Legions Imperialis Iron Warriors Rhinos Done!

Hello! Long time.

So Legions Imperialis is out and I'm all over it. Iron Warriors for now, but I'll follow them up with a loyalist Solar Auxilia army and Legio Ignatum.

For these I went a bit overboard and designed/printed some Siege Tyrant missile racks to put on the terminators. I'll upload the STL at some point. These were printed with 25nm layers, I don't think 50nm would have cut it.

So I painted a few units to start with, and want to share them and write down the recipe. I'm sure to forget it otherwise! So here's the recipe. As always, it does all the rough and high impact things first, and then just goes into more and more detail to focus and neaten up the paint job.

Step 0: Build

• I plastic-cemented the minis to their bases before painting. This is to make sure I'll be able to pull the magnetized bases and not have anything break. Had I superglued after painting, it's possible that the models would rip paint and detach. I found it to work just fine, it's easy to reach models when they're on the base like that, and they're easy to hold as well.
• Wood glue random tiny basing rocks work to create debris
• Prime in black

Step 1: Base colors

• Controlled/light drybrush of Scale75 Thrash Metal
• Paint the base for models that have it. Over black, apply some Scale75 Gray Graphene, and drybrush Artic Blue towards the edges.
• Pick out brasses in Scale75 Pure Copper
• Pick out black areas in Scale75 Petroleum Gray
• Paint chevrons
• Paint a stripe or an area using a mix of ProAcryl Bold Titanium White, ProAcryl Warm Yellow and Kimera Diarylide Yellow. One or two passes should be enough.
• Glaze ProAcryl Warm Yellow into white where it gets brighter, Diarylide Yellow where it gets dark.
• Paint chevrons using ProAcryl Pure Black. Use a good brush with a good tip, and don't go too small, or the paint will be drying on you. You need a steady hand and a good brush, not a small brush. I used a ~newish Raphael 8408 #2. Move fast, make mistakes and fix them up later with the yellows above; it's faster to make a mistake and fix it then go super steady, stress out, and then make mistakes anyway.
• Stipple Citadel Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast in places to add texture and hide rough blends.
• Apply transfers. MicroSet and MicroSol did good work, as usual. I didn't varnish all over before applying them because I don't want to affect the metal finish. I only varnished over the transfer, in satin, and you can kinda tell the difference but only if you look.
• Spot detail!
• The reds were done in ProAcryl Bold Pyrrole Red, mixed with black or some ivory where it needs to go down or up.
• The "leather" on the terminators was ProAcryl Light Umber, and after weathering, roughly accented in ProAcryl Ivory. I felt like a light color worked as an accent color, given how dark the models are. Otherwise a darker brown would have been be more appropriate
• ProAcryl Sky Blue on the power swords, mixed with ivory or black
• The lights on the rhinos I'm not sure anymore, I think it was just ivory.

Step 2: Weathering

• AK Streaking Grime for Panzer Grey all over, applied thin, and then removed by a drybrush that's had some white spirits. Because I didn't varnish, I had to go gentle or risk stripping paint. It did start to give in places but it's ok, call it additional weathering. It's only black underneath anyway.
• AK track wash over tracks
• When those above are dry, AK Light Dust Deposits applied very thin and glazed in places towards the bottom. Stipple on the base for models that have a base.

Step 3: Neatening up

• Identify volumes. Line/glaze Musou Block between them; it's really strong and works to accent these models. For example, on most marines, I have a line of Musou Black between their heads and shoulder pads, the backpack, between the torso and the weapon. Just to separate shapes.
• All black areas really need a highlight using a mix of Petroleum Grey and white. They get lost otherwise. I don't mean an edge highlight, I mean slapping paint on top to define shapes. Look at the tops of bolters for example.
• Edge highlight in Scale75 Thrash Metal where the weathering ended up too strong.
• Stipple Vallejo Metal Color Chrome where I want something to pop. Heads, tops of backpacks, bits on weapons and arms. In the terminator missile racks I used ProAcryl Ivory actually, silvers weren't producing an outline that's readable enough.

 That's it! For now at least. Thanks for looking.