I picked up the Bombardier Bombshell model a very long time ago, intending to convert her into a second Man-O-War Kovnik. Then I discovered that the Kovnik wasn't very good, and I abandoned that idea. Well, when the Greylord Forge Seer came out, it finally gave me a reason to finish the conversion I had planned - with some slight modifications of course.
As much as I like the original model, I wanted to make it seem like less of a hassle to climb in and out of the armour. So I pinned the front and thigh plates to look like they were hinged open, and added a helmet to look like it simply slid up and forwards slightly when opening. That meant that I needed something for the leg to be resting on, and wasn't able to come up with anything more interesting than a random barrel.
While I'm very happy with the armour, her face didn't exactly come out the way I had hoped. Part of this was a slightly messy sculpt, but the truth is I was really struggling to be able to see what I was painting. The closer you look to the face the more horrifying it gets...
The last time I painted a face I tried to use the skin wash to "outline" the eyes, but it was too soft and looked strange. Looking online, a black outline seemed to be common, and looked pretty good when done right. I considered hedging my bets with a dark brown, but decided to go all in on a true black. The results are... a bit too dramatic; I can't really paint well enough to get the outline thin enough for black to look right. I guess you could say that she just uses too much makeup.
I guess that would also explain her slightly-too-red lips; I couldn't quite get the paint mix right this time, but to be honest it matches the eyes this way. I think I might have painted her lips a little bit too high though; I noticed this while painting but wasn't sure enough to be willing to go back over them and try again. I don't think it's really too bad to be honest. The slightly bulbous nose wasn't my fault though, that was just the sculpt.
The gemstone gave me more trouble than I had expected. Strangely it looks better in real life; the camera seems to have made it look very bright and washed out, when actually it's a bit darker and looks "deeper".
The arms are from the Mechanic officer. I modeled an axe in Blender, using photos of the Forge Seer model to try to get something similar to the "official" weapon. I did try adding rules, but ultimately decided against them. My first print attempt in PLA worked out OK, but when I started painting I noticed that the layer lines were too visible. By that point I had a new resin printer, and ended up replacing the axe head with an improved version halfway through painting. The axe handle was made using a tube tool to shape and texture some greenstuff that was wrapped around sections of brass tube.
I then modeled and printed a Greylord crest to replace the tools on the left shoulder. I also added magnets to the arms; this will potentially allow me to run the model as any MOW with an axe or axe-like weapon in the future. For example, if I add a shield I could use her as a Shocktrooper or a dismounted Drakhun, or if I add a cannon I could probably run her as Sorscha3.
I blieve the helmet was from the Drakhun. Some sculpting was required to smooth over the removed crest, and also extend the grill a short distance. I also had to fill in the gap on the front of the chestpiece, and add some detail to the inside of the thigh piece.
I diverged from my usual Khador "snow/ice" basing scheme here, and sculpted a simple stone floor. This was largely to better fit with the barrel (I suppose I could have had her stand on a rock or something, but I prefer the barrel), but I do think it makes more sense for her to be climbing out of the armour inside a building, than while standing in the middle of a field of snow, so I think this works better for her. I did go for a neutral grey stone so that it won't stand out too much next to the white snow of the rest of my Khador.
Since I was replacing the beer keg, I just didn't think the stein fit anymore. So I 3d printed a replacement arm. I settled on a a neutral "open palm" pose, that I would paint to suggest that she was gathering some magic in her hand. I had a hard time getting the printed arm to come out the way I wanted, so I ended up having to do a lot of greenstuff work to try to match the other arm. I gave her an Ushanka with a tiny Greylord crest to fit the Greylord aesthetic.
The final four assemblies. These were painted individually, as it would have been almost impossible to get paint into some areas otherwise.
Paint Recipe:
Red:
The basecoat was probably Citadel Blood Red... or it might have been Vallejo 72.106 Game Color Scarlett Blood. Highlights were Citadel Layer Wild Rider Red. I don't remember what I used for shading, it might have been a darker Citadel red or a Citadel wash. Or something else.
Steel:
Army Painter Warpaints Gun Metal washed with a black wash (probably Army Painter) and highlighted with Citadel Chainmail... until I ran out and had to switch to Vallejo 72.053 Game Color Chainmail Silver.
Brass:
Undercoated brown (maybe Citadel Skrag Brown) then basecoated with Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold, washed with Citadel Ogryn Flesh and highlighted with Citadel Layer Auric Armour Gold.
