Finishing Akito seven years after I started her!

Ever since Salute in April life has been incredibly busy! Once I recovered from the inevitable post event cold there have been many trips, weekends away and even our first holiday abroad since 2019. However, I was determined to have a new project ready for the Fen Model Show (FMS) at the end of July. The obvious candidate was my next Aeldari Corsair, the Shade Runner. But who wants to be obvious?

Finishing Horticulus Slimux was an extremely positive experience and fully rekindled my enthusiasm for painting. I’m enjoying the Corsairs but, as I predicted, I fancied a change from what is a very long running project. That change came in the form of another model that’s been haunting the back of my cabinet, since January 2018. Like Horticulus Slimux, it got off to a good start but stalled and was then sidelined.

 

In truth the ‘good start’ was a part of what put me off! This model is very challenging for me as it’s unlike anything else I’ve ever painted before. Initially I was experimenting and taking a risks but, with success, came caution. I’ve noticed that if a paint job goes well the fear of messing things up increases and that can become a barrier to painting. However, I think it’s far better to take risks and get a project finished, even if it’s not 100% successful. At the least you can chalk it down to experience and learn some lessons; but an unfinished project is a far less positive experience. 

The mystery model that’s been bothering my conscience for all these years is Akito the C Girl and it felt incredibly good to get her out of the cabinet and back onto the desk! Both the subject and scale are things with which I have limited experience and she is no less a challenging project now than she was in 2018. But its a challenge I was up for.

Before starting on the second phase of my Akito project I needed to study the model closely and come up with a plan of action. I’d achieved more on Akito than I thought. The bulk of the flesh tones were painted, the leather jacket was all but done and I’d made a good start on the hair. What remained to paint were the arms, sword and hood. This didn’t sound like a lot of work but I felt that there were also many parts of the earlier work that would benefit from some finessing and refinement.

For clarity I’ve broken my progress down into the following stages. But, as ever, the work is much more a matter of going back and forth than this would suggest. Progress is almost never linear with the earlier work needing subtle adjustments as the overall scheme develops.

The Overall Colour Palette

I wouldn’t usually start a project without a firm idea of my color palette but in Akito’s case the palette developed organically as I progressed. With the exception of the pink spot colour the palette consists mostly of blue grey, browns and the flesh tones. All are relatively desaturated and veer towards being neutral. I don’t think this is a palette I would have cooked up in advance of painting as it only came together in the later half of the project.

Flesh tones

When I’d put Akito to one side I felt that the skin on the face and torso was finished. I’d come up with and implemented a palette of colours that helped me to create the pale soft looking flesh I intended. On reviewing the work seven years later, that remains mostly true but I felt there was room for some improvement. I pushed a few of the highlights just a little further but the biggest change was on the face. I added some extremely subtle red glazes around the eyes, nose and cheeks. The paint was little more than tinted water but the addition of the red brings a bit of warmth and the feeling of life to the face. I used Fiery Vermilion from Army Painter for this. It’s an intense colour I look forward to further experimenting with.

 

Even with the face and torso finished I still had to paint the visible flesh on Akito’s arms. This was a daunting prospect as the final flesh tone is the result of glazing, layering and stippling a variety of flesh tones from several paint ranges; however, I was able to refer back to my own articles and blog posts to refresh my memory. Broadly speaking, I worked from pink hues in the shadows to gold hues in the highlights. Once I implemented this principle the flesh tones came together surprisingly quickly.  A key factor was the use of Rakarth Flesh both as a base colour and an element of my colour mixes. It’s a warm grey that helped to calm down the saturation of the overall pallet and unite the different hues.

Jacket & Hood

My first thoughts on Akito’s clothing was to create a very sci-fi look. I intended to use blacks and shiny textures. I began by painting the bikini top this way and was pleased with the result but changed my mind about her jacket. I decided that a more eclectic style would suite her character and it would be more interesting to paint. I painted the leather jacket brown and added lots of texture to make it look old and worn.

 

The first step was to find some reference pictures and they proved to be very useful. It took a lot of dots, dashes, stipples and strokes to build up the texture in a variety of browns. The hues I chose were also affected by the texture. Smoother shinier areas have a cooler hue as they are reflecting more of the sky than the rougher areas. Where the jacket was especially worn I used an orange/brown to show where the darker surface was wearing off. Overall the jacket was one of the most enjoyable parts of the model to paint!

