I started “Eius Gloriosum” well over a year ago when I was testing out the palette for Solaria, the mottled green at least on a single carapace. It didn’t have a name back then, or even a full model but even back then I had four warhounds planned from the outset. Along with her sister engine; “Deus Lucis” these were the first two miniatures I assembled for Solaria and more or less set down the template for the rest of the battlegroup in terms of palette choices, techniques and basing. When I started Solaria I had one goal above all others I really wanted to hit and that was to get as close to the feel of the artwork in the colour plates as possible. I wasn’t too concerned about matching the dapple effect on the armour plates but getting the green and red right was key. This also meant sticking to the artwork for the armour trim which was not the brass or gold I favour for war engines but a dull iron colour.

The base textures and colours had also been somewhat pre-determined by my choices for Mortis. I had briefly considered a different palette to match the theme of Beta-Garmon, but in the end the idea of placing Solaria at the ‘Siege of Terra’ as a loyalist mirror to my Mortis battlegroup was too good an opportunity to pass over. So that meant using similar ash, earth and rust tones over cracked and arid groundworks with the stubs of shattered habs sticking up like teeth from ruined gums.

Mercury Exultant Kill Zone

The environment solaria were operating in on Terra was a blasted wasteland of levelled habs and manufactorums, a killzone created by Dorn from the levelling of hives outside of the Mercury Wall and covered by the guns of the Shard Bastion amongst others. Although I was using some rust pigments and effects to simulate the effects of the toxic and corrosive rains on the tangled foundations left behind after the zone was levelled I didn’t want it to be mistaken for Mars, so I avoided using too much orange and introduced ash grey, bone and neutral earth tones over the top. The textures were a mix of Vallejo texture paints and Games Workshop cracked earth technical paint effects. These were given an initial airbrush of Scale colour earth tones, although any earth colours will do I just happen to like how matte these are in finish. The pigments were then worked over the top and into the texture before sealing with a pigment fixer and a very light coat of ultra matt varnish.

The first Warhound done, next up will be her sister, the “Deus Lucis”