Hark, I Hear The Bombards Roar!

Finally. Embarrassingly, this is actually my first Khador model this year. I actually finished assembling him last year, but for some reason I just didn't want to paint him. I think the model is just too crowded; there's too much detail that doesn't need to be there. You don't need to cover every surface with studs PP!

To be fair though I haven't really painted very many "difficult" models this year, not after the first couple of warjacks. It's been a weird year, and I just haven't been motivated to paint anything too difficult; instead I've been experimenting with paint techniques on simpler models that I could finish quickly.

Truth is I did find this guy a complete paint to paint. There's so much crowded detail that I had to keep going back and fixing mistakes. For some reason I couldn't settle on a colour scheme that would give the model a strong focal point; there's just so many different surfaces spread out over the model that all the colours pretty much ended up everywhere. And I just didn't have enough browns to give all the different materials distinct colours (the coat, the leather boots and accessories, the wooden shield handle and gun stock, the sleeping pack, the fur trim, the water bottle, the... map?) - I didn't want to introduce different colours that would stand out too much.

I also made some mistakes, and applied washes after some highlights when I should have done the opposite. As a result some of the highlighting is too subtle. For some stupid reason I decided to matt the whole model with Vallejo brush-on matt varnish rather than my usual matt spray. Not only was the process more tedious, there were also a few bubbles that I failed to get rid of and that left holes in the model (there's a big one just under the right thumb if you look). Plus, for some reason base didn't quite come out right and looks streaky, even after two coats (I just kind of gave up to be honest). I think I'll be sticking with spray varnishes from now on.

Despite my mistakes I think he looks alright overall. I actually think that the beard saves the model by acting as a focal point. Surprisingly the steel details help quite a bit by providing some variety in a few key locations (unlike the brass which is kind of just everywhere).

But the big deal about this guy is that he's my first attempt at a new way of making light-up bases. With Strakhov I found that simply pointing the LED upwards didn't look very good, and while Alexia and Solomon looked much better the technique I used for them was difficult and could not be applied to an entire base-topper, only to one or two parts of one.

Well, I finally hit upon a relatively simple way of lighting up a whole base. This first version isn't perfect (and Harkevich might not be the best model to demonstrate it because his coat covers so much of the base), but it still worked. I'll be writing up a full illustrated tutorial on the exact technique I used soon, but I figured it would be better as a separate post.

You may have noticed that there is a bit of conversion work involved in the model as well. I never liked Hark's hat or the mechano-ham, so I removed them. Ditto for all the stupid spikes everywhere. There was never any question that he would be getting a Deathwing Knight mace, 'cos they look great and justify him having Beat-Back (which he then went and lost... sigh). I decided that a viking helmet would go well with the mace and the mighty beard, so I sculpted one on. I wasn't sure about the wings but I like how they turned out in the end.

The pose on his left fist was OK, but I figured a shield would look better while also being more thematic, so I rotated his arm and added a simple shield I had lying around. It was a bit too plain considering how busy the rest of the model is, so it got a Khador logo sculpted on. He got the Sentinels Eternal logo on the right shoulder because I couldn't think of anything else to replace the stupid spike.

It took a lot of work to carve the rock out from under his foot.

Of course the rock needed to go so he would fit the base.

The Khador logo came out quite well.

A little out of place, but oh well.

The helmet wasn't actually too hard to do.

Adding the wings was actually quite tricky though.

I ended up taking off more fur than needed, but it wasn't too hard to resculpt.

Speaking of which, the model was actually missing some fur to begin with.

Thank God that's done. Hopefully I'll get to see if he's any good on the table in MkIII soon; on paper I'm not convinced. Back in MkII I nicknamed him The Iron Bull - because he gives warjacks wings. And also because he looks more like a bull than a wolf to be honest.