Printed & Painted Skeletons

The Walking Undead, sworn enemeies of the Lizardfolk. I was working on these guys alongside the lizards (and they gave me many of the same problems), but they took a little longer to finish due to the freehand banner on the Commander. Skeletons:
These were printed on a Longer Orange Mono 4K with black Elegoo Standard Photopolymer Resin. I was using an 0.025mm layer height at 1.5 seconds exposure per layer, with a 1 second light-off delay and no AA. It took me two attempts to get the supports set up so all the models printed without any missing bits.

They were primed with Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black, then I airbrushed a zenithal basecoat of P3 Rucksack Tan, Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White, and P3 Menoth White Highlight.

I picked out wood in GreenStuffWorld 1834 Quicksand Brown and leather in GreenStuffWorld 1832 Redwood Brown. Brass was Scalecolor SC-92 Victorian Brass over one of the two browns, similarly the gold crown was Citadel Layer Auric Armour Gold over brown. Steel was Vallejo 71.072 Model Air Metallic Gunmetal. We settled on dark blue for the clothing, I used Vallejo 70.899 Model Color Dark Prussian Blue. The arrow fletching was basecoated with Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire.

After that was done I gave them all a dip in The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Strong Tone, making sure not to let it pool too heavily anywhere. After giving it a couple of days to fully dry, I went back and added some more details. The blue clothing was roughly and agressively highlighted with Vallejo 72.021 Game Color Magic Blue. The arrow fletching was given some highlights/detailing with Vallejo 72.006 Game Color Sun Yellow. Brass was highlighted with Citadel Layer Auric Armour Gold, steel with Citadel Layer Ironbreaker, and leather with Citadel Layer Skrag Brown.

I then carefully applied a layer of Citadel Texture Blackfire Earth to the bases, which I washed with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade then drybrushed with P3 Rucksack Tan. After this the base rims were cleaned up a bit (not enough) with some fine-grit sandpaper, then painted black. The models were then airbrushed with a coat of Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish.

Banner:
I laid down an outline of GreenStuffWorld 1796 Kraken Green over the area to be painted. The flame was layered with Vallejo 72.026 Game Color Jade Green, a mix (2:1 maybe?) of Scalecolor SFG-22 Surfer Orc Flesh and Citadel Edge Gauss Blaster Green, then just Gauss Blaster Green. The scythe handles were GreenStuffWorld 1831 Choco Brown, with a thinner inner line of and Vallejo 71.287 Model Air Ija Kakhi Brown. The blades were blocked in with Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal, then the edges dotted with Vallejo 71.063 Model Air Metallic Silver RLM01 to give a rough, agressive look.


Like the lizards I was trying to get these guys done a little bit quickly; I actually spotted several small mistakes while prepping the photos that I hadn't noticed while painting. I'm not sure the blue was the right choice, but I wanted their main colours to be very distinct from the lizards. Perhaps I should have used red cloth for the skeletons and blue for the lizards? I don't know. Older, dirtier colours like simple brown were perhaps the more "thematic" option for reanimated skeletons, but that sounded really boring. Dark blue feels more sinister, shadowy than some other options, I think they look interesting.

I considered picking the entire banner out in a different colour, but for gaming reasons I didn't want to make them too busy (colour-wise) as I was afraid it would make them read a little less easily on the table. Well, that's my justification; if I am to be honest laziness certainly played a factor... I mean, I say that, but then I spent quite a few hours figuring out then executing the freehand logo. Which I think came out pretty well considering I'm not great at this sort of thing. At the very least the pop of green looks nice and will help the commander stand out on the battlefield.

Printed & Painted Lizardfolk

I printed and painted these guys on request. The digital models were provided but I had a fair bit of difficulty with the supports, both figuring them out in the first place and also cleaning them off without leaving too much damage. There were also some (barely noticeable) print artefacts that manifested in the form of strange vertical seams; I think this was related to the resin somehow as I'd never seen that with the resin I was using before. This was a new brand of resin for me, and it seems the bottle had been lying around for a while with a cracked cap. Well, I've got some new resin on the way so hopefully I won't have this kind of problem again. Lizardfolk:
These were printed on a Longer Orange Mono 4K with black Elegoo Standard Photopolymer Resin. I was using an 0.025mm layer height at 1.5 seconds exposure per layer, with a 1 second light-off delay and no AA. It took me two attempts to get the supports set up so all the models printed without any missing bits.

They were primed with Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black, then I airbrushed a zenithal basecoat of GreenStuffWorld Acrylic Color 1797 Forest Green, Vallejo 72.729 Game Air Sick Green, and Vallejo 72.732 Game Air Escorpina Green.

I went over their bellies in Formula P3 Menoth White Base. The eyes were Vallejo 72.005 Game Color Moon Yellow with a dot of Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black. The claws were basecoated in Formula P3 Menoth White Highlight then given two coats of Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia. Their crests and spines were painted in Vallejo 72.007 Game Color Gold Yellow then drybrushed with Citadel Layer Moot Green.

I picked out wood in GreenStuffWorld 1834 Quicksand Brown and leather in GreenStuffWorld 1832 Redwood Brown. Brass was Scalecolor SC-92 Victorian Brass over one of the two browns. Any bone was painted Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White. Cloth and feathers were built up to Citadel Colour Base Mephiston Red. The arrow fletching was basecoated with Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire. Stone weapons were simply Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black.

After that was done I gave them all a dip in The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Strong Tone, making sure not to let it pool too heavily anywhere. After giving it a couple of days to fully dry, I went back and added some more details. The red cloth and feathers were given simple highlights of Vallejo 72.008 Game Color Orange Fire. The arrow fletching was given some highlight/detail with Vallejo 72.006 Game Color Sun Yellow. Brass was highlighted with Citadel Layer Auric Armour Gold, and leather with Citadel Layer Skrag Brown. I then picked out some skin details with a glaze of Citadel Glaze Lamenter's Yellow.

I then carefully applied a layer of Citadel Texture Blackfire Earth to the bases, which I washed with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade then drybrushed with P3 Rucksack Tan. After this the base rims were cleaned up a bit (not enough) with some fine-grit sandpaper, then painted black. The models were then airbrushed with a coat of Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish. Once this was dry I applied Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish onto the stone weapons, then after taking photos I ended up adding a dot of gloss varnish to the eyes as well.

I was trying to paint these guys quickly, using things like quickshade and only minimal, fairly simple, highlighting. I think they look pretty decent; certainly tabletop-worthy. I'm not sure if they would have turned out all that much better if I had tried to use more advanced techniques on them, as I'm not as good with organic models as I am with armoured or mechanical ones. I probably could have done the eyes a bit better, though it would have been a lot more painful to even try - I was actually very lucky with the eyes, and happened to get them mostly right first time, something of a miracle if I'm to be honest. Overall I'm happy with the models.