 

I decided to paint the hood grey. This decision was made fairly late in the process as my overall color palette began to come together. The hood was stippled to create a soft looking fabric texture. The hood’s lining was painted in a desaturated pale blue/grey to add interest and variation to the range of greys used. To make it look as if it was a silkier material than the outer hood, I painted brighter highlights and subtle pink reflections from the adjacent hair. The hood was the last element of Akito’s clothing to be painted but the jacket required one last touch.

 

There is a rectangular back panel on the jacket that cries out for some sort of embellishment. My first thought was to create the graphics for the panel in my illustration software then print it and glue it onto the jacket as if it were a patch that was sewn on. This would be executed in the same way as I create the labels for my plinths. Then I had second thoughts as, although I would have created the graphics myself, it felt like an easy option and not in the spirit of a project intended for a painting competition. This called for a freehand design. I decided to paint Akito’s name on the back panel in a graffiti style as though she had painted it herself and the prospect was daunting. However, I was forgetting my own roots! I am, after all, a fully trained Graphic Designer with 30 years of industry experience and this task took me right back to my college days. I came up with a letter style in my Illustrator software so that I had something to refer to but then painted it onto the jacket freehand. This enabled me to tweak the design to better fit the scale and area I was working in. Once I started doing this I loved the process! I had to take some risks on this project to make some progress.

Hair

I’d made a start on painting the hair during the first stage of the project. I’d mixed up a base colour, highlighted it with the addition of ivory and shaded it with Screamer Pink. This pink colour looked alright to me but also a bit lifeless. What I now needed to do was to bring some dimension and interest to the hair.  The addition of Blanched Berry deepened the shadows and the use of Bering Blue added a reflective quality to these areas. I painted further highlights but felt they looked a little washed out and desaturated. To counter this I glazed dilute yellow ink onto them. This warmed up the colour which had been a little too cold and it also brought some saturation back into the mid-tones and highlights. I think the hair now has some subtle variations of hue that make it more visually interesting than the initial flat looking pink.  

 

Metallics

Both of the arms needed to be painted in the second phase of this project. Because the arms would feature the largest metallic components of the bust they made up the most significant elements of the new work. I’d decided to use true metallic back in the first phase of this project. I prefer to paint non-metalic metals rather than true metallic metals as the final look is more in my control. However, I think true metallics can look great on larger scale models and this is something I wanted to explore more. It’s a choice I would regret at times as the metals proved to be a struggle!

I’ts been some years since I’ve used metallic paints and it took a lot of trial and error to decide which paints to use. I experimented with different combinations of metallic paint, ordinary paint and inks. My final choices were all from Scale Colour as they gave me the result I liked best with my preferred method of application.

 

I built up successive layers of metallic paint and ink glazes. This enables me to create deep rich shadows with a soft sheen that helps to sell the illusion of a patina. The mid-tones and highlights are built up with metallic paint to create texture and shine. I used varying combinations of black, blue and chestnut ink. The combination of these three colors gave me a great range of hues including blue/greys, browns and dull greens. The combination of these hues brought a lot of variation and interest to the metals

 

I didn’t want a dirty or corroded finish but neither did I want the metals to look pristine. I think a patinated look gives the metals some character and definition without being too grungy.

Sword

If the metals were tricky to paint the sword proved to be a nightmare from start to finish! Akito’s original resin sword had warped slightly and had a definite kink in it. It was easy to straighten the blade with a little heat but over time the kink would return. This was another reason I’d put the project on hold as I needed to find a replacement. I took my time and considered multiple options. I could carve a new blade from plasticard or source a new blade from another kit. I began an exhaustive search and although there were other kits with swords of an appropriate size nothing seemed quite right. However while searching online I came across an interesting possibility. Listed on Amazon as ‘Vintage Metal Bookmarks, Charm Pendants Mini Sword Knife’ was a set of metal alloy swords in what looked to be the perfect scale. They were priced at an affordable £8.99 so I decided to purchase a set and see if they were of any use.

What arrived was a set of seven surprisingly sturdy metal swords of an almost perfect size. The greatest advantage I saw in these blades was that there was really no way they would bend or warp. What was less perfect was that, for obvious reasons, the blades were not only blunt but had somewhat thick edges. It was time for me to purchase a new set of files and get to work on the metal blades.

