A New Style

I’ve had a host of Ak weathering products for some time now. Up to this point I haven’t used them much as I wasn’t sure how to add them to the model in a productive way. My few attempts always never really added to the model. For awhile I just kept them around hoping to find a use eventually. This took quite a turn when I rediscovered Zatcaskagoon Miniature Painting. After just a few videos, I was determined to try them. Got to say, I’m a fan.

This was the first real attempt. Still some stuff I need to perfect but this is one of my favorite tanks. I’m honored Forgeworld liked it enough to put on their website. The first infantry test was on this Centurion that I painted when I first got my air brush a year ago.

Since some of you might be wondering what I’ve done here. I Basecoated with a bit more color than I usually do and did most of my usual steps. Afterwards I sprayed a layer of Ak streaking grime through an airbrush. The tank got hit with a layer of Ak rust streaks aswell. Zatcaskagoon has a lot of techniques that I’ll be picking up to improve my work.

Also, in other news I will hopefully be contributing to a few of Zatcaskagoons projects in the future. Finally, hopefully in a month or so I’ll actually be doing commission outside of locally. Thanks for reading

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WSDfrank….

Hey guys! WSDfrank here and I’m a new contributor on the Silent Kings. Very excited to be here, I’ve really enjoyed the blog for some time now and was very honored that Vstvroth invited me to show my work to all of you guys!

Little bit about myself, I’m a long time miniature wargamer. Starting back in the mid nineties when John Blanche’s art was the fuel and inspiration for Warhammer 40,000. This art really captured me, drawing me into a hobby that I’ve now been doing for about 15 years! Long time. Like most, took a hiatus for an extended period of time. But with the release of Age of Sigmar I was back into tabletop gaming full swing.

I’m a long standing member of the Southern California Wargaming Club We Slay Dragons, hence the WSD part of my handle. Travel around the country, play tournaments and just love this hobby.

Why am I on the Silent Kings? Well.. I have and over whelming obsession with grimdark, horror, macabre, abhorrent… how ever you want to say it. I love it in the lore, the paint styles and the over feel/mood it brings to a table. Inspiration coming not only from great painters like Chris Poole (Third Eye Nuke), Kenon (Zatcaskagoon), John Blanche, Kari (Iron sleet) and of course Isaac (Vstvroth/Silent Kings)

thanks so much y’all! Hope to drop some cool minis and leave some great tips/tutorials for you all! Left a little treat of my kitbashed Norsca Warshrine!

 

Revival

I’m going to try uploading here a bit differently. For some reason I was focused on mostly posting tutorials here. That really just turned into infrequent posting since I just waited for a new scheme to paint. This time I’m going to focus more on posting regular posts. Ill try to keep them in three categories. Tutorials, Progress, and Showcase. We’ll see if this helps cull my long stretches of inactivity.

First of I’ll show off my newest project. Nighthaunts!

I started this new army off with a few units that will carry over to the new faction of Age of Sigmar. When I first got interested I commandeered a buddies Knight of Shrouds that he had yet to paint. After some basic Layering I decided to just finish it. Pleased with the results I moved on to other units.

Next up some Spirit Hosts. I freakin love these little guys and was dying to paint some. It was a bit harder to make them interesting as they don’t have much clothes or metal.

Finally, I painted my Cairn Wraith. I figured he’d be good practice as he looks like he’ll be a new unit in the new Nighthuant Faction.

 

I’ll be working on getting better pictures of the entire model instead of this collage deal but my light box (mousepad) is rather restricting. I’m really hoping to paint these guys as my first full Aos Faction.

Need for Speed Painting

One thing I hear a lot when people talk to me about painting is surprise at how long things take me. This isn’t awe in how I’m spending ten hours on a model, rather, surprise that it takes only a few hours to get models painted in a grim and gritty way. I’ve decided to try and discuss my thought process a bit and walk threw the generic steps of painting thing fast and effectively

This is going to be covering the basic majority of the model. I might delve into the detail at a later time but i just want to write down the process.

Base Coat

I usually start by adding my main color and up to two highlight colors. In this case I chose yellow so I started with a light mustard yellow. as soon as the coat was solid, I hit it with my first highlight. I chose Sulfuric Yellow (P3) as I prefer my colors drained and colder. Finally, I added a few spots of a light tan.

Metal Detail

After the Yellow was dry, I coated the model in a gloss clear coat. This made it easier to add transfers. After adding a few transfers for interest I hight the model with a flat coat (the one I used has a little bit of gloss to it). I base coated all of the metal detail with Vallejo Black Surface Primer. This is a semi translucent, gloss black that blends well into other paints.