Bronze/dark metal areas:
Undercoated either the same brown or painted on top of the brass from the previous step's basecoat. Then basecoated Citadel Tin Bitz and highlighted Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold.
Stone:
Basecoated Vallejo 70.990 Model Color Light Grey, then washed with black wash, cleaned up with Light Grey again, then highlighted with Vallejo 70.993 Model Color White Grey.
Leather:
Basecoated with Citadel Layer Doombull Brown, washed with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade then highlighted with Citadel Layer Skrag Brown.
Shirt:
Basecoated with P3 Jack Bone, then lighter areas were painted in P3 Menoth White Base. Shading was re-applied in P3 Jack Bone, P3 Rucksack Tan, then a mix of Rucksack Tan and Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black. Highlights were then added in P3 Menoth White Highlight then P3 Morrow White.
Skin:
Basecoated in P3 Ryn Flesh, then washed in Citadel Ogryn Flesh. Raised areas were "reclaimed" with a light drybrush of Ryn Flesh, then highlights were added with mixes of Ryn Flesh and P3 Menoth White Highlight.
Eyes:
I picked out the eyes in Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black, then filled them in with P3 Morrow White, before adding a large dot of Vallejo 72.021 Game Color Magic Blue. Of course I had to clean up the outlines with Ryn Flesh, and still they came out VERY rough if you look real close.
Lips:
The basecoat was a mix of GW Scab Red and P3 Ryn Flesh. A line of pure Scab Red was then used to darken the top lip.
Hair:
I started with a basecoat of Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black, then lightly drybrushed Vallejo 70.021 Game Color Magic Blue, then another drybrush of Citadel Edge Blue Horror on the central areas.
Gemstone:
The gemstone was painted after the model was varnished and assembled; this was so that the layers could be aligned with the horizon properly, which I couldn't do until I knew the final position. So a basecoat of Citadel Edge Blue Horror was was painted on top of the varnish. Then successively smaller areas were picked out in a mix of Blue Horror and The Army Painter Warpaints Electric Blue, then pure Electric Blue, then Electric Blue and The Army Painter Warpaints Viking Blue (basically identical to the Vallejo Magic Blue from earlier), then pure Viking Blue, then a mix of Viking Blue and Vallejo 70.925 Model Color Blue, then finally pure Vallejo Blue. Once this was done a gloss varnish was applied. Initially I brushed on Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish (that I had airbrushed onto several models in the past) and left it to dry with the model upright, however this led to a strangely lumpy surface. So I sanded it a little bit smoother with some fine grit sandpaper, touched up the paint as needed, and applied a generous coating of Winsor & Newton Galeria Acrylic Gloss Varnish, leaving it to dry with model on it's side and the gemstone pointing straight down (in the hope that the varnish would gather in the center of the stone). It took a couple of coats on each side to achieve a smooth glossy surface (well, with the first coat I pointed the gemstone upwards for some reason, I probably could have done it in just one coat if I had pointed it downwards to begin with).
Blue Glow:
I started by drybrushing her hand with Citadel Mordian Blue, then drybrushed Vallejo 70.950 Magic Blue, The Army Painter Warpaints Ultramarine Blue, and The Army Painter Warpaints Electric Blue in successively smaller areas. Finally I added a dot of Citadel Edge Blue Horror in the center. I considered going up to pure white, but I decided I was happy with a slightly dull glow of magic just starting gather, rather than the bright glow of magic in full swing.
As you can tell I went through more paints than I really needed; I used several almost identical shades of blue for example. This was partly experimentation, partly disorganisation, and partly running out of paints or struggling with drying paints. This model was acually painted over the course of over a year; I finished a couple of pieces around february 2019, then put it on hold to try to finish a more urgent model, then found myself struggling with varnishing issues that took months to resolve. In the meantime Warmachine was dead locally so I lost motivation to continue, and picked up Monsterpocalypse instead. It was only after I got some more Warmachine games in that I found the motivation to finish the model. Story of my life man!
On an unrelated note, these photos are far too blue. The single "WIP" photo I took of the painted sub-assemblies in natural light with a cheap old camera actually looks much better than the photos in the lightbox with the expensive camera. Sigh. Perhaps I'll take some more photos in daylight in the weekend.
Edit:
I went back and tried to take some photos under more natural lighting. They are a bit better, coming closer to the actual colours, although I still ended up having to go darker than is perhaps ideal to avoid having the lighter colours of the pilot get washed out. You can see in the first photo how nice bright lighting washes her out, while in the later, slightly-too-dark photos she looks better.
