The Walking Dead - Andrea Complete!

Hey internet people!

So on Saturday I managed to paint my first survivor for the Walking Dead miniatures game, and I'm very very very happy with how she turned out, especially for the time I spent.

I knew since the game arrived that this model would be the first survivor I'd paint. Andrea was my absolute favorite character from the comic (who was given a disservice in the television series, yet her character was still enjoyable). She was a person who didn't want to be a victim and took training into her own hands, and managed to become one of the most reliable soldiers of the group and the best shot.

It didn't hurt that she had the best sculpt of the game in my opinion. Very rarely do we see sculpts of characters squared up for shooting. There's a possibility of this pose being a difficult sculpt or something, or perhaps it's not a dynamic pose, but I find myself wanting to see more of this in miniatures. It's also great to see a female character not cheesed up with skimpy outfits or over-emphasized body shapes. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy these models, but they permeate every game I have or look at and we need less emphasis on games overall. I like a good cheesy model, especially in anime based games, but it's not needed everywhere, and in this game it would betray the character anyway.

So I started out with my mantra in mind (get it table ready) but wanted to spend a little more effort on the survivors as they are the stars of the show. With this in mind I thought of quick techniques to utilize that still look professional - smooth textures for the shirt and leather, but drybrush for the jeans for speed. Lighter washes throughout the clothing to give smoothness and speed.

So with a light grey basecoat I sprayed 50/50 VGA Wolf Grey/VGA Shadow Grey for a lighter blue gray base. I then zenithal sprayed Wolf Grey then a light spray of Wolf Grey/White for the final highlights. I took SWM Storm Cloud Wash, which is a close color to the blue greys of Shadow and Wolf, mixed it with a few drops of GW Lahmian Medium to give more matte to the finish while keeping the wash viscosity properties, and a drop or two of water to make it more runny. I took this wash and heavily washed the shirt to tone down the white/lightness and provide soft shading throughout. Secret Weapon washes are excellent for this, as they're one of the only companies I know of that make light toned washes. They even have one that is a bright yellow green called Fallout. Having light washes is a good way to shade really bright tones and maintain its lightness, and most companies make very dark washes because it works most of the time.

With the jeans I based it with a few layers of GW Shadow for a solid opaque coating. I heavily washed with GW Nuln Oil, then drybrushed with GW Shadow and GW Space Wolf Grey (forgot the new name of this) to build up the highlights lightly and create that rough texture. Drybrushing has been a nice relief of a technique to use lately. Although I don't like the messiness of it (I like a lot of control for my blends) it's been nice to accept it as a valid technique for speed.

I used my usual Vallejo/Angel Giraldez recipe for the red leather on her straps and boots. For the hair I based with VGC Goldbrown, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, and highlighted with VGC Goldbrown mixed with successive additions of VMC Dark Sand. I think I successfully reenacted Andrea's dirty blonde hair!

I was really proud of her eyes, as I tried a different technique for painting them. I'm getting much more accurate with these, although it is a frustrating element of painting. It's one of those details that is just so annoying to do, and I always have to redo eyes for every model which risks parts of the paint drying thicker in different areas and affecting the dot of the eye's application. But when you get this right it unlocks a higher level in your miniature and draws the attention to the face even more.

Of course, I had to include a picture of playing around with my toys!

Pretty soon I'll have a demo set up fully painted! I'm concentrating on getting two crews of equal level survivors painted, which means I have to figure out what combinations are good for demoing the game first. I am not much of a fan of having Rick/Carl going against the generic scavenger gang, as it doesn't inspire much enthusiasm in me. I was thinking of having Rick/Carl go against Andrea and her sister as an even match, and maybe including one more beater on each side. Fans of the Walking Dead may not like Andrea going against Rick, but I think they are better models to display the game's range - Rick and Andrea both reflect strong characters with support models like Carl & her sister Amy that need protection give the leaders some synergy.

Anyway, let me know what you think! See you next time.

Blood Bowl Commission

Holy crap, two months?!

What the heck, man...

So why the long absence? Well, firstly I got a promotion at work and with that came lots of training and more responsibilities, so this obviously came into conflict with extracurricular stuff like hobbies. Also, because I was working on the commission, I stopped any projects that were personal to ensure it got done, so it became a standstill for my own work.

Although once I got done with that stuff I was out of the groove in terms of upkeep for the blog. Now that I've gathered my wits I'll make sure to get this back up and running regularly.

