Horus Heresy - Shattered Legion - Painting Battle Damage

So we are back on the Shattered Legion track this week, and today I present the messy part of the process - painting on battle damage. The important thing for me to remember was to do this before painting any details that aren't going to be damaged up (battle damaged drake skin anybody?) It also helps to have a sergeant with a removable head (it's pinned).

I also decided to keep the damage level pretty light, so as not to obscure details (overdoing the effect on infantry is very easy to do I think). I chose to focus the bulk of the damage to areas that were likely to get more scuffed and battle worn, such as the models boots and the sergeants power fist.

Salamander Sergeant

The battle damage is done in three stages. The first two use the sponging effect (dabbing paint on with a torn bit of sponge), firstly with Rhinox Hide and then with Iron Breaker. The final stage is a fine highlight of Vallejo Metallic medium, painted on random spots or raised edges, and painted on with a fine brush.

Battle Damaged Helm

Battle Damaged Boot

Battle Damaged Power Fist

Battle Damaged Shoulder Pad

The process is fairly quick and easy and adds a nice sense of realism and a battle worn feel to the models. (Which is very relevant to the Shattered Legions of course). As you can see from the photos above and below I have yet to add anything to the right shoulder pad as I am still not sure what to put here. I'm not going to rush to do this as once I have decided it wont be too hard to redo the battle damage.

Salamanders Legionnaires #1

Salamanders Legionnaires #2

Next up then is to apply battle damage to the Iron Hands and to start painting in the smaller details, such as eye lenses, pouches and sundry adornments. As you can see from the above photos I have started to paint up the Drake skin (a wash of Dark Reaper was applied over a Rakarth Flesh base).

The Legion symbol has been shaded with some grey washes as well, although I want to revisit these as I would like to add more detail to make them a bit cleaner and allow it to stand out more.