Kraken gaunt test

[killercroc]

Here's another test gaunt for Kraken, still experimenting with the scheme. I'm trying to find a way that's fun to paint and looks good, while not taking too long to actually finish.

I like the skin tone, keeping it straight forward. Base coat of Zandri dust, medium drybrush of Karak stone, light drybrush of Ushabti bone finishing with a medium wash of Reikland flesh. Simple to do, not much effort required but I think it looks good. Main issue I'm having is with the carapace, it takes a while to do but cannot find an easier way, any suggestions would be nice. It's a base coat of Mephiston red followed up with a wash of Seraphim sepia. After that it's another base coat of Mephiston red, followed by a layer of Wazdakka red and a highlight of Evil Sun scarlet. Then after that it's a bit weird but I paint the highest part of the carapace where shadows would be (Claw that's next to skin or parts under adjacent plates) with a bit of Fuegan orange, kinda a cheap and easy way to make it just slightly darker for a sort of transition effect. While I like how it looks it does take a bit of time, though I'm not sure I can get the same effect with less steps.

Other than that any suggestions would be cool.

[coop]

Maybe you could save steps by trying to concentrate the wash only in the recesses so that you don’t have to do a second coat of Mephiston red.

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Options I can think of:
1) what coop said: recess wash so you can skip reapplying the red base coat.
2) just go straight to the highlight. For gaunts, people won't notice the the layer + highlight.
3) instead of 1, apply the same wash over the whole model. You might have to mix up when you drybrush the skin, but it will make the job go faster.

I am loving the gun! It makes the model pop.

[killercroc]

Sept 23, 2019 1:55:24 GMT coop said:

Maybe you could save steps by trying to concentrate the wash only in the recesses so that you don’t have to do a second coat of Mephiston red.

I'm not quite sure how that'll effect the overall color. Hmm, Instead of doing two thin coats™ I was doing coat, wash, coat to get and get a nice smooth job on it. Main idea was anything I missed with the paint the wash would get just to hide any missed spots, seeing as how if the wash got in there it would be a shadowy place anyway. I like my basecoats to be a little more well covered than layers/drybrushing because variation in those could be accounted for because it's organic.

Though I'll try it on another gaunt to see if there is a noticeable change in the color, if it still comes out the same then it would cut down on a step.

Sept 23, 2019 12:00:53 GMT hivefleetkerrigan said:

Options I can think of:
1) what coop said: recess wash so you can skip reapplying the red base coat.
2) just go straight to the highlight. For gaunts, people won't notice the the layer + highlight.
3) instead of 1, apply the same wash over the whole model. You might have to mix up when you drybrush the skin, but it will make the job go faster.

I am loving the gun! It makes the model pop.

As with the recess wash I'll try that, see how much of a noticeable difference it is skipping the layer and going straight for highlight. Idk I guess it's just preference but I like the gradual tone change but a lot of the time it's so minor I don't think it's easy to pick up on anyway... and if I'm painting 100+ gaunts and the difference is so minor why not?

That's not a bad idea, I mean I use the same wash for the teeth and the base, if I switch to Sepia instead of fleshshade for the skin I can save washing it to the last step. Oh also it would allow me to leave the skin wash free so I can fix any mistakes. I already washed the skin before I did the carapace and got a bit of red on the skin, but didn't want to fix it cause getting the tone blending right on such a small area was going to be a pain.

Thanks! I also put blue just on the head crest but I don't think it shows well in the picture. One of the Kraken variants in the codex just had a blue stripe on the head and I liked that idea so I copied that. The idea to have the gun blue as well was honestly pretty random, just wanted something super contrasting. Color is just the blue contrast over Ushabti bone so it was pretty easy to do, I'm not sure how good it'll look with that compared to just painting the gun the same blue as the head crest ridge so it's got consistent points across the model. Well... that's what test gaunts are for right?