Painted Menites!

Especially for Mark…

As promised in the last thrilling blog post some Menite stuff has been painted and now photographed.  Below are some of the fruits of my labours over the past couple of weeks as well as a bit of painting info:

Templar

The Templar for the Feora2 list was once a Crusader, from the Starter Set, I painted it up whole (without magnetising).  I used a razorsaw to remove the Crusader’s mace and added magnets to these parts allowing for the Crusader to be re-assembled when the need arose.  I also added another tiny magnet into the open fist allowing for the Templar’s shield to be added.  I tried to pop off the Crusader’s head so that I could magnetise and swap this, but unfortunately it was glued too well.  Below are a couple of shots of the completed Templar:

Templar, ready to beat face!

Feora2

Following on from the Templar I painted the good lady herself; Feora2.  I originally assembled the whole model for gaming purposes, but when it came to painting I cracked the glue joins and removed her from the epic base.  Given that her epic base is basically a big bonfire I needed to be able to get a brush to all of it, additionally it would allow me to paint from underneath the model easily and do a thorough job on her cloak and chainmail.

Feora2 front view

 Painting Gold

Feora2 side view

Feora2 rear view

Feora2 front vie

I followed the standard Menoth colour scheme for her cloak and armour etc, but I’ll elaborate on the gold a little more: the model firstly took a heavy drybrush of P3 Rhulic Gold with a second coat to strengthen the colour.  The next step was to do a further drybrush of P3 Solid Gold, this was applied less heavily than the first in order to add highlight, rather than obliterate the effect.  Drybrushing is often seen as a less advanced technique and somewhat negative, but I find that it takes some skill and a lot of practice to get the consistencies and technique right for the desired effect.  The gold at this stage looks strong and there should be definition from black undercoat in the deepest crevasses to Solid Gold on the highest points.  I usually allow the paint to cure for a short while between coats as drybrushing can be quite abrasive, a good idea is to do several models at once.  After the drybrushing is complete and the paint hardened a little I add my own gold wash, it is basically Citadel Chestnut Ink and P3 Mixing Medium and clean water.  The chestnut colour adds warmth and richness to gold whilst not matting the sheen, however inks tend to pool and streak so medium is essential to get a proper wash.  I add clean water to simply dilute the strength of the ink.  I’ve found that the mixture needs to be strong enough to be seen, but not so strong it removes the dark to light gradient generated by the drybrushing, this is inevitable to a certain extent, hence the next step is to re-drybrush Solid Gold, but only lightly.  A good tip is to ensure the wash is 100% dry and had some time to cure before drybrushing as this mistake will ruin everything…

In summary the two P3 golds are really good, they provide a strong coverage and a rich colour, but the wash is what makes the effect really work; hopefully you can see it in the photos.

Feora2 base (no flash)

Painting Fire

Feora2 base (flash)

As you can see above in the photos of Feora2 she is standing on a bonfire, this was a pain in the arse to do and hopefully it looks like fire, I started from a black undercoat, as I’d sprayed the whole model months ago, possibly not ideal I thought, but I don’t have any more white, so I tried a top spray of grey primer and did a couple of heavy drybrushes of pure white.  I then tinted the whole thing with Citadel Wash Baal Red.  This gave me the deep red in the nooks and crannies up to a lighter red where the Citadel Skull White had chance to make a strong coverage.  Next I layer painted Citadel M. Solar Orange onto the flames higher points, using the lighter red washed areas as a reference.  I attempted to layer paint P3 Cygnar Yellow onto the previous orange, but found it did not lay well, therefore I painted Citadel Skull White instead.  Then, over the top of the white I applied the Cygnar Yellow, the white giving me a good foundation to make the Yellow work.  Finally I layered Skull White onto the top most flaming highlights.  The result was a layered flame effect from dark red through orange and yellow, up to white.  Similarly to the gold I made a wash to pull the shades closer together- the mid shade being orange, so I mixed Cygnar Yellow with P3 Khador Red Highlight and lots of medium and some clean water.  The resultant wash was applied in several layers and had the effect of lightening the reds and darkening the yellows and tinting the white to the desired effect.  Washing will bring colours closer together and I managed to remove the stark changes in red/orange/yellow/white whilst preserving the illusion of depth

Next some Zealots and Menofixer action!  But until then feast your eyes on this bad mutha:

Judicator, photo obtained from the PP Menoth forum