Hive Fleet Draugr - a black & white paint scheme

[terminatoruk]

So with that milestone in place, I've started my focus back to my paint scheme again.

Since my last update, I've been doing some further mulling over and whilst I'm happy with the black and white decision, I'm concerned this will look just a bit 'too' monotone in the long-run.

I've decided I want to incorporate some more elements using a tertiary colour - purple - which I had used very sparingly in the just the skin vents (not even joints) and mouth previously.

I'm finding the fusion of Black - White - Purple to be a really nice combination and I'm planning on the bio-weapons (e.g. Fleshborers, Deathspitters, Boneswords etc...) to be done in this colour to reduce the amount of mono-tone in the army which I think will become a bit dull - especially on the larger creatures. 

The purple will be a combination of base naggaroth night, layer of xereus purple and highlight of genestealer purple.  The colours will be shaded by Drucci Violet (which I've totally fallen in love with now!).

One I've got that in place on some weaponry, I'll upload some more examples.

For the time being, I'm going back to my white skin.  I still want super-pale white skin, however, I know there is room for improvement.

If you scroll to my earlier 'benchmark' example that was a combination of:

Corax White Spray -> Pallid Wych Flesh -> Nuln Oil -> Pallid Wych Flesh -> White Scar

Whilst from a distance, the model pops, the patchiness / artificial textures I was creating wasn't great to look at on the shelf and was both time-consuming and 'dirty' in its appearance - a big step on from my first attempt but definitely room for improvement.

Now - along comes contrast paint and I thought this would be a game changer - at last a method which one thick coat I coat cheat on white skin!!

To cut a long story short, my outings of Apothecary White and Basilicanum Grey have ended up in confusion, disappointment from the hype and a sense of 'this isn't that different to Nuln oil' throughout my testing.

However - all is not lost - during my experimentation I picked up up both the Grey Seer and Wraithbone sprays - each of which is a massive improvement over Corax White spray in terms of smoothness and effectiveness.

After a range of tests, I think I've fallen in love with Grey Seer and it is making a perfect base from paint scheme.  The spray is so smooth and the colour so 'right' for my skin that it is allowing me to skip a step in terms of putting down an initial base layer before use a wash.

However - now I have a choice to make and I present you with some tests I have undertaken on some spare parts.

The first image is my 'quick and dirty' technique - flipping the time consuming process on its head:

Grey Seer Spray -> Nuln Oil -> Dry brush Palid Wych Flesh -> Edge Highlight White Scar:



...very quick process and produces a nice ghostly layer to the top of the skin.  Quite cool and produces a result akin to what I had before in substantially less time.

Yet, at the same time, there's something 1990's about dry-brushing that makes me feel a little dirty / cheap.  I'm also worried that scaled up to the bigger monsters, I might not be able to get away with such a technique and keep a nice clean look with pop.

Yesterday, however, I found a white skin technique on YouTube for Abandon the despoiler which I'm totally in love with and I think it might be the missing link.

The technique the photo below is:

Grey Seer Spray -> Nuln Oil -> Layer of Rakarth Flesh -> Layer of Palid Wych Flesh -> Edge Highlight White Scar (not done this yet but I'll do it more sparingly)

or

Grey Seer Spray -> Drucci Violet -> Layer of Rakarth Flesh -> Layer of Palid Wych Flesh -> Edge Highlight White Scar (not done this yet but I'll do it more sparingly)



...now, I think these are a substantial improvement on the technique and I know they aren't probably going to save me any time but I'm really, really liking the clean-yet-popping look to these - I think I'm onto something?

The Nuln Oil one is a perfect fit for the black and white seem and offering it up to my 'benchmark' model it looks absolutely fantastic - would work brilliantly.

At the same time, however, the allure of the Drucii Violet cannot escape my attention - I love it yet I know it will throw the paint scheme into turmoil and wreck the original 'stark contrast' mantra I went for in the first place; I think it's a little too colourful.

However, it did get me thinking - for the sake a quick additional step (that wouldn't add much to the process in batches), what would happen if you used both of the washes?  And if you did, which order would you do them in?  I quickly learned the Nuln Oil after the Drucci Violet seems to work best so this is the technique:

Grey Seer Spray -> Drucci Violet -> Nuln Oil -> Layer of Rakarth Flesh -> Layer of Palid Wych Flesh -> Edge Highlight White Scar (not done this yet but I'll do it more sparingly)



Now I think I might be onto a winner - the purple gives that vital additional colour, satisfies the OCD in me that the vents and joints are all the same colour (don't ask - probably just me) but the nuln oil knocks it back enough that it doesn't dominate the colour palette.

