A Face Only A Mother Could Love...
I'm talking about the Skaven Hell Pit Abomination! Yes, ladies and gents, it's Challenge time over at Mini-Wargaming and this month I'll be painting a HPA AND a Doomwheel. Ta-Da!
First thing's first...I started assembling the HPA last week, but it sat on my table for a bit because of my addiction to board games! Yes, that's right, I played instead of painting...it happens...we'll deal with it. :)
So, we are now waaaayyyy behind on our schedule and need to get 500 more points assembled and painted for League, not to mention the Death Match Challenges. Let's Do This!
First we finish assembling our HPA and prime it using Vallejo Grey Primer (As per usual).
Now then, the hard part. I typically don't like to paint things in the expected 'Static' schemes presented by the model manufacturer, and thus we need to develop our own. This is sometimes easier said then done, so like any artist, I looked to nature for inspiration! (Of course, this model is no where near natural, so I had to use a slanted eye.)
It just so happens I live in Washington State, and we're having a very A-typical spring. That is to say, we actually have some sunshine. I was looking out my window and noticed a Blue Jay perched on the fence. I've always liked the way the blues mix with the blacks near the ends of the wings, and so I decided to use this as a very good starting point for our creation.
I decided to start by using a very deep Blue/Green/Black color, which lucky for me is already premixed and available from P3. It's called 'Coal Black', which is not black at all, but more of a deep green/grey. This lends itself to the purpose at hand, which is to create a dark 'Spawn' look to our HPA. My intent here is to represent the unnatural combination of this creatures origins by tainting his hands and feet, then progressively blending a flesh tone into the main body of the beast.
Lets see how we do, shall we?
We're going to use Coal Black to add shadows and a base for our hands and feet.
Notice how this color is dark, but not black - and definitely leans more towards green then blue. Now it's time to add our flesh base, which is my favorite Skaven color, Jaundice, from Badger Air.
Since Jaundice is a yellow base you'll obviously notice the 'green' tint it creates when blended with the Coal Black. This makes for a very natural transition between the two colors! (Or, should I say Unnatural hehe)
Time to emphasize a little blue into our mix, which is accomplished by adding in some Turquoise highlights to the elevated light gathering areas of the hands, back and feet.
Now lastly, for our base coat anyway, we're going to add some fleshy highlights to the Jaundice areas using Badger's Rugged Skin.
So, next we'll have the most fun of all doing our brush work and highlights! Join me back here to see how this little cutie turns out!
In the meantime, here are some closeups of the blends used to create the base coat. Enjoy!
*UPDATE*
A day later and we have added our base colors to the rest of the model, and applied a wash over a thin Satin Varnish. We again used Army Painter Soft Shade, this time thinned 50/50 with tap water.
Here are some progress shots. The base color for the stitches was our old standby of Purple and Angel's Blood, 4 drops to 2. The wood parts were inked using 'Flesh Tone' ink, from Vallejo, and the silver and brass areas were done using 'Gun Metal', from Vallejo, and 'Brass' mixed with 1 drop of 'Charred Brown'.
*UPDATE*
After a few hours of highlighting, here is what our pet looks like. Here I use a combination of Rugged Skin and Vallejo Pale Flesh to pick out the accent spots of the flesh tones. I can't really explain the process because I typically apply it to the areas I think 'would look cool', which isn't necessarily where the highlight would naturally fall. I know it makes it hard to translate into a technique, so forgive the ambiguity. Turquoise, mixed with 'Azul Blue', from Vallejo, was used to likewise highlight the Hands and Feet. Livery Green was added to the eyes of the rat heads that poke through the Abomination's skin.
*UPDATE*
Finished painting all the little details, like Nails, Stitches, Spikes, etc. Then I decided to paint the Tail to match the hands and feet, since our color pallet was getting very complex, and I wanted to keep an even composition.
Additionally, the Wheel housing was completed and attached to the HPA, along with the concrete pillar under his right hand.
Lastly, we finished the warpstones using our typical Dark Green / Livery Green fade.
Here are some finish pix - just have the base to go. I'm undecided if I want to attach the hoses to the beast, since he's already a time sink and we have to get our doomwheel started!
