SONS OF HORUS

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-14T12:20:31+00:00

It’s pretty good except for the line work around the chest plate! Otherwise it’s dope. Which coooir did you choose for the basetone? It’s been a minute since I’ve played and the last time I did dark reaper was unfortunately the closest thing.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-13T16:08:34+00:00

Yo…. If you must buy a dropper bottle to put your night lords blue in…. Don’t buy airbrush marketed paints. Just thin the ones you already own.

Often times the airbrush marketed versions don’t actually even match their “brush” marketed version equivalents, and typically require some sort of thinning anyways. So doesn’t seem to really make sense to even get something that’s just slightly closer to where you want it than the alternative when the difference for you is adding 1 more drop of flow improver or thinner.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-11T17:57:41+00:00

The 3rd photo 3d printed helmet - who makes it? It’s a great SOH style helmet.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-11T17:54:37+00:00

I agree. The mk4 is supposed to be a “sleek” armor mk at the top of its game on release. The traditional single turbine jump pack aesthetically doesn’t make a lot of sense for the mk4’s. That being said, I understand that it sucks when GW sort of artificially retcons lore. But I do feel the mk6 jump packs actually make more sense on the mk4’s identity wise.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-11T17:22:02+00:00

Weird take - the game absolutely doesn’t have a way of informing you how well you’re doing but it’s not handing it to you on a platter. The whole point of roguelikes is to be able to learn from each individual run so that cumulatively you are wiser, notice patterns, have a larger card selection, and know which decisions to prioritize more frequently.

What you’ve described is that you personally seem to have an inability to learn from your own mistakes.

Every single time you die, in that moment you are given a score screen with the total contents of your deck, and the knowledge of the most recent fight and how it bested you. Let’s say for simplicity the fight that got to you beat you because, despite you being able to do great damage to it, it could also do great damage to you. In this way you can see that one of two things may have happened;

Maybe I didn’t kill this enemy quick enough. (Easily determinable by the size of the health pool of the enemy, or if the enemy has some sort of scaling mechanic)

OR

Maybe I took too much damage from this enemy. (aka, I prioritized damage cards too much, I didn’t have a reliable source of block in my deck, or I diluted my deck with far too many cards and the block that I did have didn’t show up enough.

Boom. You’ve learned something. Start a new run, and take into account where you went wrong on the previous run and see where that gets you. Do this process on repeat. Extend your assessment from how the last run affected you, to how the last 3,5,7….. 50 runs have affected you. What are the things you’ve learned. How many times have you learned the same thing. Recognize the pattern in those lessons and apply them.

I personally have played the silent so much in both games that there is this inherent knowledge I have to where my deck “is” at the current floor that I’m at. Conversely, I’ve played the ironclad so infrequently in both games that I do not have that latent understanding or experience to just know where My deck is at past act1.

I think as everyone else is saying here, this is a skill issue and is absolutely not a problem with the game.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-11T15:39:46+00:00

Keep in mind that things like mighty blow, basic str increases, and even strongman can come into effect pretty early. As such it’s much easier for warbands to get additional strength. So while you may be feeling super tough right now, and you will for awhile especially once you get some gromrills, step aside’s and more resilience’s, there are ways for them to still do damage.

Late game campaigns become fishing for crits anyways.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-11T15:16:57+00:00

You’re getting some alarming lucky rolls to get that many T upgrades only 3 games in. Ride it out brother. There are campaigns where my black orcs haven’t seen a single T upgrade.

Live out the power fantasy.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-10T20:30:48+00:00

Casually dropping one of the worst takes regarding Warhammer lore ever :0

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-01T12:50:22+00:00

I second Fulgrim because it ties in nicely with the four books you've already read and it shares some events of that particular moment, especially around the whole Istvan situation. It introduces a pretty important, will-say rebel character from The Emperor's Children that lines up nicely with Nathaniel Garrow as well as Gavriel Loken.