So with that I present the completed commission:

(So it turned out really grainy and looked much better on my phone/computer, but in the future I'd be using a camcorder and not a phone!)

This video was slapped together haphazardly, so it's not really a reflection of what I'd want to eventually do with the hobby in regards to making videos. I just thought it would be cool to try out, and I did so immediately after getting the painting done so I was extremely tired. Anyway, thought you'd enjoy it!

So what about pics?

Here's the Ork team in all its completed glory. As stated earlier I was tired, it was around 1AM on a worknight, and I couldn't find my usual camera to take photos of the job. I had to use my phone, which doesn't have a white balance option and doesn't take macro photos, so bear with me with the yellow pics.

Like I said, they're really yellow...

Initially these guys were a lot more vibrant, but due to the matte varnish it knocked the oranges down a lot and made them more muted. It did a great job blending the decals into the paint job though, and it's crucial when working with decals to have a painted-on look.

Although this guy was my test model for the Orks it shows a bit more on its vibrancy, although I had others that looked better.

The team on the field...

Now for the humans, the Reikland Reavers!

These guys turned out way better than I anticipated, and turned out to be one of my favorite paint jobs! It was a breath of fresh air painting these guys after the Orks, they have more unanimous shapes for the armor plating and the blue turned out spectacular. I had also finally worked out an effective assembly line schedule for painting and got them done much faster than I had with the Orks.

I have a ton of WIP photos for both teams, but figured it's not a crucial item to display.

I learned a ton from this commission! I finally figured out how to paint black in a way I'm satisfied with, as it's a color I struggled with much like brown a few years back. I couldn't figure out how to highlight the color without making it look too much like the highlight being the main color, for this instance grey. I also learned how to do a very vibrant blue. And although I've done green skin numerous times this is my first foray into blending it smoother, and I learned to love the new GW Glaze line they offer (it's amazing for glazing!). The most important thing I learned though was organization and learning how to effectively paint in an assembly line, since I hadn't done that since around 2007. I really prefer painting one model at a time, though, as I tend to sacrifice a tiny bit of quality for quantity.

Let me know what you think, and if you have any questions on paint recipes I'll be happy to share them! For the next update I'll post on my last two Malifaux tournaments along with a few items I've learned from them, as well as progress regarding Parker Barrows in my recent experiments!

The Dreamer Completed!

Hey folks!

So last night I stormed through completing the Dreamer. He's part of a commission I started a looooong time ago and should have had done well before now. I've decided to put my personal paint work on the back burner for now until I get all my obligations completed, if I get this crew done I will only have a few models left and I can work on what I want.

For a small model I actually had a lot of fun painting him. I knew with the shallow details - par for the course for Malifaux - I'd have to be careful in how I place my colors to create the contrast. I also wanted to keep him relatively light to stand out from the crew, especially with their other-worldly colors.

I started with the pajamas since it's the largest area of the model. I based it with VGA Somber Grey then carefully highlighted it with VGA Wolf Grey and finally a spot of VMA White on the shoulders, chest and small area of the upper back. I then picked out highlights with Wolf Grey and White, and I made sure to keep the overall feel soft by not shading it any more or blacklining. 

I then sprayed VMA Sand Yellow as a base for the monster. He was then highlighted with VMA Medium Yellow, which is a pretty bright yellow like GW Flash Gits Yellow. The monster was then shaded with VMA Burnt Umber and heavily washed with GW Cassandora Yellow. The highlights were then picked out with GW Flash Gits Yellow with occasional glazes of VMA Medium Yellow. The teeth were picked out with GW Ushabti Bone.

The base was my usual fare, where I mixed up a few different grays for the base coat, heavily washed with GW Nuln Oil and drybrushed with VGC Cold Grey and GW Ushabti Bone.

The Skin was painted with the Reaper Triad Golden Skin colors. The hair was VGC Heavy Goldbrown, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade and highlighted by adding white. The pillow was a bunch of different browns and cream colors that I hastily mixed on the model so I can't recall them.

Overall it was a fun little project and I was happy to get it done in one session, which is a miracle in my experience. Soon I'll have the whole crew and I'll post up progress for you!

Malifaux: Von Schill Completed

Hey you crazy people!

So yesterday I got a bug up my butt about not having painted in a while. It was less for lack of motivation, but more so of an overwhelming amount of stuff needing paint and causing hobby paralysis.