Until next time,
Casey
First thing's first...I started assembling the HPA last week, but it sat on my table for a bit because of my addiction to board games! Yes, that's right, I played instead of painting...it happens...we'll deal with it. :)
So, we are now waaaayyyy behind on our schedule and need to get 500 more points assembled and painted for League, not to mention the Death Match Challenges. Let's Do This!
First we finish assembling our HPA and prime it using Vallejo Grey Primer (As per usual).
Now then, the hard part. I typically don't like to paint things in the expected 'Static' schemes presented by the model manufacturer, and thus we need to develop our own. This is sometimes easier said then done, so like any artist, I looked to nature for inspiration! (Of course, this model is no where near natural, so I had to use a slanted eye.)
It just so happens I live in Washington State, and we're having a very A-typical spring. That is to say, we actually have some sunshine. I was looking out my window and noticed a Blue Jay perched on the fence. I've always liked the way the blues mix with the blacks near the ends of the wings, and so I decided to use this as a very good starting point for our creation.
I decided to start by using a very deep Blue/Green/Black color, which lucky for me is already premixed and available from P3. It's called 'Coal Black', which is not black at all, but more of a deep green/grey. This lends itself to the purpose at hand, which is to create a dark 'Spawn' look to our HPA. My intent here is to represent the unnatural combination of this creatures origins by tainting his hands and feet, then progressively blending a flesh tone into the main body of the beast.
Lets see how we do, shall we?
We're going to use Coal Black to add shadows and a base for our hands and feet.
Notice how this color is dark, but not black - and definitely leans more towards green then blue. Now it's time to add our flesh base, which is my favorite Skaven color, Jaundice, from Badger Air.
Since Jaundice is a yellow base you'll obviously notice the 'green' tint it creates when blended with the Coal Black. This makes for a very natural transition between the two colors! (Or, should I say Unnatural hehe)
Time to emphasize a little blue into our mix, which is accomplished by adding in some Turquoise highlights to the elevated light gathering areas of the hands, back and feet.
Now lastly, for our base coat anyway, we're going to add some fleshy highlights to the Jaundice areas using Badger's Rugged Skin.
So, next we'll have the most fun of all doing our brush work and highlights! Join me back here to see how this little cutie turns out!
In the meantime, here are some closeups of the blends used to create the base coat. Enjoy!
*UPDATE*
A day later and we have added our base colors to the rest of the model, and applied a wash over a thin Satin Varnish. We again used Army Painter Soft Shade, this time thinned 50/50 with tap water.
Here are some progress shots. The base color for the stitches was our old standby of Purple and Angel's Blood, 4 drops to 2. The wood parts were inked using 'Flesh Tone' ink, from Vallejo, and the silver and brass areas were done using 'Gun Metal', from Vallejo, and 'Brass' mixed with 1 drop of 'Charred Brown'.
*UPDATE*
After a few hours of highlighting, here is what our pet looks like. Here I use a combination of Rugged Skin and Vallejo Pale Flesh to pick out the accent spots of the flesh tones. I can't really explain the process because I typically apply it to the areas I think 'would look cool', which isn't necessarily where the highlight would naturally fall. I know it makes it hard to translate into a technique, so forgive the ambiguity. Turquoise, mixed with 'Azul Blue', from Vallejo, was used to likewise highlight the Hands and Feet. Livery Green was added to the eyes of the rat heads that poke through the Abomination's skin.
*UPDATE*
Finished painting all the little details, like Nails, Stitches, Spikes, etc. Then I decided to paint the Tail to match the hands and feet, since our color pallet was getting very complex, and I wanted to keep an even composition.
Additionally, the Wheel housing was completed and attached to the HPA, along with the concrete pillar under his right hand.
Lastly, we finished the warpstones using our typical Dark Green / Livery Green fade.
Here are some finish pix - just have the base to go. I'm undecided if I want to attach the hoses to the beast, since he's already a time sink and we have to get our doomwheel started!
Until next time,
Casey
Wow! Very cool work! He is an especially abdominally abominable abomination.
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