Angelophobia

Alright! Thanks to the incessant clamour in the comments, I'm finally giving in. This is how the Crypt Angels get their wings.




Now all you other Crypt Angels painters will finally be able to reproduce my blobby freehand winged maws, with authentic colours and everything.

The U shape that I've done above, that's how I start. Helps me get the icon central, and works as a the frame for the wings, so I hang them on next. 

Then a trapezeoid across the middle...

...which gets filled in for the mouth.

Colours next, and I start with Screamer Pink in an outline around the outside of the mouth.

That gets a layer of Emperor's Children over it, being careful to not quite join the sides up to the top lip.

The bottom lip (and sometimes the top too, if I'm feeling fancy) gets a careful stripe of Tentacle Pink as a highlight. 

Now the teeth! Stripes of XV88 in the corners. If the logo is big enough, smaller teeth between the big canines, but I can't usually manage that on shoulder pad sized ones. 

On bigger mouths, I try to do a bit more with the gums, give a very impressionistic idea of the bulges where the roots would be. 

Over the top of the XV88, little stripes of Ushabti Bone to bring the teeth out.

Same on the bigger teeth, but I can sometimes try to stripe it more on these, start a highlight going.

Finally, the wings, starting with a Celestra Grey basecoat. I try not to cover all the black lining underneath, so there's a bit of shadow going on. 

Once that's done, I highlight the wings first with Pallid Wych Flesh (and I use that to do spot highlights on any teeth that are big enough to need it), then with a final thin layer of plain white on the upper edges. Done! 

Got all that? Good. Now stop pestering me and let me finish the other 750 marines I need to complete the chapter.

This batch of progress were the Phobos armoured Primaris scouts from Shadowspear. Lovely models all, with a couple of standouts, and I enjoyed painting them. Apart from the Suppressors, anyway, they incurred my ire by being fiddly to assemble, by having those infuriating curly flight stands and by being in a weird place rules-wise.

Here they all are!

This guy is the poster boy for the set, as far as I'm concerned. Great pose, excellent robes, it just really sings to me. That's an iron halo on his shoulder, not a chaos star. I promise. 

Kas challenged me to do this cloaking effect, which is totally excellent and way above my pay grade.

I gave it a good shot, though - the cloak is stippled with Dawnstone and Terminatus Stone, the same colours I drybrush the sand on the base in, and the lighting effect is done with Ahriman Blue blended to white, same as I did my Blackstone Fortress bases in.

Here he is from the other side. Blends right in with all that pink. 

Here's the (checks confusing Primaris nomenclature) Infiltrator squad. Holy hell, they have a lot of lenses. Seven per gun! And all tiny! Yuk. Love the grenade bloke, though. 

Sergeant, who has a black stripe on his knee. 

The Lieutenant gets a white stripe on his shoulder (not shown here), which makes him look like a Jamaican beer bottle. 

Captain, plenty more busywork here with lenses, relics and whatnot

And finally the poor, maligned Suppressors, who are blu-tacked onto their flight stands for now. No way will those things travel over the North Sea intact. 

I dunno, I just can't bring myself to like them. The guns are way too big, which is saying something for a game where the average gun barrel is big enough to fit an arm down. 

They probably handle quite well on the table, like a squad of mini Land Speeders. Being able to shut down Overwatch is good too. But look at them! The recoil! Just... practicality, people! Think!

There's another half of this box still to come. But! They won't be Crypt Angels...