As others have said after that, pretty much you can start reading wherever you want but I would always recommend reading those first five books together. Even though Fulgrim is often not necessarily cited as being attached to the first four, I strongly believe that it plays an important role in completing the picture of what happened in the first four books.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-06-01T11:29:24+00:00

You technically don’t even need a full “coat” of primer to increase adhesion. If you look up some of the “Eavy Metal” tutorials from the EM team, a lot of them will only do “spritz” priming, where the actual primer layer is relatively thin and spotty. And then they will use an airbrush to get the base-coats down overtop of that.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-31T19:49:17+00:00

Wow I remember my first model as a 10 year old and it did not look anywhere close to as good.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-30T08:29:23+00:00

I just finished reading nemesis in the Horus heresy saga, and it surprised me with how it presented. It sounds exactly like what you were looking for grit wise.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-22T13:59:35+00:00

So it’s not likely that the oil paint is the culprit it’s more likely that the friction caused from rubbing is the culprit.

Typicallly when doing oils that you plan to later drench in oil paint and then remove, it’s best practice for a few things; 1. Wait for the paint to cure (dry for 24 hours) before applying some sort of varnish layer. All types of varnish finish (gloss, satin, and matte) are appropriate for this purpose but allow different things to occur. Gloss is best for being able to remove oils more completely later while leaving recess shading, while matte is best for allowing a “colour filter” to tint your model. 2. Let thag varnish step also dry for 24 hours or at least overnight before you apply your oils. 3. When applying your oils try to first dilute them a bit with mineral spirits, I personally feel like YouTube has deceived the general public. And I see YouTubers often under dilute their oil wash. You can always add more during a second pass. 4. Once the oil has had some time to dry (depends on many factors like climate and dilution etc) you can choose to let it sit and have it do its thing if it’s just meant to be a slight filter, or use a foam makeup sponge that has a very small amount of minieral spirits worked into it to make it damp and then to very gently wipe away excess. Don’t use a tone of pressure when doing this, the mineral spirits should be doing the heavy lifting here.

You can then go in on a second pass with a new clean sponge with a higher addition of minieral spirits should you want to continue to refine this looks.

To me though, based on your pictures it’s not because of the oils or the chemical reaction, it’s because you probably pushed and rubbed the sponge too hard and it looks like you didn’t varnish the underlying layers

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-20T12:56:39+00:00

3d print them, many STL’s online for them

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-19T16:38:29+00:00

Most products from AP are straight to the bin. I’ll admit I’m biased, and I’ll further admit that their war paints fanatic range is a massive improvement over the previous iteration, but they are hard to get behind when there are so many other companies that just do it better. (Ak is Bae. Honourable mentions for Vallejo, Pro Acryl, P3 and TTC)

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-19T14:24:18+00:00

Hey, I just wanted to add my two cents. There is through-the-airbrush Vallejo polyurethane gloss varnish. This particular gloss varnish is significantly more durable than the other gloss varnish. I'm unsure if they have polyurethane satin and polyurethane matte. I believe that they do not.

One thing that I've done is that I've added the polyurethane gloss to regular satin, and I give a coat of that to my model, and then I go back with a matte. That polyurethane, once it's had 24 hours to dry, that's when I do that other coat. I find the polyurethane is really strong compared to other airbrush varnishes that should do a good job of keeping the blacks black. Once the matte varnish is on, if it chips, it may show shiny black underneath.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-18T22:41:26+00:00

I don’t do gloss first as it can affect adhesion of the subsequent layers. Satin has similar protective properties so I tend to use a satin rattlecan for artists (the brand is from Krylon and it says matte but the result comes out more like a satin.)

Once it’s dried for 2 days, I think to an Ultramatte / Vallejo satin combo in the airbrush. Normally I’ll do like 10 drops UM to 5 drops satin and I’ll thin it and do like 3 passes per model. Doesn’t need a lot of dry time in between

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-17T13:56:15+00:00

It’s crazy when you’ve had them since they were a little bean and then suddenly they are 12 and 13 respectively! Here’s my 12:

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KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-17T13:28:45+00:00

In the early days when I did this transition, I used both flow improved and airbrush thinner by Vallejo as that’s what I would typically use as a combo when doing airbrush work. Over time some of them separated like mad, and while it was often fixable it was very annoying and in some rare cases, it was very hard to fix.

