For the Lion: The Primarch Himself

Hi all it's Neil here with a new For the Lion post about the Primarch himself today.  Over the Christmas break and into the beginning of the new year I cleared my painting schedule to paint up the Primarch Lion El'Johnson model that I picked up back in about September.  I had planned on finishing the model before the end of 2020 to end the year on a painting high but ended up overrunning into the beginning do 2021.  I wanted to give the model the attention to deserved as a big (expensive) centre piece so I tried to improve my painting in a couple of areas over the mini project.  These areas were cloth, especially the highlighting of it, and bare heads.

I've painted the Lion in the black and gold armour that I've used on the other Dark Angels for the age of Darkness game.  For other colours I've stuck with the same pallette as I've used on the other Dark Angels for both Age of Darkness and Warhammer 40 so he's got scarlet, green, white and cream as his secondary colours.  The Lion comes with choice of sword between the Lion Sword and the Wolf Blade.  The Lion Blade is a classic sword while the Wolf Blade is a massive chainsword, for my model I picked the Lion Blade because I prefer the look.  In game they both look similar but the Wolf Blade does currently come out a slightly better but most of the time the difference wouldn't matter and they'll be the same effectiveness.

Colours wise I primed the Lion with Halfords Grey Primer then with Halfords Black on the body and backpack to get that Black base to start with, though the cloak was only primed with the Halfords Grey Primer as it was not going to be primarily black and wanted to start lighter.  The armour was then edge highlighted with Eshin Grey then Dawnstone to give definition to the plates and features of it.  The trim was then based in Retributor Armour, washed Nuln oil to be layered up with Liberator Gold to give that bright gold colour and then edge highlighted with Stormhost Silver to finish.

The fur on the cloak was done using Mornfang Brown as the base colour which was then washed with Nuln Oil and then layered with Skrag Brown then with Deathclaw Brown towards the tips of the fur tufts to give a nice warm brown which contrasts nicely with the dark armour and green cloak.

For the ornaments on his armour I went with doing them white as I've done with my 40k Dark Angels as it helps link him with them, This white starts with Celestra Grey, which is washed Agrax Earthshade to add some depth to the white.  After the wash it is layered up with Ulthuan Grey then highlighted with White Scar finally which I feel produces a richer and less stark white.

The face and hair were one of the area I wanted to push myself to improve on when painting this model and I think the final result turned out pretty good.  The skin was done using Rakath flesh washed with Reikland Fleshshade as its base then layered up with several thin layers of Kislev flesh to give some colour and then a sparing highlight it applied using Pallid Wych Flesh to the tip of the nose, eyebrow ridge and other small areas to add the last bits of definition to the face.  The blonde hair started with Zandri Dust which is washed with Seraphim Sepia then the strands are highlighted with Ushabti Bone then Screaming Skull on the highest points.  The beard stubble was done using the same paints but without the texture the highlights were used to feather over the base to add some variation.

The outside of the cloak has been done in the classic 40k style Dark Angels green so start with Caliban Green, washed in the recesses with Nuln Oil.  Then several thinned down highlights of Warpstone Glow were done on the tops of the folds with a final narrow highlight of Moot Green on the highest points of these.

The interior of the cloak was painted up in the Deathwing cream colour to call forward to the 40k Dark Angel's colours.  This consisted of Zandri Dust being used as the base with a Seraphim Sepia wash all over.  This is then layered up with several layers of thinned Ushabti Bone and highlighted with Screaming Skull.

I am very happy with how the model has turned out and enjoyed the project as a really nice way to start 2021 and to add to my collection of Primarchs which now sits at 3 for Age of Darkness (the Lion, Ferrus Manus and Guilliman) and 1 for 40k (Guilliman again).  I do want to get a unit of Deathwing Compaions to go with him but as I'm not gaming with the Age of Darkness models currently it is not a priority.

Next up in my For the Lion series will be going back to Warhammer 40000 for both some more models that I've been painting in a squad of Intercessors and Master Lazarus but also for the new codex supplement too now I've got my hands on it.  I post on Instagram regularly with WIP pictures of my painting projects if you want to see what I'm painting.  See you soon for more Dark Angels!