WIP: Custodes Shield-Captain w/Ax - Part 1

Another Custodes character gets a turn in the hobby queue.  This Shield-Captain was built from the Custodian Wardens box set.  He so far my favorite of the available stock plastic builds for a Shield- Captain. As a recap from my prior "on the workbench" post, the initial build looked like this:

The cloak was left unattached for painting, which is quite easy with this model.

He started out in the spray booth for an Army Painter Matt Black primer coat. I normally use Vallejo Surface Primer Black in the air brush, but took a short cut here since I have a large number of rattle cans on hand (preping for Sector Mechanicus priming in the driveway this spring...).  This Army Painter primer used to be my favorite go-to for undercoating and still goes on very well. Prior to priming, The model was mounted on an old bourbon whiskey cork and poster putty was stuck to the attachment points for the cloak for later gluing. I might have mounted the cloak on a holder for painting, but decided against it this time around.  I won't be doing enough painting on it prior to attachment to make it work the time.

Some eerie nightclub photo effects from the spray booth there to add a bit of character to the post. :) Finally, we have some black spray laid down...ok, nothing to see here...

Once the primer coat had dried, it was time to break out the air brush for a base coat of Vallejo Brass (70.801) on the armor. A few drops of Vallejo Flow Improver were mixed in well to aid in the spraying. I wasn't concerned with being so careful with the airbrush at this stage, but I did try not to go crazy when laying the paint down on the model...

Next up, the cloth got a base coat of GW Mephiston Red with the airbrush.  A little Flow Improver was added here as well since I don't have a pot of the airbrush version for this color currently. This time I tried to be a lot more careful...but I'm not using an especially fine needle in my brush, nor was the air pressure dialed down an much as it probably should have been.  I'm just blocking in colors at this point so I didn't feel it worth the time to get all crazy with the tools and settings.  Here is a shot of the model fresh from the spray booth and back on the painting table.

You can see the base got some love in the booth as well.  A Vallejo dark brown is put down over a black primer.  I then use a Vallejo medium brown to highlight the edges and some projecting flat surfaces to add character. This is generally then washed with GW Agrax Earthshade and highlighted appropriately. Here's a couple shots of the base in progress so far...

Everything Glued Down and Ready for Paint

Base Color Applied

Following some time in the spray booth, it was time to tidy things up and lay down the shades.  GW Agrax Earthshade was used over the red and GW Reikland Fleshshade for the gold. At the end of the night, here is where things stood so far.

 

 

Shade applied, this fella is looking good already!  Stay stunned for the next WIP post and follow the progress as it unfolds.  If there is something I could add to the posts to make them more informative or interesting, don't hesitate to shout out in the comments.  I'm experimenting by painting three models at the same time and working up separate WIP posts for them in the hope of having a little more content (and variety) to share as well as making better progress on a variety of TO-DO list items in parallel.

So look for more WIP posts coming soon that include a Grey Knight Brotherhood Champion and a Deathwatch Watch Captain with jump pack. Otherwise, that's it for now!

Cheers and Happy Gaming.