The Iron Warriors warband known as the Cult of Rust has emerged from the Cicatrix Maledictum to reclaim the planet they once defended thousands of years ago.
Like I announced in a recent post, my brother and I surprised each other with brand new hobby projects to kickoff the 10th edition of 40k.
Since setting up a new hobbying station, I've gotten off to a fast start on converting the first models for the newest scourge to blight the surface of Volarius.
Over the next few months, I'm hoping to spend a few posts outlining the backstory, painting scheme, gaming plans, and hobby progress for the Cult of Rust.
I'm kicking things off today by sharing some painting notes on two test models for the army.
I typically like to focus on one or a handful of specific new skills or techniques to try with each hobby project. Nurgle-devoted Iron Warriors are a perfect canvas for leaning into the classic 40k "grimdark" aesthetic by applying some heavy weathering techniques. That's what I'm intending to do here!
I'm also using this new Iron Warriors project as an opportunity to find a better balance between painting quickly while retaining a level of "display-cabinet-worthy" attention to detail. I love how Da Ironbullz have been turning out, but it took me ~3 years to paint ~650 points (!!), so clearly some compromises need to be made if I'm ever going to amass a full 2,000 points of painted models.
With all of this in mind, here are some of the new techniques and strategies I want to experiment with on my Iron Warriors:
My primary goal for these test models was to experiment with different colors and techniques as much as possible. I began by building two standard Chaos Legionaries from the new (very nice) plastic kit. I planned to use a different series of colors and techniques on each so I could compare them side-by-side to determine which approach turned out best.
Since I had a long list of new techniques to try, including some that seemed riskier (like oil/enamel washes and weathering powders), I tried to use bitz I didn't anticipate needing for my proper Cult of Rust models; these two test models were built purely for painting experimentation and won't end up as a part of my eventual army. I fully expected these models to be near "throw-aways" because I had planned to take some risks and was bound to make mistakes.
Even though these were simple test models, I still quite like the sculpts themselves! GW did a great job with the CSM range refresh in 2019.
I started both models with a basecoat of Army Painter's Gun Metal primer sprayed from a standard rattle can. I had read online that it is technically difficult to aresolize metallic paints without dulling their metallic finish; this proved true in my experience as these test models came out closer to satin grey than metal. The color itself was nice but a little brighter than I expected, but I reasoned that could easily be darkened by washes/shades in the later steps. After reading online, I think the result might be better if I had spent longer shaking and/or warming the spray can. Given that dark silver spray primer is a relatively unusual product, the outcome was certainly good enough to keep moving ahead.
Iron Warriors marines feature distinctive golden trim bolted atop their dark grey plates of power armor. Even though I wanted the Cult of Rust to live up to their name by appearing dirty, weathered, and aged, I nonetheless reasoned that starting with a traditional yellow-gold basecoat would give enough contrast to the cooler dark iron colors to make the trip pop even when heavily weathered and darkened by later steps.
This stage began the divergence of the two test models by experimenting with different candidate colors on each. In this case, there was a clear winner: the intense pigmentation of the Citadel basecoat product line covers amazingly well over a metalilic grey primer, whereas the Army Painter metallics (in this case, Greedy Gold) were too thin to get a solid coat in a single layer. Even if two coats of Greedy Gold had been comparable to GW Retributor Gold, I still don't think the extra time for the second coat of Greedy Gold would be worthwhile as the color itself was paler than Retributor Gold and didn't provide as strong a contrast with the armor basecoat color.
I also wanted to pick out certain metallic elements--especially mechanical or industrial ones like vents, exhausts, or power couplings--with a darker brass to break up the monotony of solid silver and add some visual interest. Just like the gold, I tried one GW/Citadel paint and one Army Painter paint, but wasn't really blown away by either. I think they both worked fine, but in the future I plan to vary this color on an ad hoc basis between models just to sprinkle in a bit of variety across the army.