Rakarth Flesh is definitely my new ally - I didn't think much of it when I first got it but it makes an absolutely perfect base for the palid wych skin layer and cleans up all the streaky wash residue really well.  I really thin both the Rakath Flesh and Palid Wych Flesh which really helps with the consistency and coverage - their high pigmentation continues to hold up really well.

Comments / suggestions / feedback really welcome as always!

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Good job on the update to the paint scheme! I like the addition of the purple shade.
A couple of thoughts:
1) if you're looking for a white primer, try krylons color master white. I've used it on my models and it doesn't have a coarse if you do two coats. The stuff is also great as a primer and I've never had an issue with paint chipping. (I've had a warrior/prime that I carried around in a box without padding for over a year and. I think it lost two flecks of paint at the very top of the head carapace)
2) if you're going with the purple, I might recommend yellow or orange eyes with a yellow dot. The yellow-purple contrast will really make the eyes pop, I think.
3) what are your thoughts on contrast? I've found it hasn't been doing much highlighting when I've been testing it. I've also found that (despite what gw said) the paint is about as dark as it is in the pot. Ive found I've always had to use medium to thin it or to mix some colors. I also had a bit of paint chipping already (surprisingly over the primer I mentioned above), so I think a varnish is in order.

[terminatoruk]

Thanks for the kind feedback - yeah I'm definitely feeling the Drucci Violet adds a bit of 'something' that was missing so I'm going to try it on a test Termagant and post the results

Also thanks for the tip on the white primer - definitely something to consider if I want to go back to white. At the moment I think I'm good with the Grey Seer for now but I'm definitely interested in GW's new Stormshield varish - have you got any experience with this at all?

My only requirement is that it is as matt as possible and doesn't detract from the texture / tone of the model - fingers crossed that this is case as I think was designed to knock back the satin finish of the contrast paints and achieve this.

I think the contrast range definitely has its place - especially if your primary interest is in the gaming side and you want a low / quick bar to entry or maybe you want to build a high unit count horde army and the lack of time commitment / willpower would otherwise see you with an unpainted army.

From my hands-on testing, in my view, they aren't a massive 'game changer' or an invalidation of good painting techniques - they are simply high pigment (and v.good!) washes that serve as yet another tool in the arsenal. Saying this, the contrast they provide is most definitely better than a thick coat of regular 'base' paint but they don't hold a candle up to a properly layered and edge highlighted model. If you're goal is for speed and you aren't intending to do any further edge highlighting, the use of Wraithbone as the primer is strongly recommended to provide the maximum contrast without any further work.

For my requirements, the Nuln Oil and Drucci Violet shades are still more useful for me and what I want to achieve as they flow off the raised areas easier than the contrast paints and allow my white skin to shine.

I'm glad I've tested and validated this for myself in person - there is a certain stubbornness in me that has also been 'satisfied' to see that they haven't invalidated the time and effort I'm spent to learn how to thin paints, shade, base, layer and edge highlight.

Saying this I'm super-glad I invested the time with the Wraithbone and Grey Seer sprays. This is the 'must-have' take-away and is my most useful discovery throughout this process. Their application is super easy and the basecoat they provide is super thin, smooth and really makes colours layer on top of them pop even for regular paints; I won't be going back to Corex White anytime soon!

I know my decision is going to massively slow down my painting of my army and having it ready for the tabletop - I have a massive journey ahead but I'm going to deal with it one bit of a time. I know for me personally, whilst I want to play the game as much as possible, the vast majority of time the army will be for display purposes.

To this end, I want the few times I get to play to be a bunch of 'super-proud' moments rather than slapping some clever paint saved me time but provided a 'meh' finish and leaves me with the regret of 'if only I had layered it properly'.

I've cleaned a bunch of my early disasters with Dettol and that was a gruelling and smelly process - you quickly learn to get the techniques right on some test pieces of sprue before committing it to your prize miniatures!

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I haven't tested out any seelers yet. I'm planning on doing the that this weekend after touching up some genestealers I have. I'll let you know how it goes and if I see less chipping due to the seeler (some of my stealers were painted with some bad primer).

