Khorne berzerkers

Yessss, they're finally done! :) This bunch of bloodthirsty slashers from hell was supposed to be quickly batch painted to be used on tabletop but I just can't bring myself to cutting too many corners so all in all it took way to much time than I would want to :( Anyway, more pics and the wip report after the break.

I know I said in my previous post that they'll be done sooner but at one point, after having painted for 3 evenings straight, I just had to take a break or my head would have exploded. I try to be way to meticulous for a batch painting job... and it just sucks my life juice away, having to repeat the same process 10 times, all the time.

Fortunately, the airbrush came to aid and I basecoated mechrite red with it. That speeds things up oh so much. Then I gave them a heavy badab black wash to get the shading out of the way. Up to this point I also did the terminators but after the wash phase I knew I wouldn't be able to do them at the same time, because that would mean, repeating all the steps FIFTEEN FUCKIN TIMES which was too much for me to bear.

Next step was redoing the armor parts with scab red, leaving the recesses alone, of course. Then began the big experiment in directional highlighting that I picked up from none other than girlpainting (she has a nice tutorial on painting zerkers on youtube). I started with a blood red blend, followed by a 50/50 mix of blazing orange and vomit brown blend close to the edges and lastly a full out blazing orange finish. Some parts of the armor that were horizontal I just painted in the middle, putting the mini under the lamp and looking where the highlights fell. I know that some of those blends are far from perfect, but I have serious problems with getting the correct consistency with the paint, especially when it comes to the later models since it starts to dry up etc. Did I mention I hate batch painting? :(

So once the armor was done, I did the gold parts. I used a 1:1:1 mix of tin bitz, golden yellow and vomit brown to first of all, have a mix that would cover well and also give dimmed gold effect. Girlpainting uses another brown for that but I don't have it so I improvised :)

Once the gold was done, I did the metals. Fairly simple, chainmail + badab black wash + mithril silver highlights. After metals came the skulls and the bone helmet on the champion. My standard kommando khaki, followed by (this time) devlan mud wash and bleached bone drybrush. Then the green eye sockets and those thingies they have flowing from the weapon hilts. Basecoat of the new green - loren forest. Then a wash of the new athonian camoshade. Then first highlight with camo green and final highlight with rotten flesh.

Then came the bolters. I admit I just said fuck it and reprimed them black and did a ultrasimple chainmail + mithril silver drybrush followed by a light badab black wash to tone them down a bit and get the shadows in.

Lastly, the decals. My first time, passable but far from perfect. I know now that you have to cut them ULTRA precise especially when you put them on a bent surface or small artifacts will occur. I did the correct procedure of basing the shoulderpad with gloss varnish, then slid the decal on it, put it in place, and finally dabbed with paper tower. Even though I cut them pretty close, I still got some tiny artifacts. NOT COOL.


Finally the bases. Here I used the new texture paint - armageddon dust, washed it heavily with devlan mud and drybrushed with bleached bone. Textbook stuff, works really well and FAST.

Next to last step was a smooth, durable matt varnish spray finish, using the army painter can that a friend in my local hobby store recommended. It does indeed work well. I do advise to use it barehanded though. If you'll have your latex glove on, that you use for priming (especially if it has some dry paint on it) some of the paint will get stuck to the base rim, as you turn the miniature around.

Then it was just one last thing to do - add tuft. I used the army painter tuft that matches the basecolor.

Like I said earlier, I really hate doing mass jobs like this. I prefer to just devote full attention to one model at a time and I can't wait to start on the next project - slaanesh daemon prince. Stay tuned! :)