Last and least, I touched up areas where I had made mistakes with AP's brush-on equivalent of their Gun Metal spray primer. I learned quickly that AP's claim of "100% color match" to their Warpaint product line is a generous stretch of the truth, as the brush-on Gun Metal acryllic was richer, clearly darker, and more metallic than the spray primer. I'm not sure if this is a particular problem for metallic paints given their slightly different properties, but at least in this case it was reassuring to know that the Gun Metal color I had selected as the spray primer would have been absolutely perfect if it had come out of the spray can with the same tone and finish as it does out of the dropper bottle.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trim | Basecoat | GW Retributor Armor | AP Greedy Gold | GW Retributor Gold |
| Brass detail | Basecoat | GW Balthazar Gold | GW Castellax Bronze | Either (or others) |
| Main armor | Touch-up | AP Gun Metal | AP Gun Metal | AP Gun Metal |
A key element of my schemes to get more models painted faster was to treat the entire model with the same basic shade & drybrush steps to cover most of the surface area in one shot.
When it came to the shading step, I knew I was looking for a relatively thick wash that would provide some darkening of flat armor plates but build a gradient into the recesses. I certainly was not looking for a pin wash as I wanted to "dirty up" the entire model.
I was also cognizant that a pure black wash might leave the model feeling too cold, whereas working in some brown hues would give the model more warmth and depth.
Here began my first of a series of experiments with off-label uses for contrast paints. There were a couple colors in the new expansion of Citadel's contrast lineup--Ratling Grime and Garaghak's Sewer--that caught my eye as ideal colors for grimy, oily shades. As contrast paint is too concentrated to use as a wash straight out of the pot, I cut Ratling Grime with contrast medium in a 1:1 ratio for one model. For the other, I opted for the Army Painter "Strong Tone" wash, which they claim is the same color as their army dips/whole-model shades and therefore should be about perfect straight from the bottle.
It turns out that both strategies were servicable, but neither was perfect. The experiment with thinning a contrast paint as a wash worked well, but a 1:1 dillution seemed a bit too thin, and Ratling Grime on its own was a bit too cold/black and not warm/brown enough for my tastes. On the other hand, the AP strong tone wash had a lovely color, but it flowed a bit too well and didn't dry with uniform coverage over some of the larger flat areas of plate armor, leaving some odd blotches of darker color scattered amongst lighter armor. In the future, I think I will probably try mixing Ratling Grime, Garaghak's Sewer (which is a rich chestnut brown), and contrast medium in a 1:1:1 ratio.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole model | Wash | 1:1 Ratling Grime + Contrast Medium | AP Strong Tone | Ratling Grime* |
Just like the wash step, I next wanted to drybrush the entire model in a color that would work for quickly highlighting both the iron plate and gold/brass trim.
This step featured my first of several mistakes, as I applied both drybrushes way too heavily and ended up covering most of the gold trim on both models. In the future, I will be much more careful and targeted with these drybrush highlights to better build up a sense of top-down lighting and depth on the iron plate while still preserving plenty of the golden trim to ensure that critical Iron Warriors secondary color shines through.
In terms of the actual paints selected: at this stage I tried many options, not all of which are documented in the table below. My tests decisively concluded that (as above) the AP metallic paints are quite thin and don't lend themselves to drybrushing well. The thicker GW metallic paints cling to the brush much better, making them ideal for drybrushing.
Among the GW silvers I tried, I ended up preferring Iron Hands Steel over Leadbelcher, as Leadbelcher was too dark. At the same time, I didn't love the blueish hue of the Iron Hands Steel either, so I may be tempted to pivot to GW Ironbreaker for future models, especially if combined with a lighter touch on the drybrush just to drive up the contrast and depth of the model.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole model | Drybrush | GW Iron Hands Steel | GW Leadbelcher | GW Iron Hands Steel or Ironbreaker (?) |
With the bulk of the armor finished, next up was the most iconic aspect of the Iron Warriors' asthetic: yellow and black hazard stripes.
I had applied hazard stripes on Da Ironbullz by hand but was never perfectly satisfied with how they turned out. It's quite difficult to paint perfectly straight, parallel, evenly spaced lines by hand!
Reading a few tutorials online alerted me to the existence of miniature masking tape. Brilliant! I decided to give it a try here, although I quickly learned that it's a bit fiddly to affix to models (and especially on curved, small, or obstructed surfaces).
In the past, I've always painted black on top of a yellow base layer for greatest coverage by the yellow. I was surprised that a couple tutorials online suggested the opposite and instead painted yellow on top of a black base layer.