I decided to try to kick that motivation in the face and just get something done last night. I got to go home early and picked a model that didn't need any airbrush time, and found Von Schill as a candidate to get done. I pulled out the brushes and got to work, determined to get him to a completed standard before the end of the night.

What you see above is actually most of what he started as. The skin, hair and base were actually done yesterday but I forgot to take a before picture showing what was already started. I did my standard NMM silver spray for the metal parts. I decided to try something new and sprayed the cloth with VGA Electric Blue, keeping it as black as possible with only points of interest highlighted to the pure blue. I was inspired to try to emulate comic book style color, notably how they color blue/black with characters like Psylocke and Cable. Really that's all I got to when I started this model a month or two back.

For the skin I had some issues, especially when considering I was getting back on the painting horse. I found that even though I tried to clean the mold lines as best as possible there was still a good amount in the middle of both arms going down the entire length. I wanted to have more of a hard shading for the muscles and extensively used flesh wash, but this proved troublesome with the mold line. Also for some reason I wasn't getting my layers smooth and they were looking a lot less smooth than my usual fare, so this was definitely messing with my motivation.

I used Reaper Master Series Golden Skin trio along with GW Ogryn Flesh wash. For the hair I base coated with VGC Cold Grey, washed it with GW Nuln Oil, then highlighted with Cold Grey and mixed in VMC Dark Sand. Not my most elegant version of hair but it got the job done.

For the beard stubble I mixed Cold Grey and Golden Skin and glazed over the jaw area.

Here is where I started working on the leather using my usual red leather colors I've spoken about earlier. The paint from VMC doesn't seem to cover as well, at least with these colors, so it took a while to get even coverage I was happy with.

While I was getting those coats solid I started working on the base. I used a mix of grays mixed together with occasional Dark Sand to get varying colors on fast, then washed it with Browns, Grays and the occasional Stone Wash from Secret Weapon Miniatures, a sweet color (but dries satin/glossy).

Here is where I highlight the red leather by adding in Dark Sand to the mix. I also drybrushed the base to unify the color.

Here is where I heavily wash the leather with VMC Woodgrain.

After the Woodgrain wash I did selective washes using GW Nuln Oil. This helps add contrast and add richness to the color. I went a bit overboard with it on the shoulder pads but nothing terribly awful.

Just a few more details like the rope hanging on his side, the gold buckle and hilt, the NMM blackline and highlights, along with turquoise glazes. I admit I rushed through most of this part.

I also did the eyes and had somewhat of an easier time with him. This was also the first time I used a new lamp I recently got, it's one of those magnifying lamps with a light. It takes a bit getting used to as well as makes you hate your work since you can see every flaw!

Painting the base ring is the last part, and he's ready to go! Normally I would have taken more time to finish him, including actually finishing his cloth which I didn't touch at all from the base coat, but I just wanted to get him complete. His gloves are also going to change to Black instead of Brown as I think it will have more of an impact.

I do actually really love the way the Blue/Black turned out. The leather, not so much, as well as the NMM. But for a paint job I wasn't too thrilled about it didn't turn out too bad.

I just have to hit it with some matte varnish and he'll be ready for the table!

Infinity: Shinobu Kitsune Complete!

So the other day I finished the Shinobu and am pretty pleased with the results. I changed the shoulder plates and it stands out much better, and I touched up a few NMM spots on the arms. I also added the green OSL glow to the forearm and sword, which the sword turned out to be a pretty difficult task as I got the spray all over her torso and had to retouch it all up.

I decided against adding the rust to the base as I am a lazy guy lol.

Let me know what you think!

Ashes and Dust Complete!

Here's my latest work that I completed last night. The famed Ashes and Dust for Malifaux's Outcasts. I've still yet to complete the Dust Storm and Ashen Core that he summons on death, but they shouldn't be too much of an issue, especially as I airbrushed the Dust Storm while painting the main dude.

He was perplexing for me to plan, as it's an unconventional paint job to imitate a tornado. I also had a tough time with his gauntlets. I thought it would be an easy part as I'm very used to doing armor plates, but I didn't factor in the irregular shape. I also didn't realize that the skulls and his head may get lost in the swirl of similar colors.

I initially planned on doing source lighting coming from within the swirl, but I decided not to take that route as I was happy with its current look.

