Friday 3 May 2013

Word Bearers Helbrute in a mini-diorama

After spending more than a month on the Helbrute, I have finally finished painting it ... at least I think I have. Some issues such as planning a mini-diorama in the Helbrute's base; incorporating the four Chaos gods' influence; doing some basic object source lighting as well as some repainting of the armour to show more depth resulted in this project taking longer than it should. And to add to my woes, I had to take about 150 over shots with various camera settings and lighting configurations (the Helbrute was too reflective but that's a story for another day) before I got the photos I wanted.

Word Bearers Helbrute and a warrior of Guilliman
Are you talking to me?
Side view (right) of the Word Bearers Helbrute
OSL effect from the vents is most obvious from this angle
Back view of the Helbrute with the Ultramarine's back armour on the ground
Initially I wanted to put a Space Marine head trophy at the end of the left arm's chain
Side view (left) of the Word Bearers Helbrute
From here you can see that the Ultramarine's line of sight is facing the Helbrute's face

I might still do some touch-ups/repaints later once I have had a fews days of looking over it. Overall, I believe I have done just about the best I could based on my current painting skill level. There are so many other painting techniques that I want to learn and utilise. I am taking stock of my shortcomings by doing plenty of soul searching as to the things I am doing wrong as well as the things that I am neglecting due to lack of patience, some of which I will write about and address in future posts.

Side view of the mini-diorama
Close up of the dying Ultramarine
Ripped off his back, the Ultramarine's back armour lies on the ground

I was very unhappy with my Dark Apostle which I completed previously as I thought I did some sloppy and lazy work which resulted in the armour looking very flat. I did the best repair job I could by painting in several layers of varying ratios of Red Gore:Blood Red.

My version of Marduk and the Warmonger (of the Black Library Word Bearers trilogy fame)
Back view of the Word Bearers Dark Apostle and Helbrute

With such a long time spent on my Word Beares army so far, my 2Q 2013 hobby schedule is dead on the water. While I am suppose to paint my Black Legion army concurrently, for some reason, I am not quite looking forward to it. I am contemplating taking a break from painting an army for gaming and re-starting my diorama project involving a Lord of the Rings Dragon and a Kingdom Death miniature, which will give me more opportunities to try out new painting techniques and improve myself. As always, thanks for reading and may your brushes stay pointy.


12 comments:

  1. Waah.. very nice lah that Helbrute. Great job seriously...

    The finished Dark Apostle looks good too. Much respect!

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  2. Between you and the White Dwarf this month, I'm sorely tempted to bust mine out and start working on it. Curse you for being so damned inspirational!!! :-)

    I was waiting to see the finished product. Awesome work!

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    1. Thanks Jay! =) Turn back to the dark side and away from your IGs just for this mini. You know you want to.

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  3. Wow! That Helbrute looks amazing. It has been really cool to watch your progress on that model. The finished product has been worth the wait. I particularly love the dead Ultramarine with his guts hanging out... Death to the false emperor!

    You have really made the Helbrute a centerpiece model. Fantastic work!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Prof Chaos. =) Death to the False Emperor indeed.

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  4. Very nice indeed :). Well done on finishing it. Make sure you enter it for Golden Kris ;).

    Just a suggestion, minor one, I'd paint some blood on the brute's talons if he was the one who gutted the marine.Just my 2 cents bro :)

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    1. That is a fantastic idea Khairul, i.e. to put blood on the talons. =) I missed that obvious observation completely. Thanks a lot for your feedback. You sir are brilliant! Based on other feedback I got, I might also need to do some complementary colour shadows.

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  5. Wow dude! you've done some inspiring work while I balik undi =p That helbrute is awesome! Gah! can't let those false god worshipping word bearer fanatic scum take all the glory! I gotta paint up my Night Lords!

    Enter this to the Duel category of golden kris, you have my vote!

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    1. Where did you vote ... was it in Johor? In the 20-odd years since I started voting I had never seen so many people come out to vote.

      Thanks for your support man ... but does this even qualify as a Duel piece? I can't wait to see your Heldrake diorama. That one should be super awesome. Which sad space marine chapter is going to be your Heldrake's victim I wonder.

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  6. Hello ^^

    I've seen all your job on your Word Bearers army and... what an amazing job !!! I really like how you paint your miniatures and all your blog is very interesting ^^

    I'm a Slaanesh follower but since a couple of months, I'm building a Word Bearers army too.

    With your persmission, I subscribed and put your blog on my personnal blogroll.

    Let me welcome you in my Temple :

    http://letempledemorikun.blogspot.fr/

    Cheers ^^

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for your kind words. Hopefully we can learn from each other as we build our Word Bearers army.

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