Abyst
by Bill Nitsche
I generally only paint what I will play with, so I envisioned using Abyst as a Prince of Chaos for Warhammer and alternatively as a arch-nemesis if I ever start a RPG campaign again. So Abyst was going to be a basic demon lord of fire. His skin is near molten rock with his scales having cooled solid. His bones are made of obsidian. He holds a great flaming sword in one hand and a staff made from the skull and vertebrate of a defeated rival, probably of another plane.
During cleaning and assembly I realized the wings really needed to be painted separately. So I pinned and epoxied the sword and staff hands to the body and got the two separate pieces ready for painting. I started with a gray primer.
Note: For this figure I used Ral Partha brand paints and Rotring liquid acrylic inks. The photo ended up a little redder than the actual paintjob-I'm still learning this digital photo stuff.
First came the main body. I started with orange followed by a heavy glaze of orange ink. This gives it a really glowing look. I then did a series of dry-brushes on the scaly area. I started with brown, but the glow of the underlying orange didn't come through. I ended up using black before getting the look I wanted. The rest of the skin got blended from red brown to orange lightened with white. I then glazed it with orange ink that brought the blends together and brightened it up. The fingers of the wings got a similar treatment, but darker. The skin of the wings started at red brown and was washed with a half dozen layers of thinned black ink. He got some basic brown hair, washed with black and highlighted with red brown.
The sword ended up being a dark gray metallic (RP Steel) as this is color of a magical metal in my game world. The flames started with Davion Blue with Goblin Flesh Tangerine and yellow painted over each other. The staff started as Dunkel Brown, followed by a heavy drybrush of Wood Brown and Crucis Khaki on its highest points. I think it gave it a very nice old bone effect. The eye sockets glow red, of course. Abyst then got some basic gold armbands, a red belt with gold trim and the skulls of a few unfortunate souls. I painted the base a simple dark red to represent the hellish landscape of home.
After spraying a couple layers of semi-gloss and then a coat of matte, I painted the hooves, horns, claws, armbands and fire with some gloss varnish. All in all, for a simple paint job (I only put in about 6-7 hours on him) it came out pretty well.
Bill Nitsche
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