I need to figure out a way to make the bases look a bit better, as it seems pretty lackluster. It's mostly from me being lazy, as I don't like taking time out to make my bases look elaborate even though I could.

I think next I'll work on my Necropunk, I'm trying to get my current iteration of my Leveticus list fully painted before the tournament at the end of the month.

In the game this guy is a monster. His main draw is as a flexible scheme runner. He gains an additional AP to do what he wants and can use the Scramble upgrade to make him go places fast. He has an ability to push 10" toward a scrap marker, which usually crop up easily enough, as a (0) ability, making him even more mobile. Without any help he can drop two Scheme Markers down a turn. He's super expensive at 13ss, not to mention a 2ss upgrade, but well worth it.

He's no slouch in Melee either with a 7 stat, with a trigger to summon Abominations when lucky. He has a pulse that's ok, but not something you want to rely on. He'll be sticking to the board edges as he has an ability that summons the Ashen Core and Dust Storm when he dies, if they're close to each other they can make another Ashes and Dust. This gives some activation control as well as additional AP for scheme running, but mostly for flexibility as you can always just make the Dust Storm go after some far away models - like ones scoring for Leave Your Mark - or act as a desperate Waif Anchor.

He's really good for a lot of schemes in GG 2016. I've successfully used him for Leave Your Mark and Covert Breakthrough simultaneously in a single game. Routinely placing 2 scheme markers while advancing 6" and daring models to chase him is amazing. He's no slouch in combat so a good portion of the opponent's forces are needed to stifle him. If you save high cards for disengaging or just get rid of the model you're in the clear, as he has a minimum 3 damage anyway. With Leve I'll shoot into combat with no fear, as I'll just choose the trigger that lets him take a Melee attack if I randomize onto Ashes, both attacks from Leve and Ashes feature 7s to hit.

Coupling Ashes and Dust with the cheap Necropunk is an amazing combo. Usually when placed relatively close together the Necropunk gets ignored. If Ashes gets tied up the Necropunk can do his thing, if the Necropunk gets targeted he usually weathers the storm well enough with Hard to Wound and Hard to Kill, as well as a last minute heal if necessary, and Ashes can counter attack. Those two models together make a ton of scheme markers wherever you need them.

Let me know what you think!

Immense WIP Update!

Welcome readers!

So, as the title states, this is an immense update. I've recently been motivated to get a lot of my Malifaux painting done as I've decided to attend a local tournament this Saturday. This will be my first Malifaux tournament ever and I want to make an impression with my models as they will have a Hobby award - which I assume is for painting - and I want a chance to get it. I decided to list all the models I'd need to have completed before this Saturday's tournament and came up with this:

All the grey glory

I decided that I can't get every model I use in game complete, as the summons between Leveticus and the Mechanical Rider will be overwhelming - that's an addition 7 models from what I own.

So I decided to have everything painted from what starts out on the table for two crews, Leveticus and the Viks, as they are my favorite crews so far. I changed a couple things in my lists in the prior week that I've play tested and came up with something I like so far. What I had was a half painted Leveticus, Hodgepodge Effigy, Freikorpsmann, 3 Waifs, Desolation Engine and the Mechanical rider.

I prioritized the models based on shared models between the two crews. The Hodgepodge was in both lists so I wanted him done first. Then I put the Freikorpsmann second in the list as when he got done my entire Vik crew would be painted. The rest would be done after based on assembly line and what I felt like doing, although I definitely wanted to save the Mechanical Rider for last as that was the model I was most excited to paint and the most intimidated by.

Hodgepodge Effigy

So seeing as this little guy is in both crews I decided to paint him up first. I based him with black then used Grey and White to zenithal highlight. I then used Vallejo Game Air (VGA) Electric Blue to spray over this, with the natural highlighting from the grey/white creating different tones to a sharp contrast to black. When you keep the deepest shades completely black it creates a lot of good contrast. I then sprayed the knife and pistol barrel with grey and white to create the NMM effect. I edge highlighted with Electric Blue and added a small amount of white for the brightest highlights. I then took Vallejo Model Air (VMA) Blue, which is a pretty dark blue, and shaded some parts that  wouldn't necessarily be total black, like the dip in the top of the hat or some parts of the pants.

Here I've added some neutral grey to the skin. I eventually added some light grey and white for highlights, intentionally not shading the grey to keep a light tone like an alien.

