Kingdom Death: Manhunter

This is going to be my entry for the KD painting comp at WAMP. For a $25 voucher just for entering, its got to be worth it. And I still have time to enter the Gorm I will start painting soon...  O'O

The Kickstarter has come at a bad time for me. The best I can do for now is a $10 pledge. If KD is new to you, go check it out, the figure sculpts are outstanding.

I've been paying attention to taking progress photos on this project. This will give you a solid insight into my particular painting technique. I've not used any metallics on this, so in a way this is my first try at NMM painting.

So, model has been cleaned, assembled and undercoated with Vallejo primer though an airbrush. I only started doing it this way in the last couple of months - I would always prime by brush, because I am vehemently against waste in any form, particularly if its from a spray can. Priming by hand has its merits too - I find myself examining every detail of the figure, and going through a sort of painting preview. I miss Citadel's old Smelly Primer, it dried to a good even finish even via a brush, had a great tooth to it and was durable. Vallejo does not paint as well, not particulary durable and has a plastic looking finish when dry, but looks terrific applied through an airbrush and has a decent tooth.

Onward. First application of paint is a wash of burnt umber (Daler-Rowney Cryla) on the coat and anything that was going to have a browny or muted naturalistic colour. This is how I have been painting some figures recently, an approach I think I first started on my Khymerae.

And I carry on applying burnt umber  to the coat, wash after wash, allowing the coat to self shade the paint. I would add other colours to create help generate variation, like burnt sienna and  crimson near the end. With sufficient washes, you don't end up with a wishy-washy look as in the early stages. The white primer shows through the translucent paint. Result - highlights that didn't need painting.

Flesh tones added. Sort of flesh. Inhuman flesh. Built up with thin coats of Liquitex Deep Portrait Pink, Twilight and Bergundy, later using Pale Portrait Pink for lightening the mix. I applied a basic milky wash, and before letting it dry would mix a different colour balance on my palette, typically more blue, and blend that in. Let it dry. Repeated with same colours. And again, this time adding lighter colour while wet. The gallows was painted more conventionally. I wanted a silver-grey like old oak, but it was never quite right and I went with grey-brown in the end.

And some more views of the 98.5% finished article. I wasn't sure how to approach the beads on his wrist. What are they made from? I like to use any reference material, descriptions, etc., to help shape a colour scheme. One idea was to have them bright colour, as if taken from Saviour, but the art print shows them sort of sparkling with light. Light, though, is in short supply in the darkness of Kingdom Death. Gemstones? Will be coming back to this tomorrow with a fresh eye.

Showing the full development of all those washes on the coat. The sword is something needing adjustment though...

Sometime this week I'll take photos with my main camera and with as good a lighting setup as I can manage. I still need to tweak minor details as well, like the sword.

~J~