This was followed by some chipping with Chaos Black and a bit of sponge.

I dry brushed the model Leadbelcher followed by Stormhost Silver. Focus it on the metal areas.

Base

won’t go into too much detail here but I recently got into using a texture paste over the usual cork bases as I wasn’t liking how flat the seemed. Allows the sand to transition better.

Finishing Detail

After finishing the base, I attached the model and added the basic weathering with oil washes. I used a black brown panel lining paint to define the detail similar to how you would use any old wash. I also added some Ak Interactive Streaking grime which I shaped with some thinner.

This a pretty brief tutorial and I know I’m not going into a lot of detail but I’m trying to get back into the habit of these things. I have a few Tutorials in mind lined up but let me know if your interested in anything in particular. Up next should either be Nurgle Daemons or Tyranids.

Lady of Depravity: A step-by-step painting tutorial

Hi everyone, Nordoc here.

To celebrate the new year 2018, I threw a little vote on my Facebook page. In short, I had just gotten my hands on 7 gorgeous models from Creature Caster, where I wanted to do a tutorial on one of them, as it has been a while. However, I wanted you guys to do the deciding on which it should be – And boy oh boy did you deliver. A grand total of 91 votes came in and you chose the Lady of Depravity, with a majority of 26 votes on that model alone.

So without further ado, let’s get into it!

Step 1: Assembly, priming and the start of the white skin

After assembling almost the whole miniature (which by the way was much easier than feared) I glued it all together, except for on the base itself. The reason for this, as I normally assemble the entire miniature from the get-go, is that I wanted easier access to the base and the stones on it.

After having left it for 24 hours to cure (Yes, always do that when working with resin. I kid you not, it might seem dry after 15 minutes, but leave it for 24 hours. You will thank me later) I got started on the skin. My thoughts where that I wanted a look that was almost devoid of colour, with only the effects on the blood and swords to have focus. On models as detailed as this one, it can easily drown out in details and I usually go for a minimalistic approach to the colour scheme.

Well, that and a slight inspiration from the Hellraiser franchise. I want it to look scary, threatening and something truly worthy of the fear, that is at the heart of every mortal crossing this daemonettes path.

I started out with a 45 degree highlight with Vallejo Air Medium Sea Grey where I focused on the face, the …. chest and the buttocks. (When working with whites and greys, I always recommend using some kind of flow improver, as otherwise it can come out a bit too powdery)

After this stage, I hit both sides with a 90 degree pure white highlight. At this stage, rather go a bit too bright, than too dark, as we will be bringing it down again afterwards.

Now the model is ready for it’s oil wash to bring it a bit down, before we continue on.

Step 2: Oil wash and final white highlights

The next stage is to bring some wash to the model, but we’re going to do it with oils instead of the typical version. If you haven’t done this before, worry not, as it’s much easier than it sounds.

The first step is to completely coat the models with a gloss varnish. It’s important that it’s gloss, as it gives the model protection and it makes the wash seep into the cracks much more than GW washes, for example.

After that, you take a black oil paint (you can get this at a typical art supply store, just be sure it’s a oil paint and not acrylic) and thin it down with white spirits. Thin it until there’s no chunks left in the resolution and it has the same consistency as you’re used to with a wash.

Now, take an old brush (as it will ruin your brush) and go at it:

Leave it to dry for about 30 minutes or so.

After you have done this, you can take a cuetip, make it a bit moist with white spirits and “wash” off the excess on surfaces that you don’t like. This gives it a very smooth finish, and you avoid the pooling that you normally get with washes, so you don’t have to re-do the surfaces afterwards with another colour.

After you have done the cuetip part, varnish the model again – Personally, I use Satin varnish for the last part.

As a last part, after the varnish has dried, give it a slight drybrush with a pure white – Just to catch those edges and make it super crisp.

And that’s it for the skin. We now have a slightly marble/stone’ish look on the skin with good greys and whites. The next part? Making the white pop via other details on the miniature – The next parts is where it really gets to shine!

Step 3: Glossy chitin, horns and swords

Right, time to add some popping. First order of business is the glossy chitin and the horns on the side of her face.

First, the horns. Hit them roughly 66% of the way down with Vallejo Model Air Hull Red, followed by a Gloss Black 33% of the way down, leaving just enough red to show.

While you’ve loaded the brush with glossy black, do all of the black areas on the model. You can use my picture below for reference, as it can feel a bit like you’re ondoing your entire work, as roughly half of what you hit before is going to be painted over – Just trust me, it will be worth it.

