Azrakh the Annihilator - Part IV

 

All trimmed up.

I've been motivated to keep working away at Azrakh, and for a model like this I really do need to take the motivation when I can. Other projects are being stalled, but the amount I'm learning is well worth it. In some respects the model looks very similar to last week, despite the amount of work I've done on it, but when looking more closely the detail starts to stand out.

The model still looks a bit bland and the reason for this is that the red armour hasn't had much in the way of highlighting yet applied. That's coming soon enough, but the silver/steel/black metallics are being done next.

Working through the armour trim I've definitely improved quite a lot. Using the box art and original artwork helps a lot, although I've adjust very small spots as I see fit. It's helping understand some of the NMM principles and how to portray light interacting with various shapes. I'm not going for physical accuracy, but instead readability. Basically the model should look cool but also be easy to make out details, shape, and volumes. Much of this comes down to edging with bright, near white mixes, particularly next to dark, shaded locations. Contrast is key.

While playing with the paints I decided not to use White Scar for white. I have trouble with acrylic white paints - they dry quickly, go chalky, and need constant cleaning of the brush. The flow improvers dry out far too quickly on the palette, so I tried using an ink instead (specifically Daler Rowney White). It takes a little practice, but ended up working really well when mixed with other paints and using only a very small amount to dot specific points (such as rivets). It's not quite as "pure" as White Scar, but it's close enough not to matter for my purposes. The ink does dry out quickly on the palette as well, but it mixes in with water again quickly enough and remains viable for a while that way.

Originally I looked at silver NMM recipes, then steel, before realising that I wanted neither. It's closer to steel, but a dark steel and I opted to adapt the black armour NMM from Juan Hidalgo. Same paints for the most part, but applied differently - think of it as using his recipe as the basis for my approach rather than copied vertabim. I'm also still exploring approaches, but I think this will be similar to what I end up with.

• Skavenblight Dinge across the steel area.
• Stormvermin Fur glazed as first highlights.
• Administratum Grey as edge highlights.
• Incubi Darkness / Black about 1:1 and glazed into darker areas.
• Black for the darkest areas.
• White mixed with Administratum Grey as extreme highlight points, with pure white generally reserved for small dots.

The use of Incubi Darkness was done just to add a hint, even if a barely visible one, to tie it together with the green used in the brass shading. There's also a lot of going backwards and forwards between different steps, glazing. fixing mistakes. Originally I started from black, but that works far better as a glaze to darken areas, so I've moved to Skavenblight Dinge instead as a midtone. There might not be as much of the midtone left alone, but it's still far easier to use as a starting point.

I might give the model a short break after completing the NMM steps. There's still the armour to highlight, a couple of smaller details, and of course the head. It's going to take a long while yet before this model is done - and there's a good deal of travel again coming up.

-- silly painter.