Dusting off the airbrush and painting skills for some Algoryn

Good tidings to you my fellow gamers and fans of the Gates!  It's been awhile since I've posted up some stuff but life has been changing up for me and so I've not done anything worth mentioning.  Until now.  I've dusted off the paints and brushes.  So after assembling and priming up the Algoryn force (save for 1 Avenger which is incoming) I'm ready to get them started!

So for this color scheme I wanted my Algoryn to be a reflection of the planet/moon they are currently stationed at. In our local gaming group we've got a system we're fighting in and my troops have landed on Mote 218 "a cold world with a rocky, permafrost riddled surface, and liquid oceans buried deep below the surface" per the group description. My group I've decided are part of a secretive, kind of black-ops, sort of government program that are sent off to do things like guard research stations or commit genocide to indigenous life-forms if need be. Still they are Algoryn so the color scheme needed to be somewhat blending in with the world they are fighting on. So let's look at where things went.

So I am going to start off by airbrushing the Algoryn which should save me a load of time off of basecoating.  I am starting off with Badger Minitaire's Raven Black, followed with Royal Blood, and then thinning down some of GW's Fenrisian Grey.  I like this progression because it the undercoats will influence the Fenrisian Grey towards a cooler shade without being overt.  Pictured above is also the edge highlighting color, Ulthuan Grey.

Here's my airbrushing setup, I am going to try out the paint station I have since it has a intake fan and hopefully it'll help catch some paint so it doesn't go on the apartment walls.  For the airbrush I am using a Grex, forgot the model but it is a gravity well type.

Here is the first coat with Raven Black.  As you can see it is not a pure black per se but it has a slight grey tinge to it.  I like it as it isn't a pure black which always looks odd, but also where the main color is a grey shade it will flow together.

Next up we have the next layer of Royal Blood, which is a dark blue surprisingly.  This undercoat should serve to bring out the Fenrisian Grey's blue tint without it turning into the half-half blue/grey that they use for the Space Wolves.

 It's a bright picture but this is the Fenrisian Grey in action.  As you can see it is a lighter grey with a hint of blue and I think the Royal Blood undercoat helped solidify that hint.  Unfortunately as it was a GW paint thinned down with some Liquitex Airbrush Medium I needed to apply some additional coats.

 So I skipped a few steps but I will catch you up.  So here we can see I did some edge highlighting of the armor with Ulthuan Grey.  Now this grey is a pretty stark contrast to the Fenrisian Grey as it does not share a blue tint but is pretty close to being a white without being pure white.  So after the edge highlighting I took some GW's blue wash, whatever the name is, and applied it pretty liberally to the armor.  This not only helped deepen the recesses but also brought the colors together to come up with what you see above.

For the metal bits I started off with a dark brown because I knew I was going to contrast the armor with a warmer color.  With metallics I wanted to incorporate copper for the leg wiring and I wanted to also use that in conjunction with the silver on the weapons.  Unfortunately I skipped some more steps so here's the finished product:

As you can see I definitely skipped some steps but the overall result I am pleased with. I went ahead post-picture and re-drybrushed some color on the artichoke heads (that's why they are so green!) and edge highlighted the weapons with some bright silver. The bases I mixed some modelling snow and water effects together and sort of lumped them on. Overall a pleasant success for a day of painting!




There we have it! Next time I hope to snag some more pictures of the steps I skipped, but if you want to know specifics feel free to leave a comment below! Until then happy gaming fellow wargamers and Gates fans!