Always a pleasure: July 2019

After the phase spiders of the previous post I was so excited about the new contrast paints that I couldn't stop me of watching more videos and reading more about them on the web. Also I decided to buy and to try two other colours. My idea was to paint a Naga and maybe some demon-like creatures, so I went for a red and a orange, namely the Flesh Tearers Red and the Gryph-hound orange.

This is the final outcome (without doing the base of course):

Step by Step

1.- Primer: as in the previous post I used a generic grey primer, for general purpose, not specific for miniatures.

2.- Flesh Tearers Red: I tried to come as close as possible to the spine scales as possible but letting space for the orange.

3.- Gryph-hound orange: I covered, in as much as I was able to, only the spine scale.

4.- Head highlight: I applied Vallejo Dead bone white in all the head area.

5.- Totally painted the body with more red and put some metallic citadel leadbelcher on the eyes. My idea was to apply some contrast aethermatic blue for a metallic ghostly effect. I saw this on the web.

The teeth are done with Vallejo dead flesh and the tongue and inside of the mouth with Army Painter Alien purple.

Note the metallic eyes

6.- Thin layer of red on the head area.

7.- Several touches with contrast aethermatic blue on the eyes. I tried to put a pupil with some black but I am not happy with the outcome, the eyes look funny on close inspection...

Next I will try one in green...

In the previous entry I posted the final outcome from my first test of the new Citadel contrast paints wherein I used the Aethermatic blue on two spiders from the Descent (1st Edition) to make them look ghostly, like the phase spiders from D&D.

Here the step by step painting process.

1.- Primer

Since the info on the web suggested that with the more translucent of the contrast paints, such as the aethermatic blue, the colour of the primer will affect the final hue of the model I decided to try two different primers, namely the Skeleton Bone from Army Painter and a generic light grey primer.
The Skeleton Bone primer is a light beige, which in terms of colours is a lot of white, a small amount of yellow and an even smaller amount, just a hint, of blue and red. Since the aethermatic blue is a kind of turquoise, which amounts to blue with a small contribution of yellow, the soft beige colour of the primer should shift the turquoise hue more into the green.
Grey, on the other hand, is white with a bit of black, therefore the turquoise should not change too much neither to the blue not to the green.
That is the theory, at least as I understood it.

The grey primer I used it as spray, the skeleton bone primer was also a spray, but it looked like something happened to the propellant since instead of a nice cloud of sprayed paint I got a burst of liquid coming out of the can; so I just "sprayed" it on a small container and applied it with a brush.
Here are the primed spiders:

On the left, Skeleton Bone primer; center, non-primed model for comparison; right, grey primer

Close up of the spider primed with Skeleton Bone

Close up of the spider primed in grey

2.- Aethermatic blue

Here I took a relatively big brush, a size 5 or 6, and tried to apply a thin layer of the paint since I was trying to avoid the terrible pooling spots that I always get when I try to wash a miniature.
The model are arranged as before, so on the left it is the skeleton bone primed spidr which looks brown-green; on the center the unpainted model and on the right the grey primed one which looks more blue.

Green-brown coloured spider (Skeleton Bone)

More blueish spider with the grey primer

Trying to avoid pooling spots on the flat surfaces of the miniature got me applying maybe not enought contrast paint, so I applied a second thin layer of aethermatic blue.

Greenish spider after second layer of aethermatic blue

Frontal view of the greenish spider, note the unpainted underbelly

Blueish spider after second layer of aethermatic blue

Frontal view of the blueish spider, note the unpainted underbelly

Not satisfied yet with the colour shade and intensity I applied a third thin layer.

Now the brown hue is gone and the spider is more green

Front view, the colour is clear in the green

This one is, however, really turquoise

Front view of the turquoise spider

After watching some videos where the contrast paint was applied just one time but in a more generous way that I did, I decided to try to give them a similar treatment and see what happened.

Not a lot. The hue deeps a bit but not too much

The details of the model still have a beige undertone

Front view, the beige primer visible on the long bones

Nice, deep gree-blue turquoise shadows

Front view, the long bones are more green, the joint more blue

3.- Dry brush

I went for two different colours for the dry brush highlights.
For the more green spider on the left I used Calgar Blue from Citadel and for the one more blue on the right I took Alien Purple from the Army Painter.
I started with the blueish one.

Only the one on the right has been highlighted

I also painted the eyes with Fulgrim Pink from Citadel

At this point I realized that I have left the underbelly of the spiders unpainted, so I went with a layer of Dead White form Vallejo to have a base coating more luminous that the beige and grey primers on the upper part of the model

After letting the white layer to dry I applied the aethermatic blue over it. The final colour was lighter that on the top of the model and gives a nice contrast to it.

4.- Final outcome

After dry brushing also the one on the left with the Calgar Blue and painting its eyes with Citadel Wild Rider Red (which I see orange, btw) this is the final result: