Well, here we are at the final episode in painting the Typhon Warrior. While we are going to cover a fair bit in this episode, there are only a few areas that will use any new techniques. Once I get to the "outside" areas of a model, I start to work on the larger areas first. Working on the larger areas makes the model look more finished and provides visual encouragement to finish off all the little fiddle bits that can sometimes seem to take forever to complete.
The biggest remaining areas on the Typhon warrior are the cloth. I have used two colours of cloth, white and red. The white cloth is painted the same colour as the bones on the skeleton warriors, to help tie this unit in with the rest of the army. I used a white base coat on these cloth areas and then used a heavy brown wash over that. I mixed some Derivan MiNiS Surface Tension Breaker in with the Brown Ink to make the wash sit in the creases, whilst giving the flat areas a light stain. From here I highlighted up with Desert Stone and used a 1:1 mix of Desert Stone and White as the final highlight. I didn't take the cloth right up to white, like I did on the bones, as I was after more of a linen look to the cloth. The red cloth areas followed a similar set of steps. I used GW’s Mechrite Red as the base colour, followed a GW’s black wash. I relighted the red areas with Mechrite Red and gave it a final highlight of 1:1 Mechrite Red and Derivan MiNiS Khaki.
The next stage I moved onto is the hair. To make the Typhon Warrior look a bit more daemonic, I have given them the red hair in the same colours as the red cloth. I used Mechrite Red as the basecoat while leaving the black undercoat showing in the creases. I tend to paint each strand of hair separately, but, this does take a while and if you are doing it on 20 odd warriors can drive you insane! A lot of people use what is called "over brushing" or “wet brushing”. This is similar to dry brushing, but you have more paint on your brush. Over brushing also doesn't leave as powdery a finish as dry brushing sometimes can. While it’s not as neat, it sure is quick. A lot of the messiness is covered up by the wash anyway..... So, once the basecoat is done a black wash is applied, followed by highlights of Mechrite Red and 1:1 Mechrite Read and Khaki. I concentrate the highlights more towards the end of the hair stands and the top of the head.
Ok, with the cloth and hair done the Typhon Warrior is basically complete. All that remains are the little bits and pieces of detail to finish the model off. For these small areas, I tend to leave the difference between the highlight stages quite high to catch the eye. I also never do more than 3 stages on small areas. All your hard work will mostly go unnoticed on the table top. The teeth and claws were base coated with Derivan MiNiS Gunstock Brown, highlighted with GW’s Desert Yellow and then finished off with Derivan MiNiS Desert Stone. For larger teeth and claws I try to follow the line of the tooth / claw, allowing some of the lower coat to show through.
Straps, etc are done black with a GW’s Codex Grey highlight. A black wash was then used to darken this up.
Eyes were first base coated with white. This makes the eyes quite bright and they really stand out on the model. Mechrite Red was used as the first coat. GW’s Blood Red was then applied towards the front of the eye, in the direction the model is looking. Finally a GW’s Fiery Orange highlight is applied right in the front corner of the eye.
The Typhon Warrior painting is now complete. What I'll do at this stage and look over the model and do any touch-ups that are required. I will then redo the edges of the base, as the paint has more than likely worn off because of handling. Once the model is completely dry (if you are in a rush, you can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying process, but, the best way is to leave the model sit over night), I then apply a Matt Spray varnish. There are heaps of spray varnishes available on the market. I use Krylon Spray varnish as I find its finish is great and the price reasonable. Some people prefer a Gloss varnish as they believe it protects the model better. A varnish, while getting rid of the glossiness that washes can bring to a model, also helps protect the model from handling during normal use. After the varnish has dried I then apply any additional basing material I may be using. My reason for this is that I don't like the little drops of varnish that form on the end of static grass after spraying; it’s as simple as that.
At the end of the video I have included some stills of other units in my Tomb Kings army to show how the techniques that have been talked about in this series, when applied across a whole army can produce a very pleasing effect. One thing I find that makes one army stand out more than another, apart from the colour scheme, is the attention to detail on units and / or individual models. For example, I have matched the design on the unit standard in the Tomb Guard unit to that of the shields in the unit. The same has been done for the Skeleton Warrior unit. While not necessary, I feel it makes the unit look more cohesive. I have also carried the scorpion theme throughout the army. The Tomb Guard unit has a stylised scorpion on the unit banner and the Skeleton unit has the same symbol free handed on their banner. The Liche Priest also has a scorpion topped staff and the shields and weapons of the army match the colours of the Tomb Scorpions. It is this sort of attention to detail that will make your army stand out from the rest.
I hope that you have got something out of this series. If you have any questions, are after some advice or would like to see a certain topic covered on "A dog's Life" you can contact us via email at sales@warpuppy.com, or come say hello at any event we attend. We are more than happy to chat about painting, gaming, or anything really.
Cheers,
Adam
This article was published on Friday 03 April, 2009.
