Attack The Paint

Many years ago, when "Blackest Black" became available and people started talking about using it for miniatures, I had the idea of trying to recreate the monsters from Attack The Block (2011). I've always had a soft spot for that film; my old company worked on it, so I watched it at the cinema with a group of workmates, and I even got to briefly talk to Nick Frost about the possibility of a sequel at a signing at a comic convention several years back. And of course I've always loved the design of the monsters:

I didn't have a suitable model in mind though, so I never got around to it. I did discuss the idea with people on the old Privateer Press forums, and I seem to recall one forumite trying it on a Circle Orborus Warpwolf, but I don't remember his name or how well it came out.

I never completely forgot the idea, even picking up a bottle of Green Stuff World "Maxx Darth" when it came out. Well, recently I was dabbling with Khador lists (as you do) and felt like putting Butcher 3 on the table, just once. But I didn't have any Argus models and was never fond of the two-headed deal to begin with, so I figured I'd print out a couple of generic wolf models to proxy. And that's when I remembed the old idea, and figured it was finally time to give it a try.

As it happens, while looking up OSL effects for my glowing blade experiment, I saw some videos using fluorescent paints. I've been seeing more and more miniatures painted with these, and figured they would be perfect for this model. I actually had a few Vallejo fluorescents lying around that I had picked up years ago but never figured out how to use. Luckily I had both green and blue, allowing me to mix them together to try to get close the turquoise glows from the film.

War Argii:
I spent a couple of hours searching for a suitable wolf model. I was looking for something simple, with no accessories, but with large pronounced teeth. The best model I found was "Fang The Dire Wolf" by The Lost Adventures Co. Unfortunately this was a single sculpt and I needed two of them, so I had to mirror the model and hope it didn't look too obvious. Also I had to shrink the model to fit a 40mm base, which meant I couldn't use the existing supports and would have to make new ones. Which I completely screwed up first time, losing much of the all-important mouth detail, so I had to redo the supports and print them again.

I did some experiments with the Maxx Darth, and found that the surface finish was VERY delicate; even extremely light handling would start to affect the surface finish, possibly even rubbing off the paint. So I decided to put it over a normal black undercoat that had already been varnished, so even if the Maxx Darth got rubbed off there would still be a robust black layer underneath. So after priming them in Mr. Hobby Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000, I airbrushed the entire models with Green Stuff World 1779 Acrylic Color Black Stallion (thinned with Green Stuff World 1880 Airbrush Retarder).

I wanted the basing to be brighter than the black body of the wolves, but dark enough to help accentuate the bright teeth. My typical Khadoran snow or ice bases would be too bright. I also wanted something that would work for both the steampunk fantasy of the Iron Kingdoms and also the modern urban setting of Attack the Block. I settled on the flagstones from the Basius Max: Sanctuary texture pad (pressed into Brown Stuff putty). The irregular square stones were ambiguous enough to fit a variety of different time periods.

I basecoated the bases in Vallejo 70.994 Model Color Dark Grey, then dryrbushed with Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey. This didn't really give me the kind of stone texture I would have liked; the Basius flagstones are a little smooth. I edge-highlighted the flagstones with the Neutral Grey, then washed the bases with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil. It seems my Nuln Oil is getting too old; I had to thin it with some Lahmian Medium, but it still felt a bit thick and had some small black particles that I tried to remove with my brush when I saw them.

I airbrushed the entire models with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss, followed by Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat. I had some issues with one of the bases and had to repaint and revarnish the base rim, but I rushed it and it didn't quite come out the same as the first one, looking a little bit less flat black.

With the varnish dry I started on the mouth. I did this after the varnish as fluorescent paints rely on ultraviolet light, and the varnish I'm using blocks UV. I basecoated the entire mouth in Citadel Layer Sotek Green, then picked out the individual teeth using Citadel Layer Temple Guard Blue. I applied a layer of Citadel Layer Baharroth Blue, aiming to cover about three quarters of each tooth (starting from the tip). I then covered about half of each tooth with a layer of Formula P3 Morrow White. After this I glazed the entire mouth with a mix of about 5 drops of Formula P3 Turquoise Ink and 1 drop of Formula P3 Blue Ink. This added some shading as well as tinting the teeth to be closer to the greenish turquoise glow in my reference screenshots (Iirc in the photo below the model on the left has not gotten the glaze yet). Once dry I covered about a third of each tooth with Morrow White again.

