Welcome to the final speed painting article for #CoolMiniOrNot's #ZombicideInvader. So far I've shown you how I painted Xeno Workers and Xeno Hunters, but now we get to the most involved mini in the set, the Tanks
Recipe
I used the following paints and materials.
Citadel Grey Seer Spray
Citadel Contrast Apothecary White
Citadel Contrast Flesh Tearers Red
Citadel Contrast Basilicanum Grey
Citadel Contrast Volupus Pink
Citadel Contrast Creed Camo
Citadel Contrast Iyanden Yellow
Citadel Technical Lahmian Medium
Formula P3 Morrow White
Formula P3 Jack Bone
Formula P3 Menoth White Base
Formula P3 Menoth White Highligh
Formula P3 Necrotite Green
Formula P3 Sulfuric Yellow
Formula P3 Khador Red Base
Formula P3 Carnal Pink
Technique
To begin I undercoated the minis with Grey Seer spray...
Then to begin with I started with the brain, washing it with Contrast Creed Camo and the stem in Contrast Iyanden Yellow. Once that was dry I washed the face with Contrast Apothecary White.
Next I laid down the base colour for the flesh. This was done with a wash of Contrast Basilicanum Grey. I wanted the darkest concentration around the shoulders and used Lahmian medium to fade out the colour across the chest and above the bloated lower regions.
Next I loaded up my drybrush with a dusting of P3 Jack Bone and did my best to hit the chest and the lower legs below the knees. I followed this up with a drybrushing of Menoth White Base to add a little highlight.
Then I washed those areas using a mix of Menoth White Base and Apothecary White, using more Apothecary White to blend the edges into the grey.
Finally I used pure Menoth Base White as a highlight to pick out the edges of the muscles.
Next comes the Contrast Volupus Pink. This is applied to all the tentacles and then left to dry. I also applied it to the arms and bulbous lower region of the body, using Lahmian Medium to blend the edges into the grey of the main body.
The next stage was to highlight the various non-tentacle details. The face was picked out with Morrow White, the brain with Necrotite Green and the stem with a mix of white and Sulfuric Yellow. The nails were picked out with Contrast Flesh Tearers Red and then highlighted with Khador Red Base.
Next comes the long part. I made up a mix of Carnal Pink and Volupus Pink and set about highlighting the face tentacles. Theres no quick way through this one, it's just a case of painting hundreds of horizontal lines... When that was done I highlighted the teeth with Menoth White Highlight.
The final stage is wet blending the arm tentacles, this was the step I disliked the most. Wet blending is a pain at the best of times but doing it across 18 models was very very dull. I started with a similar mix of Carnal and Volupus Pink with more Carnal for a lighter overall shade. The aim with wet blending, as the name implies is to keep it wet and blend your colours along the length of the object you're painting. I was blending from my lighter mix to almost pure Volupus Pink by adding more and more of it as I went along.
The end result is a lighter colour at the tip of the tentacles, gradually shifting to a darker colour closer to the body.
And that's it. This batch of 18 was painted over around 12 hours making these more time consuming that the other Xenos but still manageable. Details around the face and tentacles really help to compensate for other shortcuts I took with the paint job, but hopefully you'll agree they look good now they're done.
Although this is the last speed painting article for Invader (at least for now) I'll be back next week to show you how I based my set and if you want to see more of my Invader minis don't forget to check out the Gallery and you can follow along more regularly on the Facebook Page or on Twitter.
Until next time, have fun painting,
The Duke
The Duke says every painter should have a pot of Citadel Lahmian Medium in their paint tray...
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