'Chappy' Regulus is Complete!

Terminator Chaplain Praelior Tarquinius Iulian Regulus:

What a name right?  More on that later...

Perhaps my favorite model in my collection, I had been working my skills up to paint it for a long time.  I must say I was nervous to start, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and he's the center piece now for my army.

It's funny because it is one of the newest models in my army - according to wh40k.lexicanum it looks like its a 4th edition model from between 2004-2008. So not strictly 1st or 2nd like almost everything else in the collection.  I was going for all Terminator HQs and Elites, and by now it is 'oldhammer' anyway, so it fits right in.

Unlike Lt. Commander Psigoras, the reference paint job for this model was exactly what I wanted.  Whomever did the paint job for the GW packaging model did an incredible job, and while I am proud of my work, it became clear (especially with the scroll text and skull helm) how much more I have to learn.  Also, I think perhaps my primer/basecoat let me down a bit.  But nevertheless, I feel I have achieved quite a lot even as there are yet more levels to reach for.  Anyway, it was great to have a reference model with every angle that I could look at while planning out my color scheme.  I think a year or two ago they finally retired the model (its a shame) so the 360 view (or any view) isn't available on the official GW site anymore, but images are still floating around online and I had saved off several.

I even replicated the litany inscriptions on the bolter and armor since they looked so neat!  I wish I could have replicated the aquila on the belt scroll, but it seemed that was just a bit beyond my reach for now.  I was really happy with how my freehand Ultra iconography turned out on the shoulder - it started off going badly but some how turned around!

Its interesting that there are a few pictures out there of the GW reference model and at some point it seems he lost his halo.  I'm not sure if this happened because their model broke and they lost it, or if they removed it because the rules changed with 'iron halos' - but its funny because it came off of my model which was one of the reasons he got shelved for a bit.  It seemed to go back on ok, but some of the primer is chipped up there, and so luckily its all under some glue.

Really excited to bring Chaplain Regulus to the table-top - Chaplains and their litanies seem so much fun, just like psykers/librarians, and I've been looking forward to this for a long time!

Back to the name, first regarding named characters in 40k in general - I feel like there are too many, their datasheets create a lame choice between optimization and customization, and I don't think I'm alone in the criticism.  (rant over)  I have enjoyed collecting, painting, and naming my miniatures and so it's very important that they represent unique characters that I named.  Awhile back I sat down to finally name all of my HQs and I wanted to make sure they had Roman-esque names to fit the Ultramarines theme.  There were so many great sounding choices that I started chaining them together, ha!  Thus, my characters have somewhat silly long names.  Additionally, I liked the librarian ranks (Lexicanium, Codicier, Epistolary and Chief Librarian which might not be cannon anymore?), so I imagine that there would be other ranks for Chaplains and such.  Not exactly sure where I came up with it, but 'praelior' translates from Latin as "battle" or "to fight" - so I use it as a Chaplain rank for a 'Battle Friar" or "Warrior Priest".

(Same with Primus Faustus the Terminator Captain - 'the first' captain)  I think there's more about Roman military ranks (here maybe) and I should probably come up with some ranks for Psigoras and Aurelius that fit in the scheme (as well as some sergeant and standard troop ranks).  Fun stuff.

Chappy ‘n Chappy (WIP) Update 6

 Almost there! Arms and cape attached, bases based.  Left to do is matte seal, highlight metallic areas, the OSL effect for the plasma pistol, and a bit of ‘ard coat to shine up the lenses and jewels.

But the weather outside is frightful, erm a bit too cold to spray the sealer so might have to wait a bit.

Color Tone Study

 As I mentioned in the last Chappy 'n Cappy update, I realized that I had used cool tones Dark Reaper and Vallejo Gray Blue for the armor edge highlights.  The recipe I blindly followed was Giovanni Di Lena's presumably famous guide for black power armor.  It was funny because in the back of my mind I was thinking I was supposed to use a modified formula, but I thought I had already modified it in my plan.

Turned out I hadn't.  So when I got looking at my miniature, it looked off.  From Jeremie Teboul's book I knew exactly the problem - color tones.  At first I thought that maybe the cool tones of the armor and the warmer tones of everything else would be an ok effect to emphasize the difference between materials.

But, it kept bugging me.  It looked off and it kept me up at night.  So finally I decided I'd do something, but I didn't want to redo the most difficult edge highlighting stages, so I wanted to try contrast paint.  On a hidden area where the arms are to connect, I tried several colors to try and tint the existing highlights.  Boy did that not work!  I mean, if I wanted a sickly green effect, or muddy rust effect then it would have been great, but none of the tinting effects were anywhere near the look I was trying to achieve.

