Astorath the Almost Done

While it is technically a bit late, as I promised the end of last week, there wasn't a 4 month layoff in between posts so I feel like that is a victory for me.  I've really put the pedal down on Astorath and have almost wrapped it up.  I painted every piece separately, so I will have to pin and glue them after I finish painting.  Painting the pieces separately has been good because it allowed me to get to areas I would not have been able to see otherwise.  Unfortunately the major problem with this has been trying to hold the pieces while painting.  I didn't pin and mount them or anything, so consequently I am constantly having to retouch areas where I've rubbed off the paint while holding it.  It's very frustrating and I hope once I have it fully assembled that I will be able to go in and find them all to repaint them for good.

Astorath's backpack is nearing completion.  All that is left is the non-metallic metal gold bits, which are currently about 7/8 of the way done (as is the gold on Astorath himself) and writing on the parchment strips.  The parchment was painted with Commando Khaki and layered with Bleached Bone.  I then washed it with Gryphonne Sepia and edge highlighted with Bleached Bone.  Purity Seals were done up with Scab Red, followed by increasingly lighter mixes of Scab Red and Bleached Bone.

This is the first time I have tried a lighting effect on a jump pack.  I like it.  I painted a fairly thin layer of Enchanted Blue all around, then painted smaller circles using mixes of Enchanted Blue and Skull White, getting closer to pure Skull White near the center.

The wings I wanted to have a bit of a hue to them, rather than being just flat black.  Have you ever seen something that was so black that it almost looked blue or purple?  If you've ever seen a Raven they can look like that.  I layered a mix of Chaos Black and Shadow Grey over the undercoat, then highlighted it by increasing the amount of Shadow Grey and finally adding in a bit of Codex Gray.

I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I still think it came out pretty well.  It was quite difficult to paint the early layers.  Because of the lighting in my painting area, depending on the angle I held the wing at I couldn't tell whether I had painted certain feathers.  Finally I finished the Executioner's Axe.  For the shaft, I based it in Rotting Flesh and then highlighted with Bleached Bone.  Next came a wash of Rotting Flesh mixed with a little bit of Snot Green and a wash of Devlan Mud.  I applied a final highlight of Bleached Bone.

The power blade was painted the way I paint all my power weapons, following the tutorial in the Space Hulk issue of White Dwarf.  It involves layering mixes of blues and Skull White with a wash of Hawk Turquoise.  I think I may need to apply a couple more small highlights of pure Skull White to finish it off.

There you have it.  Astorath is humming along and I estimate I've got maybe a couple more hours to put in before he is done.  This weekend is the deadline and I don't think I will have any trouble making it.  What about those slackers Chris and Justin?  Only Tzeentch knows.

Brandon