Project Log: Warscryer Citadel, Part 8

It's been a while since my last update on the Warscryer Citadel project, but the painting portion is well underway. In this post I'll discuss my process for painting the stonework, rocks, and ground.

 

Priming

I sprayed the scenery with black primer, and then gave it a dusting of dark grey on the stonework and a dusting of Model Masters Light Earth brown spray around the ground and some of the rocks. This makes the painting go a little more quickly as I won't be drybrushing up from straight black.

As with any painting project, it's wise to get the messy parts out of the way first and then move on to the more precise bits. This includes things like drybrushing, and any broad washes and shading.

The Rocks and Ground

I started with the foundation of the piece– the rocky outcropping and the ground. For these, I used a 1-inch brush (the cheap kind you can get at the hardware store for less than a dollar) applied several layers of drybrushing in the following order:

–An equal mix of Formula P3 Battlefield Brown and P3 Gun Corps Brown over the rocks and ground.

–Straight P3 Gun Corps Brown on just the ground.
–An organic mix of Gun Corps Brown and P3 Bastion Grey on just the rocks. By mixing in different amounts, I was able to get some areas of the rock that were a little more grey and others that were a little more brown.
–An organic mix of GW Screaming Skull and P3 Bastion Grey on the rocks. For this, I added a little more Screaming Skull into the mix when painting the large skull in the rocks, and when hitting the edge highlights of the rocks.

Next, I added some shading with a thinned wash of equal parts P3 Bastion Grey and P3 Ironhull Grey. I washed this over the rocks to help get a little more grey into the color and to soften the highlights wherever they appeared too sharp and bright. My technique was to apply the wash and then blot it with a paper towel to keep it from pooling or going on too heavy.

The final shading step was to paint GW Agrax Earthshade into the recesses and over all of the sandy areas on the tops of the rocks.

After the other areas like the stonework and rubble were painted, I went back with a final, very dry, subtle drybrush of straight GW Screaming Skull to pop a few highlights on the rocks and ground.

 

 

 

The Stonework

Much like the rocks, the stonework received an overall drybrushing in several layers with a 1-inch brush. I switched to a large drybrush in tight areas and when working close to the rocks:

–First, an organic mix of P3 Ironhull Grey, P3 Bastion Grey, and just a touch of black to darken it a little so it wasn't too big a jump from the black and dark grey primer layer.
–Second, a mix of equal parts P3 Ironhull Grey and Bastion Grey.
–Third, a mix of 3 parts P3 Bastion Grey to 1 part GW Screaming Skull, adding a little more Screaming Skull when drybrushing the large skulls.

Next, I went in and added more color to individual stones. I painted some of them with a thinned layer of GW Fang Grey, and painted others with thinned brown ink. (Liquitex Burnt Umber Transparent Ink! is my go-to brand of brown ink.)

The final step was to drybrush everything with Army Painter Ash Grey. In a few spots I added a bit of Screaming Skull into the mix, mostly on the highest edges, corners, and the top deck of the tower to brighten them a little more.

 

On the ramparts, there are a number of flat stones that I wanted to differentiate as though they were used to repair damaged sections. The model kit is sculpted with some bolted-on metal strips that reinforce this notion.

After drybrushing the entire piece as I described above –but before the final Ash Grey drubrush stage– I picked out the red stones with a layer of 3 parts Formula P3 Bloodstone and 1 part P3 Battlefield Brown. The yellow stones were painted with a mix using equal parts P3 Moldy Ochre and GW Screaming Skull, with a touch of brown ink to deepen the tone. The flat stones that frame the crenelations were painted with straight P3 Bastion Grey.

Next, I washed those areas with a layer of GW Agrax Earthshade. Once that was dry, I used smaller drybrushes and flat brushes to highlight the stones:

The red stones were drybrushed with straight P3 Bloodstone. The yellow stones were drybrushed with a mix of GW Screaming Skull, and just a touch of P3 Moldy Ochre.

When I added the final drybrush layer of Ash Grey, I took care not to get it on the red and yellow stones. The final step was to hit the red and yellow stones with a very dry brush of GW Screaming Skull.

 

 

The Chimney

For the chimney, I drybrushed the statuary at the top at the same time as the rest of the stonework. Then, I went in and painted the red and beige bricks. The red bricks and chimney top were painted with a layer of 3 parts P3 Bloodstone and 1 part P3 Battlefield Brown. A few bricks were picked out with straight P3 Bastion Grey, and others with a mix of Bastion Grey and Screaming Skull to add a little variety to the color of the beige bricks.

Once the base layers were on, I washed the whole chimney, including the statuary, with Agrax Earthshade. When the wash was dry, I went back and used a small drybrush to brush P3 Bloodstone on the red bricks and the chimney top. I differentiated a few of the red bricks by adding a thinned layer of either Army Painter Crusted Sore, or brown ink.

The final step was to drybrush some highlights with a mix of Bastion Grey and Screaming Skull, applying highlights of straight Screaming Skull in a few places on the beige stones.

 

 

The Flagstones and Rubble

I basecoated each flagstone (which I had left unpainted until this point) with a mix of equal parts Bastion Grey and Ironhull Grey. Then, like the rest of the stonework, I picked out a few with thinned layers of Fang Grey and brown ink. Then I drybrushed them with Army Painter Ash Grey.

 

 

The rubble was painted the same as the rest of the stonework, including the red and yellow bricks. I left the larger piles of gravel mostly grey, and went back in a few places around the rubble to drybrush P3 Gun Corps Brown onto the ground.

It was at this point that I applied the final, very dry and subtle drybrush of GW Screaming Skull to pop some of the highlights and blend the greys and browns together.

 

 

 

With all of the broad drybrushing finished, I can move on to painting the wooden supports and walkways, and picking out all of the skulls, doors, and decorative details. Nearly there! I'm looking forward to having this finished in the coming weeks.

'Til next time!