Improvements on Red

After reading around on forums and a few painting blogs, I've had a go at changing my red recipe to improve it. In the past, I used excessive black lining in the crevices to add shade and I've tried something new for me.

To add a more natural shade, after the red basecoat I've used a mix of red gore and dark flesh on the recesses washed with Devlan Mud - this is followed by another slight wash of Devlan Mud later on in the process. This has produced a more gradual progression from the red armour to a very dark brown in places where I would previously have used a simple black line.

On top of this, I'm taking my highlights further towards fiery orange, but at the same time I'm using fewer, more subtle highlights. I like to think this has improved my red a great deal, but the new models will hopefully still be recognisably part of the same army.

This is a comparison shot - one of my original recipe Blood Angels compared to the marine that I was testing the new red out on. The new one's still WiP, but the helmet is more or less finished. Both pictures were taken with the same camera, the same lighting and at the same time.