3 May 2018

Sylvaneth Wardroth Beetle


With the unit of Kurnoth Hunters completed, that leaves only Alarielle, her Wardroth Beetle and some Wyldwoods to complete.


With the time of the essence (my army needed to be complete for a weekend trip to Warhammer World on the 27th April) I chose to prioritise Alarielle and Beetle above the Wyldwoods. Obviously, with such huge pieces of plastic, it was important to split the models down into sensible, manageable chunks. This helped with easy of painting but also so I didn't get overwhelmed. With this in mind I decided to tackle the Wardroth Beetle first and so split the model into 5 subassemblies:
  • Head
  • Left front leg
  • Right front leg
  • Front carapace
  • Rear carapace
Whilst this helped, due to the size and shape of each piece, I still found the model very hard to paint! So let'sts go through the steps and colours used:

Step 1 - Priming
As with all my models, I primed with Vallejo Polyurethane Black Primer through the airbrush. I then applied a couple of quick coats of Vallejo Grey Primer as a zenithal highlight.

Step 2 - Base coats and highlights
I painted the base coats and highlights as part of the same process so I cover these by area below.

Beetle Shell
The main body of the beetle was airbrushed with Incubi Darkness. I highlighted specific places with Sotek Green. I then used Naggaroth Night to pick out out some of the areas which I wanted to have a purple tone. These were mainly on the lower facing shell surfaces. To highlight the upper sections of shell I edge highlighted the bits I wanted to pick out with Kabalite Green > Sotek Green > Temple Guard Blue. The lower sections of shell were highlighted with Xereus Purple > Genestealer Purple.

Soft Underside
The soft underside at the rear of the beetle was painted Daemonette Hide (by brush) and airbrush highlighted with Warpfiend Grey > Slaanesh Grey.

Claws
These were painted with Celetra Grey and highlighted with Ulthuan Grey and White Scar. For the larger claws, the highlights were applied with the airbrush, as opposed to the brush for the small claws and mouth horn things!

Gems
The gems hanging from the beetle were based with Thousand Sons Blue and highlighted Temple Guard Blue and Baharroth Blue.

Rope
The rope attached to the hanging gems was based Mechanicus Standard Grey and highlighted Dawnstone and Adminitratum Grey.

Foliage
The bark was painted with Dryad Bark and highlighted with Gorthor Brown and Screaming Skull. The leaves and moss were based Caliban Green and highlighted with Loren Forest and Elysian Green. The green areas were then hit with a glaze of Lamenters Yellow.

Fungus/Mushrooms!
Khorne Red, highlighted with Squig Orange and Kislev Flesh

Step 3 - Gloss Varnish
Quite a quick step this one... I airbrushed a good couple of coats of Vallejo Gloss Varnish over the model. This acts to protect the paintwork underneath but also prepare the model for the next step, shading.

Step 4 - Shading
My original plan was to apply shading to matte the whole model back down, however, I discovered that the beetle looked great with the gloss varnish. So, I applied the shade in a more targeted fashion.

Soft Underside
I applied a mix of Army Painter Dark Tone/Army Painter Shade Mixing Medium 1/4 ratio across the while underside. I then changed the shade ration to more like 1/1 Dark Tone/Mixing Medium and applied this in the deepest recesses.

Claws/Rope
The claws were shaded with a 1/1 mix of  Army Painter Dark Tone/Army Painter Shade Mixing Medium

Foliage
The foliage was shaded 1/1 mix of  Army Painter Strong Tone/Army Painter Shade Mixing Medium

Gold Details
The gold detail was shaded 1/1 mix of  Army Painter Soft Tone/Army Painter Shade Mixing Medium

Final Steps and Conclusion
After the shade had dried, I glued pieces of slate to some of the feet of the beetles in preparation for how it will sit on the base.

In conclusion, I found this model quite a challenge to paint. I didn't go far enough splitting the model down to subassemblies and so found painting some areas very challenging. It's a great model and I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. If I can follow this up with a good paint job on Alarielle and the base then it should be a good focal point for my army.

Next up, the base!

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