Get ready for a Paint Recipe by Space Dinosaur Minis, where I go in depth with a paint scheme, covering the paints, materials and techniques that I use to achieve my style. For the first time on the blog, we have a Cursed City model painted up, Gorslav the Gravekeeper.
I got Cursed City a long time ago, as one of the lucky few who were able to get a hold of the game at the time, I felt a little peeved with how unceremoniously the game got dumped. Enough for my to write a blog post about it. I have played a few games, and I did really enjoy it, even though it took a few tweaks to the rules to get there. The biggest draw for me was the beautiful and characterful models. GW went a really interesting route with these guys, and my favorite of the villians, Gorslave the Gravekeeper, wielder of the big shovel, would be first on the docket.
This actually turned out to be a lot easier and quicker of a paint job than I was expecting. There's really only 3 big blocks of color on this model; the robe, the skin, and the shovel blade/fence posts/hooks. You can kind of count the bone, but it's similar in tone to the skin, which did take a bit of cleverness to make sure it didn't blend too much. Basically the standard Skeleton Bone (AP) with Agrax Earthshade (GW), but now I added in Nuln Oil (GW) in very light layers to get the smooth blends you see on the bone crown.
The skin was a base of Necrotic Flesh (AP), washed with Reikland Fleshshade (GW), then highlighted with successively brighter mixtures of Necrotic Flesh (AP) and Skeleton Bone (AP) and/or Matt White (AP). This was a lot of line work, but the sharp details made the work easy. This gives a nice, rotting flesh tone that is also quite pale, allowing for some good contrast to the robe. For the open sores, dab a small amount of Carroburg Crimson (GW) into the recesses. You want this to be subtle, so light dabs.
The mouth got a two washes of Nuln Oil (GW) to give a very rotten, unnatural look, and to sell this even more, I highlighted the teeth with Matt White (AP).
With the skin complete, you can move onto the clothing. The robe used a very similar paint scheme to my Skaven Warlock Bombardier, and Chaotic Red (AP) is just one of my favorite paints because it's so versatile and sets up really easy rich, dark reds. I think the official paint scheme has a two-toned robe, but I liked the all red look. I used a thinned down Pure Red (AP) to do the highlighting, concentrating most of that paint towards the bottom of the robes. Let a little bit of the base texture drybrushing get onto the bottom of the robes to blend the model into its environment. I should have done this a tad more, but so it is.
The belt around his waist got a basecoat of Matt Black (AP) with highlights of Uniform Grey (AP). I also used this for the shoes. Hanging from the belt is a rope, which was Skeleton Bone (AP) and Agrax Earthshade (GW). I wish I had found a different way to paint the rope, because as is it's too similar in tone to the skin. Next time I'll look for different rope colors.
All of the silver metal got a treatment of Typhus Corrosion before painting. This gives texture to the metal, which will come in handy later with the rusting effects. Don't completely coat the areas, just a bit to get the point across. After that's dry, basecoat with Gunmetal (AP). Once completely dry, stipple on some Ryza Rust (GW), especially where you had texture. Try not to get too much, otherwise the bright orange hue of the paint will show through to strongly after the next step. Again, let this completely dry.
Once it is, wash with Agrax Earthshade (GW), which dirties the metallics and gives the Ryza Rust (GW) a very toned done, earthy matte rust look, which I love. For extra effect, dab a little bit of Nihilak Oxide (GW) into the recesses. Just a little bit. I know that patina only occurs with copper, brass, or bronze, but it adds to the old look of it and suggests poor storage conditions.
For highlights, I use Shining Silver (AP), and only on the highest points and along scratches. You want these highlights to be as thin as possible, something I didn't always succeed with. This really helps to pull the effect together, and now you have some pretty cool rusted metal.
The metal of the bone crown, as well as the belt buckle, were basecoated with Warplock Bronze (GW). It got a similar treatment of Ryza Rust (GW), but then I used a combination of Agrax (GW) and Nuln Oil (GW) for the shading. Once dry, I highlighted with Shining Silver (AP) and used some Nihilak Oxide (GW) again for the patina.
The final step was the wood. I used Oak Brown (AP), Agrax Earthshade (GW) and highlights of Leather Brown (AP). This was for the shovel handle as well as the coffin lid of the poor sap getting awoken from the dead. The roots growing out of this poor sap (no pun intended) used the lighter Monster Brown (AP) as the base. Now just base to match the rest of your army!
-The Space Dinosaur
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