The Butcher, Unleashed

Some months back, a good friend was having his 21st and without much of an idea of what to get him, I offered to paint him 21pts worth of models. He held onto the offer for a while, and then when the Butcher Unleashed was released at Gencon he asked me to paint him.

Fast forward, and the Butcher (and friends is complete).

This was a massive undertaking. All up, I think I’ve had the models for close to 3 months, slowing chipping away with an hour here and an hour there. As a display piece, and a celebration of 10 years of Privateer Press, I didn’t want to just do any old paint job, but wanted to really pay attention and do my best.

The client was ok with the studio scheme, which worked to my advantage. I started with the Argii first, as they could be test models for the approach without having to spoil something as awesome as Orsus himself. Following the guide from the Khador faction book, the reds happened pretty quickly. Taking a bit from when I painted my War Dog, I put more into painting the flesh of the argus and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. Simple models. but with a lot of expression.

For Orsus, I actually started with the face. I think it is one of the better faces I’ve done, but could do with a bit more contrast. Next up was the cloak/coat, which was actually a mistake as it meant that I handled the fur too much and ended up knocking the top off the highlights a couple of times (when will I learn to put a handle on my models?).

I don’t want to go on and on, instead I’ll let the model do the talking.

Kayazy Assassins

This is one of two final commissions for the year. I’d heard bad things about the Kayazy models and was looking forward to seeing them in person. While they were a challenge (my hands would cramp from holding the models), and there is certainly some tiny details, over all I did not find them that tough. The Underboss is still one of my favourite models from the line.

The scheme itself was not the most complex, as with most units I paint for commission I let washing do most of the work. I base-coated with Khador Red (cloth), Greycoat Grey (pants) Coal Black (shoes and leather) and Leadbeater (metals). All of this was given a wash of watered down Armour Wash (P3) to add depth and bring out the details. The cloaks were painted based in Ironhull Grey and shaded with Battlefield Brown.