I mixed Vallejo 70.737 Model Color Green Fluo with Vallejo 70.736 Model Color Blue Fluo in about a 1:1 ratio to again try to get close to the colour in my reference material, using a UV flashlight to check the glow colour as I worked. In my first tests I had tried covering the entire mouth of my test model (turns out the failed first wolf prints had a use after all...) with fluorescent paints, but under UV the entire mouth started to glow instead of just the teeth. So I painted the fluorescent mixture onto just the teeth.

This gave a rather flat uniform glow effect under UV; I had hoped to experiment with fluorescent white paint, but the paints I ordered had taken a very long time to ship, and I really wanted to get these guys done in time to actually put them on the table during the month of Halloween, so I had to do without. Instead I applied a second layer of the fluorescent paint mix onto just half of each tooth, to create a simple rough gradient. I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish onto the mouth, to protect it without blocking UV light (I did some test just to be 100% sure it had no effect on the glow whatsoever).

I could finally apply Green Stuff World The Blackest Black Maxx Darth to the body. This is a very thick paint; I had to thin it a lot with water, but I tended to over-thin it, so I had to apply several coats to get a solid effect on the raised fur areas. I was using a regular dry palette, and when I was almost done I started to suspect it might be picking up some of the grey paint that had dried on the palette before. So I grabbed a clean palette and thinned some fresh paint to apply on an area, but I couldn't see any difference so I guess it was fine.

The paint is kind of weird; sometimes it looks incredibly dark, much blacker than other black paints. Other times it looks like a lighter grey, but VERY matt, with virtually no specular light. I guess it's very lighting dependent. In the photo below you can see the regular varnished black on the left, and the Maxx Darth on the right, under normal room lighting:

The problem with Maxx Darth and, from what I hear, with all these "blacker than black" or "blackest black" paints is that they rely on their surface finish to work, and that surface finish is very delicate. In my test even very careful handling would damage the matt effect that gave the paint its "black hole" look. After some experimentation it seemed that a very light coat of Alclad II Lacquer ALC 600 Aqua Gloss Clear would give the surface a slightly satin look (compared to the unprotected matt original), but still maintain some of that extra blackness while providing some protection. So I carefully applied a very light dusting of the Aqua Gloss Clear. In the photo below the model on the right has been varnished:

I wasn't convinced that it had worked, so I avoided touching the bodies until after I had taken the glamour shots, to try to get the best possible photos. With that done I tried to very lightly rub the body of one wolf, as you would when handling gaming pieces normally, and I could immediately see the raised areas of the fur becoming more reflective. Here is the model before handling:

And here it is after some light handling. You can see the tops of the locks of fur starting to become more reflective:

And here's a comparison, with the unhandled model on the right:

So yeah, the Maxx Darth is basically a failure for normal gaming models. I can see using it for recessed areas that shouldn't be touched under normal handling, such as the inside of a monster's mouth or something (that could work well to give the appearance of a gaping maw of nothingness or whatever), but overall not really practical for normal gaming models.

Despite being such a simple scheme, these two models were EXTREMELY frustrating; from the print issues to the varnish issues to the finicky paint, these ones were a bit rough. And I'd like to say it was worth it, but knowing that all the work won't amount to very much in the long run since the Maxx Darth won't hold up kinda robs the project of the usual payoff. Still, it was educational; it was my first time using fluorescent paints, and that part at least worked out in the end. And I've finally put one of my many stupid hobby ideas into practice, so that's one less piece of baggage rattling around in my skull. Now to play Butcher 3 exactly once and never again.


EDIT (2024/11/03): I had ordered a pot of Green Stuff World 1760 Fluor Fluorescent White, but I wasn't able to use it for these models as I wanted to paint them before halloween and it hadn't arrived. Once it did, I tried painting it onto the teeth of one of the wolves to try to further brighten them (as the blue and green fluoroscent paints had darkened the whitest parts), but the paint is very transparent and made no visible difference under normal lighting. Under UV light the glow was more blue than before, but the difference doesn't really show up on camera so there's no point in posting new photos. So yeah, doesn't look like the white will work very well for creating gradients on glows, I think it'll be more for creating glowing whites (the glow itself is bluish under UV, but still).

Arise!

Wow, I can't believe it's been over nine years since I painted Alexia, and I still hadn't painted the rest of her unit. That's just depressing. Well, with Alexia and the Risen being a pale shadow of their former selves, I'm finding it very hard to justify bringing them (in the rare event that I actually get a game). But it felt sad to put them away without ever having painted them, so I decided to try to knock the Risen out in a single week of speed painting. Spoiler warning: it took me a lot longer than a week. I did try to paint them as quickly as possible, but various stuff got in the way and I had to put them on hold for a few months. But hey, they're FINALLY finished!

And here they are with Alexia and her favourite undead servant:

The unit originally had twenty Risen grunts (well, due to a mispack my box actually came with twenty-one Risen), but only three sculpts (seen here with some missing arms):

In Mk4 the unit size was reduced from a maximum of twenty grunts to a maximum of ten grunts. This was a bitter pill to swallow, both in-game and also in terms of leaving me with ten (actually eleven) unusable models. But then I hit on the idea of converting them into a couple of units of Legion of Lost Souls. So I sculpted and printed some shields and glued them onto ten grunts. I chose two Khadoran Risen models to serve as unit leaders (which isn't actually a thing in this edition, but maybe it will be again someday, and it looks good aesthetically), and four of each of the others to give me an easy way to differentiate two units. I considered giving them some halberds as well, but decided it would be too difficult to fit them on to the models, at least in a way that looked good.

This left me with ten plus one basic boney boys for Alexia.

Risen:
I've never been a fan of duplicate models in a unit, so I tried to find ways to differentiate them. Luckily they were soft metal models and quite spindly, so I was able to do quite a lot by twisting and bending limbs. I also removed some body parts here and there. The Khadoran sculpt was an issue though, there wasn't much I could do other than chop the feet off at varying heights. Oh, and take off one guy's head. I'm sure he didn't need it.

In order to try to match the swamp bases I gave Alexia and the Thrall without having to spend a lot of money on resin bases (this was LONG before I got into 3D printing) I tried to sculpt my own swamp bases, with areas for water effects scattered across the textured ground (which I tried to make reminiscent of the ground on the other two's bases - some of which I had sculpted myself). I also drilled small holes of varying depth into the "water" areas, which I would use for the bubbles later.

For the Legion of Lost Soul's shields, I considered trying to recast the shields on some Precursor Knights I have lying around unassembled, or maybe just recasting the Radiance of Morrow on the fronts of their shields, but ultimately decided to digitally sculpt it myself, using this image as a refernce:

I wasn't too hard to get the basic shape, modifying it very slightly for better printing. I have uploaded the design to Thingiverse. For the shield I ultimately settled on a design by KillMeForPrizes on Cults3d. I wrapped the Radiance onto the shield, printed them up and glued them onto the chosen Risen models.

My plan for painting was to try to use very quick and easy techniques; I wanted to try to use mostly airbrushing and a dip, with maybe some drybrushing. The idea was to just use paint everything in faded brown colours so I wouldn't have to paint different colours for the different sculpts. I figured I might as well use a zenithal, but figured I'd go for green as the shadow colour rather than black.