The metal was surprisingly hard but this meant that the work of refining the blade would be easier to control than if it were made of a soft metal. The job was straightforward and after a couple of hours of careful filling I had a suitably sharp looking sword. I cut the (rather too long) sword to length and then drilled and pinned it in place. I wanted a big bold sword but I’ve had feedback that it’s too long and, in retrospect, I agree as it unbalances the composition. However, I will chalk that down to experience rather than going back in and trying to change it.

I thought my troubles with the sword were all solved but I was very wrong! My first intention was to paint the sword metallic using a very bright silver. I experimented with Molotow Liquid chrome and it certainly delivered as promised. One heavy coat applied carefully but confidently with a brush gave a mirror like chrome finish, however, when I tried to apply some shading with my inks they just beaded on the surface and wouldn’t lay smoothly. On further consideration the chrome was probably too bright for the model anyway, so I applied a coat of regular silver paint to the sword and started shading with my inks. Everything behaved as expected but I hated the look of it! The silver looked too dull and too similar to the silver on the arms. I decided that if I couldn’t get a shiny silver I should go the other way and paint the sword in NMM finish with some true metallic chipping for a bit of wear and tear along the edges. The idea being that the sword has a coating of some sort over the metal finish.

I painted the sword with the grey and blue hues from my colour palette and included the black, blue and chestnut ink I’d used earlier in the mix. This gave me an interesting range of hues and also tied the look of the sword in with the metallic areas. Everything was going very well! The sword had blue/grey/green hues that were very pleasing to me. I’d highlighted the sword with an ivory colour but it looked a bit yellow, so I worked on lightening the highlights a little more. All to no effect because the highlights continued to get more and more yellow. All of the ink had been mixed in with the paint but I realised that yellow pigment from the chestnut ink was leeching out into the top layers. This continued well after all the paint was dry.

It was looking like I would have to strip the sword and start again but before that I had one last thing to try. Much of the work on the sword still looked good and I wanted to try and save it. So I applied a layer of matt varnish to see if I could seal the yellow stains beneath it. This was an even worse disaster as the varnish drew the yellow out more than ever!

In an effort to get the still wet varnish off I took a clean dry brush and quickly removed the varnish wiping it from the brush onto a paper towel. This worked and I was shocked at how much yellow had leeched into the varnish. The varnish was literally drawing the yellow out of the paint which gave me an idea. I repeated the process several times applying a heavy layer of varnish and then removing it until there was no more yellow staining the varnish. In effect I washed the sword with varnish. I then let the sword dry completely.

I repainted those areas that needed it and this time the yellow stain did not return. I will keep an eye on the model as the stain might return in time but so far, so good. I also threw my chestnut ink in the bin! I’ve never had this problem before but I certainly don’t intend to risk a repeat!

 

With the sword finally done Akito was finished. I’m still relatively inexperienced at painting larger scale models and I definitely have a lot to learn. But I enjoyed the process and I feel that this is something I can explore in the future. In the meantime, I’m very happy with how Akito turned out and it’s extremely rewarding to finish a project that’s been sitting around for so long. Seven years is a very long time to wait to finish a model (even for me) but it’s been well worth the effort!

 

Unfinished business!

Horticulus Slimux – Part 6

I suspect that every miniature painter has a few unfinished projects that sit neglected on their desk or in a cabinet. It’s a frustrating situation but one that’s all too easy to fall into. One such project for me was Horticulus Slimux and I was shocked to realise that I last worked on him in March 2018! I can’t even remember exactly why I put the project on hold, though I suspect that I was chasing deadlines on other projects. I’d painted Horticulus Slimux to a standard I was very happy with but the project stalled with his giant snail, Mulch. Other projects took precedence and after finishing my Daemon Tank I was suffering from an overdose of Nurgle themed painting. So Horticulus remained forgotten at the back of my miniatures cabinet.

Forgotten by me that is until a couple of weeks ago when he came up in conversation at the Hammerhead painting competition. The upshot of this was that Horticulus was taken out of the cabinet and re-considered. I think he’s too good a piece to remain neglected and unfinished but the snail is a problem. Considering my current commitments and the potential time it would take me to paint Mulch, I decided to let go of that idea and come up with something else that would finish the project to my satisfaction. I could see two options. First I could find a new, smaller and quicker to paint mount for Horticulus. Second I could base him up as a single miniature. 

 

 

I quickly decided on the second option but that’s not without it’s challenges. He is, of course, designed to fit onto Mulch and sculpted in a sitting pose, so I would have to find a way of accommodating this pose on the new base. Horticulus was still going to have to be sat on something, but what? My first thought was to sit him on a severed head. I’ve no idea where this idea came from but it didn’t seem an appropriate setting for Nurgle’s gardener. So what about having him sat on a rock, taking a rest, in the garden surrounded by a profusion of plant life?

With this idea as a starting point, I began to think about the specifics. The timescale was a major factor to consider. I wanted this to be a relatively quick project so I set myself two rules. I would finish the model in time to take it to Salute this year and I would only use materials and parts I already had. This gave me six weeks to work on finishing Horticulus which felt like a good amount of time to get the job done without rushing things. Next up was a thorough rummage through my modeling supplies and bits boxes. This provided both parts and inspiration. 

I had quite a few mushrooms of various sizes left over from old projects and these were perfect for my purposes. In addition a couple of tentacles and some skulls (of course!) would help to populate the terrain. The best find was the head of a fallen statue from the Dominion of Sigmar:Timeworn Ruins terrain. I quickly discovered that Horticulus Slimux could sit on this with very little work to make him fit perfectly! This meant he would be sitting on both a rock and a severed head combining my ideas into one.

 

 

Luckily I had one plinth of the correct size left after I’d use all my others for the Corsairs. The stone head required a little modification before being fixed to the plinth. Then I used a combination of cork, plaster fragments and Stirland Battlemire to build up the terrain around it.

To keep a cohesive feeling, I used the same pallet of colors to paint the base as I’d used on Horticulus Slimux. Thankfully I’d made a note of these colors on an earlier blog post and so was able to fish them out. Once again I’d be using Black Leather from Scale Colour as a universal shadow color. This has a warm pinkish hue that contrasts with the greens and harmonises with the reds. Indeed with the base painted the finished composition has an overall subtle red/green colour contrast. The dominant red area is on the mushrooms but there is also quite a lot of it worked into Horticulus Slimux’s skin tones. This is especially true of the shadows which are very warm with the highlights being cooler in contrast. I used a similar warm/cool contrast on the stone head but with desaturated/grayer hues.

Horticulus Slimux is quite fantastical enough on his own so I decided against taking a highly fantastical approach to the plants. Mushrooms, plants that grow on decay, seem especially appropriate and work well with the Nurgle theme. These would be supplemented with an assortment of grasses, moss, mould and lichen. I used a narrow range of green hues to keep a coherent feeling while relying on texture contrasts to add visual interest. The three large red caped mushrooms are resin and from Blacksmith miniatures. Their large size brings a small touch of the fantastical to the basing. All the other mushrooms were sculpted by myself out of green stuff.

Fixing Horticulus onto the base was very straightforward. He fitted into place well and balanced perfectly, so I was able to attach him directly with epoxy glue - and no need for pinning. However there were a few small gaps underneath him as his backside did not conform exactly to the contours of the statue. I filled in this space with a ‘cushion’ of moss and mould. Like many other Nurgle miniatures, Horticulus has an open belly with his guts hanging out. There was a gap between the guts and the statue that, although not catastrophic, bothered me. Instead of filling this gap with more moss I decided to extend the guts with green stuff. This filled the gap in an appropriately gruesome manner.

 

 

The final touch was to make a label for the plinth. Partly to finish off the composition but also to hide a blemish on the front of the plinth. Putting Horticulus Slimus’s name on the label felt a bit obvious so I opted for his job title ‘The Grand Cultivator’ instead. After resurrecting my long neglected graphic design skills to style the typography, I experimented with different colours. I then used the method described HERE to make the label.

 

 

It’s a shame that I didn’t get to finish Horticulus mounted on Mulch as originally intended. However, I now have a completed model that I’m very happy with and that’s miles better than having him unfinished in the back of the cabinet! And of course, I still have Mulch who could easily become the focus of a future project.

Finishing Horticulus Slimux was an enjoyable process with a satisfying result and six weeks turned out to be more than enough time. So the only thing remaining is to take him to the Salute Painting Competition. This will be my first Salute since 2019 and I’m experiencing an interesting mix of anticipation and nerves so fingers crossed for a good outcome!

 

 

Aeldari Voidscarred Corsair, Part Three

Painting a Gyrinx.

The decision to paint a Gyrinx alongside one of my Corsairs was one of the earliest I made for this project. The very first Corsair I started working on was the Way Seeker and I thought a Gyrinx familiar would be an interesting and appropriate companion for this psyker. 

 

I started off by spraying a light coat of black primer and then gave my Gyrinx an overall base coat. The choice of colour for the base was important because I wanted my Gyrinx to stand out within the overall composition, but not too much. The obvious choice seemed to be a blue hue. This would fit within my overall colour palette. I’ve used Thousand Sons Blue from Games Workshop (GW) for gems and in some of the colour reflections. However, Thousand Sons Blue is a strong saturated hue and too dominant as a base colour for my Gyrinx. The solution was to use a slightly desaturated blue/green hue instead. 

 

The colour I chose was Sons of Horus Green (GW). This was not originally part of my colour palette but I decided to include it when I was basing my Felarch. I’d always intended to feature a grey/green hue in the basing scheme and set about seeing what I could mix from my colour palette. The most satisfactory hues were very similar to Sons of Horus Green, a colour I’d been interested in experimenting with for some time, so I added it to my palette. This would help to tie my Gyrinx into the overall environment and enable me to use Thousand Sons Blue more subtly as an accent colour. 

 

The palette of colours used to paint my Gyrinx
was selected from the Corsair palette.

I did a little research to find some reference material for my Gyrinx. Rather than looking at published artwork or painted models, I searched on-line for images of domestic, wild and big cats. I decided against stripes or tabby markings and looked more closely at spotted cats. I chose a serval cat as the inspiration for my Gyrinx based on its facial markings, spotted coat and stripes on its back. Using photographic reference is very useful as it makes me aware of the colour variations in the cat’s coat in addition to its spots and stripes.

 

To build some of that colour variation into my paint scheme, I applied a rough glaze of Thousand Sons Blue along the spine and across the top of the head and ears. I then concentrated on painting the head to a more finished state. I like to paint a miniature’s face (if it has one) at an early stage as this helps me to establish its character. This was my first experience of using the full as the face featured both dark and light markings. I used Tenere Yellow from Scale Colour (SC) to lighten the Sons of Horus Green before adding white into the mix. This results in a warmer/greener mid-tone than I would achieve by simply adding white. The use of pale yellow also helped to prevent the Gyrinx having an all blue monotone look. To further this, I glazed Sahara Yellow (SC) onto the inside of the ears and also in bands on the tail. This colour helps to tie the Gyrinx in with the overall scheme as it’s the dominant colour used in the gold armour. 

 

The next step was to begin painting the body. A little bit of painted texture can go a long way towards creating visual interest and the Gyrinx’s coat was perfect for such treatment. Rather than highlighting and shading via smooth transitions I painted short strokes to create the illusion of a fur texture. This technique is in fact another form of stippling, using strokes rather than dots, so it was something I felt comfortable doing. The trick was to strike a balance between too much and too little texture. I used Sons of Horus Green and Tenere Yellow with some subtle glazes of a Sons of Horus Green and Thousand Sons Blue mix for the fur. 

 

When I paint any sort of animal patterns or markings I like to start off by using a lighter and dilute version of the final colour. This helps me to avoid painting a hard sharp edge and keeps a soft organic feel to the markings. Once I’ve established the overall pattern I then build it up to the desired strength by stippling. This gives me a lot of control and also helps to maintain the softer broken edges of the pattern. For the Gyrinx I used blue/black for the patterns. I began with a mix of Thousand Sons Blue and Dark Sea Blue and gradually added black working up to the darkest stripes along the spine. Once the spots and stripes on the Gyrinx’s coat were painted I went back over the previous work to refine details and transitions.

 

The final step was to paint the various pieces of jewellery the Gyrinx was wearing. Gold would have been the obvious choice but I decided against this. I felt that gold would have drawn the eye away from the Way Seeker too much so I opted for a non-metallic metal dark steel. This colour will feature on other models in the unit and I will describe my thinking behind it in a later post. 

 

The Gyrinx provided a break from painting armour and was an enjoyable project in its own right. I think it adds extra interest to my Way Seeker and will go a long way to furthering my ambition of bringing variety to the overall unit.

Aeldari Voidscarred Corsair, Part Two

Painting the Felarch

As the first model of this project, the Felarch sets the overall colour palette and character for the rest of the models in the Corsair unit. This turned out to be problematic as the Felarch’s armour is quite ornate and proved to be a challenging subject for a new colour palette. However, going in at the deep end made me work a lot harder than I might have done if I’d started on a standard trooper. In the end, painting the Felarch forced me to thoroughly explore and refine my colour choices, which can only be a good thing.

I’d put a lot of time into planning the colour palette for my Corsairs but I made one major change before I even picked up a brush. My idea had been for an overall warm palette with a brown hue in the shadows but I decided to change this to a cool dark blue/green hue. I felt this would help in creating more of an overall colour contrast. It also lent itself to the atmosphere I wanted to create giving the model a more muted and sinister feel. 

Before I started painting, I experimented with lighting my model and took a series of reference photos. This has become a regular part of my painting process. These photos give me a fixed point to refer to as the paint scheme develops. They are an invaluable guide to the placement and general shape of the highlights and shadows. However, it’s important to remember that the photos don’t show how different materials will reflect light. Metal, fabric and flesh will each reflect light differently and not in the same way as a plastic model.

An example of my reference photos for lighting

The very first step was to put down a base layer of colour onto the primed mini. Yes I now prime my minis! It’s only taken me forty four years, but I find the base layer goes down better on primer than it does on unprimed plastic, quelle surprise!

For this scheme I worked mostly from dark to light so I used a black primer. Vallejo Black Primer Spray is my primer of choice and I’m very pleased with how it performed. The base colour is a dark blue/green. I used a mix of Scale Colour Black and Vallejo Dark Sea Blue at a 50/50 ratio. Pure black shadows can be visually boring and the addition of the Dark Sea Blue adds some nuance to them. It also helps create a smoother transition into the mid-tones than a pure black would.

Aelderai minis have an undersuit beneath their armour. For my Corsairs I decided to paint this a dark greenish grey. This will be a common feature that helps to tie all the models in the unit together. Perhaps not surprisingly, I used Dark Sea Blue for this and lightened it with Rakarth Flesh for the mid-tones and highlights. These two colours are an interesting combination that I will further explore elsewhere on the model. In the case of the Felarch there was very little of the under suit showing so I quickly moved on to painting the armour.

Painting the gold armour

Inspired by John Blanche’s artwork I decided to paint the Felarch’s armour a NMM gold. In fact, it would be more accurate to describe my approach as painting a NMM yellow! Many of John’s drawings featured a strong yellow wash to represent gold and I wanted to bring something of this to my models. However, this is more about taking inspiration and seeing where it leads me than it’s about trying to copy.

Working from a dark blue/green base up to a yellow mid-tone inevitably results in murky green hues. I decided to play into this because I have a preference for cool greenish gold hues. To create this transition I used US Olive Drab from Vallejo Model Colour. I could have simply mixed the base colour with my yellow for a similar effect; but the Olive Drab gave me a little more variety in the shadows, especially when going back over earlier work with glazes.

To transition into the yellow mid-tones I introduced Sahara Yellow. This is a deep yellow with a slight greenish hue that worked well with the Olive Drab. I worked the mid-tones up to pure Sahara Yellow and then began to create the highlights. To do this I used Tenere Yellow from Scalecolour although Vallejo’s Ice Yellow would work equally well. For the final extreme spot highlights I used pure white. 

Part of the trick in painting NMM is to create contrasts by placing deep shadows next to extreme highlights. This is something I have to push myself to do, as my default setting is to create smooth transitions. Ultra sharp edge highlights also help to sell the illusion of a hard polished metal surface and the pure white spot highlights are an important part of the effect.

So far I’d worked in a systematic step-by-step process going from dark to light, however in an unsatisfying monochromatic effect. The transitions need to be further refined and the colour palette needs to be expanded to help create the illusion of a reflective surface. All subsequent work on the armour will be a matter of going back and forth between the shadows, mid-tones and highlights constantly tweaking and refining until I’m satisfied with the result. The techniques used are mostly layering and glazing but there is also some ultra fine stippling used to blend the transitions.

Introducing colour nuances to the armour

To counter the monochromatic look I introduce colour nuances. These help to create the illusion that the armour is reflecting colours from both the immediate vicinity and wider environment. For the environmental reflections I usually pick a warm and a cool colour. In simple terms these represent colours reflected from the ground and the sky. 

For my warm nuances I used Citadel Layer Wild Rider Red while Citadel Base Thousand Son Blue provided the cool nuances. Both of these colours are very saturated and need to be mixed with the mid-tone colours. This will desaturate them and help to incorporate them into the overall colour palette. The mix ratios vary depending on their placement. Knocking the colours back like this helps to make them look like reflections on the metal surface, as opposed to being splashes of colour. 

The colour reflections from the model’s immediate vicinity are taken from elements of the Felarch’s costume. These are Citadel Layer Xereus Purple reflected from the lining of his cloak and a mix of Vallejo Model Color Dark Sea Blue and Citadel Base Rakarth Flesh reflected from the sashes. As with the environmental reflections its important to mix these colours with the mid-tones used on the armour. Placement of these reflections will depend upon the model but where an area is close to the armour it is likely that it’s colour will be reflected there. 

Finalising the paint scheme on the armour took quite a bit of time and effort. As is often the case when using a new colour palette there was a lot of trial and error to get through, and the process was not straightforward. However, all the hard work has paid off resulting in a scheme that I’m very satisfied with. There is every indication that painting gold armour on other models in the unit will now be a more straightforward process. 

 

 

Aeldari Voidscarred Corsairs. Part 1.

Picking a new project.

I decided on my current mini painting project quite some time ago. The release of the ‘new’ Aeldari models had me hooked from the moment I saw them; and lets be honest, when it comes to Warhammer, if I’m not painting Nurgle it will probably be Elves of some kind! So, it was an easy choice when I got myself a box of Voidscarred Corsairs back in July 2022.

Over the years I’ve painted many types of Eldar or Aeldari, as they are now known. Back in the ‘90’s I painted Guardians, Aspect Warriors, a Harlequin and an Incubi. In more recent times I’ve turned my hand to a Farseer, Drukhari Scourges and a Haemonculus. But I’ve never painted any Corsairs and, now that I think about it, that feels like a big omission! 

 

Corsairs have been around for a very long time but it wasn’t until the release of the Voidscarred Corsairs that I felt inspired to paint any. The models in this Kill Team have a tremendous amount of variation and feel like a group of distinct individuals. That’s exactly what I need if I am to have any chance of painting a unit. Only time will tell how many models from the box I paint but I’m confident that I will paint more than one!

Corsairs can come from any of the Aeldari or Drukhari factions and this is reflected in the design of the miniatures. That’s something I particularly like about these models and, together with the background information, it began to give me some ideas for a paint scheme. Back when I was first painting ‘Eldar’, I had a very black and white view of them as good Eldar and bad Dark Eldar. I don’t think that was ever really the case and, over time, I’ve developed a more nuanced view of them with human notions of good and bad not really being applicable to the ‘alien’ Aeldari. Some of the newer models also seem to reflect a blurring of the boundaries between the different factions. This blend of design elements has created a striking aesthetic for the Corsairs.

Finding inspiration

The independent and adventurous nature of Corsairs suggested that I shouldn’t be too bound to the idea of creating a uniform paint scheme. Rather the unit should have a shared palette and iconography that allows for a lot of individuality. That, together with the individuality of the sculpts, should provide plenty of creative opportunities.

Amidst the background information for the Aeldari Corsairs, certain words began to jump out at me: wild, unrestrained, garishness and ostentation, for example. These characteristics fired up my imagination and I decided to go ‘Full Pirate’ in my treatment of them. After a moment of reflection, I decided that peg-legs, hook-hands, eye patches and parrots might be too ‘on the nose’, but only by a little. The models would require some modification to achieve my full vision.

Thinking time is just as important as painting time. I especially enjoy the early stages of a project where anything I can think of is a possibility. As my ideas for an overall approach to the Corsair model developed, I began to consider a colour palette. I decided upon was a dark and sinister blue/green contrasted with saturated red/oranges and purples. That’s a colour scheme very much to my taste with strong light/dark and warm/cool contrasts. 

 

However, I began to go off this idea. It felt a little obvious and very similar to other schemes I’d done, most especially to my Farseer. I was making the mistake of sticking to my comfort zone and, as a result, the scheme I planned didn’t really excite me.

It was at this point that ‘taking my time’ really began to pay off. Once I’d rejected my initial plans, I indulged in a little leisurely research by reading up on Aldari Corsairs and searching through images of both artwork and painted models.

There was plenty to be inspired by. But when I came across some old John Blanche illustrations of Eldar and Eldar Corsairs, they fully grabbed my attention. I knew these images from years back but I’d forgotten them. John Blanche’s artwork is in the very DNA of Warhammer and its influence can’t be overestimated! I first found John’s work in the pages of the 1979 Tolkien Bestiary, long before I was aware of Citadel miniatures or Games Workshop. However, John’s artwork is not something I’ve been consciously inspired by in my own mini painting … until now that is.

Seeing John’s Eldar illustrations afresh gave me quite a jolt because here were some of the very qualities I wanted to put into my models. John’s Eldar had a baroque, barbaric look that triggered my interest and imagination. Not for a moment am I pretending that I will take a ‘Blanchitsu’ approach to my painting but rather John’s illustrations have provided inspiration and a starting point for my ideas.

The style of the illustrations reinforced my resolve to modify the models but it was in the choice of a colour palette that they provided the greatest inspiration. I began to experiment with a warm palette featuring red, dark brown, black, white and greenish yellows. This is a very different sort of palette for me and I spent some time playing with these colours in my notebook. I wasn’t 100% there but my ideas were coming together! 

Building a ‘better’ pirate.

The model that most troubled me was the Felarch. When I first looked at the Corsairs I wasn’t at all sure what to do with this model. There is nothing wrong with the Felarch that comes in the box, but it lacked the over-the-top ostentation I wanted for my Corsairs.

I didn’t have to look too far for replacement parts. The Visarch, Champion of Ynnead is a model I had in my collection and I’d noted that his armour is a good match with the new Corsairs. It’s styling is more baroque and that’s exactly what I needed! I began to see how I could use him as a donor for multiple parts.

I said earlier that I’d rejected full-on pirate trappings like parrots and peg legs, but those thoughts wouldn’t go away. I combed through Games Workshop’s range for a parrot equivalent. There were several possibilities but the one that really caught my interest was the Wyvach familiar that comes with Kyria Draxus.

Kyria Draxus is a beautiful model in her own right but I thought the Wyvach would be a perfect pet for my Felarch. The Kyria model has this creature perched on her outstretched arm, which is wearing a power fist. I can remember when the Eldar models first came out and many of those early models had power fists. The power fist on Kyria is comparatively lighter, more delicate, than those worn by Space Marines. As such I didn’t think it would look too out of proportion on an Aeldari model. So I decided to use the entire arm - power fist, Wyvach and all. I also removed the skull pauldron from Kyria’s other arm to use on my Felarch. These additions certainly bring the desired garishness and ostentation but they also add a barbaric touch that works well for my Blanche-inspired vision of the Corsairs.

Putting all these parts together into one cohesive model was fiddly work, so I proceeded with due care. I started by assembling the Felarch’s Torso and cloak from the Corsairs set. To this I attached the legs from the Visarch. I had to do a little carving to enable them to fit at the angle I wanted and then pinned the parts together for strength. This left a fairly large gap that had to be filled and sculpted over with greenstuff. I decided to leave the power fist and Wyvach unattached to make painting easier. But these parts are a crucial element of the overall pose so I prepared them as a sub-assembly that could be attached on a temporary basis. The left arm also came from the Visarch and could be attached with minimal trimming.

I’d decided to use the Visarch’s helmet, which is very similar to the helmet option for the Felarch, but more elaborate. I removed the spike from its crest and replaced that with the plume from the Felarch’s helmet. Rather than simply putting the Visarch’s helmet onto the Felarch’s torso, I also used a portion of the Visarch’s neck and collar, which brought another ostentatious element to this character.

The final piece to add was the skull pauldron. This comes in two halves so I had to assemble the Kyria Draxus torso first and then cut the skull from it. To my surprise this came away cleanly and only needed minimal trimming to make it fit the Felarch’s torso. 

 

I took my time customizing the new Felarch. Details like the relative angles of the head and limbs make a massive impact on the overall pose of the model and I wanted to get this right. I can remember all too well how many times I had to tweak my Tomb King before I was happy with his pose!

Originally I hadn’t intended more than a head and arm swap but I’m delighted with how my new Felarch came together. I now felt that I had a striking and unique model that would be enjoyable to paint!