Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
My apologies for today's post being a little late. I had a few technical issues, but I promise it will be worth the wait!
Last week I reviewed the latest issue of Miniature Wargames and I may have mentioned that one of my miniatures was featured in there: a Warhammer Quest Pit Fighter. I thought that you, my faithful readers, may be interested in seeing how I did it.
After the model was cleaned of all mould lines (I use a 10a scalpel blade, dragging the flat of the blade across the mould line) and undercoated with a spray of Wraithbone, which provides a lovely smooth surface for the first stage of painting.
All the different areas of the model are underpainted with a slightly thinned coat of the appropriate Contrast paint. For years, I've been using an underpaint stage (usually with Athonian Camoshade) to give an indication of the areas of shade and highlight, then applying a basecoat of thinned coloured acrylic over the top of that. Using Citadel Contrast paints, slightly thinned with Contrast Medium, enables me to combine both stages, giving a strong underpaint, and giving me an idea of how the colours are going to look in the end, before putting too much work in, almost like a colour sketch. That effect isn't really important on a simple miniature such as this, with a simple, naturalistic colour scheme, but it's really useful on more elaborate miniatures.
On this miniature, the colours used were:
Flesh: Darkoath Flesh
Leather: Snakebite Leather
Metal: Basilicanum Grey
Wood: Cygor Brown
Brass: Gore-Grunta Fur
The next stage is to apply the highlights for each area separately.
For the skin, this was done using slightly thinned layers of the colour, allowing the pre-shading to show through and define the shapes. It's important to keep these layers slightly thinned, as this keeps the slight translucency and also makes it easier to blend each layer with the previous one. Unfortunately, I use the "brush-licker method", which I really shouldn't recommend, but it's the way I've always done it. Basically I apply a small area of paint, then moisten the brush slightly with my lip, then use it to blend out the edge of the paint to make a smooth transition. I used Cadian Fleshtone, followed by Kislev Flesh with a final highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. Finally, the skin was finished off with a glaze of thinned Darkoath Flesh. This final glaze enriches the colours and gives them a bit more life, and helps to tie them all together, smoothing out the blends. To add to the finishing touch, a wash of slightly thinned Basilicanum Grey around the chin and head, to give the impression of stubble.
Next up were the leather and wood areas. I approached these differently, giving them a stark highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh to pick out the texture. This was then given a couple of washes of Seraphim Sepia to knock back the highlight before another highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh, just on the highest points. Then another Seraphim Sepia wash was applied, followed by an edging of Agrax Earthshade to give a final deep shade and to define the area.
The wood was also given two washes of Athonian Camoshade. This is my go-to colour for so many things. it goes well over brown, green, red...You'll see me use it a lot. Anyhow, it's really good for wood. After that, this area too was given an edge wash of Agrax Earthshade.
The brass was next. I started with Castellax Bronze and this was highlighted with Runelord Brass and then given a couple of washes of Athonian Camoshade.* This is a really good shade to use over brass or bronze as it dulls the shine and gives an almost imperceptible patina to the metal. A final dark shade of Agrax Earthshade, mixed with a touch of Abaddon Black, gives a deep shade and outlines the area, before small highlights of Runelord Brass and Stormhost Silver finish the brass areas off.
The metal areas were fairly straightforward. A basecoat of Leadbelcher, with a highlight of Ironbreaker. This was then given a wash of Agrax Earthshade then an edging of Agrax Earthshade/Abaddon Black.
The hair was left until last, as it's the topmost point on the figure and it was all too easy to rub the paint off. The black was highlighted by carefully drawing the flat of the brush along the length of the hair, allowing the raises texture to pick up the lighter colour. I used Eshin Grey, Grey Seer and Pallid Wych Flesh before giving the hair a wash of Nuln Oil to tie all the shades nicely together.
Finally, the base was done. Before anyone asks, I can't remember where the base is from. It's a resin one, green resin, but that's all I know. If anyone can enlighten me, please feel free. Anyway, the stone was painted in Stormvermin Fur, then highlighted with Grey Seer and then White Scar. This was done wet in wet, to give a more natural look to the colours. The mud was basecoated with Morghast Bone, then highlighted with Wraithbone. The whole base was then washed with Athonian Camoshade, then Agrax Earthshade and then Nuln Oil. Again , these were used wet in wet and laid on quite heavily to give a strong coverage. a cotton bud was used to pull off any excess on the stone areas Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the wash stage, but you should get the idea from the picture of the finished miniature.).
The edge of the base was painted Abaddon Black. To finish off, some splatters of Blood For The Blood God gave our grizzled Pit Fighter a bit of character, and we're done!
I'm quite pleased with the result. It came out pretty much as I'd hoped, which is always nice. I wanted to keep the paint scheme nice and simple with natural colours. Roughly 8 hours well spent, and on to the next job!
Thanks for reading!
-Stu
*told you
My apologies for today's post being a little late. I had a few technical issues, but I promise it will be worth the wait!
