Various Warhammer Fantasy Battle Pieces

These are three of the bigger pieces for Warhammer we recently did for a customer. GW in making some interesting pieces. They are complex, however, with some kits hitting around 80 parts. I've found it best to paint them in stages, doing some pieces on the sprue, then assembling some parts, painting a bit more and touching parts up, and then repeating that process.

This first piece is the Emperor Karl Franz on his griffin, Deathclaw. The kit can actually be made into three different pieces.

The second piece is a Bastiladon for a Lizardmen army. This kit can be made into two variants; the kit is assembled into the Solar Engine version here:

This last piece is the most complex: The Hurricanum for the Empire army. There are loads of details to this kit, including complete details on the inside. In order to paint the inside details you have to do so before assembly. There is simply no way to get to them otherwise.

This kit can also be assembled as the Luminark of Hysh. The customer dropped a second kit off so we can do that one as well so look for it in the future.

Along Came a Spider Part 3 - GW Arachnarok

Sooooo...this post has been a long time coming.  I first started blogging about Arachnarok in 2011 and it is now 2013; that is not to say he never got finished, oh on the contrary he was done immediately and given to his rightful owner.  I just have a tendency to SQUIRREL and then just completely SHINY forget what I was doing.  Not to mention that I paint a lot of stuff in the course of a week and my little FUZZY KITTY brain just can't process that much all the time.  But, here is the last installment for the Arachnarok as promised.  Sorry to have kept you waiting.

Legs
Colors Used:
Carapace Colors - 

• Base coat - Model Color, Red.

• Wash - Leviathian Purple in middle.

• Wash - Badab Black around spines.

• First highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, Red.

• Second highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, Orange Yellow.

Used as the overall color and highlights

Joint Colors -

• Base coat - Citadel, Hormagaunt Purple

• First highlight (Dallimored) - Hormagaunt Purple with Creamy Ivory added to achieve a moderately lighter shade.  Could do a second highlight with a slightly lighter shade.

Used in the joints

Techniques:

The shell of legs were based colored with Red from Model Color (as was the entire carapace of the spider in previous tutorials). As you can see in the above picture, the Leviathan Purple wash was placed around the middle of each leg section and Badab Black wash was used immediately around each spike/horn.  From the tip of each leg Leviathan Purple is drug up and while still wet Badab Black is added to the very tips.
Next, Red from Cel-Vinyl is detailed on with a 10/0 liner brush.  It is dotted carefully onto all the little raised bumps of the carapace, as well as trimming around the edges of the leg sections, and highlighting the spines.
Between the leg shell sections, in the joints, it is painted Hormagaunt Purple just as the belly of the spider had been painted.  They are then highlight with the purple mixed with creamy ivory until a lighter shade is achieved.

Then, as you can see in the picture above, Orange Yellow from Cel-Vinyl is used as a second highlight on the section edges, the spine tips, cracks, and it is added only to the bumps on the very top of the leg sections nearest to the spines.



Horns and Spines

Colors Used:

• Base coat - Cel-Vinyl, Burnt Umber

• First Highlight (Dallimored) - Reaper, Stained Ivory

• Second Highlight (Dallimored) - Reaper, Creamy Ivory

• Third Highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, White

Technique:
The spines/horns are base coated with the Burnt Umber.  If you look at the picture below you can see the darkness poking out at the base of the horns.  Then, with a 10/0 liner brush, paint delicately lines from the tip of the spine to the base with the Stained Ivory.  By doing it this way you ensure that the thicker portion of the line is at the tip and it becomes thinner as it travels to the base. 

Do this again with the next color, Creamy Ivory, making sure that you are traveling over the original lines done with the Stained Ivory but stop before coming to the end of the Stained Ivory line. 

Finally, use the White to make the very tip of the horn stand out and appear shiny and pointy.  Using the same technique, draw the thin lines down toward the base but stop only a 1/4 of the way down or so.

Fangs
Colors Used:

• Base coat - Cel-Vinyl, Black

• First Highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, Gray 25

• Second Highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, Gray 5

• Third Highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, White

Techniques:

Using Gray 25,a medium gray, add a delicate stripe that runs over the top of the fang's crescent shape.  Also, trace along the underneath portion where there is an edge.

