Showcase: Cawdor Gang Members

And now, right here, for your viewing enjoyment, the first five members of the Crimson Brotherhood:

Multiple angles of each member:

I'm really pleased with how these guys turned out. It was something to finally see them finished and attached to their bases, especially since it's been seven months in the making.

And while I hit a few snags along the way, I feel like I achieved what I set out to do, which was to paint up the first batch of my Cawdor gang to a high tabletop standard.

My next batch will be much smaller. I'd like to speed up my painting process and five models were just too many for me. I think Stahly had the right idea with two models at a time.

So, until next time, keep painting!

WIP: Cawdor Gang Highlighting

Well that took a lot longer than expected! The busy holiday season plus a couple painting snags equaled very slow progress. But the highlighting is coming along:

Before applying highlights, I laid down a quick coat of matte varnish with the airbrush to lock in the shading.

The first stage of highlights was a reapplication of the various basecoat colors to tidy up my overzealous shading efforts.

One of the first snags I ran into was highlighting the skin. I had a difficult time lightening my 1:1:1 basecoat of Vallejo Game Color (VGC) Dark Fleshtone, Citadel (GW) Rotting Flesh, and GW Bronzed Flesh. I ended up dropping Rotting Flesh from the mix, and worked in more Bronzed Flesh to lighten the skin.

After highlighting the skin, I applied a thin glaze of Bronzed Flesh to pull the highlights and shading together.

I also had trouble with the eyes. I probably redid each model's eyes three to four times. I finally had to say enough and just leave them as is.

Several areas, like the gaiters received just one layer of highlighting. Other areas, such as the boots, gloves and masks, as well as the tunics and pants, received multiple layers.

For the leather items I mixed increasing amounts of VGC Filthy Brown to the GW Scorched Brown base color. For the tunics and pants, I also added increasing amounts of Filthy Brown to Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Burnt Cadmium Red (814).

After highlighting the tunics and pants, I applied a thin glaze of Burnt Cad to pull everything together. While it helped tone down the highlights, it also unfortunately dulled some of the great contrast I had built up with the shading.

I still have the gun casings, canteens, and knife sheaths, as well as the belts and pouches to highlight. There are also a few odds and ends that I'll need to tidy up, but I'm nearing the finish line on these guys.

Next up: my first group of Cawdor models finished and on their bases with proper pictures!

So, until next time, keep painting ... even if it's not going as well as you hoped.

WIP: Cawdor Gang Details

So, before moving on to blending and highlighting, I figured that I needed to fill in the gang members' details that up until now I had left unpainted.

This included the partially-finished gun casings, barrels, and stocks, knifes, canteens, belt and gaiter buckles, pouch buttons, and glove and tunic studs:

The gun casings, canteens, and knife sheathes received a coat of Vallejo Game Color (VGC) Camouflage Green, and a glaze of heavily watered-down VGC Cayman Green as a shade.

Gun stocks and knife handles were covered in Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Natural Wood (834), which is very thin straight out of the bottle and requires several coats to get good coverage.

Gun barrels, knife guards, butts, and sheath tips, buckles, buttons, and studs got a base coat of VMC London Grey (836) and, depending on the color behind the object, either a wash of old Citadel (GW) Shadow Black ink or old GW Skaven Brown ink.

The bullet casings in the Heavy's ammo belt are also VMC London Grey, while the tips are roughly a 3:2:1:1 ratio of VMC Light Orange (911), GW Golden Yellow, VGC Bronze Fleshtone, and VGC Charred Brown. I was going for a faux-NMM brass. The ammo belt webbing is VGC Earth.

Looking back, I should have painted the details on the gloves, robes, belts, and gaiters before I shaded the models, as it would have reduced my work time. But, with the details filled in, I can start blending and highlighting!

Next up: blending and highlighting ... really.

So, until next time, keep painting!