Here he is complete, I skipped a lot of steps without taking a photo but pics weren't my main concern. The pistol and arm/leg bands were painted black > GW Shadow Grey > GW Space Wolf Grey. The NMM was glazed with turquoise. The eyes were painted red > orange. The leather was painted using the guide from the Wood/Leather Vallejo paint set, which is (all VMC) Woodgrain/Orange Brown > Orange Brown > Dark Sand > Woodgrain Wash > Black lines and wash in deepest recesses. It's a pretty cool recipe and I've been using it a lot, as Brown is one of my weakest colors. This recipe has also allowed me to learn how to make any traditional paint into a successful wash as well (hint: use Vallejo Thinner and a touch of water for best results, approximately 4:1 Thinner to Paint).

I didn't paint the grass on the base but I don't really care to finish that before the tourney, some corners will need to be cut!

Freikorpsmann

I started with a black base coat then did my traditional NMM spray of VGC Stone Grey > White with turquoise glazes in the recesses. This model didn't have too many places I wanted to spray, as I hate masking anything due to laziness and my track record with spraying folded cloth is hit or miss. I decided to do the rest of the model with traditional brush and see where it took me. I basecoated the clothing with GW Shadow Grey (don't remember the new name for it) and the leather with 3:1 VMC Woodgrain/Orange Brown (btw, OB is an awesome color!). This is essentially a breakdown of how I painted the Effigy's leather as well.

Here I highlighted the cloth with GW Shadow Grey mixed with GW Space Wolf Grey until it was pure SWG.

Here I highlighted the leather with VMC Orange Brown and VMC Dark Sand. Notice that it's super bright and can easily pass as a 90's era GW model now... talk about extreme highlights...

This step is where the magic happens. I made a wash with 4:1 Vallejo Thinner Medium and Woodgrain with a drop or two of water - don't add much as this disperses the pigments too much. This unifies the color and brings it back to that red brown color. These photos make it look lighter than it really is I think, but it's a darn cool color recipe that makes your browns rich and vibrant with a warm tone. When making a worn look you want to add some stippling and random patterns with your progression, which is evident with the Effigy's backpack and straps.

Just a few finishing touches like the base and half fingered gloves and he's done!

Viktoria Crew Complete!

Considering that my new year's resolution in 2014 was to have a completely painted crew this was long overdue, but better late than never! I'm pretty proud of these guys, and although list building in Malifaux is a bit more fluid I think I'll be sticking to this particular crew's build until I have more models painted. It's seemed to have worked well enough so far.

Hollow Waifs

So now I'm working on Leve's crew, and decided to assembly line the three waifs as they'll have similar paint progressions even if they have different colors for their dresses. I based all three with black (funny how I used to base only in black, then only in white, now I'm back to black!). I did a zenithal spray but instead of neutral grey I used VGA Sombre Grey and VGA Wolf Grey, just to give it a blue tint. I wanted their skin to look monochrome as they are empty husks of horcrux for Leve so I'm largely leaving their skin how it is. 

Once the basecoats are done I masked parts of the model with silly putty. I used Badger Minitaire Ghost Tints to spray a candy coat over the basecoat. This makes difficult colors like yellow a breeze, but the most useful reason to me is that it helps create really good contrast and shadows for these difficult colors. I've painted yellows easily enough before, but they don't quite capture the spotlight effect like this. Notice that these paints dry with a very glossy finish, which can be knocked down with washes but most effectively matte varnish. The finish helps with washes however as it creates less surface tension and allows the wash to move much more freely.

Here I heavily washed the yellow with GW Seraphim Sepia (which is vastly inferior to the previous GW Gryphonne Sepia... ugh I hate the new one) followed by a heavy wash of GW Cassandora Yellow, which is more like an orange really but light enough for yellows. With the zenithal/candy coat the washes do not compromise the black shades but tints and glazes the yellow, knocking back the cartoony brightness and overall grey look to the color. I also took GW Sunburst Yellow and did some highlights to the folds. With the frilly edges I painted VGC Heavy Brown highlighted with VMC Dark Sand.

I didn't do much after this besides finish the base and base the stocking/boots/hair black, I'm running out of time and figured this was well enough.

I really love how this turned out, man is it a creepy shade! Although it was minimal effort on my part and really I was just experimenting with this recipe it created a look that I've never seen with a yellow. I think it's very dynamic.

