Mousekiller's Empire Troops

[mousekiller]

Ok, I feel like we have some momentum building... I am just really glad to be spinning a brush again to be honest and all of you really help to keep me motivated. Thus far this year, with all of your help, I have completed 53 miniatures (31 of them from scratch!).



As promised, I am bouncing between new work and things that have been on the "work table" for quite some time. So, up next is this unit of 15 flagellants. I am going to try a slightly different technique, as I am really enjoying using the citadel contrast paints to help block out my color schemes. Of course I don't stop with a layer of contrast, though to be honest, the black contrast paint is quite nice and likely you don't need a lot of extra work after applying it. Anyway, these miniatures all had a black primer already, so I hit the unpainted ones with a dry brush of white. Lets see how it all works out over the next few days!

 

[mousekiller]

Ok, so as promised, I went through and blocked all of them out with some color. Contrast Gulliman Flesh for the skin, Contrast Blood Angels Red for the red bits, Contrast Black Templar for the black bits, and Contrast Gore Grunta Fur for the brown. Keep in mind, I am taking all 15 thru every stage, just taking pictures of these two individuals to show the evolution. I will take a picture of the entire unit once all the skin is done.



I am going to try to capture every stage for you from here on out. If it helps someone become a better painter, that is awesome! But also, if you see a step I could take to improve, please make a comment!!!



1. Bugmans Glow. This went on pretty liberally, but with the Gulliman Flesh it actually created a nice deep layer so it was still more of a highlight then a base coat.

2. White. Added white to the eye portions.

3. Black. Added black to the pupils. Probably could do more with the eyes, and might come back later.

4. Cadian Flesh Tone. The first real layer of skin tone. I felt I was able to leave a lot more of the Bugmans Glow exposed, hopefully giving more depth in the long run.

 

[mousekiller]

5. Hit the underside of the eyes with a wash of Contrast Plaguebearer Skin to try to give just a hint of unhealthy fever to them. Also, hit the lips and scars with some Emperors Children Pink Color. Finally, there was a boil on one of them that I hit with a small bit of Yriel Yellow.

6. Wash it all with Reikland Flesh Wash. Be careful here to not allow any to get into the eyes.

7. A second round of Cadian Fleshtone as a highlight.

8. A round of Kislev Flesh highlight.

I will come back into the skin later for one or two more highlights, but I tend to like to see how things look as I begin to add more colors elsewhere.

 

[mousekiller]

Ok, so I split the 15 into 5 groups of 3, and we will do each of their hair with a different color to add variety.



9. Wash of Gore-Grunta Brown

10. Layer of Skrag Brown

11. Layer of Deathclaw Brown, moving away from the base of the hair lines.

12. Mix of Deathclaw Brown and white, you can continue to mix in white and highlight up until you are satisfied. I did it twice.

 

[mousekiller]

Orange Hair. This is the average red head, not the over the top dwarf version.


13. Wash with Gryph Hound Orange

14. Highlight with a 50 50 mix of Squig Orange and Dorn Yellow

15. Highlight with Dorn Yellow

16. Wash with Reikland Flesh Shade to tone every thing down a little.

 

[mousekiller]

Blonde Hair



1. Snake Bite Leather Wash

2. Yriel Yellow Highlight

3. Dorn Yellow Highlight

4. Wash of Cassandra Yellow and Snake Bite Leather

 

[mousekiller]

Black Hair



1. Wash of Black Templar

2. Highlight Stormvermin Fur

3. Highlight Administratium Grey, I did this with a few highlights of this color. Some of the areas look a little sloppy, its ok.

4. Wash with Black Templar.

 

[KruleBear]

Nice work as usual. How many armies do you have built up?

 

[mousekiller]

@KruleBear: The two largest are Orcs and Goblins and Dwarfs, followed by Empire, Vampire Counts, and Mortal of Chaos, then followed by Ogres, Demons, Tomb Kings, Beasts of Chaos, and Wood Elves... I have some models on the work bench for Dark Elves, High Elves, Lizards, Skaven, and Chaos Dwarfs.

And the final hair, white. Also adding a quick unit picture to show the overall progress.



1. Wash of Space Wolves Grey.

2. Coat of Fenrisian Grey.

3. Highlight of Ulthuan Grey.

4. Final light wash of Space Wolves Grey.

 

[mousekiller]

On to the red robes. To start, they received a wash of Contrast Blood Angels Red when we first started painting. From their, these are the next steps:



29. Wazdaka Red layer, leave the deepest shadows.

30. Wazdaka Red and Deathclaw Brown. The goal here is to fade the red color, these guys are supposed to be poor, so I don't want them running around in bright vibrant clothes!

31. Deathclaw Brown highlight.

32. Deathclaw Brown and Dorn Yellow final highlight. I definitely got impatient and brushed a few of these too hard and had to go back in to tone it down. Be careful here and just hit the major highlights, I love dorn yellow but it can be unforgiving. I probably should have used a cream color, but I am still happy with the results.

 

[KruleBear]

Impressive set of armies.

The flagellants with the blonde hair give the group some nice pop.

 

[mousekiller]

@Krule Bear: Thanks! Normally I don't go for straight yellow for blonde hair, but it does make these guys pop a bit better.

Grey Robes



33. Russ Grey

34. Fenrisian Grey

35. Fenrisian Grey mixed with Pallid Wych Skin

36. Wash of Agrax Earthshade



I might go back and darken them even more a bit later, we will see.

 

[mousekiller]

Brown Robes, keeping in mind that everything was washed in Gore Grunta Fur.



37. Skrag Brown

38. Skrag Brown mix with Balor Brown

39. Balor Brown

40. Balor Brown mix with Screaming Skull

 

[mousekiller]

Next up we knocked out a few things, metal bits, gold bits, and wood bits.



41. Grey Knights Steel for the metal, Retributor Gold for the bells, and Dryad Bark for the wood bits.

42. Black wash on the metal, Seraphim Sepia wash for the bells, and XV-88 for the wood

43. Highlight Runefang Steel on both metal and bells, Tallarn Sand for the wood

44. Highlight Mithril Silver for both metal and bells, and Karak Stone for the wood. I also used the Karak Stone as the base for all of the pages.

 

[mousekiller]

First five completely done, barring any comments. Should have the other ten wrapped up in the next two or three days.



What do you think?

 

[mousekiller]

Next 5:

 

[mousekiller]

And the last 5! Just a few minor things left to do (add some mud to the bases, and some blood to the wounds).