Brutal Dissection

Something a little different this time...

Jez passed me a few of these bad boys (and girls) to paint, they're from Dark Art Miniatures "Brutal" game. This chap is known as the "Di-sector", definitely not my favourite of their miniatures (I'm leaving my favourite until last), as his pose is a bit odd, and it was pointed out he has rather spindly legs, but he's not a bad figure.  I went for a dark industrial look, inspired by the "Carnivora" scenes in Dan Abnett's Ravenor books - so lots of dirt, grunge and blood.

I gave the whole miniature a basecoat of GW Dryad Bark - I like this new colour, it's a much duller brown, and works well as the ground in dirt effect.  This was washed all over with Badab Black, being careful not to swamp the model.  The metal parts were then dry-brushed with Tin Bitz, then Boltgun Metal, then Chainmail - I didn't use Mithril Silver as it would have made it too bright.

The skin was painted next - P3 Beast Hide was shaded with Gryphonne Sepia, then highlighted with Beast Hide, Ryn Flesh and finally Thrall Flesh was mixed in to give it a more unhealthy tone

The yellow was a quick process - I started mixing in Tausept Ochre into the Dryad Bark and blending it in until it was almost pure Tausept Ochre, and then mixed in Dheneb Stone (shut it Jez ;-) ) for the top highlights.  The blending was a bit rough here, just to help accentuate the beat up nature of the yellow sections (particularly the greaves).  The whole lot was then given a little dose of Blanchitsu - a 1:1:2 mix of Devlan Mud, Gryphonne Sepia and water was washed over the whole miniature, and when this was dry, it was very lightly dry-brushed with pure white.

I've mentioned this technique before (a long old time ago), but this is the first time I've used it in a while, and I'm really pleased with the result, as it certainly adds to the grimdark/grunge look I was going for.  With the Di-sector suitably Blanchitsu'd up, I gave him a spray of Humbrol matt varnish.

The blood is where I messed up.  The effect is about right, particularly on that nasty looking drill bit, but on the blade and the chest, the blood is too light, so it kind of looks more like strawberry jam than blood - I should have stopped at Scab Red (having started with Chestnut Ink), but I got excited and used Red Gore too, and it ended up too bright.  The liberally applied gloss 'Ardcoat works nicely though, and it's a useful lesson learned.

The miniature is back with his rightful owner now, so it's on to the next few projects mentioned in the previous post, plus some more miniatures for our ongoing Rogue Trader RPG campaign.  I know the game doesn't need miniatures, but it's always fun to do stuff like that, and I might end up with a inq28 warband by the end of it...

As always, comments and criticism welcome!