Azrakh the Annihilator - Part V (Showcase)

 

Also known as "Chainfinger".

Finally calling this model done. I could do more. I could always do more. Some of the face can be cleaned up, some of the green glow behind the head could be brightened, the base is quite plain, etc. I've just reached the motivational limit on this model however, and I'm calling it done.

What a monster to paint up, but an impressive result in the end. And I learned a lot about NMM techniques. On that note, the photo above does not do it justice at all. Between the lighting, camera settings, jpeg compression, scaling, etc, it loses some of the brightness of the extreme highlight points which sell the NMM effect. Too bad, but the actual model does look better.

Ultimately the model is very readable. The shapes are clear, the volumes are clear, the details are easily discernible. The face I actually think is one of my better ones, even if half of that is the great sculpt it's still the look of a mentally unstable and very angry character. For the face I wanted a pale look, but with deep shadows to give that kind of drawn, aged look:

• Bugman's Glow in two or three thin layers to give a solid base to work with.
• Darkoath Flesh applied all over, but not too liberally. I also removed any pooling in the eyes and mouth.
• Bugman's Glow again to start building up the more raised areas.
• Cadian Fleshtone glazed along upper surfaces, leaving some of the previous step alone.
• Kislev Flesh glazed more to act as a pale filter and offer yet more highlighting.
• Flayed One Flesh for the most prominent highlights (nose, chin, forehead, cheeks). I also mixed in a very small amount of white ink for the most extreme highlights.

The eyes are white, and then Iyanden Yellow. Nothing special there. Lips are some of the flesh tones mixed with Khorne Red for a dark pink. The tattoo on the head is purposefully a little less "perfect" than in references - I figured it was done with the blood of opponents and without much care given over to artistry. The teeth are white, then black washed into the recesses and excess removed. I could definitely do more here, but just really can't be bothered.

The green glow emanating from behind the head is different to reference pictures. I didn't make the grooves in the cowling (for lack of a better term) be the source of any lights because it would be difficult to make them not look dark while still having a glow on the outer edges. This is something that to me doesn't fit nicely on the box art, even if it's very striking on the original Mark Gibbons artwork. So I just had the glow coming from deep behind the head somewhere.

• Waywatcher Green (the old glaze paint) glazed over the head. This was actually a mistake - the paint must have gone slightly bad, or I'm using it in an unintended fashion: some areas it dries nearly white. I've had this problem with shades before as well. Mostly it ended up ok, but I'm not sure about using that paint in future.
• Waaagh Flesh to give the initial light volumes. This is actually used up to the most outer edges of the glow, where the light naturally falls off the most.
• Kabalite Green for some edges and general inner surfaces more affected by the light source.
• Warpstone Glow for edges and sharply defined points.
• Warpstone Glow / White, which was mixed and used for extreme highlight points. This is far too desaturated for the most part, so I ended up adding more white into the mix to really define the extreme highlights, and then afterwards glazing back over them with Warpstone Glow to give more of a vibrant, saturated green.

For just about every steps written above there's often not a clear application of one paint and then another. I mixed colours on the palette quite frequently to help smooth out transitions, and went back and forth between steps to fix mistakes or adjust if I felt it wasn't looking quite right.

The base I glued some brass detailing onto, and then painted it all just like with the recent MkIV Assault Squad. I toyed with the idea of adding a pile of skulls, but that would have added too much noise and taken focus away from the facial area - not something I wanted to do after putting in all that effort. I then thought about putting some cabling across the floor, but paperclip I was going to use was too heavily influenced by the magnet underneath the base. I could use putty to roll out something, but this is another item that I think is just too much effort to continue with. I did use Black Templar, thinned and feathered out, to darken the base around the feet - some of that isn't a trick of the lighting, it's actually how I painted it.

And with this model done, the tally is now at 12.5 and I can start thinking of what to focus on next.

-- silly painter.

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.

Azrakh the Annihilator - Part III

 

When NMM makes the eyes tired.