So after priming the shields I airbrushed a basecoat of Green Stuff World 1796 Acrylic Color Kraken Green thinned with Green Stuff World 1747 Acrylic Thinner over the entirety of all the models. I then airbrushed Vallejo 71.287 Model Air Ija Kakhi Brown from above as the main brown colour. I carefully airbrushed Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White onto the bone areas - or tried to. I thinned it with the acrylic thinner, but I still had a very hard time getting a consistent spray. I airbrushed the shield faces with a turquise I had mixed up from various blue and green acrylic inks a while back for a different project that I ended up not using (so I have a lot of it lying around). It ended up being very close to Citadel Layer Temple Guard Blue. Finally I airbrushed the bases with thinned Citadel Layer Doombull Brown.

Next I drybrushed the various metal bits with Scalecolor SC-72 Viking Gold, a sort of aged brass colour. I had some painting videos on in the background as I worked, and funnily enough after I finished I was cleaning my brush and glanced up at the video only to see Broadsword Wargaming painting Stormcasts, using almost the same blue/teal on their shields. Small world. I went over the Radiances and the Khador Anvils on the Ushankas of the Khadoran models with Scalecolor SC-73 Dwarven Gold to brighten them up a little.

By this point I felt a lot of the cloth had been covered up by the drybrushes and I wasn't really liking the colour that was showing anyway, so pretty much on a whim I brushed some Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather over any cloth areas with a drybrush... but then I decided that it was blending into the brass too much in places so after a few models I switched to Formula P3 Rucksack Tan and want back over the painted ones and continued with that. This wasn't exactly a drybrush as the brush was loaded with more paint than I would use for a normal dryrbush, but it wasn't exactly a regular painted coat either; it was sort of something in the middle.

I drybrushed over the "ground" areas with Formula P3 Hammerfall Kakhi to give it some contrast. Finally I "drybrushed" (again with a more loaded brush) some aged white to fix some bone areas that had gotten covered up. Most of the visible colour on the models now was from "dryrbrushing" rather than from the airbrush, so I kinda feel like the whole "do most of it by airbrushing" plan was a failure. Still, I had mostly drybrushed with a downwards motion so some of the original green shadow was still visible, and I had finished it all fairly quickly - MUCH more quickly than if I had painted all the basecoats on in my usual way - so that's OK.

I shaded them using The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Strong Tone, using a brush to clean up excessive pooling before it could set. When this was dry I airbrushed the "water" areas of the bases in Vallejo 72.729 Game Air Sick Green, but I wasn't able to get it down cleanly so I ended up going back over it with a brush, rather carelessly throwing it on. Most likely it would have been faster and less frustrating to just brush it on in the first place, although in retrospect I think I shouldn't have painted it up to the "ground" areas as sharply.

I carefully dryrbushed the Dwarven Gold over the Radiances on the shields to try to get them to stand out a bit more, as they weren't as bright as I would have liked after the shade. The result was subtle, but it did make a difference. I airbrushed spots of Vallejo 72.732 Game Air Escorpena Green onto the "water" areas, trying to create an "organic" looking undercoat for the water effects I was planning to apply.

Decades ago, back when I was in school, I used to write with a fountain pen that used standard ink cartridges. I discovered these had small clear plastic agitator beads inside. On a whim I started collecting these beads, amassing a reasonable number before I got tired of it. I still have them after all these years, and I had put them in my bits box when I got into the hobby. I glued them into the small divots I had originally drilled in the "water" areas (I did this after painting to maintain their transparenccy and to make sure there wouldn't be any unpainted base visible through them).

After painting the base rims black I varnished the models using Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss then Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat. I marked bottoms of the bases with Rotring Drawing Ink White through an old Koh-I-Noor, I believe it's a Rapidosketch 0.35mm. Some of the beads did not pick up enough of the green colour from the base, so I glazed them lightly with Citadel Glaze Waywatcher Green.

For the water, I added a little bit of Woodland Scenics C1228 Earth Colors Liquid Pigment Green Undercoat to some Woodland Scenics C1211 Realistic Water. I ran a brush through it a couple of times, than added it to the bases with the brush. I didn't want it well-mixed, I wanted streaks of colour in the hope that would make it look like streaky swamp water. But that didn't exactly work, instead the paint seemed to sit on top of the water effects, so when I applied it to the bases I was picking up a lot of colour at first, then less and less as I worked through the unit. So the first models I did had darker looking swamp water, with more green particles, while the later ones had lighter, clearer swamp water.

