INQ28: Painting Beltran Destrieux

We are all but a weapon in the right hand of the Emperor.

The release of the Skitarii Rangers was an exciting time for the Inq28 community, giving a wealth of excellent conversion opportunities (and finally some plastic Adeptus Mechanicus models!). They where also the perfect models to base Lucanus Molnár’s first companion, Beltran Destrieux, a soldier in one of Stygies VIII Explorator Fleets. Having finished all the conversion work on the model, the next step was to devise a color scheme and then get to painting him. The backstory that Eric and I created proved a good place to start. Thankfully we were able to find Stygies VIII color scheme in the Skitarii codex. Unsurprisingly, it had a major emphasis on red (Hail Mars!), with all of the armor being a deep crimson. Unlike the other Forge Worlds, it also had a large amount of black, with all their coats and robes sable.

Color scheme from Forge World Stygies VIII

Now that Beltran is painted, I must say that the model was much trickier to paint than I initially anticipated. The Skitarii Rangers/Vanguard are very detailed models with a huge amount of depth and hard to reach places when it comes to painting. To partly surmount this problem, I painted the inside of Beltran’s coat and legs separately before gluing the two pieces together. This is all but essential if you want to paint the inside of a Skitarii’s coat a different color than the outside. Also, it would have been much easier to have painted his backpack separately and then glued it on the model (but everything still turned out ok in the end).

I decided to spend a little extra time painting Beltran’s modified rifle, painting the stock to look like it was made out of wood. For the silver on the rifle (and the rest of the model) I used SCALE75’s line of metallic paints. I was very impressed with their metallics, particularly the vast range of silver colors they offer (all of which are airbrush ready). They have darker silvers than GW’s well-loved Boltgun metal and lighter than their Mithril silver (Black Metal and White Alchemy, respectively)!

While Beltran’s color scheme is similar to the Skitarii of Forge World Stygies VIII, there are a few modifications to signal he is an outsider. 

One of the aspects of the model’s color scheme that worried me was the black trench coat. Black is a notoriously difficult color to paint because it can easily end up looking grey if you go overboard with applying highlights. For this model in particular, there are very few seams and creases in the coat (which would be obvious points for highlighting). I opted to keep the grey highlights very subtle on the model, keeping only to the creases and outer edges of the coat. Overall, I am reasonably happy with how it turned out. I am considering doing some free-hand work on his jacket to break up some of the black and make it a little more interesting. I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions. Currently I am leaning towards painting the crest of the Stygies VIII forge world at the front corner of his jacket (and maybe an Inquisitor =I= at the other corner).

To make his rifle look more like it was a masterfully crafted weapon, I decided to paint it to have wooden furniture.

With Beltran complete, Inquisitor Lucanus Molnár’s  retinue slowly grows in size! Next in my painting queue will probably be another member of Molnár’s retinue, Guardsman Arkan Vell. Outside of painting, I want to start considering conversion ideas for new members of Molnár’s retinue, possibly some outlandish constructions that could only come from the warped minds of the Adeptus Mechanicus.

- Adam Wier