OSL Fun times

The final stage for my Captain was the OSL step for the plasma pistol.  My army seems to have hydrogen or nitrogen plasma (there was a reddit post about it awhile back and there's cool info and images here) so I make sure they all glow with a pink color (Screamer Pink).  In hindsight I wish I had picked something that didn't look like Pepto, but I was trying to differentiate the effect from everything else, and purple/pink was basically the only available tone.

My older models didn't really achieve any OSL effect, but looking back at them you can imagine them as either warming or as not in 'plasma overcharge' mode.  Recently I decided to go for it on my Mk 5 Sergeant and it turned out pretty good.  This time I wanted to also add the effect to the front vents and nozzle/barrel as well.

Also, last time I pretty much winged it, so this time I wanted to follow someone's process.  I went with Juan Hidalgo's plasma tutorial which was pretty good and basically followed what I had seen before.

I converted his colors to mine (which was Volupus Pink Contrast instead of Blood Angels Red Contrast, and then various mixes of Screamer Pink and Vallejo White going from pure Screamer, then 50/50, up to 80 White + 20 Screamer) and then set at it.

The first step was to undercoat the coils white.

Then paint on contrast.

Next was the coils, vents, and nozzle 

Then the OSL glow effect as a glaze on raised areas around the coils and vents, and by the adjacent surface.  Its really important to be subtle.

It wasn't quite right when I went to bed and I realized that I didn't have a proper wash consistency on the 3rd step to flood the coils and get the capillary action into the recesses of the coils so I had to go back this morning and really bring it up a notch.  I also gave a bit more of the metallic 'concentrated' reflection to the side of the helmet which really improved the effect.  The lighting for the final shot was a bit brighter than the in process pictures (sorry), but I'm pretty happy that it does look like it is glowing now.

So moral of the story is, be sure to have a wash/glaze consistency to flood into the recesses, and you can always go back and fix things.

Late 1st Edition Devastators & MkVs

Didn't accomplish a lot of painting in 2020 and my Chappy n' Cappy project was on hold for awhile, but here in 2021 I'm getting back into it!  After finishing up some minis for D&D, I decided to finish off these late 1st Edition Devastators and MkVs that have been sitting around primed and ready for probably decades.

First, the MkVs are the classic Jes Goodwin sculpt #070197/3 from the 1992 Green Citadel Catalogue.  I mixed in some slightly more modern arms and weapons a bit (just bits I could find).  Its really cool to see whole armies in modern Warhammer 30k that use a bunch of new poses in the 'retro' patterns - but this is the original!

The sergeant also features my first serious attempt to do 'object source lighting' (OSL) from the glow from the overcharged plasma pistol.  It turned out really well, I focused on being very subtle.  I should have read up and refreshed myself on the technique first - I had to redo it a bit because I forgot that the deepest areas were the brightest and you start basically in reverse.

Overall I'm really happy that I'm continuing to progress in finer lines and thinner paints.  I'm seeing steady improvement as I go along.

The devastators are #070099/2 and #070099/3 from the 1992 Green Catalogue.  All of these are technically 1st edition RT models, but very late since they aren't in the '91 catalogue and 2nd edition was released in '93.  I know I bought the MkVs first hand, but not exactly sure when I acquired these two.

I continued with my classic scheme with red for most weapons.  This was my first time working with Khorne Red and Mephiston Red from either Vallejo or older Citadel paints.  Overall they are still thin and tricky, but I felt they were a bit better.  I had a lot of fun with the magboots too.

These models were always a bit wonky and top heavy (the weapons are pewter) - attaching the weapon on top of the shoulder and nesting the backpack was not straightforward.  I really should have pinned them, but I didn't.  But, if they fall off then I'll pin them.  Mainly, there's no guides for getting the arm/shoulder pad in the right spot, so I didn't want to drill into the wrong spot and have the arm end up having to be too low/high.  But if they fall off then I think I'll be better able to see where to pin/repair.

These additions really were to add more options to my army, so I don't have to play these two unless I need a 2nd heavy bolter or lascannon (and I dont play often), so it should be fine, but it really does complete the classic look.

The new sergeant with 5 earlier ones painted ~2012

With the other Devastators

The special weapons