While not what I had intended, I think it's fine, the difference is barely noticeable irl. Still, I think next time I'll try adding the water effects first then picking up a tiny bit of colour with a toothpick and swirling it in, or something like that. The water effects shrank a LOT; it feels like it loses at least half its volume. Also it doesn't help that there is a lot of capillary action pulling it up the sides of the models. After the first application dried it was very thin, so I gave them a second pass of water effects.

After that the swamp water ended up looking too plain and flat, even with the bubbles; it didn't look swamp-like tbh. So I decided to try to add something to the water to give it more detail. I took some strips of leftover paper strips ("Double A Premium" 80gsm white A4) from cutting out some cards I made using my card creator, and painted both sides with a heavy coat of acrylic ink. I wanted to completely soak the paper so there wouldn't be any white edges showing. I used a sandy-coloured mix I had leftover from a previous project, which was made of Amsterdam Acrylic Ink 227 Yellow Ochre with a little Amsterdarm Acrylic Ink 275 Primary Yellow. I then tapped an old paintbrush loaded with the yellow ink to splatter it onto the paper for mottling. I mixed some of the Yellow Ochre with Amsterdam Acrylic Ink 735 Oxide Black; this somehow turned out quite greenish so I added some Amsterdam Acrylic Ink 369 Primary Magenta to get a darker brown, and splattered that on top. Then I splattered some yellow on top again. I punched out a bunch of leaf shapes using two different Green Stuff World leaf punches (1300 and 1310).

I might not have given everything time to dry fully, as when I collected the leaves in a pile, many of them stuck together somewhat and I had to pry them apart with tweezers - which luckily mostly worked OK. I then picked up individual leaves with the tweezers, dipped them in the same water effects and positioned them on the base, immediately painting another coat of water effects on top, covering all the swamp areas again. The leaves unded up quite bright, perhaps distracting somewhat from the models (and also making them stand out a bit from Alexia and the Thrall, who didn't get the Autumn treatment). The green on the bases was already competing with the models for the viewer's attention tbh. But I've never used my leaf punches before, so I'm glad I got the chance to try a new technique, and I honetly think the makes the models more visually pleasing overall.


I've had a lot of fun with Alexia's unit in Mk2 and Mk3, so even if they don't get much more play in Mk4, I'm still glad I finally finished painting them. They deserved it. It might be a slightly muted colourscheme using very lazy painting techniques, but I think it works for them. I tried a lot of new things while painting these models, and it's the largest unit I've ever painted, so this was kind of an accomplishment as well as a learning experience for me.

More Monsters

We've been having more painting hangouts in the last few weeks, and it's been a lot of fun. Over the last three sessions I finished two more monsters from the Witcher boardgame, a harpy and a werewolf, which in retrospect is quite fitting given we are currently in the month of October.

Harpy:
Again I wasn't putting much effort into the Harpy, just threw on some colours real quick and called it a day. I was reminded of images of angels and demons from movies like 2005's Constantine and 2008's Max Paine, so I went for a demonic colour scheme. I wanted to try my new Two Thin Coats purple triad, so I roughly layered up the skin in Two Thin Coats 10016 Amethyst Rayne, 10017 Sorcerer's Cloak, and 10018 Runic Purple.

I used Vallejo colours for the wings, though I'm not 100% sure which ones I used. The basecoat was probably Vallejo 72.010 Game Color Bloody Red. I tried to drybrush orange - most likely Vallejo 72.009 Game Color Hot Orange - but it wasn't drybrushing properly, the result came out more like a smoothly blended transition. Which wasn't what I was after, but I went with it. I got a similar effect with the yellow - probably Vallejo 72.006 Game Color Sun Yellow.

I washed the wings and skin, I think I used Citadel Shade Carroburg Crimson for both. I then picked out the beak in Vallejo 72.763 Game Air Desert Yellow, highlighted with what was probably the same Sun Yellow, then glazed it with Citadel Glaze Lamenters Yellow.