This inside-out strategy seemed counter-intuitive to me, but I decided to give it a try on one of the two test models. To make a short story even shorter: I am now even more convinced that painting yellow on top of black is not wise. Even with a couple coats of yellow on the bolter-armed Legionary, I still struggled to get solid coverage on top of the rich black base layer, whereas the reverse (tried-and-true black on top of yellow) worked great on the chainsword-armed Legionary.
The color selections for this step were less experimental, although I found a couple Army Painter colors that I liked even more than their GW counterparts in AP Daemonic Yellow (for the top yellow layer) and AP Necromancer Cloak (for edge-highlighting black armor). Other pleasant surprises were that GW Averland Sunset provides adequate coverage over a silver basecoat, and likewise that Black Templar contrast works surprisingly well as a black basecoat over silver primer (instead of traditional flat black paint), with the upside of flowing into recesses and lines better to yield a cleaner finish without neurotically detailed brushwork.
These two models differed also in the strategies I used for highlighting their hazard stripes and other black components (like gun casings). The chainsword model received a standard panel edge highlight, where I tried to carefully paint around the outer edge of each piece with a thin highlight. The bolter model instead received a "zenithal"/light-directed stylistic highlight that attempted to brighten the upper segments of each black/yellow region while leaving the lower segments darker. My execution of the traditional edge panel highlight was cleaner (and probably biased my perception of the end result), but I think I prefer the clearer segmented effect of the edge highlight over the zenithal approach.
Lastly, I learned a few lessons on how to use miniature masking tape. First, getting correct spacing for masking tape by eye is hard, so in the future I will layer the entire surface with adjacent strips of masking tape before pulling every-other strip out with tweezers. Second, it is imperative to get a solid adhesion of the masking tape to the model's surface, as paint can easily leak under the edge of the tape and lead to ugly blotches that are (somewhat) challenging to correct post hoc. Third, you must let the paint dry completely before removing the masking tape; if you don't, pockets of wet paint can be disrupted by removing the masking tape and bleed over your previously well-defined hazard stripe lines.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow areas | Yellow basecoat | GW Averland Sunset | GW Averland Sunset | GW Averland Sunset |
| Black areas | Black basecoat | GW Black Templar Contrast | AP Matt Black | GW Black Templar Contrast |
| Yellow areas | Yellow layer | AP Daemonic yellow | GW Yriel Yellow | AP Daemonic Yellow |
| Yellow areas | Yellow line highlight | GW Dorn Yellow | AP Moon Dust | GW Dorn Yellow |
| Black areas | Black line highlight | GW Eshin Grey | AP Necromancer Cloak | AP Necromancer Cloak |
The final step before weathering was to clean up the remaining details on the model, like pouches, weapons, cloth, straps, and other accessories.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weapon metal | Highlight | GW Ironbreaker | AP Plate Mail Metal | Something else TBD, maybe either AP Shining Silver or GW Mithril Silver |
| Chainmail & soft armor | Wash | GW Nuln Oil | AP Dark Tone | AP Dark Tone |
| Tertiary Color | Basecoat | GW Kabalite Green | GW Castellan Green | GW Kabalite Green |
| Tertiary Color | Wash | GW Athonian Camoshade | AP Soft Tone | Something else TBD, either GW Biel-Tan Green or AP Green Tone |
| Tertiary Color | Highlight | AP Wizard's Orb blended w/GW Kabalite Green | GW Loren Forest | AP Wizard's Orb blended w/GW Kabalite Green |
| Tertiary Color | Edge | AP Wizard's Orb blended w/GW Ogryn Camo | - | AP Wizard's Orb blended w/GW Ogryn Camo |
| Bone | Basecoat | GW Screaming Skull | AP Mummy Robes | GW Screaming Skull |
| Bone | Wash | AP Strong Tone | GW Agrax Earthshade | AP Strong Tone |
| Bone | Highlight | AP Mummy Robes | GW Pallid Wych Flesh | AP Mummy Robes |
| Leather | Basecoat | GW Screaming Skull | AP Skeleton Bone | Straps: darker khaki, TBD; pouches: GW Screaming Skull |
| Leather | Wash | GW Snakebite Leather Contrast | GW Garaghak's Sewer Contrast | Straps: GW Snakebite Leather contrast; Pouches: GW Garaghak's Sewer contrast |
With the main colors of the models finished, it was time to dirty them up!
I planned to execute weathering in three steps: chipping (of painted armor), rust (of exposed metal), and oil/enamel wash (for the entire model). For these test models, I decided to apply the oil wash as the last step to tie all of the colors together. In the future, I think I might instead apply the rust over the top of the oil/enamel wash, as the whole-model wash dulled the rust a little too much.
The first and smallest of these weathering effects was to chip the painted sections of the armor (mostly the pauldrons & hazard stripes) to make these warriors appear as though they have stomped across countless harsh battlefields. There are tons of tutorials online for this approach, some of which get quite complex with funky chemicals used as chipping agents. I decided to keep things simple with sponging and brushing a dark brown on the areas of the armor to be chipped before outlining the "chips" with thin lines of bright edge highlights to make the chips pop.
I tried GW Rhinox Hide and AP Dark Stone for the chips themselves, neither of which was light enough to stand out from the black armor of the model. In the future, I will probably use a lighter brown paint with more of a red undertone. The AP paint in particular was too thin and didn't provide good enough coverage, so I will probably choose a GW paint for this step in the futuren (exact paint TBD).
The final outline/edging around the chips was fairly effective at cleaning up the effect, although (1) you can't outline the sponged chipping, which makes it look rather uneven, and (2) I was far too thick with my brush strokes. In the future, I will try to be as neat and precise as possible for this step (including perhaps skipping the sponge application in favor of a pure brush-on approach) to keep the effect less sloppy.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Painted armor chipping | Basecoat | GW Rhinox Hide | AP Dark Stone | Neither* |
| Black areas | Edge | AP Uniform Grey | AP Uniform Grey | AP Uniform Grey |
| Yellow areas | Edge | GW Dorn Yellow | GW Dorn Yellow | GW Dorn Yellow |
There are many ways to paint rust. On Da Ironbullz, I applied rust with targeted pools of thinned sepia paint combined with dry stippling bright orange to mimic fresh rust. This method works fairly well but doesn't give as realistic an appearance as I thought could be achieved with other techniques. For these CSM test models, I tried two new approaches for rust: weathering pigments mixed with matt varnish and water, and spots of brown & orange contrast paint. The weathering pigments worked quite well, and the behavior of the pigment powder as it dries gave a fairly realistic rust appearance. The contrast-based method was mostly a failure, but it did teach me that contrast paints work amazingly well for targeted shading/staining of armor plates. For future models, I think although I am planning to use pigment powders for rust although I will likely apply targeted brown/green/black contrast paints to selected elements on the models to simulate oil spills, stains, or other surface contamination (in addition to rust effects).
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rust | Basecoat | Vallejo Dark Red Ochre Pigment + Varnish + Water | GW Skrag Brown | Vallejo Dark Red Ochre Pigment + Varnish + Water |
| Rust | Highlight | AP Dry Rust | GW Magmadroth Flame | AP Dry Rust |
This step was by far the most adventurous and important experiment for these test models. I've read a lot about the magic effects of oil/enamel washes for quickly achieving a grimdark appearance but never had the courage to try it myself in the past. The main hurdle is the fundamentally different base & solvent used for oil paints versus acryllic paints; oil-based paints never truly "dry" but instead "cure" over time, and can be re-activated days or weeks later with white spirits. Another concern I had was the widely discussed limitations of applying acryllics on top of oil paints. Artists forums strongly discourage this because the acryllic-based paint won't adhere atop the oil layer (whereas conversely oil paints can be readily applied over acryllic). This was a concern because I knew I would want to touch the model up with some final, bright edge highlights to make the overall contrast more dramatic prior to varnishing, especially for things like chipped/sharpened armor plates, trim, and weapons. One alternative to oil paints are enamel paints, which work much the same way as oil washes but are reportedly more compatible with acryllics, with the main downside being that oil paint ranges are much better supported by paint manufacturers whereas artist-grade enamel paints are tough to find in a wide variety of colors.
