The White Dwarf - Part II

 

More beer!

Well I haven't finished the model quite as quickly as I would have liked (the usual things got in the way) but there has been some progress and actually it's not that far off from being done.

First and foremost: the beard. Successive passes of Celestra Grey and then Corax White are about it to finish that. I could go whiter if I want, but the real focus was to try highlight in a volume rather than trying to think about individual strands. I think it's turned out well enough that I won't bother to do any more, especially once the ornaments are finished (which will be trimmed with a warm golden tone to balance off against the face).

The green cloak I considered and tried not to highlight too brightly - but equally towards the end I also decided to highlight sharply in places to make it readable. There's a lot which while impressive up close, loses readability from anything further and would make the model a mess. I'm actively trying to work on that. In any case I went for a earthen green instead of anything too bright:

• Vulkan Green
• Loren Forest
• Skarsnik Green / Loren Forest (1:1)
• Athonian Camoshade

If I remember in future I'll get a photo of the back to see the cloak properly.

The wooden haft of the axe is simply Dryad Bark and Baneblade Brown higlights. This model is small, and there was no need for anything further - it simply wouldn't be visible at that scale. This was also done on the helmet, but obviously with a different texture.

The blue garment, of which there is very little, was again simple with Naggaroth Night, Alaitoc Blue, then the latter with white from the palette mixed in. I think I should glaze a deeper blue in at some point, but effort so guess I'll see how I feel later. The purple base is there to give richer shadows, but in the end really isn't visible.

The leather was something that stumped me for a few days. I didn't want a wooden brown, but also wasn't sure how to highlight it. I've been stuck with leathers for a long time, until recently I was reading tips from others and...orange. It actually makes sense with what leather actually is (skin).

• Rhinox Hide
• Nuln Oil, to really define the shapes.
• Squig Orange / Rhinox Hide (just randomly mixed on the palette) to highlight.

I would point out that the sculpt makes this such a joy to do. The natural shapes crafted by the sculptor with presumably green-stuff truly are far superior to anything from a computer program. I suspect the shapes would also be difficult for injection moulding to pull off too, which is probably why some of the made-to-order are still in metal.

Lastly the metals (other than the axe head) are inspired from what I tried with Azrakh, more or less.

• Skavenblight Dinge
• Nuln Oil mostly for the recesses, but also to shade around studs.
• Stormvermin Fur highlights.
• Corax White mixed with the above to edge highlight, or more pure as reflection dots.

I still have some room to add brighter highlight points, which I should probably do in a few places to really sell the effect. I'm otherwise happy enough with the highlight placement and think I'm beginning to get an understanding of NMM (even if I'm still far away from being anything approaching good at it).

With holidays coming up, I'm going to really try hard to finish this model soon - and if nothing else I want to varnish another model at the same time so do need to get a move on, if free time permits.

-- silly painter.