I don't remember exactly what greys and browns I used for the base, but I used different basecolours for the rock, dirt, and rope, but washed them all together, I think I used Citadel Shade Nuln Oil, though it might have been Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade. I drybrushed the rocks in a lighter grey, and I think I drybrushed both the dirt and rope in the same tan.


Werewolf:
After soliciting colour scheme suggestions from the rest of the group, I decided to go for a wintery scheme. I actually made an effort with this guy, mainly because he needed more attention due to the different textures covering the whole model.

I basecoated the skin in The Army Painter WP1432 Warpaints Ice Storm. The fur was Vallejo 70.990 Model Color Light Grey. I think the nose was Vallejo 70.862 Model Color Black Grey. The leather was Green Stuff World 1834 Acrylic Color Quicksand Brown. I mixed Formula P3 Ryn Flesh with a little bit of Citadel Colour Base Mephiston Red to get a pink for the mouth. I picked out the teeth, claws and eyes in Two Thin Coats 10036 Trooper White (or it might have been 10035 Ivory Tusk). I used a darker grey for the stone and a darker brown for the dirt.

I then washed the entire model in Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade, which went on very well (although you can see in the photos that I missed a spot or two), but kinda blended the fur and skin together so that there wasn't much difference between them anymore. I dryrbushed the fur in the Light Grey, but I felt it was too dark so I went over it again with Vallejo 70.989 Model Color Sky Grey then Vallejo 79.993 Model Color White Grey. I lightly dryrbushed the skin with Ice Storm to give it back a little of the blue. I drybrushed the rock in Light Grey, and the dirt in Quicksand Brown.

I glazed over the eyes with Citadel Glaze Lamenters Yellow, clumsily dotted the pupils with Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black, and called it a day.

Elemental Jellybeans

I've been interested in doing more clear resin casting. I figured the Elemental Champions would look great with some added transparency. I started with the units, which gave me a chance to experiment with making molds and tinting resin.

Casting:
These models proved to be far more difficult to cast than Ol' Grim's torso, as there were far more nooks and crannies to catch air bubbles. I ended up designing and printing a casting box that had a "door" on each side; I would glue the model into the box, then use the shafts from ear buds to create vents anywhere I thought air was likely to get caught:

Then I sealed the "doors" in place with PVA, using elastic bands to hold them until the PVA dried:

With this done I was able to pour in silicone to make a mold:

Once this set I could pull the doors off and easily extract the mold, carefully cutting it open to remove the model:

I would then transfer the mold to a casting box I designed and printed, that would actually feed the resin to the mold from underneath, so it would slowly fill from the bottom up:

Actually mixing the resin, trying to de-gas it, then slowly and carefully pouring it into the mold was something like a half-hour process per mold. Between trying to get better casts and trying to dial in the tint colours, and of course casting enough to get 15 units, it took ages to finish.

I had to do a lot of cleanup work too, filling bubbles with UV resin and even trying to replace missing details by building up with UV resin then sanding down to the desired shape. One particular recurring issue, for example, was the fingers on the Fire Kami; only one cast came out with fingers that I could "rescue" using UV resin, all the rest needed greenstuff work to look even remotely decent:

The Air Avatar was a little bit more involved. The mold was made the same way, but before casting I took some miscast bricks (made from Green Stuff World acrylic resin powder mixed with water and cast in a Green Stuff World brick mold), broke them into smaller pieces with a hobby knife, and painted them to look like small rocks.

I cut a strip of clear plastic from a blister pack, and used a heat gun to soften it so I could bend it to follow the contour of the Air Avatar. I attached the rocks to the plastic strip using Green Stuff World UV resin.

I put the rock-encrusted strip of clear plastic into the Air Avatar mold before filling it with resin, embedding the rocks inside the resin.

