The Guardians of Karak Azul

Yes! I originally had Drong as the unit champion but in the end decided he (and his hammer) were too large and shifted him to the back! Maybe I’ll do some hammerers one day and he can lead that unit instead..

Sometimes the models are not painted exactly like the instruction(from my understanding the pros often use a bit more colors). I would actually guess the markings are painted on with thin blue color afterwards and not washed. But I might be wrong

But you can probably use very thin preferably airbrush the metal to not ruin the marks and then shade and then go back and paint with the metal paint again inside the marks to lift then up from the shade.

Thanks for the replies. Yea that area is a brighter silver colour. The lines are very close together though. I’m not sure I could paint between them. It would be like trying to paint my own fingerprint! I’ll do a test model and let you know how I get on..

The paints listed on the box won't be what the Eavy Metal painters used. It's just a guide to a quick job that'll look similar-ish.

I've painted a load of those dwarves, and those grooves are so fine it's pretty much impossible to get them to come out the way of the box art without spending hours on every torso. You're also at risk of losing that detail even when just priming the models.

Drakenhof Nightshade is a very dark shade, and those blue lines on the box art look like they might be something different - they may well have based the armour in blue then very carefully painted in the silver around the lines. The recesses aren't deep enough for a shade to really work with them.

Yes exactly the lines are so fine that it’s amazing that they can do a whole unit like that! Duncan Rhodes has one of those 1min YT videos for ironbreakers and even he ignores them.. I still think they base coated with silver though because if it were based in blue it would take multiple layers of silver to get it that shiny..

Okay. This is a sore subject for me. I tried and tried to achieve that same look years ago when they first came out. It's nearly impossible. First, priming takes most of that (barely there anyway) detail off. If you paint directly into the grey plastic (not unheard of given that the model is covered in grey metal - just be thorough) them you have to water down the paint to a very thin layer - not a wash, but thin enough you don't lose detail. Then apply your wash. After that's all dry, go back and highlight the raised portions. I'd suggest going straight for Stormhost Silver because this step requires much time, patience, a VERY steady hand and extremely fine brush. It's not something you're going to want to do twice. Control your breathing between strokes. Inhaling can cause your brush to jump, and holding your breath for too long can cause your hands to start shaking. You have around 8 seconds after you take a breath before you'll start to waver. (I learned all this in high-schools when taking a marksman shooting class.) Good thing is that you don't have to be 100% exact when sticking to the edges of the design since it's only a highlight layer.

Something you might really consider though, would be to employ copious amounts of OSL (Object Source Lighting) when approaching the figure. Allow most of the model to be in shadow. Only a few spots of raised armor showing with this design called out. That'll take some serious analytical thought, but might achieve a satisfactory result. Zenithal priming would normally help with that, but I'm afraid you'd lose too much detain after.

Good luck!

I gave my hand at it and was only somewhat satisfied with the result. And that was only with one. Considering I had 20 to paint, I gave up on the idea.