Happy New Year!
To be clear, I didn't frantically piece this article together on Christmas Morning. My blog platform has scheduling tools. No doubt as you read this, I will be preparing a christmas feast for my family. Maybe.
When I was growing up, my dad always told me that painting white was supremely difficult, and that the Games Workshop studio reserved the White Scars painting tasks exclusively as a form of punishment for 'Eavy Metal team members that didn't toe the line.
So imagine my apprehension when both the Apothecary AND Apothecary Biologis are excellent force-multiplying models in 10th edition.
(and the Apothecary was very good in 9th edition too.)
I'd had a little bit of experience painting white from little bits here and there - the Infiltrator Helix Gauntlet, for example. It didn't seem too daunting, but an entire miniature is a bigger ask than an accessory on a miniature.
Fortunately, I had Lord Duncan's Void Knights guide:
and, as it turns out, using brown ink (in this example, Agrax Earthshade) to recess shade was the secret sauce:
However, I do very much understand where the hate for painting white comes from now, which is the quality of the paint itself.
I was using GW offwhites and whites (Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey, and White Scar) as the base for my white, and it was positively miserable. They were lumpy and clogged my airbrush, and edge highlighting was a tremendous test of patience thanks to the amount of dried White Scar I had to pick off of the end of my triple zero.
I was also very pleased with how the Grey Loincloths tied in. Initially, I had wanted to do Red, but had a very unique crisis where Red Loincloths would be distinct from the rest of the army. This mania got so out of control I also repainted Adrax' loincloth (not pictured here.)
The lights on the backpacks are also personal favourites of mine. I was very nervous about my ability to make them look nice, having flashbacks all the way to painting headlights on Rhinos. But with a bit more of that miracle brown recess shade and some very targeted metal highlights, they're easily one of my favourite parts of the model.
I am very glad to have gotten these done before breaking for Christmas, so I could enjoy it with my family without the specter of an unfinished project on my hobby bench. And, as it turns out, I love how these guys turned out. The pop of white in a green army is a breath of fresh air.
And, if anyone asks, yes, the container the Biologis is holding is filled with Mountain Dew. Gotta keep the crew energised.
Catch you next time,
Vulkan
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