Already now you can see a big change in the overall tone of the model. The first non-black/white color makes a huge difference, and the later details will do the same.

Next up, we will be using Vallejo Model Air Metallic Steel for two things; painting the swords (with a brush, as it covers in one coat straight out of the pot) and as a very discreet (as in extremely..) drybrush on the black chiting, just to define those edges and give it a even more shiny glow.

We’re going to give the swords 2 washes. First we do a Nuln Oil (you can do either normal or gloss, I just went with normal) followed by a Seraphim Serpia.

In regards to the Seraphim Serpia, try to do it more in blotches than a normal wash. You want it to be inconsistent, to give it a more weathered and destructive look. Let it pool!

And that’s it for the swords, chitin and horns. If you want your model to be clean and non-bloody (it’s not for everyone after all) you just need to do the base now and it’s ready to go!

If you want to go full throttle horror though, the next step is for you.

Step 4: Blood and gore

Right, personally this is one of my favorite parts of painting these little guys. It’s a 3 step process that will take it from clean, to “Oh my god, kill it with fire!”.

The first stage is Reikland Fleshshade, where you will be “painting” the outline of where your blood is going to go. I put it on the mouth, the neck, the chest’s and the swords.

Be aware that depending on the colour of the model, you might need two coats here to get it defined enough.

Next up, you need to make the first of two blood mixes. Do a mix of the following two colours: Vallejo Smoke / GW Evil Sun Scarlett 7:3 ratio. Then it down with water untill it has roughly the same consistency as skimmed milk, so just a tad more thick than a wash.

Paint roughly 90% of the area you covered with the Reikland Fleshshade wash. After you done this, grab a old toothbrush / drybrush. Put a bit of the mix on the brush and flick the brush against your thumb, making a slight splatter on the face, chest and neck.

(Practice the above flicker stage on other models first, just so you get the feel for how much should loaded on the brush.)

Now for the final touch. You need to make another blood mix, this time consisting of the following colours:
Gloss black, Reikland Flesshade (gloss) and Blood for The Blood God in roughly 1:2:3 ratio.

It’s going to seem more brown than red, and that’s ok. Use this mix to gove over orughly 80% of the area that you covered with the first blood mix and don’t be afraid to get a bit thick – It will just add character to the model and make it seem like thick blood sticking to the model.

Heck, you can even do the splatter trick again, if you feel like it.

Step 5: The base

The base can be done however you wish. I’ve not documented mine per say, but I can give the recipe for what I’ve done, in case you want to duplicate it.

Start off with airbrushing all of it with a pure white, making it a grey style of base. After that, drybrush the entire thing with a pure white, to catch the edges.

Grab a hold of Vallejo Model Air Dark Earth and airbrush the dark areas – Holes under rocks, places beneath edges and overall where there might be earth on the base. Follow that stage with a Black and Vallejo Model Air Cam. Black Brown in a 1:1 ratio, and darken those areas down even further.

End it all of by painting the trim of the base in pure black.

Final words

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and found it helpful in achieving a dark and gory look for your miniature. This theme can easily be applied to smaller models as well, and will fit perfectly with any Slaanesh themed models.

Don’t believe me? Have a look.

Until next time,
Nordoc

Instagram: Nordoc_Minis
Facebook: /Nordocminis

Putrid Choir Tutorial

I put this off longer than I meant to. While I originally wanted to make this for Mortarion I decided to explain it on a more commonly sized model, in this case, Typhus the Traveler. I’ll explain Some of the more exotic areas on Mortarion at the end.

The first thing I did when starting death guard was experiment on color schemes, trying to find out how best to make them pop. The original scheme was a pale blue green with iron trim. My problem with that scheme was it lacked the aged appearance I wanted and struggled to stand out on any board they were on. my solution was a speckling of white and aged gold trim. I know Death Guard are traditionally done with bronze but I didn’t think a metallic brown would jive with the model. In the end I’m very pleased with the results. Anyway, on to the scheme.

Key: vma=Vallejo Model Air, vga=Vallejo Game Air, gw= Games Workshop

I’ve recently begun experimenting with attaching the model to the base before I start painting in order to really glue it down and blend it into the base. I started with a Chaos black base coat given an day to set. to start the green I painted the model with a more or less solid coat of vma Green RLM. I followed it with a rough highlight of the Green RLM mixed with vma Light Blue RLM. I mix it to get a blue green grey mix.

