Wight King (Showcase)

 

Really wanted to be an opera singer.

This model was very fun to paint. Lots of character, not too difficult, detailed enough to stand out, and can fit nicely within my Hero Quest side project.

Models such as this are where Contrast paints really come into their own. The usual black primer was followed by a kind of zenithal coat of Wraithbone spray from above. It was perhaps heavier than I intended, but worked well enough.

The cloak is just Nighthaunt Gloom. The red clothing is Blood Angels Red, with a little bit of Wraithbone mixed into a red on the palette for additional highlighting purposes. The fur is Gore-Grunta Fur, with a little Agrax Earthshade in a few places, and a bit of Skag Brown mixed with Wraithbone to drybrush over the top.

The chainmail is a mix of browns, blacks, reds, whatever was hanging about to give some non-uniform appearance, then drybrushed with Iron Warriors, and a bit of Stormhost Silver after the usual varnish step.

The armour plates started off with Runelord Brass, and then shaded or highlighted as necessary with Iron Warriors in a kind of dabbing motion with an old brush. This was followed by Ironbreaker in some areas, with edges given over to Canoptek Alloy. A few dots of Skeleton Horde Contrast (which of course was also used on the skeletal areas) for rust, and pretty much done.

The sword, which isn't very well seen in the photo, started as a base of Iron Warriors, with some Leadbelcher over that to help define shape. Typhus Corrosion was then dabbed on, followed by Leadbelcher (again in a dabbing motion), and finally Stormhost Silver using the same technique. By making the dabbing random and overlapping it gives a worn, rusted appearance. This particular effect is something I very much want to explore further - it was incredibly simple to do, but gives an impressive result in this case.

Side note: Aethermatic Blue over Runelord Brass looks very similar to Nihilakh Oxide following the varnish step. A bit of the Canoptek Alloy over the top in a few places restores the metallic look. This was used on the sword hilt.

Last mention for this post is actually something else for stone. On the base, after a zenithal highlight, Basilicanum Grey and then drybrushed with Longbeard Grey. It may be another case of simply the small size of the area on which this was done, but for darker stone carvings I'd like to explore this further as well.

-- silly painter.

Dark Elf Sorceress - Part II

 

Not an incredibly long post, but the Sorceress is now finished.

The fingertips of the left hand are supposed to be showing some spell being cast, but I'm not sure it worked. Looks more like she just dipped her fingers in some paint. Stilll, it's a bit of contrast to the red, so I'll take it.

The staff is just Incubi Darkness with a bit of Corvus Black in places as shading, and some Lupercal Green as a small highlight line. Nothing fancy about it at all or else it might taken some focus away from the rest of the model.

Couldn't really get the face right, even though for once I'm happy enough with how the eyes turned out. A lot of back and forwards with the skin tones, and while the lighting has given it a more warmer red, I'm going to call it and say "good enough". This is meant to be a model to play with, not entered into a Golden Demon competition.

Overall I think the reds worked well. The NMM worked really well, and definitely makes the model far more interesting in the end. The staff head was actually painted with metallics, but in an NMM style so that it still looks the part after the varnish spray.

Basically, happy enough for the first adventurer to join my Hero Quest project.

-- silly painter.

Dark Elf Sorceress - Part I

 

This one has a fiery temper.

 

Just for something different, the next model in my Hero Quest remake is the replacement for the Wizard. I decided to use a Dark Elf Sorceress as the main model based on a similarity of pose and because I thought it might be fun to paint. Just one of those models that's fairly simple, but somehow carries a lot of character.

The original idea was simply to copy the reference colours, but at the last moment I decided that I'd give red hair another go, which messes with the entire look of the model and forced me to reconsider basically everything.

The hair didn't quite turn out as red as I'd like. It's more ginger than red. Still, it was a fun experiment. During painting, all brush strokes were kept in the one direction. This helps keep the natural shape and flow associated with hair.