Last week I reviewed the latest issue of Miniature Wargames and I may have mentioned that one of my miniatures was featured in there: a Warhammer Quest Pit Fighter. I thought that you, my faithful readers, may be interested in seeing how I did it.
After the model was cleaned of all mould lines (I use a 10a scalpel blade, dragging the flat of the blade across the mould line) and undercoated with a spray of Wraithbone, which provides a lovely smooth surface for the first stage of painting.
All the different areas of the model are underpainted with a slightly thinned coat of the appropriate Contrast paint. For years, I've been using an underpaint stage (usually with Athonian Camoshade) to give an indication of the areas of shade and highlight, then applying a basecoat of thinned coloured acrylic over the top of that. Using Citadel Contrast paints, slightly thinned with Contrast Medium, enables me to combine both stages, giving a strong underpaint, and giving me an idea of how the colours are going to look in the end, before putting too much work in, almost like a colour sketch. That effect isn't really important on a simple miniature such as this, with a simple, naturalistic colour scheme, but it's really useful on more elaborate miniatures.
On this miniature, the colours used were:
Flesh: Darkoath Flesh
Leather: Snakebite Leather
Metal: Basilicanum Grey
Wood: Cygor Brown
Brass: Gore-Grunta Fur
The next stage is to apply the highlights for each area separately.
For the skin, this was done using slightly thinned layers of the colour, allowing the pre-shading to show through and define the shapes. It's important to keep these layers slightly thinned, as this keeps the slight translucency and also makes it easier to blend each layer with the previous one. Unfortunately, I use the "brush-licker method", which I really shouldn't recommend, but it's the way I've always done it. Basically I apply a small area of paint, then moisten the brush slightly with my lip, then use it to blend out the edge of the paint to make a smooth transition. I used Cadian Fleshtone, followed by Kislev Flesh with a final highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. Finally, the skin was finished off with a glaze of thinned Darkoath Flesh. This final glaze enriches the colours and gives them a bit more life, and helps to tie them all together, smoothing out the blends. To add to the finishing touch, a wash of slightly thinned Basilicanum Grey around the chin and head, to give the impression of stubble.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Next up were the leather and wood areas. I approached these differently, giving them a stark highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh to pick out the texture. This was then given a couple of washes of Seraphim Sepia to knock back the highlight before another highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh, just on the highest points. Then another Seraphim Sepia wash was applied, followed by an edging of Agrax Earthshade to give a final deep shade and to define the area.
The wood was also given two washes of Athonian Camoshade. This is my go-to colour for so many things. it goes well over brown, green, red...You'll see me use it a lot. Anyhow, it's really good for wood. After that, this area too was given an edge wash of Agrax Earthshade.
 |
 |
 |
 |
The brass was next. I started with Castellax Bronze and this was highlighted with Runelord Brass and then given a couple of washes of Athonian Camoshade.* This is a really good shade to use over brass or bronze as it dulls the shine and gives an almost imperceptible patina to the metal. A final dark shade of Agrax Earthshade, mixed with a touch of Abaddon Black, gives a deep shade and outlines the area, before small highlights of Runelord Brass and Stormhost Silver finish the brass areas off.
 |
 |
 |
The metal areas were fairly straightforward. A basecoat of Leadbelcher, with a highlight of Ironbreaker. This was then given a wash of Agrax Earthshade then an edging of Agrax Earthshade/Abaddon Black.
 |
 |
 |
The hair was left until last, as it's the topmost point on the figure and it was all too easy to rub the paint off. The black was highlighted by carefully drawing the flat of the brush along the length of the hair, allowing the raises texture to pick up the lighter colour. I used Eshin Grey, Grey Seer and Pallid Wych Flesh before giving the hair a wash of Nuln Oil to tie all the shades nicely together.
 |
 |
Finally, the base was done. Before anyone asks, I can't remember where the base is from. It's a resin one, green resin, but that's all I know. If anyone can enlighten me, please feel free. Anyway, the stone was painted in Stormvermin Fur, then highlighted with Grey Seer and then White Scar. This was done wet in wet, to give a more natural look to the colours. The mud was basecoated with Morghast Bone, then highlighted with Wraithbone. The whole base was then washed with Athonian Camoshade, then Agrax Earthshade and then Nuln Oil. Again , these were used wet in wet and laid on quite heavily to give a strong coverage. a cotton bud was used to pull off any excess on the stone areas Unfortunately I don't have a picture of the wash stage, but you should get the idea from the picture of the finished miniature.).
The edge of the base was painted Abaddon Black. To finish off, some splatters of Blood For The Blood God gave our grizzled Pit Fighter a bit of character, and we're done!
I'm quite pleased with the result. It came out pretty much as I'd hoped, which is always nice. I wanted to keep the paint scheme nice and simple with natural colours. Roughly 8 hours well spent, and on to the next job!
Thanks for reading!
-Stu
*told you
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