This waif I thought would be the easiest and it turned out to be the most disappointing. I used Minitaire Plasma Fluid on this one and it looks really bland, although I'm sure it will look better once I work on it more. One of the reasons why I hate masking is evident at the waist. The silly putty hung over the stomach more than I though and masked part of the dress I wanted blue. Luckily this is fixable and I've just painted it a different color, but I need to try using liquid mask for this type of stuff. 

Here I used the Minitaire Green tint. I have used this before and prefer to airbrush the usual way for this color as you have more control over the look. I plan on brushing on the highlights then knocking it back with some green wash. This is my least favorite sculpt of the three so I'm not too concerned.

None of these are complete, but I finished their bases and they look well enough for the tournament.

Desolation Engine

Over a black base coat I sprayed an olive green (can't remember the name from VMA) and added VMC for highlights. I should have went for one more highlight as it's really dark, at least too dark for what I prefer. The pictures make it slightly brighter than it looks with natural light I think. But a simple remedy can be done later with a few glazes of a highlight color to make that contrast pop. For now I'll settle for the ninja turtle look...

I also basecoated the metal bits with VMC Woodgrain (I'm loving that color...) and the bandages with GW Khemri brown and VMC Dark Sand highlights.

Here you can see more progression. I painted the gums and tongue with VMA Electric Blue, added in white for highlights, and heavily washed it with GW Leviathan Purple. I painted the teeth with Dark Sand and heavily washed the bandages with GW Devlan Mud - also known as Brown Crutch. I stippled on VMC Orange Brown (such a versatile color!) on the metal bits to start the rust effect.

Here's where he's at as of now and how he'll look this weekend. Although he isn't done he's tabletop ready and I can move on to the rest of the crew. I highlighted the bandages with Dark Sand again and white, then glazed over the white with Dark Sand to knock it back a bit. I finished the rust by stippling on GW Blazing Orange and finished the base. Eventually I'm going to highlight the skin and put some metal chips on the rust bits, but for now he's fine.

Originally I bought this model as a backup in case I ever got the legendary 4 Abominations to Voltron into this monstrosity. I never thought I'd be using stones to bring him in as he's super expensive. But I recently realized he'd be a good replacement for Rusty Alyce for the time being, ultimately until I get Ashes and Dust, a model I loathe using as everyone and their uncle uses him with Leveticus. Alyce hasn't been proving her worth lately, and with the upgrade to summon A-bombs pushing her into super expensive territory she has been even more disappointing. Sure, she has a good damage track for shooting, but there are plenty of other cheap shooters with comparable damage. Her main ability is preventing charges within 3", but I've only seen that work out once for me and I feel I need a sturdier anchor for the crew. Also, her summon needs a 10 or higher card to go off, cards that the rest of my crew are starved for. That same card can go to Leve who summons when he kills, which is much more efficient. Another thing, having another Henchman makes Leve and Hannah fight for the same resources.

The Engine has Hard to Wound and a plethora of abilities for one more SS than what I'm paying for Alyce and her upgrade. When he dies he pops out two Abominations, making him SS efficient. He heals and causes disruption at the end of his activation. He's pretty good on paper as opposed to Rusty, who I've always thought of replacing even before I used her. We'll see how it goes, hey it's always smart to make major changes without testing before a tournament, right? Just like getting a new hairstyle a week before your wedding...

Mechanical Rider

And now, my favorite piece of all..

So this one I've thought about for a long time. I didn't want to paint her horse silver, as it's been done to death and I also have Hannah, who is also a model predominately NMM silver. I wanted to do brass or gold, but have never done it through airbrush before, or of this scale either. The NMM Gold I've done so far using the set from Vallejo has a very good effect but is super yellow-gold, but I've always thought it's because they don't show you nearly as much contrast as it requires, giving you only Sepia Ink to provide contrast. I decided to tackle this by adding more black into the equation for shading and less white for the highlights, taking it down a step from the royal gold look I've done before.

So in this first pic I mostly did airbrushing. I basecoated black. I airbrushed VMC Heavy Brown, leaving plenty of black in the shading. Then I highlighted using VMC Heavy Goldbrown which adds in some yellow tones. I then added white to the mix, but this proved too yellow for my tastes so I knocked it back to the VMC Heavy Goldbrown, luckily it's only in a small area so it's not noticeable. I did no masking to achieve the gold highlights, it's all in the angle of how you spray really. That confidence only comes with experience and experimentation. I then masked the horse so I could airbrush the NMM Silver for the rider and did the usual Black > Stone Grey > White I always do.

