Monday, September 12, 2016

GALLERY: Tomb Kings Chariots


The Kings gather their power and their legions grow, and in my little part to help them I added a second unit of Chariots to my army in preparation for the Michigan GT. The demands of Battleline call and I answer, and to be honest, you can never go wrong with more chariots.


I had already painted a unit of these before, but it was way back in 2011 or 2012. Back then I painted them one at a time since they are so much larger then a standard model, but this time I was on a schedule and needed to get them done before the end of this month. I already had one extra chariot painted from when I buffed my unit up to four strong at the end of 8th edition, so I only needed to paint two new ones and a banner for the existing one. Like my first unit I converted the champion of this one with a simple head swap, using a Tomb Guard head to make him look more important. Once they were all assembled it was on to painting. They were all primed white to make it faster. I started with the chariot bodies themselves. I painted both of them at the same time and did chunks of them together, but for the most part I painted one all the way, then went back and did the other.


I started with the wooden floorboards. Fun fact, I have pretty much painted the wood on each of my units different from each other. This is purely because I keep forgetting what colors I used the last time and how I did it. With these guys I tried painting it in the same manner as the shields from my spearmen, which involves doing a wash of a light brown over the white and then hitting it with Agrax Earthshade, but this ended up being to light so I switched to matching the already finished chariot, which is what I have should have done anyway. I painted them Rhinox Hide, washed them with Nuln Oil and then highlighted them by mixing in Screaming Skull to the Rhinox Hide.


After that it was on to the white, which goes fairly quickly and really just gets a lot of its character from the weathering. The gold takes the longest. I used to paint Shining Gold straight over the white, and then switched to Gehenna's Gold with the new paint range. This takes a ton of coats though since that color is so thin. With these ones I decided to base coat all of them with Retributor Gold first and then layer on the Gehenna's Gold on top of that. It worked really well and probably saved me some time in the end. This is washed with Agrax and highlighted by mixing in Stormhost Silver. The bronze is done next and is also a pain to get a solid coat of. I still use Dwarf Bronze, an old color, and have to do probably three to four coats. After this is done both the gold and bronze are weathered at the same time.


There are a few other bits to do on the chariots after this, such as the quivers and freehand, but none of it takes very long. The next part I moved onto were the horses. These are very straight forward. A base coat of Screaming Skull, wash selectively with Agrax, dry brush with a Screaming Skull and white mix, then tidy up. I use the dry brush as more of a guide because then I go back with the same color and neatly layer it on in all of the same spots. I just don't like the grainy look of a pure dry brush. This is then finished off with a line highlight of pure white. They're simple, but take a long time due to how larger they are.


The bones of the skeleton crew are painted the same way, but go much faster. Next I did the turquoise since it is inside some of the gold areas. This is painted a solid coat of Sotek Green and then the shadows are carefully painted in with Stegadon Scale Green. I highlight it with Sotek Green mixed with Screaming Skull and then weather it before finishing the highlights around it. All of the gold and bronze are painted the same way as the chariots. The bandages are painted with Charadon Granite, possibly one of my favorite colors and one which is sadly no longer made and had no real equivalent. I have one pot of it left and once that's gone I will have to hunt around online for some more.


Most of the banner was painted the same way as the chariots except for the central skull. This is something I have done on all of my newer banners and I really like the look. I tried to make it look like a black gem by painting it black and then highlighting it with Stegadon Scale Green, Sotek Green, and Sotek Green mixed with white. This helps tie it in with the turquoise on other parts of the model. I'm really happy with how they turned out and they put my older unit to shame a bit. That's one problem with an army that spans half a decade in painting, you'll improve or change your methods so stuff will look slightly different across the army. I have nine more chariot models to paint and I definitely intend to paint at least six more so I can run the Royal Legion of Chariots battalion. When I will get around to it though I don't know. It did take me five years to paint the second unit of chariots, so hopefully they are done before 2020.

Be sure to watch the video below for a 360 degree video of the model. The music is once again provided by Adam Harvey, you can follow him on his Facebook page and listen to some more of his music on his Youtube channel.


Until next time,

Tyler M.

No comments:

Post a Comment