Air Avatar:

I cast the Air Avatar using clear resin with no added dye. The Air Avatar was actually the first model I painted, so I did some things differently from the rest. I airbrushed on Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat to serve in place of a primer. I was also hoping that blocking as much UV as possible would protect the resin from yellowing over time. After glueing the model onto its base I applied a masking tape I had gotten from a local art store onto the rest of the base and used blu-tack to try to protect right up to the model.

I painted the rocks that are part of the original sculpt with the same colour I used on the inner rocks: a leftover mix of brown artist acrylics (Daler Rowney "Graduate Acrylic" 201 Burnt Sienna, Phoenix Artist's Acrylic Value Series 690 Vandyke Brown, and Phoenix 601 Raw Sienna) that I've had lying around for a while. I lightly drybrushed the entire model with Formula P3 Menoth White Highlight; I decided to use this on the whole model to try to help the detail to stand out. I then washed the rocks on the base in Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade. I gave the model another airbrushed varnish of Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss; I considered leaving it glossy as this enhanced the transparency, but it didn't really make sense for air to be glossy so I went over again with the UVCut Flat. For illustrative purposes, here it is before the matt coat, next to an Air Kami with a gloss varnish:

And here is the same model after I went over the gloss coat with a matt varnish, you can see how the matt finish makes it looks less clear:

After the model was done, when I tried to remove the masking tape from the base, it left a stubborn residue behind:

After some experimentation I found something that was able to clean up the residue, however I don't remember what it was and I think it also melted the plastic of the base a tiny bit, but luckily I was able to smooth it out enough to not be too noticeable.

Air Kamis:

The Air Kamis were cast in clear resin then airbrushed with a varnish to act as a primer. I think I actually used the GX 113 Gloss on all the models other than the Air Avatar; I might have been hoping this would help washes flow into recesses rather than tinting the whole model, tbh I don't remember. This time I used Talens Liquid Masking Film to protect the base, which fortunately worked very well.

I gave the models a light drybrush with Two Thin Coats 10036 Trooper White. The grunts' armour was then basecoated with Scalecolor SC-63 Metal N' Alchemy Black Metal, then washed it with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil. This was followed with a dryrbushed of Vallejo 72.053 Game Color Chainmail Silver. I decided it was too dark, so I drybrushed the upper surfaces with Vallejo 72.052 Game Color Silver.

To differentiate the Elite I basecoated its armour with Citadel Color Tin Bitz, then washed it with Citadel Washes Ogryn Flesh (thinned with Citadel Technical Lahmian Medium because my pot is old and has thickened). It was then dryrbushed with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold, but I decided it was too dark so I drybrushed the upper surfaces with Citadel Layer Auric Armour Gold. I also left the "gemstones" on the gauntlets clear on the Elite, where I had just painted over them on the grunts.

I varnished them with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss then Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat.

Earth Kamis:

I initially cast the Earth Kamis with green-tinted resin; first I tried a mix of ten drops of Pebeo Fluid Pigment 67 Blue with around five drops of Pebeo Fluid Pigment 62 yellow (in 30ml of resin, which was very excessive). This became very opaque; an issue that always seemed to occur if I used more than a couple of drops of Pebeo yellow. My second attempt came out better with six drops of Pebeo blue to two drops of Pebeo yellow in 20ml of resin. Later I aquired some Green Stuff World 2402 Dye For Resins Green, using seven drops in 20ml of resin.

Which didn't really matter because I then decided to save clear green for different models and switched to purple for my Earth Kamis instead. I tried two drops of Green Stuff World 2401 Dye For Resins Blue with three drops of Green Stuff World 2404 Dye For Resins Red in 15ml of resin, but this was too dark. Next I tried five drops of Pebeo blue (which seems to be much less saturated) with two drops of GSW red in 20ml of resin, and finally three drops of Pebeo blue with one drop of GSW red in 20ml of resin:

I varnished the models, glued them to the bases, and applied the liquid mask to protect the bases. The grunts' helmets were painted Black Metal, washed with Nuln Oil, then dryrbushed with chainmail silver and finally the raised surfaces were dryrbrushed with silver. The Elite's helmet was basecoated in Tin Bitz, washed it with Ogryn Flesh, dryrbushed with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold, then the upper surfaces were drybrushed with Auric Armour Gold.