• Rhinox Hide over all of the hair.
• Skrag Brown over most of the hair, but concentrating on more raised areas with a second coat, and then a third with the lighter areas. Obviously each coat was quite thin.
  
• Deathclaw Brown over more prominently raised areas, with maybe 30% coverage.
• Cadian Fleshtone on the tips and more reflective areas.
  
• Contrast Blood Angels Red, mixed with Contrast Medium at about a 1:4 ratio. This was covered over all of the hair just to give it more of a red tone.
• Contrast Iyanden Yellow, mixed with Contrast Medium at about a 1:4 ratio. This was applied on the tips and more reflective areas.
• Reikland Fleshshade in deeper areas, or wherever I felt it was too bright.

The photo isn't quite colour accurate, but it's close enough to the end result. It could use a little more vibrance, and slightly shifted more towards red, but this is why a single model is good to experiment on: it's not like I'm committed to painting a whole army this way.

The rest of the reds are, well, reds. I didn't keep specific notes on purpose, because I wanted to play and make the model unique. One of the best ways to do that is simply just add and mix colours on a palette and see how it goes, but there are still a few points of interest:

The red leather is a brighter red, with highlights that lend towards pink. There's not a whole lot of contrast, and very few desaturated highlights in an attempt to give a gloss appearance.

The NMM red tends more towards orange. Shadowed areas are burgundy mixed with black, with brighter points pink, then glazed with Wild Rider Red (which tends towards orange). This keeps the NMM components distinct from the red leather.

The cloth I intend to keep more towards burgundy, with fairly muted highlights.

There will be some metallics on the miniature, likely the head of the staff.

Skin is primarily Rakarth Flesh at this point, with some very weak shading to give some outline to the sculpt in preparation for next steps.

-- silly painter.

Skeletons

Possibly one used to be an adventurer, before he took an arrow to the head.

 

These skeletons are the beginning of a side project that I've been planning for some time, which is to build stand-in models for the Hero Quest board game. The ultimate goal is to recreate the entire game, including the board and furniture, so the models are meant to be played with. For that reason they are not in any way intended to be up to my normal standard: I'm expecting these models to be roughly handled and occasionally damaged.

 The skeletons are done mostly with contrast and metallic paints. The actual bone was rather simple:

• Black primer, just because it's excellent as a primer.
• Wraithbone spray, two coats to try get good coverage.
• Skeleton Horde from the Contrast range.
• Morghast Bone to fix any areas that don't look quite right. This is mostly to highlight something, or smooth over where Skeleton Horde didn't quite dry nicely enough. It's virtually identical to the raised areas after the Contrast paint stage, which is a nice piece of information to remember.

The eyes were simply Corax White and Aethermatic Blue. It didn't quite give the appearance I wanted; a more purple colour would have fit better.

Most cloth was covered in Nighthaunt Gloom, wood was covered in Wyldwood, and metals are a combination of various paints - there's no real recipe there, it's just play with them and try get some rust effects with washes and different metal tones.

For a lazy approach to wood grain, particularly on the shields, a hack is to first prime the shield black like usual, and then use one coat of Wraithbone base paint, applied by keeping brush strokes in one direction and making it very uneven and streaky. When Wyldwood is applied over the top, the streaks of the base paint will come through. With a little practice it can be fast and doesn't just look like a sloppy paint job.

The bases were Astrogranite, thinned with water Wyldwood, and some Hoeth Blue drybrushed around the out edge. I'm not actually sure if I won't be later using clear bases anyway, so no thought went into this process - it was mostly that I wanted to see how it would look (result: it looks bad, but at least I know that now).

The varnish spray at the end has also muted the colours quite a lot. Too much actually, though at least with undead skeleton warriors this is somewhat fitting.

Painting these models did allow me to experiment with Contrast paints some more, and basically play around without caring to be neat or paint to a high standard. Even so, the Tyranids were simpler to paint, and came out looking better, in that sense these skeletons were a bit of a failure.

-- silly painter.