Skaven Painting Challenge

The magical smoke from the potion, bell and burners was all the same paint process. I laid down four colours in my wet pallette. On this occasion the white primer was helpful as a base colour.

Ork Flesh Contact, Nighthaunt Gloom, Apothecary White Contrast and Nihilakh Oxide.

I wasn’t careful around the metal of the potion and burners as I wanted the deep green to offer a glow or over pouring or smoke and knew I would be back with gold and bronze later.

I laid down rough percentages of the colours as they came from the pot and then used the mixes I made on the pallette to blend them into one another. I had to work fast but enjoyed the task. I have been told that there are several mediums out there that would have extended the drying time to make the blending easier, but the painting chosen were all glaze type thin Contrast colours already and I managed to get the task completed without it. I have never used that technique so decided not to try anything too radical on a challenge piece.
At the end I used thin coats of Army Painter Bright White at the end to complete the blend to white at the end.

For the other colours it will be hard to list them off because it feels like I used my whole paint collection. Certainly a lot of my Contrast paints for the wood to try and make it look as varied and natural as I could.

The cloak was the Flesh Tearers Red Contrast with highlight of Mephiston Red with I think a dash of Trollslayer Orange mixed in with the red as a high area highlight at the end.

The grey metals were a Leadbelcher base. I adder Nihilakh Oxide sparingly and hit the bolts and a lot of edges with Runefang Steel. I felt the blue of the Nihilakh Oxide would be a nice cold contrast against the warm browns of the wood.

I used crackle paint on the back wheels. I wanted it to look like old cracked paint, but I didn’t lay it on thick enough. It still laid down a nice foundation for my blue and green Contrast paints for some extra colour on the model. As part of the brief this seemed important to add more colour and shows that some wood has been repurposed to make this contraption. As an after thought it also ties in with the green and blue of the smoke effects at the front too.

The big blind rat at the back was enjoyable to paint.

Started with a Bugman Glow base with Army Painter Barbarian Flesh mix as a highlight. There was at least one Reikland Fleshshade wash and highlight back up again. The veins looked fine highlighted with Barbarian Flesh, but in the end they got a highlight of a Nighthaunt and Bugman Glow mix to make them look more like veins.

The fur started out as Wyldwood Brown Contrast but his dried very glossy. Some gloss would make if look greasy, but the gloss at the time looked wrong. I went over it with Agrax Earthshade and this knocked the gloss back a touch and there was a final highlight of a mix of Mornfang Brown and Wyldwood Brown.

The spines on the back were a Morghast Bone base with a Wraithbone edge highlight.

The tail got an extra wash with Darkoath Flesh that stood it apart nicely from the flesh.