Brother Kovačević quietly stalked the ruins of Badab Primaris; bolter always at the ready. He and his squad would make those bastard Astral Claws pay for their crimes against the Imperium. They had killed too many of his battle brothers to be avoid recompense in blood. In fact, Borther Kovačević fully intended to see the planet a wash in traitor blood...


The Badab war is one of those classic pieces of Imperial history that was put by the way-side for a while but thankfully re-acknowledge in the two excellent (but sadly out of print) Badab War books. And I've experimented with the star phantoms before, enough that I picked up some shoulder pad icons off of shapeways!

Ughh...missed a spot!

My previous attempt had come out good, but not as grey and desaturated as I wanted. However, my the illustrious Asslessman over at Lead Plague had previously suggested both VMC German Field and VMC Stone Grey as good, desaturated greys. He was primed black and airbrushed VMC German Field Grey, leaving some black showing through on the lowest points. I mixed in VMC Stone Grey in and kept spraying from a progressively higher angle.


I then applied sponge chipping in the original VMC German Field Grey mixed with a little Citadel Dryad Bark. Since I wanted them to be for the Badab War, I wanted a very damaged appearance. After that was dry, I used a black oil pin wash in all the cracks. Finally, I edge highlighted the armor (and cracks) first with VMC Stone Grey, then with a little VCG Off-white mixed in.

The new attempt vs. the original attempt