Starting up my Horus Heresy alpha legion army Part I (What not to do)

G'evening

so as the sun gently nestles 'neath the horizon i pour a large whiskey and start chronicling my humbling experience in painting the Alpha legion

So as i outlined in the previous post i had some....problems...with doing my horus heresy 30k Army. The gist of it is that i was totally enamored with Forge worlds own formula for doing the Alpha legion, yet a crucial part of the formula is to work with several thinned layers of Tamiya's own clear series.

Now for those of you that don't know, Tamiya basically does a high end of painting supplies and models, whose intended use is mainly for model cars, aircraft and high quality army miniature models. Their items can be summarized as High-end, in the sense that quality, materials, and items are all of the highest standards. But might run you on the pricier end of the cost spectrum.

Their Clear series is a line of alcohol based paints that,when properly thinned and used are great over metallic surfaces for a clear irridescent shine. I can also recommend using them over clear plastic (like cockpits) for your 40k models, as it gives a great tinting, as one would expect of say..Eldar aircrafts.



So the basic forgeworld recipee is, as i wrote earlier. As follows

1. AIRBRUSH WITH THINNED LEAD BELCHER/ IRON BREAKER (50/50 MIX) 
2. AIRBRUSH FROM TOP OF MODEL WITH THINNED RUNFANG STEEL 
3. MIX A LITTLE TAMIYA CLEAR GREEN WITH TAMIYA CLEAR BLUE (25/75 MIX) AND AIRBRUSH OVER THE MODEL IN 2 COATS 
4. AIRBRUSH ARMOUR PANELS WITH TAMIYA CLEAR BLUE. BLENDING FROM MIDDLE OF FIGURE DOWN, SO THE STRONGEST BLUE COLOUR IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PANNELS 
5. AIRBRUSH FROM THE MIDDLE UPWARDS WITH TAMIYA CLEAR GREEN 
6. USING AN AIRBRUSH BLEND A HIGHLIGHT ON THE HIGHEST PANNELS (HEAD, SHOULDER PADS, TOP OF BACKPACK) WITH RUNEFANG STEEL WITH A TINY AMOUNT OF LOTHERN BLUE, EXTREMELY THINNED DOWN. 
7. APPLY THINNED COAT OF TAMIYA CLEAR BLUE OVER THE HIGHLIGHT AND BLEND INTO THE SURROUNDING AREA. 
8. USING A BLUE GLAZE, DRAG DOWN THE WHOLE MODEL ALLOWING IT TO SETTLE IN THE DEEPEST AREAS. 
9. SILVER – BASECOAT WITH LEADBELCHER 
10. WASH WITH NULN OIL 
11. HIGHLIGHT WITH LEADBELCHER IN STRIKING MOTIONS TO CREATED CHIPPED AND WEATHER APPEARANCE 
12. HIGHLIGHT WITH IRONBREAKER

however as i lacked ready access to a airbrush i figured i would follow step 1-2 and then do the mix as outlined in step 3, and apply a thinner, and then cover the model in two light layers.

This garnered the following result 

Technical failings on other parts aside. The Problems is that you get a very "patchy" application. However, not to be deterred i attempted to use varying amounts of thinner. And experimented with adding more Tamiya green

The guy in front is the one with the "darkest" cover of Tamiya clear blue and green

Now, having just trial painted five different models. And finding that there was just no success to be had without an airbrush, i decided to try a different approach. However, there are two good points to learn from this sojourn.

I) Tamiya Clear green is a definite "Sub" paint. For those who haven't painted houses or the like this basically means that, when mixed with a paint of equal viscosity, it melds with the other component and adds a tint, but not a clear mix. 

this is important how? : Because it taught me the need of several separate layers of tamiya green when Airbrushing 

II) When doing a metallic layer, you simply cannot have a bright undercolor . you need a dark basecoat, and then added silver hightener to bring out the details.

Still not wholly deterred i attempted to redo the formula with a darker basecoat (more  leadbelcher less steel) . Which turned out like this. 

Huge honking fingerprint aside, it was getting better, but simply not what i imagined, nor what the FW scheme looked like. 

I scoured the interwebz and looked at different forums as how people had done Alpha legion, and i found one post on bolter and chainsword that advocated a sotek drybrush, followed by a darkblue wash. 

Now i had previously been bequeathed a bottle of the following from a mate 

 

Which i thought would fit the role qutie well. So i took a model i had done from spare parts and tried the following formula

I)basecoat abaddon black
II) prime with Vallejos green-blue
III) wash drakenhof nightshade
IV) edge highlight details with runefang silver

The result looked like this

Now this is a pretty rough draft of what it looked like, since i was pretty fed up by this point. So it looks a bit more polished today. I kinda digged the end result. It was nifty, and i made a point of remembering it. But it wasn't what i was into.

So i gave it one last shot.

Back to the Webz i went.

I found a third way, which involved alternating washes.

Basically


I)Abaddon black
II) base leadbelcher
III) highlight with runefang silver
IV) do a drakenhof nightshade
V) do a biel-tan shade
VI) alternate the two as desired. With an inclination of Drakenhof as the primary component
VII)Highlight with silver on "raised surfaces" and add more drakenhof

This resulted in this model

Which,again, while looking decent. Just didn't scratch the itch i had.

So by this point i had more or less given up, and longed for the sweet release of death. Or well, a bit less dramatically. For the sweet smell of airbrush.

Little did i know that salvation laid less than a hands reach away.........