To finish the white, I speckled on vga Dead White. To speckle a paint, you turn the compressor down to about 5 psi. Practice that before you try it on something you want to keep. To seal the specks (they can be rubbed off if you’re not careful), I sprayed the  model with a gloss coat which helps the next step. to define the edges I used a Panel lining wash from mig, specifically black brown. After that I used a matte coat to dull the shine. Now for shading. I base coated some of the larger areas with a random black I had. For the smaller details and to cover up the black, I used Vallejo Black Surface Primer which acts as a gloss black thats thin enough to blend into the white. Finally setting down the air brush, I sponged the edges with a black paint. I then painted the trim gw Retributor Armour.

I washed the gold gw Riekland Flesh Shade, followed by small touches of gw Druchii Violet. After that was dry, I dry brushed the model with gw Stormhost Silver and then chipped the armour and gold with the same color. The flesh bits was done by base coating gw Bugmans glow, followed by a gw Carroburg Crimson wash. After a touch of Druchii was added, I dry brushed it with Rakarth flesh, Pallid Wych flesh and Wrack White. The scythe handle was painted with ushabti bone and rhinox hide, washed Agrax Earthshade.

Home stretch. While there isn’t much on him, the clothe was painted Nagaroth Night, followed by Nuln oil, Dry brushed Screamer Pink, Bugmans glow, and Wrack White. The eye was done white,followed by a nihilak oxide wash. I washed the chimneys Seraphim sepia and drybrushed them Wrack White, as well.

the base was done as a variation on what I usually do. Paint black, highlight light grey zenith, touch of white, paint sand brown gradually adding black. mash on weathering powder, apply water to powder, add more while damp, and paint rim black.

I still have some details to do but nothing that is crucial to the scheme as a whole. I have some variation I want to use when painting the bigger tanks, namely the Crawler. Ill probably add a small tutorial for that which should inlude chipping and streaks. Finally, I’lll post an army update when I make a big stride. Hopefully soon. As always, thanks for giving it a read.

Black Legion Scarab Terminators : A Step-by-step painting guide

Hi everyone, Nordoc here.

It’s time for another tutorial – And one that has been asked for by many, ever since I first showed my progress on the miniatures in question. We’re talking my Black Legion take on the Scarab Terminators, from the Thousand Sons. Needless to say this theme can be applied to any Black Legion theme if you want to, but some parts are inspired by Thousand Sons in particular, to try and get that magical feeling about them.

To do this tutorial you will need both an airbrush, normal brushes and a lot of patience, in particular due to the trims. Though, to be fair, I’m guessing you knew that before jumping onto these fantastic miniatures, who has a whole new level of trims.

So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Step 1: Assembly, priming and cloaks/loincloths

After fully assembling the miniatures (I always do that) they are all primed black. The reason for fully assembling them, as I have covered in my previous tutorials, is that I prefer to have the natural flow of where paints and shadows go from my airbrush. The best and easiest way to achieve this, is to fully assemble the miniature and then start working. If you’re having a hard time getting some paint at some parts of the miniature, beyond the priming, a good bet is that the shadow will be so strong there, that you would not see the color anyway, if you were in a real-life scenario.

After priming them in black and letting it set for 24 hours (always do this. It’s not a widely spread fact, but priming needs that much time to settle properly), I start working on the cloaks and loincloth. The reason I do it now, is that I can easily fix overspray and errors due to the black armor not having any work done to it, so it’s very easy to clean up afterwards with just any pure black paint.

I start with a 90 degree airbrush highlight of GWs Nihilakh Oxide. Yes the technical paint. It runs great straight through an airbrush, and you don’t even need to thin it or mix it with any type of flow-improver. It is fairly thin though, so you will likely need a thin coat, let it dry and then hit it again afterwards. After this step has dried, mix a 1:1 ratio of Nihilakh Oxide and pure White in your airbrush, and hit the bottom 50% of the cloaks and loincloths. Go for that nice gradient we all love, and don’t worry about graininess if that happens. Trust me, it’s all part of the charm.

After cleaning up the model with pure black, so you only have color on the loincloths and cloaks, hit the whole model with Satin Varnish. Now it’s nice and sealed, got a bit of a shine to it and you got your first signature colors down. It should look like this when you’re done:

Step 2: Metals, battle scars and first weathering

Anyone will tell you that black armor is a pain to get looking nice. Depending on your style, i wholeheartedly agree – But there are ways. Personally I don’t do line highlights. I simply don’t have the patience for them and they are not to me personal preference. So I had to work at other angles.