Masking Hate Rant: I still didn't cover everything for the horse and some of it got on the gold... doh!

I also did the base. In case you were wondering how I did it, I usually take 4 or 5 shades of grey in both neutral and blue variety and put them on the palette. I then messily paint them on the sand and cork very fast and mix them on the base to create a random pattern. Make sure to get in the nooks and crannies as well as to vary between light and dark often. Honestly it's not a very good effect and by the end you wouldn't be able to tell, but it's a very subtle effect and I think it's better than only using one base color.

Now we're cooking with gas!

Here's my favorite and painstakingly crazy part! With a few simple lines you transform that airbrush mess of gold into a coherent and impressive look! At this point I've only added blacklining and edge highlights, but it makes a drastic difference. For the gold I used Sepia Ink to carefully paint the recesses in the armor. Then I used 1:1 Heavy Goldbrown/White to carefully edge highlight every raised edge. It took a few hours as this model has a lot of edges, not to mention difficult rounded ones that are close to other surfaces. Luckily I have a band aid technique that's no real secret to most. If I ever get paint where I don't want it I just paint over it with a tiny slash using the highlight color, or with black or brown for a deep slash and then highlight. If you use this sparingly and add more to other areas of the armor you can create battle scratches. This hides mistakes as well as adds more character to your little horsie. Those deep scratches were already molded on the model, so it only helps to add to the illusion. Be careful with these scratches and don't go overboard, I messed up in plenty of places but I don't think it's too noticeable. I also used it to help draw your eye away from problem areas, such as an overly thick line of highlight or two (I don't want to tell you where because you'll be looking for it!). This step takes a looooong time, but by far the coolest one.

I also painted the skin's basecoat using GW Tallarn Flesh, just to block in the color and help separate the plates. Please ignore the terrible sculpt job on her right elbow, I never claimed to be good at sculpting, which is why there are a lot of gaps visible on my models. I only use it in unavoidable situations or easy sculpts like fur or mutations.

Here's the other side

On the base I add a heavy wash of GW Nuln Oil, otherwise known as Black Crutch. If you want more variance then alternate areas with GW Agrax Earthshade/Devlan Mud, or even Blue Wash. I'm lazy, so I didn't do that here. I then drybrush GW Ushabti Bone over the whole thing then drybrush white at the edges of the cork. For a more subtle look you can use a neutral grey first then bone sporadically and white at the edges. It's going to look very grey at this point, which I usually break up with some greens using flock and grass tufts. I'm not the best at basing as it's my least favorite part of a model, and some people just go way overboard with it. 

I also was having a tough time deciding what the mane and tail was going to be colored. I was thinking of using my usual light blue/turquoise color Plasma Fluid as it was a color I was familiar with. But seeing as the original art used that color and a lot of other people used that same color I kind of wanted to do something different. I then looked at my multitudes of paints on the rack and saw VGC Foul Green, a color I bought over a year and a half ago simply because I thought it looked awesome. Having been looking for an excuse to use it for a long time now I've finally found it was perfect for this.

The color contrasts very well against the gold. I've only done a solid basecoat for now to see how it looks I plan on painting it like flames (as per its art) and think this can be very interesting. For now I'll leave it how it is for the tournament.

Finally, this is how she stands as of today. I painted the base ring with GW Gretchin Green to match the rest of my models and basecoated the chains and spear handle with 1:1 Black/Stone Grey. I also added edge highlights of white to the spear as I forgot to do that earlier. I based the cloak 1:1 Black/Stone Grey as well and the hair Black/Shadow Grey. Not pictured here, I've also painted the fur/hair on her knee pads and spear head brown and bone colored, but it's not a huge change from this picture overall.

So that's all the work I've done over the last 6 days, not too shabby at all as compared to my usual sluggish pace. Tournaments are a great motivator, even though there isn't a requirement in this case to be painted I held myself to that standard and am pretty proud with the results thus far. I've only got to add to Leveticus to make him tabletop ready and will probably work a bit more on the Waifs if time permits. The craziest part of this is that in the last week I've done more work than I have in the last year for Malifaux!

Let me know what you think, or if there are any recipes or tips you'd like to ask about.