Hi folks,
My main project at the moment is a large unit of Sisters of the Thorn for my daughter Penny. It is a bit embarrassing how long it has taken me to paint these; we bought them together such a long time ago now. She often joins me on little missions to my local Warhammer store to pick up paints and such and enjoys snooping around while I chat to the store owner. It was not much of surprise when she said that there was something that she would really like to get, though we did have a long discussion about the hobby and the difficulty of the kit she had chosen. After two weeks she was still adamant that she wanted to spend the last of her Birthday money on it, so I paid the difference and started work, with her often hovering at my shoulder. Our puppy (now 2 years old!) chewed one of them profoundly, so I ended up buying another box to replace the damaged parts (not a big deal, the miniatures are fantastic). I finished three as
Wild Riders back in January, but since then it has been a real slog through bright whites and excruciatingly small detail. I am up to the stage of painting their standard, so thought I would show the process on the blog. This is another case of how bad things can look before they look good (in my opinion anyway!).
1) Priming
I primed the banner grey, by hand, as on the day I couldn't be bothered going down to the garage to find a rattle-can that may not give the best finish (it was a stinker humidity-wise that day). Coverage was fine and I know from experience that grey is quite useful for bright colours.
2) Measuring
The next step was to figure out where I wanted to put the motif and paint the central shape as a guide for all of the other parts. I used thinned Kabalite Green for this, so that is would flow well off the brush and not cause significant issues if I have to paint over it ( I will have to do this to refine the shape and add detail later).
3) Tendrils
I have had a lot of practise with this kind of shape with my Iron Snakes. Again, I used thinned down paint to give maximum flow, not worrying about coverage at this stage (though thick enough to provide continues lines; not a wash). A tip for newer painters perhaps; you can't paint rounded shapes well unless you move your paintbrush in circular motions. Let the movement flow and worry about tidying it up later.
4) Background
I blocked in the background with a first coat of 3:1 white/kabalite green. It is patchy at this stage but won't stay like that. I let this coat dry completely to prevent tearing it with further brushtrokes.
5) Coverage
I added several more coats to each colour to improve the coverage and tidy up the shapes. I also mixed some more Kabalite green into the background mix and wet-blended it towards the centre to provide some depth. The top also received an extra glaze of white to achieve the same depth from the other end.
6) Cut-away Details
I used shorter strokes from the inside of the "face/seed" outwards with slightly thicker paint to cut away some detail. I did the same to cut away some parts around the edge of a tendril to give perspective (one is now clearly in front of the other two). I also edge highlighted each tendril to make the motif "pop" a little more (I
despise this term in miniature painting lol).
7) Thorns
I used a fine detail brush to add some small thorns to the tendrils wherever it seemed appropriate.
8) All the rest
With the hard bit done, blocking in the other colours and highlighting them was fairly simple. Adding a black wash in places to increase some depth in the folds of the banner and around the metallic leaves was the most problematic, as at some stage I must have mixed up my matt black with gloss black wash. So, here is how it looks now, ready for the rest of the detail on the banner and the rider!
See you across the table,
Marc