After staring at the work in progress model one too many times and deciding I wanted to try finish it before the next Warhammer+ model comes along, I've finally progressed more on this insanity. I'm still following the box art as much as I can, and it's definitely forcing me to get a feeling for NMM, but there are times where I seriously regret deciding to paint the model this way.

Then there are other times where the results are amazing and it definitely looks far better than if I'd used metallic paints. Hopefully this will be the feeling whenever I manage to finish it all.

Rather obviously I'm not done with the trim yet, and the keen eye will notice a tone difference between the shoulder pad and everything else. I've not yet added Lamenter's Yellow glaze anywhere else yet, so I'm hoping that will harmonise everything - and if not, well...I'll deal with that later. I've otherwise tried to follow the formula from before, but given the months gap between then and now, then I shouldn't be surprised if it ends up slightly different. I may have to refresh the paint on the palette soon as well, which again might introduce some more variation.

I haven't done any more of the red armour yet. Nor have I started on silver and grey NMM areas. There is still an awful lot to go on this model, and it's taking time away from other projects, but I would like to get it finished.

The only other new item of note in this short post is the use of white recently on the palette. I've started to try using a white ink, which is surprisingly useful. It flows nicely when mixed into other paints, and doesn't separate or dry out as quickly on the wet palette. I think I still prefer White Scar for point higlights, with the ink being closer to Corax White, but the ink is probably going to be better for glazing. I'll continue with the model and see where I get.

And now back to the left arm.

-- silly painter.

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.

Azrakh the Annihilator - Part I

 

Giving someone the finger...with a chainsaw.

After some time away (and a nasty cold still ongoing) I'm finally back to some painting. I decided that I didn't have enough models on the go and started working on Azrakh the Annihilator, simply because it doesn't have much in the way of sub-assemblies, and it's something different. I doubt I'll finish this model very quickly, but it might be just a case of doing a little as I get motivation.

I decided not to use the airbrush here. The trim makes up half the armour anyway, so the airbrush would be of limited value in applying highlights, and the more precise nature of a normal brush would allow me a level of control that I like to use on more special characters. Even so, I perhaps should've done that one base coat of Khorne Red with an airbrush - it took about four thin layers to get a smooth finish, and took far too much time!

I've decided to go with the box art on this model, itself which is based on the original MG artwork. There are particular reasons for this: I want to try my hand at NMM again, and the box art provides an excellent reference point - I say reference, but I fully intend to just copy it. This raises a discussion point that I've seen before: is it ok to simply copy the box art? Yes. I'm not portraying this as my own original work, it's not being entered into any competitions, and it's solely for my own enjoyment. I'm not particularly interested in custom colours and all the colour theory effort behind that either - the model is based on (2D) artwork, and the whole appeal for purchasing this model is to bring that artwork into a 3D representation. The colour planning has been done, the mood of the model has been set, and examples are provided. I want to learn more NMM, and while determining where bright points go is part of that, there is also the topic of which paints to use, experience in blending properly for the effect, and even how to take photos to show it off. I'm still the one applying the paint at the end of the day, so copying the box art is, in this case, entirely ok - all the style hard work as been done and far better than I could do, so I'm going to use that work to more quickly paint up the model. Again, so long as I don't misrepresent it anywhere, it's all fine.

On such topics as which paints to use, the basic red on the armour I intend to shade with a brown, and possibly mix one of the browns with Khorne Red to glaze into shadowed areas. I normally highlight with Wazdakka Red initially, but not yet sure where I'll go from there. I don't want it to be the same red tones as Flesh Tearers, and instead might try to shift it more towards a saturated red rather than the pink that Khorne Red is actually closer to. Reds can be complicated.

Juan Hidalgo has a nice tutorial on NMM brass that I like the look of, and might well try that out on the trim. It's a little more involved than what I was originally hoping, and I might shift it slightly more to the yellow spectrum, but I could possibly also cut a few steps seeing as there aren't large surfaces for multiple gradients; armour trim will need value contrast, but might need fewer precise blends.

As a final note, it can be seen that the model is not stuck to a base for easy handling. This is because some of the areas are hard to reach with a brush, so it will be on some pins for a good long painting time, or at least until the legs are entirely done.

-- silly painter.