I gave a quick sneak peek of this model last week with a quick On The Table update. This past Friday, I found some time in the early hours of the morning to get some serious paint time in before I made my way to a friends for a weekend of drinks and gaming! Overall I think I spent around 3-4 hours getting him painted up and for the time invested I can't help but be happy with the results.
I used a black base coat for this one, as I knew I'd be working mostly with metallic paints and wanted to give a nice dark scheme overall. No crazy bright colors were in the mix with this guy. Instead, I went with a gritty hard feel from start to finish.
The model started off by painting everything that was going to end up metallic with GW Chainmail. I then washed it all down with a watered down GW Chaos Black (about a 1 to 8 dilution / paint to water). This toned him down appropriately and added some quick shadows but without filling in the details. I know some might ask why I didn't just use GW's Badab Black, but I've had issues when doing heavy washing with the wash creating an artificial surface over some of the finer details like in the pockets of chain mail.
With the paint wash dried, I went back in with GW Devlin Mud wash on the armor plates. I stayed away from the bits that would end up another tone of metal (the weapon and the bronze detailing) and did multiple passes to build the color of the armor up. The armor was then 'scratched' when dry using GW Chainmail again along edges and cut details. (Would you like to know more?)
The bronze details were painted with VMC Bronze. For the weathering I mixed Secret Weapon Patina Weathering Pigment and Vallejo Matt Medium and painted it into the recesses, wiping away any that was on the raised areas. When dry I touched the areas up again with VMC Bronze.
The shoulder blade and the axe blade were painted using the 'true metallic' painting technique that was part of an Open Discussion. This uses metallic paint and a lot of hard shading using regular paints to add a serious amount of contrast, running the full gamut from fully shiny metal to pitch black shadows. Once the shading was done, I used a little GW Vermin Brown to add a touch of color and touched up a few edges with pure GW Chainmail.
The inset detail of the axe blade was done by mixing dry pigment with water, applying it to the recesses liberally, allowed to dry and then with a slightly damp finger I wiped the surface clean leaving the pigment in the recessed detail. The idea was that the bronze skull of has washed the inset with the patina coloring.
The chain mail was given a very light wash of Vermin Brown in a few spots and touched up with GW Chainmail. Paying attention to where you apply your touched up highlighting can help create much needed depth with what can otherwise end up a very flat looking area.
The axe handle was painted GW Bestial Brown, highlighted with GW Snakebite Leather, given a final few lines of GW Bleached Bone and then washed down with GW Devlin Mud.
The wraps and rope were painted with GW Bestial Brown, then Snakebite Leather and finally Bleached Bone. Gryphonne Sepia Wash was then applied to the recesses.
The pouches/straps/leathers were painted black and highlighted with Bestial Brown followed by Snakebite Leather.
The trophy head was painted using GW Bestial Brown, then Snakebite Leather. The skin side was painted with Elf Flesh and the bone was done using Bleached Bone. The whole head was then washed with Devlin Mud and touched up with the previous colors.
To finish the model off I painted the base with GW Chaos Black and drybrushed the top using GW Fortress Grey.
All of the techniques used were quick and efficient, leading to a very fast paint session and a brutal looking model that stays from the usual nurgle color schemes but keeps himself firmly rooted in the grime. This model fits nicely with the champion and models that have come before him as well. Once I've got a good number finished, I plan to go back in on the basing and add some additional detailing after some goading by a few friends to punch them up a step beyond their current state!