With the Gray 5, a nearly white gray, very very lightly go over the original medium gray line that you drew in the first step.  This line should be much thinner than the original line.

Finally, using white, add an even thinner line that is intermittent, meaning that it doesn't need to be solid. This is to mimic shine or gloss.

Log Base
Colors Used:

• Base coat - Cel-Vinyl, Wood Gray

• First highlight (dry brushed) - Cel-Vinyl, Grayed Orange Yellow

Technique:
Simply base color the entire log with Wood Gray just as you had done for the scaffold system.  Then, when dry, dry brush the Grayed Orange Yellow to catch the high-points of the log.

Goblins
Colors Used:

• Base coat - Cel-Vinyl, Green

• First highlight (Dallimored) - Cel-Vinyl, Lemon Yellow

• Wash - Citadel, Thraka Green

Techniques:

The goblins are painted with the Cel-Vinyl Green.  Then they are highlighted with the Dallimore method by only painting the high points with the Lemon Yellow.  After that dries I washed them entirely with Thraka Green so it would seep down into the cracks.  You could try dry brushing the Lemon Yellow on but you run the risk of getting stray marks onto the log - so why bother.  Their eyes are Red from Cel-Vinyl.

Skulls are painted using colors in a picture below.  They are base coated in Stained Ivory, then highlighted with Creamy Ivory.  When dry, a wash of Gryphonne Sepia is used to get into the sockets and cracks.  Finally a highlight of White is lightly dry brushed on.  One could skip the middle color, I just choose to use the white sparingly because I want them to look old.  If you went straight into the white they will appear brighter and newer.  Your choice. 

For the mushrooms you can paint them any color you like.  I just used a bright red and an orange in order to tie it in with the spider above it.  I like to do that kind of thing.  But, I'm sure that purple or blue shrooms would have been cool, even plain white ones, too.

The baby spiders are painted exactly the same as mommy, only more simply since they are kinda tiny.

Base coat the baby spiders in the Model Color Red and then dot on the highlight of Red from Cel-Vinyl.  I didn't bother to try to highlight with the Orange Yellow, they are much too small.

Spiderwebs are painted using colors in a below image.  Coat the webs entirely in Bone Shadow and then highlight with Aged Bone and Polished Bone.  Again, you could skip the middle color but I used the Polished Bone specifically just to run the very edges of the tops of the webs to make them pop.  The Aged Bone goes over all the edges of the webs.

 Scaffold, finishing touches

These colors are used for skulls and bones on the entire model, including the base.

Used for all spider webs on the entire model.

The scaffold is time consuming because of all the fiddly bits.  Here is where you need to detail all the spider webs that are used to lash the scaffold together, complete the skulls and bones and lighten the sharp, pointy ends of the scaffold that stick out.

Notice in the images above and below that the points of the scaffold are painted with Grayed Orange Yellow, they were also given a drybrushed highlight of Creamy Ivory (not shown in picture).

The shields are done in Citadel Chainmail and washed with Devlan Mud or Badab Black.

Feathers are simplest done when painted solid white and washed with a diluted Badab Black, so that it forms a soft gray.  Or, you can water down a gray paint until it becomes a wash.

Spiderweb lashings are painted Bone Shadow, washed with Devlan Mud, and very carefully detailed with a 10/0 liner brush with Polished Bone.  I tried drybrushing them to make the process easier and quicker, but it looked too sloppy.  Just take your time, make sure the Polished Bone is wet enough (but not too wet that it seeps between the strands).  By ensuring that the paint is liquid enough you can make smooth lines quickly.

 ____________Finished Product____________

Vampire Count's Undead Dragon

Assembly and Painting of the Vampire Count Undead Dragon: or How I Nearly had an Aneurysm

The same patron that ordered the Coven Throne and Mortis Engine also commissioned to have the Undead Dragon done.  Although I was more interested in doing the bat version with the ghoul riding it I dove right in and found it to be a daunting task. 

