With my King on Chariot fully constructed it was time to start painting. I knew that the constructs and the king himself are what I was looking forward to painting the most. That meant starting with something I was less enthused about so that I want to keep going to get to the good stuff. The logical thing to start with was the base, that way I would have something to attach all the other parts to as I finished them. It was also the "easiest" so gave me a good way to flex my painting muscles and kind of warm up for the more complicated stuff.
I had primed it with a bone color primer to speed up painting all of the sand. The first thing I did was give all the sand a wash of Tau Sept Ochre. I then drybrushed it with Screaming Skull and then played around with varying levels of further washes and drybrushes to give it a more natural and random look. I also used a very thin wash/glaze of Ushabti Bone in places to bring the varying colors closer together.
Next up was the rock itself which I painted with a base coat of Cathan Brown. After doing an all over wash of Agrax Earthshade I started highlighting it in chunks. I painted it in three sections the right side, the front, and finally the left side. I did this to cut down my work time each day and allow me to focus more on the quality of a smaller section. I find that I lose quality if I work on too large of an area all at the same time. This is mainly due to losing interest as I work on the same highlight layer for an entire painting sessions instead of getting to see at least one part of it come all the way to completion. I mostly highlighted it be using Cathan Brown and mixing in Screaming Skull. I also used plenty of glazes and went back and forth with highlights and adjusting shaded areas as I needed. If you want to know what being a competition painter is like, it means spending several days worth of painting sessions on just a simple rock. Everything has to be painted to the same level of quality. The skulls were done rather quickly using the same method I have used for the rest of my Tomb Kings, but with a little more time spent on them.
The last two things I needed to do on the base was the shield buried in the sand and the scarabs. The shield was done in the same manner as the gold and gems that I use later on the constructs. The scarabs were pretty fun. I again painted them in chunks. I did all of the wings at the same time, using white, Ulthuan Grey and Shadow Grey. The carapaces were broken down into tow or three parts and were painted with a mix between how I did the stone and gems on the constructs.
With the base done it was time to move onto the constructs. These were primed black due to the color of the stone. I started with the one I was less interested in, again to give myself something to work towards.
All of the stone was painted using the same technique I outline in this tutorial. I just had to be a little more subtle with it since there are less hard angles on this guy. That mostly meant using more layers of the highlights as I built them up and pulling a few of them back with glazes of black.
The gold was basecoated with Balthasar Gold and then layered with Gehenna's Gold. I used Balthasar and Reikland Fleshshade to add some shadows and depth to it and highlighted it by mixing in Runefang Steel.
The gems were painted in a more stark way that I painted the stone. Basically I was less subtle between the highlights and left more pure black showing to emphasize that the highlights were due to light striking the reflective surface. I also made sure to leave the turquoise more saturated so it stands out from the stone. The last thing I did was add reflective white dots in spots where it made sense.
The turquoise decorations were painted in the same manner as the rest of my army. I did make sure to add a final highlight on the points of each triangle, I found it better helped emphasize the shape. The claws, teeth, and beard were painted to look like a white marble. I base coated them with Rakarth Flesh followed by a thin layer of pure white. I used Reikland Fleshshade to shade it and give it a creamy look. The blending was created by just mixing the white and Fleshshade together in varying degrees. I also painted the marble veins on in this way.
The glowing eye was painted using mixes of Dark Angels Green, Snot Green, Scorpion Green, and white. I know they are all old colors, I don't use them often. It would work just as well with the new equivalents. I plan on putting together a tutorial on the effect when I get to that point on the second construct.
I stuck him on the base to make sure all of the colors worked well together. I am really happy with it. Now comes the hard task of making the second one match the first.
The stone is already done on the second guy and I have started on the gold. Since I took this picture I decided to go back with some green stuff and fix a few imperfections that the paint revealed. This means I need to touch up the stone in a few spots and repaint the gold on the hood, but in the end I think it will make a stronger piece.
Time is running out and I'm starting to feel the pressure. I hope to have the second guy done before the end of the work week and start on the chariot itself this weekend. I think the king will take a good chunk of time to do and the freehand for his banner as well. I also still need to figure out what I am going to do for a display plinth. There aren't many nice ones out there for a chariot base.
Also don't forget that today is the deadline for the first ever Mengel Miniatures Painting competition, so be sure to get your entries into me before tomorrow. Due to differing time zones I am just going to check tomorrow morning for all of the final entries.
Until next time,
Tyler M.
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