Become a Patron!
You can see they have polished silver plate armor along with iridescent rainbow cloaks. For today, we're going to be working pretty much entirely in metallics:
 |
| by CMON Games |
“In the Name of the Warrior, I Charge You to be Brave...”
I’ve always loved the concept of the Knights Templar. They are just a cool concept. Warriors of God protecting the innocent and fighting for what’s right. At least that’s the way it SHOULD be. Well, today, we’re taking a look at the A Song of Ice & Fire equivalent, which also happens to be the most intimidating unit in the game to paint: The Warrior’s Sons.
So, what makes these guys so hard to paint? Well, I think we all know it’s those @$%#&! rainbow cloaks! Other than that, they’re not too hard, but be prepared because those capes are tricky and can be very frustrating. Still here? Great. Let’s get at it.
1. Gameplan, Prep, and Prime
Okay, so since these guys never REALLY appeared in the HBO series, I’m going to basing my interpretation of them completely on the in-game art:
You can see they have polished silver plate armor along with iridescent rainbow cloaks. For today, we're going to be working pretty much entirely in metallics:
Vallejo
Basic Flesh Tone, Flat Earth, Chocolate Brown, Silver, Gunmetal Grey, Metallic Red, Copper, Gold, Metallic Green, Gunmetal Blue
Army Painter
Plate Mail Metal
The metallic red and green are from Vallejo's Mecha Color series, and are traditionally used for airbrushes, but can be painted on with a brush just fine.
I've gone ahead and primed all the figures with matt white spray on primer by The Army Painter, so once that's all dry, we should be ready to start painting.
2. Basecoats
Okay, so before we get started, I want to talk a little bit of color/light theory here. Can we all agree that rainbows DON'T go straight up and down?!?
In order to give the cloaks that iridescent look, and not make it look like they're just wearing a Pride flag on their backs, we have to remember that when light hits a surface and creates a rainbow, it's never going to be perfectly even. The lines are not going to be straight, and the width of each color isn't going to be the same.
Think of it when you see the rainbow in a bubble. The colors kind of swirl around upon themselves, right? So, in order to emulate this, we're going to be pretty loose with our brush control, and we're going to follow the pattern of a rainbow.
Painting at a diagonal/curve and remembering that Red is always the color that's going to go on top of the rainbow.
Before you start, I suggest thinning your metallics with equal parts Matt Medium.
This was about $10 for this whole bottle, and you'll really only need a few drops for each color. Not only will this thin the paint without messing with the consistency like water sometimes does with metallic paint, but it will also act as a retarder and slow the drying process, which will help blend the colors together on the cloak.
Starting with your metallic red, you'll want to paint one or both of the shoulders, and make sure that you go at an angle to emulate the curve of the rainbow.
You can go in either direction, it's really up to you, and that's a good way to help your unit look more diverse, with a mix of figures where the colors curve to the right or left.
After that, move into copper, and continue working on that angle. Don't worry about keeping the thickness of the colors equal, as an iridescent cloak wouldn't look exactly equal.
Continue doing this with gold, metallic green, and gunmetal blue all the way down the cloak. Because you used the matt medium, the metallics will actually start to bleed into each other. THIS IS A GOOD THING. WE WANT THAT TO HAPPEN. This actually helps with the iridescent illusion, though after the cape dries, you can help blend it a bit by adding a little bit of the higher color to where it meets the next color and smudging it across the two colors, like smudging a little red where it meets the copper, and a little copper where it meets the gold, and so on.
I personally waited about an hour or so for everything to dry, because with the matt medium, it can take awhile, but you really want the cape dry before you move onto anything else.
For the front, we're going to do the same thing, but we're going to try to match the colors that we laid down on the back. In the above example, the metallic red and copper are where his shoulders are, so we don't really to see those colors from the front, so we start with gold, and go into metallic green and end on gunmetal blue.
For the tabard in the front, we're going to extend the lines of color that we see on the front of his cloak to his tabard. So, curving the same direction, starting with gold, then metallic green, and ending with gunmetal blue.
You can see the amount of gold that I added to the top of the tabard is very minimal, but it really helps sell the effect.
Next, take your gunmetal grey and paint the chainmail and the hilt, handle, and pommel of the sword. This includes the hands, the sleeves, the stomach, and the thighs. Anything that's not the plate mail armor. This would also be a good time to use some white to cover up any stray paint that got onto the plate mail sections, as silver is NOT good at covering up greens and reds.
Now, using your silver, paint the plate mail portions. The grieves, forearm armor, shoulder armor, tassets (thighs) and breastplate. One this dries, you could also go over the seven pointed star on the breastplate with gold, but I'll be honest, that's a LOT of detail work, and you're not really going to get that much milage out of it, as it won't show up great.
After that, take your basic flesh tone, thinned 50/50 with water, and paint the face. For the Champion, this will also include painting the entire head.
Then you'll take your chocolate brown, also thinned 50/50 with water, and paint the belt. Nothing too fancy, just make sure to get good coverage and paint all the portions of it.
The last thing we'll be basecoating will be the sword and belt buckle with our plate mail metal. You don't have to thin it, it goes on pretty evenly, just make sure you take your time and get all of the metallic portions on the belt.
3. Shading
We're only using two today: Flesh Wash and Dark Tone, both by The Army Painter.
We'll start off with the flesh wash, because I'm a creature of habit, but a single drop should be enough to get through all of the faces of your unit. Don't let it pool up too much, and try not to let it get on the armor at all.
After that, use your dark tone and apply it to the rest of the mini. All of the armor, the cloak, the sword, everything. Go slowly, and go section by section. I recommend starting with the cloak itself, as you'll want to make sure that all of the colors get a nice even application of the wash, as it'll help blend everything together.
Once that's all dry, it's time for highlights!
4. Highlights and Finishing Touches
So, we're going to start off highlighting the skin. Take your basic skin tone and highlight the chin, nose, and cheekbones for all of your Warrior's Sons. For the Champion, you'll also want to do the forehead and top of the head, simply look at the figure from the top down, and paint the portion of the head that you can see.
Now, I normally say that we don't have to highlight metallics, but for these guys, we really want their cloaks to shine, literally, so we're going to be adding some highlights to the cloaks.
Using the original colors that you basecoated with, paint the ridges and folds that billow outward. In the example above, the folds near his shoulders are highlighted with metallic red, and the large billowing portion to our right is red, then copper, then gold, and so on down to gunmetal blue. It really helps make the capes pop.
For the front of the capes, you'll do the same thing, and don't be afraid of highlight the swirly, blendy parts either. That helps make everything pop.
We're also going to be highlighting the tabard in a similar manner. Focusing on highlighting the center of the fabric portions with the original basecoat color. Avoid the actual star on the tabard, just apply the metallics on those flat portions. I know this might seem counter-intuitive for most, but it'll help remind the eye of the color lines and the direction the rainbow's going.
After that, add a little flat earth to the belt to highlight that up, and that's just about that.
After that, add a little flat earth to the belt to highlight that up, and that's just about that.
5. Smite Some Sinners!
That's it, guys! Your Warrior's Sons should now be wearing their Sunday best. Please let me know if you have any questions about these guys, and remember that this and all of my tutorials for A Song of Ice & Fire can be found on my blog here. If you felt this tutorial helped you out at all, please consider becoming a Patron. It's only a dollar a month, and every bit helps me bring you quality ad-free content.
Comments
Post a Comment