BLACK TEMPLARS CHAPLAIN

Painted by Rick Smith

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HOW'D HE DO THAT?

The Skin. I started with exposed skin first — which, as it turned out, was only the Chaplain's head. First, I basecoated it with Bestial Brown mixed with water. I applied thinned layers until I achieved consistent paint coverage over the black undercoat without obscuring detail. Once the Bestial Brown was dry, I painted Dwarf Flesh thinned with water over the previous layer. Then, I applied a glaze of Dwarf Flesh, Bestial Brown, glaze medium, and water to the recesses and shadowed areas of the face and allowed it to dry completely. Next, I painted on an even mix of Dwarf Flesh and Elf Flesh with glaze medium and water. While this layer was still wet, I mixed some Skull White into the paint mix on the palette and quickly blended this new mixture into the previous one for a final highlight.

To achieve the appearance of raw, irritated flesh (around the skull implant) or flushed flesh (lower lip), I used Red Gore mixed with a tiny bit of Bestial Brown (to tone it down), to which I added a lot of glaze medium and water. Finally, I painted on stubble with Chaos Black and Scorched Brown mixed together and heavily diluted with water and glaze medium.

Power Armour. I started painting the armour with a thin lines of Chaos Black lightened very slightly with Codex Grey. For each successive highlight, I added a tiny bit more Codex Grey to the mix. Like most highlights, I added these lines on all the skyward-facing areas of armour.

Scrolls and Parchment. I started with a basecoat of Codex Grey thinned slightly with water. Then, I applied a 10:1 mix of Kommando Khaki to Codex Grey (darkening it slightly). A few drops of glaze medium kept the mix in liquid form. I painted this mix in thin layers. Next, I highlighted the previous layer with a mix Kommando Khaki and glaze medium. For the final highlight, I used Kommando Khaki mixed with Bleached Bone and glaze medium. I kept this highlight on the sharpest edges that faced skyward.

Bone. I first basecoated with Kommando Khaki mixed with Codex Grey (6:1). I then layered Kommando Khaki with a drop of Skull White, glaze medium, and water (4:1:4:4) over the basecoat. I continued to add Skull White until the bone areas to get successive highlights. I painted the teeth on the skulls in the Chaplain's reliquary with mix of Skull White with a tiny bit of Kommando Khaki — just enough to tint the white. I didn't add much water to this last mix to avoid flooding when I picked out the individual teeth.

Silver Metalics. I decided to paint all the metal areas of the model using the 'non-metalic metals' technique. For all silver and gunmetal areas, I used a basecoat of Scorched Brown diluted with water. Then, I painted a four-part mix of Chaos Black, Codex Grey, glaze medium, and water over the brown to steadily build up the metal — adding more and more Codex Grey, Fortress Grey, and finally pinpricks of Skull White for the brightest areas of light. I put the lightest colours on any areas of metal facing upward, while I left the darkest areas with the original black-grey mix.

I gave the gems similar colours, but altered the highlighting to achieve a layered look that gave the gems translucency, depth, and shine. A final pinpoint of white gave me the extreme reflection I needed on the gems.

Gold Metalics. I basecoated all of the areas that needed the gold treatment with Scorched Brown first. Then, I painted Snakebite Leather over as much as 90% of the Scorched Brown and left thin lines of the dark brown in the deepest undercuts. Next, I painted thin layers of Desert Yellow over the Snakebite Leather. I then lightened the Desert Yellow with Bleached Bone and began highlighting all the edges that light would hit. I worked up through this mix to pure Bleached Bone, then Bleached Bone mixed with Skull White, and finally I added small dots of straight Skull White for the purest reflections.

Red Cloth, Crozius Haft, Gems, and Purity Seal Wax. I started by basecoating all the red areas with Scorched Brown. Reds have notoriously weak pigment, so the brown undercoat provides a good base for the red to show. Next, I painted on Scab Red (thinned with water), then Red Gore (thinned as well), followed by Blood Red mixed with Red Gore (with water and glaze medium added). The final highlight I applied was Blood Red mixed with Vomit Brown (as well as water and glaze medium). Instead of painting it, I carefully drybrushed the haft of the crozius arcanum with the Red Gore. I used a Fine Detail Brush to paint on the highlights.

Black Templars Shoulder Pad and Cloth. When I assembled the backpack for the model, I used Black Templars bits. Therefore, it went without saying that the Chaplain's left shoulder pad had to bear Templar iconography. I started with a basecoat of Graveyard Earth. Then, I built up layers of Bleached Bone to nearly Skull White on areas of the shoulder pad facing skyward. I left those areas facing away from the "halo of light" source with a Graveyard Earth/Bleached Bone mix. The forward facing part of the tabard (rear of model) received the same treatment from me, although I did not push the lightness of the tabard as much as the shoulder pad.

The Base. To get a rugged, detailed base, I used a thin piece of plaster that I cast in a plastic blister pack. Once I had a slab of dried plaster from the blister, I broke it to fit onto the base, while I used smaller pieces for rubble. I built up the base with a mound of Green Stuff and pressed the rubble into the Green Stuff and set it aside to harden. Then, I glued fine sand to the hardened Green Stuff with superglue to serve as rubble.

I painted the base in mid grey tones to stand in contrast against the black power armour of the Chaplain. First, I basecoated with Codex Grey and then washed with a very thin layer of a 1:1 mix of Shadow Grey and Chaos Black. Then, I drybrushed the crumbled stone with Codex Grey followed by Fortress Grey. I applied brown and green glazes next to give the stone an aged and weathered appearance. Once these glazes had dried, I carefully edged the stones with Fortress Grey mixed with Skull White and glaze medium.

WHO IS RICK SMITH?

Rick Smith was a founding member of Games Workshop's Global Web Content Team and co-creator of Black Gobbo. Rick's contributions to the website (and White Dwarf) are too numerous to list here. His many well-crafted articles suggest that he might really be a robot-boy from the future, but we aren't sure about that yet.

Next: Stuart Spengler's Chaplain
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