I wanted them to look like they were not clean out of the armory. They had seen action and are in the midst of a raging war, so they had to have some battle damage. So I went in with a sponge and two of my favorite metal paints; Vallejo Air Metallics Gunmetal and Vallejo Air Metallics Steel.

First I sponged a good heaving of Gunmetal and then followed by a lighter touch with Steel. Keep in mind, that it might look excessive when you’re doing this, but 80% of the surface you hit with your sponge will be painted gold afterwards, so be sure to hit the areas that are not painted afterwards. Give them a bit of a wear and tear.

After the sponging was done, I went in with a drybrush of the same two colors on the metallic parts of the models. This is the sword, the wiring from the sword and the parts behind the knees for example. You can clean up with pure black if you get too excessive, so it’s still a very forgiving stage.

After the drybrushing and sponging, you should have them look approximately like this:

Step 3: Golds

Now comes the step that makes the armor pop; The golds. Everyone and their grandmother has a 3-4 step workflow on how to do their golds, depending on what hue you want. If you, like me, are looking for a ancient gold feeling, then you’re in luck.

Spoiler alert; This stage will be the most time consuming stage of the whole miniature.

Our paint of choice for this stage is Vallejo Metal Color Gold (77.725 if you’re looking it up). It’s an airbrush paint, but as with most metallic airbrush paints, you can use it with regular brushes as well, if you’re careful.

If you’re used to GWs metallics, this paint will take some getting used to, as it is VERY runny. My best advice, is to practice a bit with it before you get to these miniatures, as you need to get the feel of the paint and the flow it has.

Paint all the trims, the sides of the loincloths and the bottom of the cloaks with this. Some of the larger and flat areas will need 2 coats, but on parts such as the helmet, you can put on a fairly thick coat as it will dry very thin, due to its nature as a airbrush paint.

Once you’ve finished with the golds, hit it all with a helping of GWs Nuln Oil Gloss. Be careful not to hit the armor, but just the gold parts and make sure you’re using the Gloss version of the wash, for optimal effect.

After this stage, you’re looking at a miniature at around this stage:

Step 4: Eyes and blood-splatter

Now we’re down to the smaller and finishing touches – The parts that will make the model pop. The first thing we need to address are the eyes; One of the signature part of any Rubric marine, be it the terminator variant or the standard marines. We are going for a cold blue shine, similar to the cloaks we did.

We’re going to do them in 2 stages. The first part is going to be P3s Arcane Blue, where we paint the whole eye lens. Get your smallest brush, your steadiest hand and your most calming music ready, as the lenses are fairly small.

Once you’ve done this, mix the Arcane Blue with a 1:1 ratio with pure White. Try to paint roughly half of the lens with this mix, aiming for the middle of the eyes. If done right, it will give them a pretty cold look and already you can see a massive difference to the model.

For the blood splatter, you’re going to need 2 paints. Vallejo Smoke and GWs Evil Suns Scarlet. Mix them in in a 2:1 smoke:red ratio and water it down so it is the same consistency as lowfat milk. Get a medium drybrush (or toothbrush if you prefer), dip it in the mix and flick off the paint using your thumb. If you haven’t done this before, it’s a good diea to practice a bit to get the technique down, so you don’t get too much blood on the miniatures. Focus on the cloth for optimal effect, but try to get some on the torso and the head of the miniature.

After this stage, you’re at about this stage.

Step 5: Power weapons and guns

We’ve only got the weapons left at this point, beyond the bases. We’re looking for the same effects as have on their cloaks and loincloths, to compliment the color scheme and make it look as if both the cloaks and weapons are shining with the same energy.

Therefore, we’re going back to the Nihilakh oxide first and after that, a 1:1 of Nihilakd Oxide and White. The one addition we’re going to add is a pure white spray just at the very tip of the swords. Do this very lightly to complete the glowing effect on the blades.

You can do the same trick on the staffs for the sorcerers, but I would advise to skip the pure white stage personally. It’s up to you if you want to add it here as well though.

For the guns, I hit the runes on the side of them as well, to give them a bit of a glow.

After this stage, you’re looking at something like this:

Step 6: Bases and final words

Now all that is left is to do the bases. I will leave it up to you as to how you want to do your bases, as I’m betting most of you already have a theme for your army. I will be doing a base tutorial in the near future for the ones I make, so keep an eye out for that.

After your bases are finished, you will have the final miniature ready for battle!

I hope you enjoyed this little tutorial and look forward to seeing your take on the models!

Are there any points you want clarified? Ask in the comments and I will answer as soon as I am able.

Until next time,
Nordoc

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