In the end, I tried both an oil wash and an enamel wash. The overall effect of both was effective at dulling down each model, and both were equally simple to apply and control. If anything, I think I could have leaned more heavily into the effect and removed less wash from the recesses with white spirit cleanup and/or mixed the washes as more viscous mixtures. Going forward, I will probably continue using the oil washes given the extensive range of oil paint colors available from several major manufacturers.
After this experiment, I am now a believer in the magic of oil washes and look forward to experimenting more with them in the future!
All that remained to finish these models was to pick out the helmet lenses and touch up some metal edging to increase the overall contrast that had been dulled down by the oil wash.
The first step in this process was to brighten up the armor in places where the oil wash had dulled the contrast too heavily. I achieved this by applying a light & targeted drybrush of GW Iron Hands Steel on flat areas of raw silver armor that would be the least likely to accrue layers of corrosion and filth, including the fronts of greaves or the center points of chest plates. This technique worked great to brighten the model overall, but I'd probably use GW Ironbreaker in the future to avoid the blue tint in Iron Hands Steel
Similarly, I noticed that some of the gold trim had lost too much of its yellow-gold hue over the progressive layers of drybrushing and washing. Even though GW Snakebite Leather Contrast had failed to produce a smooth leather finish in one of the previous steps, I learned through this "happy accident" that it might instead be a useful paint for recovering some of the gold hues on metal that had turned too silver. I tried this here by painting Snakebite Leather contrast straight from the pot onto especially dull/grey areas of the trim, which worked astoundingly well in breathing some warm gold back onto this metal!
The final step before picking out the models' eyes was to apply some extreme edge highlights on the silver armor, trim, and weapon blades to further drive up the contrast of the model and make the details stand out from the muddy overall appearance introduced by the wash and rust effects. I accomplished this using a medium-to-bright silver for edge highlighting the trim and plate armor, with AP's Plate Mail Metal slightly beating out GW Ironbreaker due to its smooth flow being well suited for small edge highlights. I went even further with weapon blades, picking them out with the bright near-white silver of AP Shining Silver, which helped the weapons to stand out from the darker iron of the plate armor. I also added a few small freehand whiskers of scratches to the iron armor with Shining Silver at this stage too just to add a bit more visual interest to the flat plate mail.
Lastly, for the eyes: I had decided on lime green for their color but wanted to attempt an OSL effect to provide a more daemonic/possessed effect than a traditional power armored helmet. For both, I decided to try another application of GW contrast paints, this time using Striking Scorpion green. As I had done for my T'au OSL, I layered thin white paint on the highest points of the model that would most prominently feature the OSL effect before glazing the lit areas with a mix of contrast paint, contrast medium, and a bit of AP Jungle Green.
The end result of this OSL experiment was pretty awful, in large part due to my poor restraint when determining which parts of the helmet would actually be "lit" by the eye glow. Still, I don't think the consistency of the contrast paint or medium was well-suited for this task, and would instead probably use a traditional glaze medium in the future.
Either way, the Striking Scorpion color was phenomenal and the simple, clean lenses worked well, so I have that as an option to fall back on in the future if I don't want to continue experimenting with eye lens OSL.
And just like that, these test models were finished! They were fairly quick to paint (at least compared to my Orks) and I was decently happy with the end result. I'm feeling good about the tradeoff achieved here between speed and quality, of course pending some final tweaks, experiments, and optimizations on future models.
| Area | Step | Model A (Chainsword) | Model B (Bolter) | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Armor Plate | Drybrush | GW Iron Hands Steel | - | GW Iron Hands Steel |
| Trim | Shade | GW Snakebite Leather Contrast | - | GW Snakebite Leather Contrast |
| Armor Plate | Edge | AP Plate Mail Metal | GW Ironbreaker | AP Plate Mail Metal |
| Weapon blades & scratches | Edge | AP Shining Silver | - | AP Shining Silver |
| Eyes | Basecoat | AP Matt White | AP Matt White + GW Contrast Medium | AP Matt White (+glaze medium if OSL) |
| Eyes | Layer | GW Striking Scorpion Contrast | GW Striking Scorpion Contrast + Glaze Medium + AP Jungle Green | GW Striking Scorpion Contrast |
Combining the above experiments into a single painting workflow gives us the following roadmap, which I'll be applying to the first squad of 10 Legionaries in one big batch: