Wulfrik

I decided to paint Wulfrik for another person's Warriors of Chaos Army. Wulfrik is a great model, however, because of the chaos theme, most of the colors on the miniature will be on the darker side.






Above are several pictures of Wulfrik after it has been sprayed with black primer. A quick word on building miniatures. It is always a good idea to examine a miniature and remove any excess pieces of unwanted metal from the miniature. This excess metal comes from the casting process and should not be on the model. Take a close look at the picture above. The skeleton on top of Wulfrik has excess metal around it's fingers. These were not removed before being sprayed so I had to remove these bits of metal and in the process chipped the primer away. Therefore, I had to re-spray the primer back onto the model in certain areas. It is always better to simply remove these excess pieces of metal before doing anything. Also, make sure you wash your metal models before applying any primer. During the casting process a residue will be left onto the model to help remove it from the cast easily. This residue, if not properlly washed off, will make it more difficult for the primer to stick to the model. As a result, the paint will chip off even easier than usual.



I started this miniature by applying Chainmail Silver onto several areas of the miniature. After applying the silver I simply washed the silver in black wash. This gives the areas a worn look, which is ideal for a miniature which has supposedly fought countless battles.

I went out of order with this model, and painted the skulls, which are positioned all over the miniature. The reason I did this was to help me visualize the areas that needed to be painted and the areas that needed to be left dark. A good rule to follow is to paint from the deepest areas of the miniature outward. For example, take a look at the chainmail on Wulfrik and the skulls surrounding it. In this situation you should paint the chainmail before painting the skulls. Consequently, you should paint the skulls before painting the rope that are attached to the skulls.



For the area painted green, I used Knarloc Green (which is green foundation paint). I also painted the small cape hanging off Wulfrik's left side in Mechrite Red (which is a red foundation paint). The green area was washed in a green wash while the red area was washed in a brown wash. This gave both areas a deep base color to build off of. I finished each area off by applying two shades of the color that were higher than the original. For the red, I applied Blood Red and then a mixture of Blood Red and White. For the green, I applied Goblin Green to the raised scales and then highlighted that with Scorpion Green.





The model is getting closer to completion, but still alot of work needs to be done. The skulls and bones have been washed in brown wash and then highlighted with a mix of bleached bone (which is an off white color) and white. The rope attaching all the bone pieces together had been painted with scorched brown and highlighted with snakebite leather (which is a leather color)
In these pictures you can see Wulfrik's armor has been trimmed in a bronze. I first applied scorched brown to all the areas that were going to be bronze, followed by a 50/50 mix of bronze and scorched brown. Then, I applied pure bronze to the armor and washed it with Ogryn Flesh wash (which is a wash in the Citadel line of paints that is basically a dark skin toned color) This gives the bronze a great look. finally I applied 80/20 mix of bronze and Mithril silver and lightly applied that to same areas. The silver color really makes the metal shine.
Wulfrik's skin was more of an experiment then anything and may be difficult to mimic. I started using black and Rotten Flesh (which is a gray/yellow/peach color - hard to explain) This provide a dark gray/yellow base for his skin. The area was then highlighted by adding more Rotten Flesh to the original mixture. I applied this to the highlighted areas of the skin. Finally, I added just a bit of Rotten Flesh to the raised areas of Wulfrik's skin. The result is a skin tone that does not look healthy but looks great for this Chaos Champion.
The skin on Wulfrik's Armor, however, was painted differently. I didn't want the skin to look the same as Wulfrik's skin. Instead, I wanted the skin to have a leather - lifeless look. I started by painting the skin Scorched Brown and then went over that with Broze Flesh (which is basically a dark version of peach) Once dry, I applied the flesh wash over the entire area. Next, I applied a watered down Elf Flesh (which is a very light version of peach) Then, I mixed Elf Flesh with Rotten Flesh and applied that. The result is a lifeless looking skin tone that was perfect for this miniature.

Below are pictures of the final painted model. Took about 4 hours total to paint this miniature. I think the model turned out great, unfortunately, these pictures do not capture it. But check them out anyway!

Box of Plastic

I am starting a Tyranid Army and decided to buy the Tyranid Battle force box set. 46 miniatures are available in the set and will make up the core of my Tyranid army. Here are some pictures of the box of plastic all miniature armies starts as. There is a great amount of work ahead of me.

Lord of Change

This is my Lord of Change miniature for my WHFB "Demons of Chaos" Army. It will also fill in as a Greater Demon for my Chaos Space Marines Army.

Building this miniature was interesting. The finished model only stood on one leg, which is a nightmare considering the substantial weight of the model and uneven center of gravity. Pinning the model to the base and using "greenstuff" modeling clay to secure the model to the base worked wonderfully. Most of the miniature's pieces, when bound together, left small gaps. I filled most of the gaps with "greenstuff." After several hours of work, the model was complete, standing on its own, and ready for primer and paint. The pictures below show the miniature after it had been built.



The wings were separated by a large gap. I had to fill the gap using "green stuff." This was actually the first model I used "greens stuff" on and it turned out great.




As you can see the miniature's foot is basically standing in the green modeling clay. The clay dried quickly and the result is a solid bond between the miniature and the base. I sanded down excess "greenstuff" after it dried.

Unfortunately, I did not take pictures during the painting process (I will in the future). Below are pictures of the final model - fully painted. It took about 7 hours (perhaps a bit more) to paint this entire model. The model was based in black primer.



The wings turned out great. I used a variety of colors to make them look the way they do. The original coat of blue was using Ultramarines Blue. This was washed with blue wash. One section of the wings (as you can see) was washed with a purple wash instead. After the wash dried I highlighted the wings with Ultramarines Blue mixed with white. With each additional coat I added slightly more white.



The skin of the Lord of Change was painted with Liche Purple (which is a very deep purple paint) mixed with Hormagaunt Purple (which is a much lighter purple foundation paint). The skin was then washed with purple wash. Once the skin was dry it was highlighted with the same mixture as before with a slight addition of Ultramarines blue and white. For subsequent highlights I added more and more white. The skin therefore has a dark purple base and a light purple highlight.



The worst part to paint for models like this are their clothing, especially when I want their clothing to be white! Obviously, when the base coat of a model is BLACK it is difficult to reach white (considering they are on opposite ends of the color spectrum.) So working from black I have to use about 5-6 shades of gray until I can apply pure white! The result is satisfying and turned out great.



The staff's colors was fairly simple to achieve. I used Dark Angels Green (which is a very dark green) as the base color. Subsequent highlights simply used a mixture of Dark Angels Green and Goblin Green (50/50 - 30/70) and then finally a highlight of Scorpian Green (which is an extremely bright green) The eyes on the staff were created using dark reds leading up to a orange-yellow. The base coat I used for the eyes was Mechrite Red. I applied black wash which gave the eye depth. I then applied a of blood red to the eye. Subsequent highlights involved mixing orange into the red paint and finally mixing sunburst yellow into that. The last step was to apply an orange ink to the eyes. This made the eyes glisten.

The gold on the model is another simple process - although lengthy. I start by painting all the areas in Scorched Brown (which is a very dark brown). I then mix the Scorched Brown with Gold paint and apply that. Next I apply pure gold to the model. Then, I make a 80/20 mix of gold and Mithril Silver (which is an extremely bright silver color) and lightly apply this to the areas that have been painted gold. The result is a gold that looks both worn and shiny at the same time. A great look.