge of the cape this dotted line will be my target for the
stripe I've yellowed lines in the past and ended up with wonky trim so it's an important step now
I can just connect the dots and I'm left with a nice even line now to highlight all I have to do
is follow the highlights I already did on the cape anywhere red got some tan and anywhere pink got
some yellow paints now this is not a yellow trim line but a Gold Line and to make a gold I glaze a
metallic gold paint over top of these Browns and yellows exactly like the original metallics the
old line on the cape trick is one of my all-time favorites and it's really not that tricky just
paint on a line and you make the highlights match the highlights you already did on the cape and it
really makes it look like you know what you're doing and you know what else I really like to do
Hazard Stripes I decided the protuberance on the gun would get this effect I base coated the black
and this will help me out later then I painted on light gray stripes light gray because this is
the color I have that has the best coverage I can paint lines in two coats and then I can clean them
up with black paint it's easier to cover up light colors now I could get the colors I want I glazed
yellow over the light gray and for the secret sauce orange ink this is an incredibly bright
saturated color and using this as my Shadows lets me have lots of contrast without losing vibrancy
the napkin ring shape thing on his gun is now really eye-catching it's always a good idea to
paint weapons and heads different colors so that they really draw the eye and speaking of weapons
that chain sword is calling painting Checkers is a bummer it's super easy to make any mistakes and
super easy to spot those mistakes because it's basically a grid I find tapping spots of paint
into sections and then dragging those spots into squares is the easiest way to do this and I did
a good enough job to keep the black shading I did underneath I use this as a guide to apply
my highlights painting over top of the squares until they were nice and saturated freehanding
Checkers is not as easy as free handing a line it's probably the next step up in terms of
difficulty now it's time to tackle that Banner but first did you know make a new terrain set
every single month this month we have the orc Brewery The Unofficial sequel to octares with
new orcy walls and a goth rocker stage you can pick up the whole set through the EOB terrain
here on our patreon hosted through comps Games and Things or you can subscribe to our tribes on
my mini Factory I love banners specifically back banners they are absurd I want a half light half
dark banner and just like the hazard Stripes I base coated the light half with light gray I
highlighted this with a light gray and then white paint and then it was time for the color I want a
yellow and I want the layers I just did to show through so I watered this down and used a little
bit of brown to reinforce the Shadows on the other half the banner I went with a black black like
the black Templars and highlighted a little with gray I find dark colors much easier to work with
than light colors and the trim around the design I went with a white now I want to load this up with
decals and the surface is not perfectly smooth so to give them the best chance of sticking nicely
I gave it two coats of gloss paint this will fill in all the surface imperfections I cut a
black black Templar symbol in half and put this over the yellow and a white Templar symbol over
the black lining them up perfectly to form a grim dark yin yang and having a little more room on the
bottom I applied some more tiny symbols once they were dry I did two more coats of gloss medium to
hide the edge of the plastic transfer sheet and then a coat of matte medium to dull it all back
down decals are pretty great conservatively I've applied probably about one billion transfers to my
black Templar Space Marines and thank goodness black Templars still have decal sheets so many
Space Marine chapters don't get these Games Workshop more than ultramarines deserve transfer
sheets put them in the boxes the Banner's done the weapons are done now the only thing is the
face and it's only half a face so it should only be half as hard I want the brightest face possible
to stand out against the black armor so I don't want to darken it too much step one magenta it's
not the most accurate thing but I find magenta makes such a lovely skin it makes the character
feel alive after that I glaze some tan over the Dome of his head and eyebrows and to finish it
off I glazed some yellow onto his temples all these weird vibrant colors right on his silly
face will make it feel different than all the cloth and metal on his armor I probably should
have gone with a helmeted head because the teeny tiny little head doesn't really fill up that space
very well the gravis armor has a chest out to here and it looks a little bit ridiculous but I'm okay
with a little bit ridiculous I feel like the naked head tells a better story now to make the lighting
look a little bit more plausible by fixing up that base right now it's all even and I want to
add some directional light and Shadow first a dry brushing of white near his front foot then some
airbrushing white paint to brighten this area that is directly being hit by the sun to darken
the area under his body and Cape I sprayed some burnt umber ink this is a transparent color that
let some of the previous layers show through then a dry brushing of Light tan to highlight all the
lovely sand and rock textures and now there are only two things left to do painting The Rim the
base black of course and then giving this Captain a name subscribers to our patreon at the mega fans
tier get immortalized as members of my crusade introducing Fox the captain in gravis armor
this is by far the best painted black Templar in my collection it was done in about five
hours but I'm glad I poured another 15 into them it might seem kind of crazy to paint it
all and then pretty much paint over every single thing but I think that step one is a good step
because if I just started from scratch from a black Prime and then tried to do this I don't
think it would have ended up exactly like this it takes that learning and exploration
and kind of understanding the model trying things out with the flashlight covering up
some highlights that ended up in the wrong spots it takes a lot of just diligent work
to get a model from Zero to Hero because this is a Space Marine hero it's a Space
Marine Captain technically it's a Space Marine Marshall because the black Templar don't have
captains they have Marshalls and I would say he is a little bit better than my own martial
leave a comment below which Marshall you prefer although if you say the old one I'm gonna cry