How Not To Paint: Descent Giants

And we’re back, but first a big hello and welcome to my 11th Follower, Hans! HELLO! Big enough for ya? So, I’ve just put the finishing touches to the last Hell Hound, so all six are now grinning at me evilly. I’ve also finished the first 6 heroes, so I’ll try and get those pics up soon. Plus, don’t forget there is a Sale on at Otherworld Miniatures, 20% off everything!

Anyway, continuing my How Not To Paint Descent Series, we move onto Giants. There are only two of these mammoth creatures in this box but that’s still quite a lot of paint. This one took me three to four hours and I could have spent more time on him if I had really wanted to.

So, to begin with I primed the model black. I always use Black Primer and apply it with a paint brush to ensure that all the nooks and crannies get covered. You may have to apply two coats of primer because the plastic doesn’t much care for it.

Then I painted all the exposed skin with Calthan Brown and the eyes with Astronomican Grey. There is really no need to be neat at this stage. Next I used Tallarn Flesh over the top of that.  As you can see I left some of the basecoat showing through but I’m still not being too neat. Next I washed everything Gryphonne Sepia. While I waited for that to dry I added a coat of Fenris Grey to the hair and beard. I also picked out the eyebrows in Fenris Grey. Next I mixed up some Tallarn Flesh with some Pale Flesh, probably about 50/50. Because there is so much flesh on this model I had to work with thin coats to stop him look splodgy. As you can see I was now working much more neatly. I added in some muscle details on the arms, some furrows in the brow and the eyelids above and below the eyes. Then I added some more Pale Flesh to the mix and gently massaged the highlight onto the upper areas of the arms and chest. I finished the skin off with some extreme highlights of Pale Flesh on the face, knuckles and around the muscles. I toned the arm and chest highlights down again by brushing some of the previous highlight over them. I then set about work on the beard. First I painted it with Adeptus Battlegrey. As with the Hell Hounds, I painted each strand individually and it took FOREVER! Then, horror of horror, I washed it with a very watered down coat of Astronomican Grey, so that it look like this… I know, it looks like I temporally lost my mind, but trust me its all part of the plan, because next I did the whole beard again but in White.  This highlight coat doesn’t take as long as the first because you don't need to worry about catching every strand all the way from top to bottom. With the beard done I moved onto the pants. I’m not a fan of the red, but I wanted to stick pretty close to the original artwork. So, I painted the pants using Tausept Ochre for the insides and Mechrite Red for the outsides. I also painted the toggles with Tausept and the giants fingernails.   I always have trouble with red, especially on big areas like this. But what I did was cover the basecoat with Burgundy, then highlighted with Bright Red, followed by a second coat of Bright Red, followed by a mix of Bright Red and Orange. The insides were highlighted with Golden Yellow and the toggles and fingernails were done with Pale Flesh. Finally I moved on to the hammer. First I undercoated the string and wood with Calthan Brown and the stone with Fenris Grey. Then using Tausept Ochre I picked out the string. I used Astronomican Grey for the stone and Khemri Brown to paint the wood grain.  I then used Pale Flesh to highlight the string and Khemri Brown and Pale Flesh to highlight the wood. Finally I washed the whole thing Gryphonne Sepia and left it to dry.

And that’s it, just base to taste, paint the edge with Pale Flesh, and it ends up looking like this…

  Well that’s about it, check back again next week for fresh take on a different monster. Until then, have fun gaming!