So rather than agonize further, I just re-did it all with warmer colors.  Specifically Vallejo Olive Brown instead of Dark Reaper, and a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Sky Gray and Vallejo Basalt Gray (because I should have a perfect medium gray in my palette but I don't) instead of Vallejo Gray Blue.  The Olive Brown is definitely warm, and the gray is neutral, but definitely warmer than Dark Reaper and Gray Blue which are both cool tones.

Even though I made some errors and had to fix a few spots, it was worth the extra 4 hours.  I have some before and after pictures that I've tried my best to match lighting and you can see the difference (I think), though in person it is very striking.

So it was inadvertent, but a really good lesson on color tone theory.  I kinda wish I didn't practice it on this miniature, but I'm glad it turned out well and it now looks great!

PS: I changed how I did the highlights on the 'toes' which aren't straightforward.  I saw how the reference GW model was done so changed it to try to match and they look better too.  I think overall I did about the same job, some areas ended up a bit better other areas ended up not as good.

Chappy 'n Cappy (WIP) Update 5

Edge highlights!  Now starting in on highlight washes for the bone areas (still work to do).

I've found that taking pictures that I can study and zoom in helps me find areas where blending/highlights/shading isn't quite right and I can go back and fix. For example, the Chaplain's right cheek bone needs to be a bit brighter.

A few weeks back I got "Figopedia: Light & Colour - Theory & Practice" by Jeremie Bonamant Teboul (all the way from France!) It's a great resource and I've only scratched the surface.  I'm still trying to get the very basics down.  The bone, scrolls, and purity seals on the Chaplain are all warm tones and the armor will be cooler tones (in the highlight colors).  At first I thought this might be violating the theory, but it seems that he does have a technique where you can do that to create contrast, so lets say yes I did that intentionally!  Anyway, looking forward to learning and applying more as I go.

Chappy 'n Cappy (WIP) Update 4

Different angle closer to the light shows the progress a bit better with the phone camera.

I think the primer let me down a bit.  I'm not sure if this is a consequence of a temperature/humidity type problem or brand problem, but it is a bit fuzzy/bumpy, and its a shame.  It's holding me back from really replicating the reference GW work, otherwise, I think I actually had a shot!  Nevertheless, I'm really happy with my technique improvements.

I've also made some progress on the cape.  I had to start over on the reds I had started in 2019 which weren't turning out the way I wanted.  This was also part of the reason why it took me awhile to come back.  So I painted over all of it with Gal Vorbak Red and started over.  This time I was using new pots of GW reds as opposed to the Vallejo reds.  Khorne, Mephiston, and Evil Sunz Scarlet are a bit more opaque than the Vallejo reds and were just a bit easier to work with so I am much happier with it so far.

Chappy 'n Cappy (WIP) Update 3

Things did not go as planned this weekend, so the 40k game I hinted about got postponed.  The upside is that I had almost 4 hours of uninterrupted time to paint!  So, I made a lot of progress on Chappy 'n Cappy.

First, I largely finished all of the base layers (the only exceptions are the special effect areas on the power sword and plasma pistol).  I completed the base layers for mostly bone and scroll using Zandri Dust, and then moved on to metallics.  Most of my army uses golden yellow should pauldron trim which works really nicely with the blue.  For the captain, I wanted to go with a metallic gold instead, especially since the sculpt seems to feature areas that look like they are intended that way.  I'm going to do Vallejo Brass and then Old Gold highlights and Shining Gold edges.  Or maybe Silver edges, might even be better.

I also finished shading.  Its a little hard to see in the pictures.  I think because I don't have the edge highlights on the chaplain yet, the camera has to really over expose to pick up the details, which then washes out the colors a bit.  I really need a better setup to take pictures, maybe some day.  You can see a bit of the shading really well on the blue pauldron under the wing.

Chappy 'n Cappy (WIP) Update 2

 After two years of sitting on the shelf, I've finally gotten back to Chappy 'n Cappy!

Maybe part of the reason that they sat around (aside from pandemic related laziness) was the fact that Chappy lost his iron halo.  He got bumped and took a fall, which had me a bit steamed and so it was hard to come back.  But once I did, it was mostly a relief to find it just seems that the glue joints became unattached, and I don't think there was any actual damage.

So I will paint the halo separately as with the arms and glue it all later.

The arms are quite heavy (being all metal), so I'll probably want to pin these.

Not much actual progress yet, just a bit more base coats of brown and blue, but after the work on the D&D minis, the Devastators, and the Dreadnoughts, I've refined my processes and have mapped out everything nicely in excel.  I'm going to try to provide more updates on these as they go along.

Chappy 'n Cappy (WIP)

The assault terminators were actually practice for my Terminator Chaplain which is now in progress.  Since I'll be doing a few new things with gold and bronze, I decided to do a classic Mk. 7 Ultramarine Captain simultaneously to test.

Chappy 'n Cappy