I knocked out a test model in no time last night. There are some things I’m extremely pleased with, and some things that make me glad this is a test model.
First off: here’s the finished model:
So, clearly: this guy’s painted up in Marienburg and not Nordland colors. I thought I’d give it a shot.
He looks pretty good and came together in no time at all.
Ultimately, though, I think I’m going go with Nordland instead of Marienburg.
I don’t think this scheme works very well. The red and blue are bright enough to make the yellow look pretty dingy. I don’t want dingy: as a rule, my style runs towards bright and away from grungy… and particularly with The Empire, I’m looking to embrace the pajama-pants, floppy hat dandy brightness.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- I think the yellow will look okay against the blue (I’m going to try it on another model when I can get my hands on one); it’s the red and the blue that brings it down.
- My yellow paint is dead. My Iyanden Darksun and especially my Golden Yellow. Better quality paint will help a lot.
- I don’t think I can do brighter yellow. It just tends to look weird. So hopefully removing the red will make this less dire.
I’m super-stoked about how his face came out. Given that I haven’t painted a person face in a long time, I think this looks great.
The base is so-so. Forgettable. That’s okay, though: there’s still time for me to see if I can come up with something more inspired.
The model didn’t go together as well as I’d have liked: it was from a bitz-order and I’m not sure the head I got was meant to go on the body: there’s some dodgy glue and greenstuff at work in the neck (which is why the head got painted separately).
Overall, it looks pretty good and came together very, very quickly. Faster, even, than my clanrats (almost certainly because of my regrettable decision to use GW Bronzed Flesh / VMC Dark Flesh as my primary skin tone as well as picking out the rings on every little tail).
I can totally do this!
What do the rest of you think?
Painting notes behind the cut…
Yellow
GW Iyanden Darksun
GW Gryphonne Sepia
GW Iyanden Darksun
GW Golden Yellow
Blue
GW Regal Blue
GW Enchanted Blue
Reaper True Blue
3:3:2 – GW Asurmen Blue : Water : Matte Medium wash
Red
GW Red Gore
P3 Skorne Red
P3 Khador Red Base
3:2:2:1 – Water : GW Baal Red : Matte Medium : Gryphonne Sepia wash
Skin
GW Tallarn Flesh
GW Elf Flesh
3:3:2 – GW Ogryn Flesh : Water : Matte Medium wash
GW Elf Flesh
Brown Hair
GW Calthan Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
3:2:2:1 – Water : GW Devlan Mud : Matte Medium : Gryphonne Sepia wash
Skull
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
P3 Menoth White Base
P3 Morrow White
GW Devlan Mud wash
Leather
GW Scorched Brown
GW Bestial Brown
GW Snakebite Leather
GW Devlan Mud wash
Wood
GW Khemri Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
GW Devlan Mud wash
Feather
GW Astonomican Grey
P3 Menoth White Highlight drybrush
P3 Morrow White drybrush
Metal
GW Boltgun Metal
GW Mithril Silve
6:3:3:4 – Water : GW Asurmen Blue : GW Badab Black : Matte Medium
Brass
GW Bestial Brown
GW Shining Gold
GW Burnished Gold
GW Devlan Mud Wash
Ground
GW Calthan Brown
P3 Hammerfall Khaki
P3 Menoth White Highlight
6:3:3 – Water : GW Devlan Mud : GW Gryphonne Sepia