Finally the unarmoured areas were washed with (old) Citadel Shade Druchii Violet. I only did this on the lighter two; when I started on the darker one the shade wasn't really visible and I was afraid it would darken it even further, so I quickly wased it off with water and left it unshaded. I varnished them with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss, but decided not to follow up with the matt varnish as I liked the idea of the gemstones being shiny.

Fire Kamis:

Initially I tried to tint the resin orange while casting, but then I decided to just use yellow so that I would have bright yellow as the lightest parts of the flames. I had a hard time with the yellow tint, as the Pebeo Fluid Pigment 62 Yellow was very concentrated and just a few drops would turn the model opaque. The Green Stuff World 2403 Dye For Resins Yellow was much more controllable; in the end I used about five drops of GSW yellow in 15ml of resin.

I varnished the models, glued them to the bases, and applied the liquid mask to protect the bases. I then washed the models with Citadel Shade Casandora Yellow; this gave the models the orange tint I had hoped for but darkened them a lot more than I had been expecting. It also seemed to even out the differences in the intensity of the yellow tint between the models.

The flames were looking flatter than I had hoped, so I tried to darked the recesses on the lower parts of the models with another, more carefully applied wash of Casandora Yellow. To try to lighten the models up a bit and create more contrast I tried to take some of the wash off the raised areas by lightly rubbing them with cotton swabs that I moistened and then picked up a small amount of The Masters Brush Cleaner And Preserver, washing the models with a generous amount of water afterwards to make sure there was no residue or leftover brush cleaner. I think this did lighten the raised areas a little, but it's hard to be sure, that might be just my imagination.

The grunts' helmets were painted Black Metal, washed with Nuln Oil, then dryrbushed with chainmail silver and finally the raised surfaces were dryrbrushed with silver. The Elite's helmet was basecoated in Tin Bitz, washed it with Ogryn Flesh, dryrbushed with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold, then the upper surfaces were drybrushed with Auric Armour Gold. I also made sure to use the one cast with good fingers for the elite, which allowed me to leave the fingers clear rather than painting over them as I did with the grunts.

Fire Avatars:

I had some trouble casting these guys as the "brain" at the top kept coming out empty. Which is kinda funny to be fair. Eventually I got a good cast, and then ended up with a second good cast (I had only been planning on making one) when I had some leftover resin. I used the same yellow tint as the Fire Kamis, and painted them the exact same way as the Elite Fire Kami.

Water Avatars:

For the first cast I tried about five drops of Pebeo blue in 20ml of resin, I tried to lighten up the second one a little with about three drops of Pebeo blue in 20ml of resin. The first cast had rather a lot of small air bubbles on the surface; the second had far less. Unfortunately I careless chose the rougher of the two casts when I was taking photos...

I varnished the models, glued them to the bases, and applied the liquid mask to protect the bases. The metallic parts were basecoated in Tin Bitz, washed it with Ogryn Flesh, dryrbushed with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold, then the upper surfaces were drybrushed with Auric Armour Gold.

The models were looking good; I would say they were my favourites in fact, like deep blue marbles. However I decided to try to bring out the details of the water's surface a bit more; I considered a light white drybrush, but decided instead to try to shade the recesses with a wash of Vallejo 73.207 Game Wash Blue Wash. This darkened the models more than I would have liked, and kinda flowed a bit too much; it didn't really stay in most the recesses and so didn't accentuate the detail as much as I would have liked. That might be at least partly due to the gloss varnish I was using in lieu of primer?


Overall I think these models look fun, and I learned a lot while making them. The bronze looks really good to me, I'm really happy with how that turned out. In the future I'll try to use lighter tints while casting, knowing know that shading has such a pronounced darkening effect on clear casts. I am planning on casting and painting the monsters as well (eventually); in fact I specifically chose the two metallic colours for the units based on how I plan to paint the monsters. These guys did take a long time however, hopefully it won't take me as long to get the monsters done.