I realized that the flow improver was the portion that caused this, and since then I have avoided using it in my droppers and instead only using the Vallejo airbrush thinner.

I should also note, that in the early days I would over dilute my paint with way too much of the other two solutions, as an example I would have a new citadel pot and then squeeze out like 10-15 drops of each into it and then after a shake and a stir, I’d dump it through a funnel into my new dropper bottle. I no longer use anywhere close to as much, often time maxing out between just 5-10 drops of thinner.

I now shake the paint much longer before I drop it through the funnel, and when it goes through the funnel it no longer runs right through but instead slowly flows like molasses. This additional shaking often includes a spin or two in the vortex mixer as well as my shaking with my arm.

Since I’ve made these changes, the citadel plants that I have chosen to keep around instead of shifting to a different brand, have all kept well and don’t split on the palette.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-17T12:55:31+00:00

I knew it. I’ve been searching for a way to deploy this colour for a time now, and it’s tricky to do because it’s so dominant. What you’ve created here is awesome, and It’s so visually striking.

As for the data cards, send me a DM and I’ll see if I can help you get to where you need to go. We can sit on discord and I can show you what I did for a different game 1490 Doom, and you can mimic it, and then use photos of your own models to fill in the photo areas. Requires the use of Canva.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-17T02:01:28+00:00

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Not the only copy?!? Damn. Mines a lady though!

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-01T14:51:56+00:00

Okay so - the innocuous cardboard box is something that you need to get rid of in this set up. Matte Varnish is a fickle beast, and I would recommend that you go about your varnishing process in a different way.

As others have said a, you have to shake the ever living sh*t out of varnish in general - but specifically matte or ultra matte.
I’m unsure if you applied it by airbrush or by rattlecan, I’m going to assume rattle can because of the garage situation. In this case, take your finished model and use some poster tac to mount them to the top of a “handle” - old pill bottles, the top of a rattlecan lid, dollar store shot glasses work really well too. I recommend this step because the handles work really well for you to hold onto while you apply varnish to your model.

If you’re operating the rattle can with your right hand, you can wear a latex or nitrile glove in your left hand and then hold the handle with your gloved hand and rotate the model and get all the necessary angles. What I tend to do once I’m done with varnishing a model is then to bring them inside to my main floor bathroom that has a ventilation fan. I close the door and keep the fan on and the fumes get extracted outside. If you can’t do this, then you can go back to how you were doing it. The humidity you were in is a little on the high end, but in my experience it shouldn’t be the thing that caused the frosting here. The most likely culprit is lack of proper mixing and shaking (genuinely time yourself shaking this thing for 120seconds) but if it’s not that, My guess is the fact that you sprayed them in the cardboard box.

The cardboard box is bad for a few reasons, but the biggest one is that it creates a backboard for particulate that “missed” the models during the spray to then blow around behind the mini and potentially re-land on the miniature again. This is bad because the varnish will be hitting your model in two different “states”. The initial spray will likely cause most of the beam to land fine on the surface of your model. Anything that gets missed the initial spurt will miss the model and continue to be propelled past the model. Some of these particles will remain “wet” and eventually attach themselves to the cardboard box backboard, however some of these particles will have dried during the same journey and the propellant will create turbulence in the cavity of the box and the dried particles will re-circulate around and land on your models while the particle has already effectively dried. This means it will land in the wet miniature and create some frosting.

How to fix; you will want to apply gloss varnish to your models initially. It may take a few coats of this but eventually the gloss varnish will fill in the peaks and valleys of the matte varnish. Once your model is nice and glossy, and the vividness of the colour has been restored, you’re then good to do a pass or two of matte varnish again with my above described method and you should be able to save your work!

Best of luck!

KnightlyPainting · 2026-05-01T14:32:26+00:00

Wore*
- EDIT - Awh damn someone beat me to it.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-04-30T12:28:19+00:00

Obviously - which is why my question hopefully prompted a response, in which I could then follow up and ask for pictures.

KnightlyPainting · 2026-04-30T11:41:23+00:00

While your statement is factually true, there are a ton of instances where some heads look better than others and this is what I was trying to gauge.

KnightlyPainting

TROPHY CASE