Thursday 29 October 2015

Month two results of the oldhammer 'A Tale of Four Gamers' project.

Interesting project this week, and by interesting I mean in the Chinese sense. A black-robed rider on a black horse. In the past I would have cheated and painted the robes green (I paint everything green) or possibly highlighted them with navy blue or a faded grey. I wanted to stick with black though, so I could double up the uses of the miniature (for those perennial Lord of the Rings scenarios), and I also had the fatal thought 'let's try something new'. Hmmph.


I actually spent a lot of time on this miniature, believe it or not. Once I'd had the foolish thought that having a whole month to paint only one model would mean a great opportunity to experiment I was lost. To begin with, I sprayed it black, painted it brown, highlighted through light brown to cream then built up a series of dark ink layers. I had toyed with the idea of drybrushing some white over the cream but decided against it on a hunch.

Eventually I was left with something that looked ok but wasn't matching photos of black horses or other images online. I also had to come up with a way to matt down the shiny finish of the inks.

This stage was a windy maze of research, instinct and pure chance.

The glossy finish of the inks was in the recesses so shading removed that. I took the horseflesh off toward brown and the horse hair back to black, as per the photos I found. I note with chagrin that you can't really tell from looking at the photo of the mini. I sent the robe very gently toward grey to stop it from looking like an extension of the horse. I highlighted the tack quite a bit thinking that I needed something on the mini to pop; but it really didn't look at all right so at the last minute I painted over it and simplified it.

What I have invented, is a technique that completely disguises hours of work and looks like a subtle, five minute drybrush. I call it, 'Warlording' and I give it to the world as my legacy.

This model will be my level 15 necromancer and general, Naugrim Griefblight. I like an occasional pun but much prefer Dickensian levels of portent in a villain's name. With the addition of an undead steed and magic tattoos he comes to 168 points. After some discussion we decided we could go over the 100 point target occasionally to allow for some discretion but we would stick to the 1000 point total.

I'm now in the market for an identical model by the way, I'm going to paint it green and exorcise a lingering resentment.

Thanks for stopping by!


13 comments:

  1. I guess we all have our own way of turning a splendid blending into a dull colour or other kinds of awkward techniques. Great to have Warlording in my set oftools, I'll put it next to Asslessing (aka the secret art of turning a babyskin smooth blending into a rotten cadaver like texture with nothing but a glaze/wash).
    To be faire the model looks more than fine ;)

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    1. Thanks mate, I actually quite like the way it looks, especially in the flesh as opposed to a mobile phone snap. I guess in my imagination having the month to paint it meant it would be amazing though, haha.

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  2. He does look suitably creepy, lurking even?

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    1. Thanks Fran, but there's only one real Lurker!

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  3. An amusing post and a disturbing looking figure. For me the undead look best when they are painted very earth colours: browns, oranges, reds, blacks and of course bone. Warlording be damned - at least you have another figure painted for the tabletop!

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    1. Thanks very much James, and congratulations on your excellent palanquin it's my favourite unit of the project so far.

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  4. Feeling your pain dude, I have a similar technique I call 'Leadballooning'. Good to laugh about it though, and the mini looks great to me! Also, aren't painful lessons meant to be the best lessons?

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    1. Yeah, sense of humour keeps me sane..ish. I have learnt not to experiment when obliged to produce work for a viewing deadline, haha.

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  5. Nice model, very cool pose, where is he from? I'd like to add him to my collection!

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    1. Thanks very much. He is cool isn't he? He is one of the old Fiend Factory Wraith Riders on Undead Horse which was remodeled by Citadel into the C21/2 series of fantasy cavalry. There are a few variants I've seen, this one is a single piece sculpt but there are two-piece versions and similar models based on the same dolly out there. All worth a look!

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  6. Very nice miniature, I´m a fan of grim looking cloaked characters :) Cheers!

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  7. Very nice miniature, I´m a fan of grim looking cloaked characters :) Cheers!

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    1. Thank you. Me too, maybe Tolkien is to blame!

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