As I said in the previous posts about the Throne and Engine I don't usually do the assembly.  I think that it is misleading for a person who "usually" or "always" puts together figures, especially complex ones, to comment on difficulty or time required.  Well, for all of you who read this, I AM A NOVICE.  Additionally, glue and I don't always get along, especially super glue.  Once, I superglued my hand to the emergency brake of my Hyundai while trying to fix my shoe.  So, okay, laugh, chalk it up to female incompetence like, "Why were you fixing your shoe with superglue in your car?"  Yeah, yeah, I know - not so smart.

This model is a trial in patience for the following reasons... 

Problem 1: you think you can assemble it before painting (oh how wrong). 

Problem 2: the directions are all but useless (and don't tell me I have to buy the damn White Dwarf).

Problem 3: it is damn near impossible to get the wings, legs, feet, extra claw and rock positioned and glued (aneurysm).

Soooo...I stared out by painting the primary (largest) parts of the dragon Vallejo Red and then washing it with Leviathan Purple.  However, with the wings I only placed the wash right along the ribs of the wings, not on the main leathery part.  You can see what I mean in the picture below.

This close-up of the wing also shows that I didn't paint directly into the ribs of the wings with the Vallejo Red, I just kinda over brushed and allowed the black underneath to show through.  The centers of the wings are solidly painted with the red.

I also painted the fleshy parts of the legs the same red and washed them also.  Notice, all these parts are separate, were sprayed black separately and will be painted separately until they can then be assembled.  Reasoning?  Well, there are a bunch of inner details on the main body of the dragon and around the neck that would be virtually impossible to reach if the model were to be assembled either fully or partially.  I kept all the pieced separate until I was sure I got what I needed.

Here you that I have highlighted the body and wings with Cel-Vinyl Red, Vermilion and a touch of Yellow Orange.




In the two images above we see the Leviathan Purple wash, it helps bleed the darkness near the ribs toward the center fleshy portion of the wings without blackening.

The next step is to embark on the bone colors.  Again, all was painted separately.  Those ribs that are glued onto the main body below were done separately then glued on, as was the entire head.

For the bone I used Cel-Vinyl Tan 16 (Bleached Bone), washed it with Devlan Mud, over-brushed with Tan 16, then dry-brushed Tan 6, and finally White.

For the horns and claws they were painted Cel-Vinyl Burnt Umber.  Using Tan 16, delicate lines were painted starting at the base of the horn at its thickest and tapering off thinly toward the tip of the horn.  You may need to slightly dilute your Tan 16 with flow improver or water so that it won't clump.  Also, I didn't make my lines run to the very tip of the horn or claw, they end part way up.  After the lines dry I washed the whole horn/claw with Sepia, then Devlan Mud in the middle, and very tip with Badab Black.  Do all of this while each is still wet, that way they will blend into one another.

The dangling black skin is nothing more than Black, highlighted with Chardon Granite and Chardon Granite + Shadow Grey.

You continue with those primary elements until all is painted.  Then the fun starts, final assembly.  This is where it got tricky.  I first tried to glue the wings on and let them dry thoroughly.  But, when I went to put on the lets the wing wouldn't line up with the claw that is attached to the rock.  Plus, the one leg, although it was in correct position, wouldn't sit flat on the base once it was glued into the remaining talon pieces  <<shrug>>.  While trying to position the piece both glued wings snapped off.  At this point I was either going to have an aneurysm or throw the model against the wall.

Thank golly that the model is beautiful once put together.  With some modification I was able to level out the foot to make the dragon sit flat.  I also glued his tail to the base for added support.  Final touches to the base also proved to be difficult as I didn't want to flip the model over to knock off loose talus or flock.  Base your model with care, I used a small spoon to place gravel and flock and a large fluffy brush to knock excess flock off of places.

Crisis Averted and Piece Finished...

The Vampire Count's armor is Cel-Vinyl Red with Leviathan Purple in the creases only with an over brush of Red again, and Vermilion.  Yellow Orange was used to spot highlight where the armor is sharp.  His gilded armor is Shining Gold, Ogryn Flesh wash, with a highlight of Burnished Gold.  The black is the same as black flesh of the dragon,  only spot highlighted (pseudo-Dallimored) instead of dry-brushed. 

Can you see the fade of the three washes?  Sure, first Sepia, then Devlan Mud, then Black at the tip.  Remember, make sure they are all wet when you apply so they can flow and blend into one another.

With Love, Allison