Finished - Corvus Blackstar

I was kind of shocked when I finished the Corvus Blackstar tonight. I just kind of ran out of things to paint.

I started by spray painting the mini on sprue black. I wanted to assemble it in stages to make it easier to paint but I didn't find a good way to do this. The wings join the body in such a way that they need to be shaded while attached. The tail sections and engines could have been painted separately but with little advantage. So I painted it all at once.

Once it was assembled, I undercoated the whole mini with a 1:1 mix of Abaddon Black and Dawnstone. Then the mini got a drybrush of Dawnstone. I painted on my wash of Nuln Oil and then alternate with Agrax Earthshade on areas where I needed extra shading and darkening.

The silver areas were Ironbraker washed black and highlighted with Runfang Steel. It was all pretty standard. The exception was with all the vents. I dry brushed all of them with Abdadon Black, washed them black and then drybrushed with Runfang Steel. This is not precisely how I have done it in the past and it did not turn out great. I think it fits the model because it is so dark that it does not stand out much.

I painted on the red stripes inspired by the Codex. I also saw some stripes on the tail that looked like the stripes just continued. I tried to get mine as straight and as even as possible with each other but I think that worked against me. I should have made the stripes on the tail smaller. Don't ask me why, but it looks wrong the way it is.



I just have to finish all the extra bits like weapons and wargear and this beast will be done.

I like how I managed to get the mini dark but not too black. I wish it was darker but only when I look at lazily painted black ones and the ones on the box. I think it will look great on the table.

I think that GW has given up on making it harder than it needs to be to magnetize weapons and wargear. For a while it seems like they were going out of their way to add cowlings, armor or silly joints. Hobbiest, advanced and amature alike, found ways around it from complicated conversions to simple proxies. On this mini, the wargear just sits in a alcove and the weapons have a bracket so a single magnet can hold them in. No nonsence.

This mini retails for $65. My paintjob took about 40 hours and I would rate it at a simplistic 8/10 for me. I cut a few corners but it came out well. seeing as how red and black are two of the hardest colors to paint. I would value repainting the mini at about $80. There is also some very detailed work on getting the magnets in that I would value at $10. I plan to get a custom base that is about $10. That makes this mini's total replacement value at about $155.

I don't have anything in particular planned for my next project. I have this Greater Deamon of Tzeentch or Lord of Change staring at me for almost 8 months that I should finish. There are a few Deathwatch Marines that I need to finish to round out the army. With the advent of the new CSM Codex, I feel like I should work on some Chaos but who knows what my next project will be.