Today, I would like to show you my version Cypher.

I have been painting this miniature for months now. Not because it is complicated, or big, or difficult, but simply that there is tons of repetitive work. And to be honest, although this is not visible on photo’s I still have some elements to finish (parts of the sword on the back). Finished!

Small edit: if you are interested in this miniature, it is for sale here!

The thing is, this was supposed to be a quick job – I haven’t planned to paint this Dark Angel in such detail. But, as I worked with the brush the whole thing kind of expanded and demanded more and more.

Firstly, I wanted to experiment a bit with technics I never worked with – especially scratches, bigger contrast and shiny black metal. Then, I wanted to make sure the transitions are smooth. Afterwards, when I added a lot of details to one part of the model, I needed to od the same to every other surface…

I will not say this was a blast, as most of those elements took ages to paint (especially the black metal). Nonetheless, I really like how it looks.

So, let’s get to the details!

Undercoat:

Black primer, applied from airbrush on the whole model.
Valleyo Grey primer, applied from airbrush from the top. The primer itself has a colour very close to white. I actually prefer it, then standard white GW coat, is it doesn’t interfere with the next colour so much.

This approach is called pre-shading – the idea is to have a black undercoat, then apply the white (grey in this case) paint from above the miniature.

This allows, couple of things:
* Vibrant colours, like red, look much better on white undercoat. They are far brighter and intense.
* You see which elements of the miniature should have natural shadesor highlights
* It makes painting the whole thing much faster.

Cloak:

Base:  Coat d’arms – Barbarian Leather (this is actually the paint by the original producer of Snakebite Leather) + Reaper Yellowed Bone (this paint was recommended to me by Mr. Glazed Over – you can find his blog here: clicky)
Highlights: BASE + Reaper Linen White, up to pure Linen White
Shade: Base + Scale 75 Dubai Brown

Scale 75 paints have much more pigment than any other stuff I bought, aside of old foundation paints by GW. I highly recommend them!

Armor:

Base: Valleyo Black + a bit of Valleyo Blue Grey
Highlights: Base + Valleyo Blue Grey, up to pure Blue Grey.
Extreme highlights:  Blue Grey plus Titanium White
Shade: Valleyo Black

The scratches were done with Blue Grey, on top of them I added a bit white here and there, to make them seem more 3d. In some cases, I used black lines, but not everywhere.

For smooth transitions I used mostly layering, and then smoothed the transitions with small glazes.

One advice: it is much easier, when you made a big error on the surface you paint, to paint it with the base and start over, then to correct it…

Face:

Base:  GW Elf Flesh +  GW Wildrider Red
Highlights: added Elf Flesh to the base, then added a bit White
Shades: Added Lich Purple to the base, and a bit of dark grey colour. Added then a bit black. Gently Glazed the darker areas.

The RED:

Antares Red by Scale75.

God, I love this paint. First red paint I used with such a perfect vibrant colour. The trick is to paint if over a pure white surface, and not to apply too much layers.

The visible part of the cloak was painted white, then I painted red, then I painted a smaller portion white again and over that applied red.
After posting this to reddit, I will add FAQ, based on the comments, questions
As there weren’t any questions, aside of how to paint eye’s, there will be no FAQ for this one : )