Azrakh the Annihilator - Part II

 

Shiny Shoulder Skull

After some experimentation I've managed to come up with an approach that I think works well for my spin on the model. The sheer amount of trim means the NMM is going to take an extraordinarily long time to complete, but as it turns out the majority of the model is red, yellow tinted trim, and grey/silver areas. It's actually a more limited palette than I might have used coming up with my own scheme, which might help nudge progress along every now and then.

I don't intend to get it done in one go. Just work on little pieces here and there over time while getting other models done. The initial experiment is rather obviously on the shoulder pad, and from there I'll just work my way around the model.

The red I had planned before, but the mix of a brown to create shadows simply wasn't working and so I switched that out with black instead. The final mix is thus:

• Khorne Red base coat.
• Agrax Earthshade around all the recesses. This will create a fairly thick line around the edges which is just what is wanted.
• Khorne Red / Abaddon Black 1:1 and glazed into the shadows. Actually the mix can be worked with some more - 2:1 to start with, move to 1:1, 1:2, etc. Glazing or mixing paint on the palette is rarely so precise.
• Abaddon Black in the recesses, applied as a thin line around all the details to give extra definition.
• Khorne Red / Evil Sunz Scarlet 1:1 and glazed into highlights.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet glazed further into highlights.
• Evil Sunz Scarlet / Wild Rider Red 1:1 glazed very thinly onto extreme highlights just to give even more contrast.

There is a lot of back & forth between all those steps, and a lot of glazing involved to try and get smooth blends. Even now I might go back with Khorne Red in some areas to soften the transitions a little bit more. This approach is not for competitions, and definitely not for tabletop standard. For me, it's essentially for relaxation - I don't have to worry about all the steps to get the model done, it's just something small, limited palette so I'm not swapping paints out very often, and I can just take my time.

The brass trim I've shamelessly taken from Juan Hidalgo, specifically here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJiYKAZPswo

I've not repeated all the steps, and I'm leaning towards giving it a thin glaze of yellow for saturation, but otherwise I just followed the formula. In short:

• Baneblade Brown as a base coat.
• Ushabti Bone to sketch in higlights.
• Zamesi Desert / Ushabti Bone 1:1 to soften the transitions some.
• Baneblade Brown again, glazed to soften transitions more.
• Gorthor Brown glazed into shaded areas.
• Gorthor Brown / Abaddon Black / Lupercal Green in a 1:1:1 mix and glazed into deeper shadows.
• Zamesi Desert / Ushabti Bone 1:1 to highlight the edges.
• Ushabti Bone to highlight the brighter edges.
• Ushabti Bone / White Scar 1:1 for the brightest edges.
• White Scar for final point hightlights.

There is again an lot of mixing on the palette, and it helps to apply in very thin glazes. It takes time. Zoomed in with a camera it also looks horrible, but I suspect that's the lighting at work on the sensor - it looks far better in reality.

I intend to glaze Iyanden Yellow on the central icon to see how it goes. If I don't like it, then it can be fairly safely ignored and I can carry on without it for the rest of the trim. It's going to take months probably to finish, but it will look amazing when done.

No post next week, as I'll be travelling. And after that there's more travel, so posts will very likely become sporadic over the next two or three months.

-- silly painter.

P.S - Iyanden Yellow on the skull looked wrong, but Lamenters Yellow very thinly applied over the brighter highlights works well enough.