Lupa15’s Spring Cleaning 2020

By and far the largest miniature in my collection is about halfway finished if not more. I posted a ton of details on how I painted him here: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project-entry/1551935/

But I did want to highlight something I learned that I may have to apply when painting other projects in the future, especially metal ones:
“One thing I learned while trying to block these colors is that wearing a glove on the hand that is holding the miniature eliminates accidentally rubbing off paint. I am not sure if it is the oils on my hand or something else but I kept rubbing of the Eshin Grey paint from the spines. As soon as the glove was used I had no longer had any problems.”

I needed a little break from painting the bases on the Mournflight.  I dug through my boxes and found a partially painted Nephilim Soldier from Privateer Press’ Hordes.  I also cracked out my largest miniature in my display case with the goal of finishing it over the next few weeks.

I started out by painting Lady Harrow’s Mournflight. The first step was to undercoat the miniatures with Corax White.  Following the undercoat a wash of Nihilakh Oxide would provide the ghostly glow.  Finally once wash was dry I generously drybrushed the miniatures with Ulthuan Grey and followed that up with a lighter drybrush of White Scar.

I think for the arms and skulls I am going to utilize the same colors but use a layering and highlighting technique rather than a drybrush.

I was able to complete everything but the black armor and black cloth.  I was thinking about using some mixtures using Eshin Grey but found that my pot of paint had dried out since I had last used it.

With the coronavirus pandemic not yet over I still have more time than I ever did to paint.  So despite the contest being over I am still painting a bunch of backlogged miniatures. So as spring cleaning morphs into summer cleaning and likely fall cleaning I will continue to update this project with updates along the way.

This week was quite productive! First I finished the Blue Horrors, then moved on to finishing the face and hair of Alexis Polux, and finally finished Eldrad!

Once I sealcoat Eldrad I will apply  some ‘ardcoat to give the gems a little shine.

I finished two of the blue horrors!  After finishing the teeth, gold and silver I am happy with how they turned out.

Additionally I revisited Eldrad finishing his armor, bone runes and black cloaks.

Since he is mostly finished I glued him to his base as well.

To continue with the half finished miniatures piling up on my desk I decided to start painting these blue horrors from Warhammer Quest Silver Tower.

I found an old Warhammer painting article that suggested using a Drakenhof Nightshade wash and then a Druchii Violet wash over a basecoat of Caledor Sky.  After the washes were dry I recoated the raised bits with Caledor Sky and then highlighted them with some Teclis Blue.

Additionally I dived into painting Alexis Polux, the Crimson Fist captain of the Imperial Fists.  I did some research before hand on how to paint Imperial Fists and everyone was suggesting a Yriel Yellow base. I found that was way to bright and went back to the drawing board.

After some mulling I decided to use a base of Averland Sunset and Yriel Yellow at a 50-50 mix.  I washed the receesses with Reikland Fleshshade and then used Yriel Yellow as a highlight.  Then very carefully highlighted the edges with Dorn Yellow.

Following lots of painting yellow I decided to take a break and paint his base. I kind of just went off the fly and unfortunately don’t remember the exact paints I used but I started with Warplock Bronze and did several drybrushes to get to a rusted metal look before washing it with Agrax Earthshade to give it an extra dingy look.

Well so much for the best laid plans. In the end I was distracted by some of Alexia’s Risen in the Khador armor.  I decided to paint them in my border legion color scheme.  At the moment 3 of them are fully painted while four more just need highlights on the leather and grey cloth.

Then I decided to revisit this Fyreslayer from Warhammer Quest Silver Tower.  Using the Warhammer TV Fyreslayer Vulkite Berzerker guide I was able to complete the skin and half of the beard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQZCrz3KPpM

Finally I revisited assembling some Athenians for Mortal Gods.  I completed  assembling all of them this weekend and they are ready for priming.

I had previously done some work on Eldrad having finished his base and his cloak (see my project: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1435477/)

I decided to revisit him for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. So here is the progress so far…

Found this half finished miniature as well and felt inspired to finish him.  I had a list of the different paint mixtures I had used and then left him after a wash.

Here is a few shots of before:

Here is after many highlights and layers:

Found this old Khorne lord half painted and decided to finish him this weekend.  The base was unfinished but I picked out the skulls and then highlighted up the armor with one more layer of paint.

It was relaxing to not have any expectations and just finish a model that I have been wanting to paint for quite a while.  Really accomplishing quite a lot during this quarantine in terms of spring cleaning.

I found this old black miniature on my shelves and decided to start painting her up.  Making quite the progress for a couple days worth of work!

Over the past few days I was able to make some progress on Stheno by finishing the decapitated head, the bone necklace and her hair.  I also started painting the snakes and the metal areas.

I basecoated the gold areas with Citadel Balthasar Gold and then I am going to layer it up to the Citadel Auric Armour Gold as a highlight leaving the base color in the recesses.

The snake under her foot is completed.  I used a mixture of Citadel Doombull Brown and Citadel Wazdakka Red as the base but then highlighted it a mixture of Citadel Wazdakka Red and Citadel Tuskgor Fur.

I am please with how she is coming along.

After a couple of nights adding finishing touches I finally arrived a state that I am happy with.  Here is the finished Euryale!

Once I finished painting the ripped off head/skull I coated it and the hand with Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God.  Once the first layer was dry I went back and added a little more in various places.

As for the column it was coated with a base of Citadel Zandri Dust and Citadel Rakarth Flesh.  I washed the recesses with a mixture of Citadel Lahmian Medium and Citadel Agrax Earthshade.  Finally I highlighted the edges with a mix of Citadel Ushabti Bone and Citadel Rakarth Flesh.

So with the Deathwatch finished it was time to look on my project shelves for the next unfinished miniatures I wanted to tackle. After doing some re-organization I found the Gorgon sisters.  I have already finished Medusa (see https://www.beastsofwar.com/project-entry/1268428/) but I still had Stheno and Euryale in partially finished states.

At this point I had just basecoated the skin of Stheno with a 50/50 mix of Warboss Green and Sybarite Green and then washed it with a mix of Lahmian Medium and Biel-tan Green to darken it up.  To further define the recesses I had also washed the recesses with a mix of Lahmian Medium and Drakenhof Nightshade.

I then followed this up this past weekend with a layer of the base mixture again focuses on any raised areas.  I finally finished the skin with a highlight of pure Sybarite Green.

Next up Euryale! I had already finished the snake skin by painting it various shade of orange but I needed to put some more work into the hair and skin.

When I started the hair it was simply a basecoat of Mournfang Brown with a wash of Agrax Earthshade cleaned up by another coat of Mournfang Brown.

I decided to lighten up the hair with further mixtures of Mournfang Brown and Gorthor Brown followed by Mournfang Brown and Baneblade Brown.

Next I wasn’t too happy with where I had left the skin after a basecoat of Bugman’s Glow followed by a mix of Bugman’s Glow and Cadian Fleshtone.

To highlight the skin I coated it with Cadian Fleshtone focusing again on the raised features. A highlight of Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh on the raised areas again finished the skin for now.

I do want to go back and blend the snake skin with the human skin a little more before continuing work on the ripped off skull.

This past weekend was quite a productive one! I had a hobby hangout over Facebook Messenger and was able to complete three more of the Deathwatch.  Additionally I found the Death Masque kit and dug out the Deathwatch as a future project.

I spent just over an hour to highlight the gold and silver and paint the flames last night.  The flames were done with a base of Citadel White Scar followed by washes of Citadel Cassandora Yellow and Citadel Fuegan Orange.

Overall I am happy with the results and I am going to be very happy to use them in my Warhammer Quest Silver Tower games.