[terminatoruk]

Awesome! Post some pictures too please - would love to see them

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I'm not sure if the stormshield has helped protect the minis much (I saw some chipping but am not sure if I missed spots in the touch up phase). It gives the miniatures a light sheen though, so it does impact the color. I'll try to see about a varnish I got at some point when the weather cooperates for spray painting outside. I'll try to sign up for a photosharing site and post pics at some point.

[terminatoruk]

Slow to update again - apologies - and hopefully last concept piece before I get cracking on some gaunts.

I've been thinking about the weapons the fleet will use such as fleshborers, deathspitters, venom cannons, bones swords (excluding claws, talons and hooves which I'll leave black) and having a constrast against the white skin.

The GW Lethitan fleet uses a crimson colour for this but I fancied extending my use of purple again.

I've painted 3 sides of a Tyranid Warrior deathspitter to visualise this:

Option 1 - White (control sample); cleanest but no contrast to the skin. Best contrast against the vents however.



Option 2 - Naggaroth Night base, Xereus Purple layer, Genestealer purple highlight. Best constrast against skin but looks a bit 'fake' and colourful...most time consuming.



Option 3 - Daemonette Hide base, Slaneesh Grey highlights. Quick to achieve, looks more natural that option 2.



Thoughts welcome!!

[hivefleetkerrigan]

I'd vote option 1! IMO, purple is hard to pull off. I've found that either red or blue highlight colors lead to a really good effect though.

[terminatoruk]

Aug 4, 2019 2:21:22 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

I'd vote option 1! IMO, purple is hard to pull off. I've found that either red or blue highlight colors lead to a really good effect though.

Ha interesting!

Thanks for the quick reply - I think while it will look ok on the smaller weapons but I'm concerned it'll be too much white on the larger venom cannons.

I was leaning towards the 3rd option but I'm not completely satisfied myself.

I'm thinking it might look better in the context of a completed miniature...

[terminatoruk]

So I cracked on with a whole model actually using option #2 in the end and here was the result (the model on the left with the brown rim base was my last best effort):

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Looks good. I'd definitely go with that.

[coop]

Really nice improvement between the two models. The new one definitely looks a lot cleaner and the white / black contrast is sharper. Looking forward to seeing the scheme carried through on some more models!

[terminatoruk]

Cheers for the words of encouragement folks - definitely happy with the skin and carapace methods; that's locked in now.

I'm not sure on the black rim bases but I think it's growing on me and 'frames' the model well if that makes sense (I come from the generation of goblin green bases so this is a brave new world for me haha ).

Jury is still out on the weapon colour though - just completing a pair of Daemonette hide and Palid Wych Flesh variants for comparison before I 'mass' crank out the gaunts.

I say 'mass' because, I won't lie, it's literally taking me hours to complete a single gaunt at the moment with this new method

No pain, no gain I guess - even the batch painting method isn't exactly helping as just doing a single layer is taking a long time.

Hopefully I'll speed up but if I don't - sod it, I love the method so much that it'll be done when it is done

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Ouch on the hours per gaunt. Would you mind posting your method for the paint scheme? Maybe we can brainstorm ideas to speed it up without sacrificing quality (too much).

[terminatoruk]

Aug 16, 2019 15:48:14 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

Ouch on the hours per gaunt. Would you mind posting your method for the paint scheme? Maybe we can brainstorm ideas to speed it up without sacrificing quality (too much).

Yup - absolutely; would appreciate any suggestions and I was planning on doing a step-by-step tutorial anyway in case someone else is crazy enough to choose a black and white scheme!  I'll do this after I have finalised my decision on the weapon colour.

I think part of the issue as I'm not batch painting as I'm trying to lock-in all the techniques first before committing to a final method.

Speaking of which - I've finished a different variant now (yay - more testing, I know this is getting tedious - show me a whole squad etc... lol); an 'Option 4' on the weapon purple scheme (shown on the right hand of pics that also show the previous iteration).

This time I've used (on top of the grey seer spray) in order:

- Daemonette hide base
- Drucci Violet shade
- Nuln Oil shade
- Xereus purple edge highlight
- Genestealer Purple edge highlight

I think this makes the purple smoother and more 'natural' rather than the rather cartoonish purple of naggaroth night produced.  The use of the Xereus / Genestealer purple gives a much smoother transition than going straight to slaanesh grey (though I am contemplating using the latter for a very selective edge highlight on some corners to add a final bit of contrast).  I think it also produces a less harsh transition between the pipe colour too and lastly seems to closely match the colour of the joints.
















...of course I'm still intrigued to see what using the white skin method on the weapon would bring to the table on a completed model so you know what the next test model will be!