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It’s been a busy month for me, as I imagine it has been for many of you. Kids are off for summer holidays, parents are dealing with the kids who are off for summer holidays, and we even had some hot weather (whatever your preference on that might be. I prefer the cold). But whatever happens we always find time to paint some more miniatures, many of us are magpies after all and can’t resist the allure of those new models. Personally I had a swarm of Skaven and Stormcast staring me down, so I thought I best get to work. But let’s see what other bloggers have been up to as well.
Red Dragon (Blacklist Miniatures) by Neil Parker
I have the Blacklist Miniatures Fantasy Series I and Stretch Goals set and one of the big miniatures is a red dragon. I had been reluctant to paint this for a while as I wasn’t too impressed with the sculpt, but since I bought a new airbrush I thought it would be good for practice.
I started with a base white primer and then applied several layers of red, starting with darker blood red shades and moving through the red-orange and then orange for highlights, whilst using Citadels Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull for the bone, teeth and eyes. I used Nuln oil for black inking and just kept it simple ensuring the cracks were dark and ridges stood out using drybrushing with orange highlights. Some of the wing hide I left a little darker and used a little more ink shade to achieve a more natural looking mottled effect. I used a pin to score a black slits for the eyes too.
I was impressed with how easy using the airbrush was and it made painting this easier and the result I think more effective. Whilst I thought the sculpt lacked detail, there was enough to work with painting the hide in particular and airbrushing made the initial layers smoother.
Magik (MCP) by Northern Invasion Stu
This month I have been preparing for a Marvel Crisis Protocol tournament that is scheduled to take place at Table Top Scotland in Edinburgh during September. My Miniature of the Month is Colossus’ little sister, the Sorcerer Supreme of Limbo, Magik. I actually painted this model really quickly while I waited for the base to dry on another model I was working on; the whole thing seemed to come together really quickly and took very little work.
Magik had made her way to the top of my painting list with the recent announcement of a ‘New Mutants’ affiliation for Marvel Crisis Protocol. Within this new affiliation Iliana Rasputin (Magik) can be taken as the leader by using a new tactics card that is soon to be released. I do like options in my 10 person tournament roster so Magik seems like she will be a very sensible choice in the future.
As with all of my Crisis Protocol miniatures, I primed the model white after assembly. In this case there are very few colours to apply. The clothing is exclusively black with some metal armour to the arm and knees. There is some blonde hair to pick out, some flesh tones and a sword with its associated energy / portal.
Because there were so few colours needed, it was a simple matter of applying some base blocking colours and then adding some simple highlights in a slightly lighter shade. Because I do not use metallic paints on my crisis protocol models for a more authentic comic-book look, I painted the metal areas of the armour dark grey with some extreme light grey highlights. The energy was simply Nighthaunt gloom technical paint by Games Workshop straight over the white priming. I quickly painted the base itself in a mid tone grey with some light grey highlights to the edges of cracks and paving stones before finally filling each of the cracks with black ink.
Despite only accidentally painting Magik when the opportunity presented itself, I am pretty happy with the outcome. Whilst she won’t make my 10 person roster for
Tabletop Scotland, Magik will undoubtedly see some table time as soon as the New Mutants faction packs start to be released.
Leia (SW: Shatterpoint) by Sam de Smith
This month I've taken a break from the Clone Wars era, but still shatterpoint - and because Return of the Jedi was indelibly carved in my brain at a very young age, it's been Ewoks, and Princess Leia. Starting with a colour Forge grey primer, I knew I wanted to make the base more forest-like, so immediately added a tree stump from the bits box (3rd Ed 40k, iirc). The whole base, stump included, was then attacked with Army Painter Speed Dark Wood, whilst the surface then got a layer of GW technical stirland mud for texture. Working upwards for a change, boots, belt details and gun were done in Vallejo Game Color Black, and then they and the trousers were washed with GW Drakenhoff Nightshade. The skin was blocked in Model Color Medium Fleshtone and the hair and cloak Model Air Mud brown. The skin was washed with GW Fleshshade, the hair Sepia, before I moved onto the camo. First, I marked in rough patches with Sick Green, pressing the side of the brush against the mini to create more natural shapes. Then, I did the same with Game Color Khaki, entirely randomly. Finally, I marked out some of the green edges with Dark Green and the Khaki with Deck Tan (there we go!), and matched these colours on the hat. Finally, I washed the cloak with earthshade to bring it together. Final details were a drop of Gore Red on the lips, eyes dotted with a micron pen; as for the base, a few dabs of Model Air Yellow Olive, a light khaki drybrush and a Green Stuff World tuft for a bit of base texture. A great, characterful sculpt and a good chance to practice camo cloth!
Lord Veritant (AoS) by Ross Coulbeck
I cheated again. Shhhhh. Ok some of you will remember my Kroot Kinband with their Sin City vibe like colour scheme. Was it easier to paint? Yes. Did it still look cool?
Hell yes. Well I’ve done it again. I had this idea with the Stormcast in the Skaventide box that they should be like classic bronze statues. Honestly I think I had Jason and the Argonauts in my head. The highlight colour in this case being vibrant red cloth, usually capes and the such. And as you can see on the Lord Veritant with his Gryph-Crow ally, it looks awesome!
So how did I go about painting it? Well I decided to try something I haven’t actually tried yet, Slap Chop. Usually my go-to is to spray white to make contrast paints stand out as much as possible, but this time I decided to try the famous slap chop method. What is this? Well the short version is, spray black, they apply a heavy dry brush in white over the whole model, generally avoiding deep recesses or places you think would be dark, like under capes etc. This means that when you apply contrast paints over the top, the light and the dark stays for the contrast as well, giving you a really nice tone across your model. There can be more levels to it than that, just look at various examples online, but that’s the basics and it works well. Honestly, with the Stormcast painted the way they are it doesn’t make a huge difference, but I’ve been painting some other models where it really does (you’ll have to wait and see), and even on the Stormcast I think it was worth it. The two contrast colours I used were Blood Angels Red for the cloth (best red ever) and Garaghak’s Sewer for the armour. It’s perhaps less classic bronzy than some paints, but it has a dark look to it that I’m digging.
I’m a big supporter of doing stuff like this because, well, it’s your hobby. Sure if you want to go to tournaments etc they might have some minimum colour rules or whatever, but apart from that you can do whatever you like with your hobby. If you don’t, then you might not be enjoying it as much as you could be. I’ll likely keep doing stuff that’s a bit unusual to encourage you all, and I’d love to see other things people have created.