Abyst the Demon Lord - Initial thoughts
Well, he is a demon, and while I wanted to do something to set him apart from the other VIC entries, painting him green or blue or metallic just didn't feel like the answer to me. One thing that struck me right away, however, was the staff. If you look closely, you will notice that the skull on the staff is the same species as Mr. Abyst himself. Hmmm. This means something. I thought about it and it occurred to me that the guy on the end of the staff most probably was a former lord or some other important demon that Abyst had slain to gain his status in the under world. If so, he ought to be brandishing that staff like a trophy! Thus, while the miniature is certainly wonderful, the idea of repositioning his arm to hold the staff aloft kept gnawing at my brain. The other thing I kept toying with was giving the staff a bit more animation. I saw visions of the Borg Queen, her spine twisting like a snake as her disembodied head was held over her body...o.k., I knew what to do...now to get to work!
Assembly and Conversion work
While the body was cast very cleanly, the wings needed a few pits filled with putty and a lot of filing to remove seam lines. I knew right away that this mini could be base-coated quickly with an airbrush and that using an air brush would save me any chance of leaving brush marks on the surfaces. With this in mind, I decided to leave the wings off and paint them separately. Given the amount of surface area between the wings and the body, I decided that pinning would not be necessary. However, to be sure that I got a good bond I was careful to mask the connection point in the middle of the wings and on the back of the mini so as to keep any primer and paint off the metal. Finally, I attached a wire handle with zap glue and putty, so that I could hold the wings while painting them.
To raise the arm, I got out an X-Acto razor saw and cut through the shoulder, down through the chest and back until the saw emerged at a point where the lats and the rib cage meet. Given the size of this mini (approx 3 feet tall), that meant cutting through about 1 inch of solid pewter! Once the arm was off, I cut about halfway through the inner elbow and bent the arm almost straight. The arm was then reattached with Zap-a-gap, and I used a grinding bit on a Dremel motor tool to file and blend the seams smooth. I also shaved off half of his left chest muscle so that I could re-sculpt it, as it would look silly if his arm were raised but his chest remained flexed. Once the grinding was done, I used Kneadatite epoxy putty to "bridge the gaps" and shaped it to resemble muscles. When it was semi hard, I used a carving tool to reapply the cris-cross pattern on the demon's skin. The putty is green (except for a little A+B putty that I used to make some missing ribs, which is grayish-tan), while the metal is shiney silver. Thus, it is easy to see where I modified this figure in the pictures below:
Once the arm was done I converted the staff and hand. The hand is pinned in place at an angle and the wrist is re-sculpted so that the staff is presented vertically. Had I not done this the staff would be facing skyward, which is not what I wanted.
Painting the Body
After priming everything in grey, I painted the body using my trusty Aztek airbrush. Taking a tip from old Hollywood horror movies, I wanted to light this piece from below. So I mixed two shades of Badger Magenta - one with a little Badger Prussian Blue added and one with a little Badger Flesh tone added. First I sprayed the lighter color as a base coat, and then I sprayed the darker color from above, being careful not to get any on the undersides. The effect was quite satisfying. I added a little more blue and made a purple color and gave the top of the mini a light mist. Later, when I took him inside, I gave the whole thing a light wash with watered down magenta paint to bring out the details of the cris-cross pattern, the groves in the face and the weird growths over his abdomen.
I painted the fur on the legs with a Ral Partha Fleshtone (which is actually a borwish color), drybrushing with progressively lighter shades, adding Polly-S Canine yellow and finally Ral Partha Ivory to my pallet as I went along. The hooves were done in black, blending to grey at the tops (hard to see in these pictures unfortunately). The last bit was to pick out the eyes in Citadel blood red and the teeth in Ral Partha Ivory.
Painting the Wings
The wings were airbrushed at the same time as the main body, basing in a reddish fleshtone and layering the middle in magenta and the tops in purple (magenta mixed with prussian blue). I decided to leave the talons in their natural color. After all, my fingernails are basically the same color as my hands! I felt that detailing the "wing bones" (aka the "fingers") in a contrasting color would just look fake and detract from the seamless blending I had just achieved with the airbrush. When I brought the wings inside, I applied a purpole wash to the top talons to emphasize the underlighting effect. Later, I gave all of the wing talons a coat of gloss laquer for effect.
Painting the Sword, Staff, Armor and Details
The Sword was painted in Ral Partha Steel. At first I had a light drybrush of silver over it to pick up the angles of the blade, but decided that a darker sword was better. The flames were painted white and given a Citadel yellow wash, followed by a Citadel Orange wash and Citadel Blood Red at the edges. These were then blended with a brush to Polly-S Demon Deep Red and finally Citadel Chaos Black, to simulate smoke. The Staff was a simple Ral Partha Ivory with a Citadel Flesh Wash, drybrushed with more Ivory and finally Ral Partha White. The Armor is Ral Partha Steel with a light drybrush of silver. The edges are done in Polly-S Brass, as are the sword hilt, pommel, bracers and belt details. Some Citadel Armour Wash was also used to darken everything. The horns on the Staff were washed with purple (again, Badger Magenta mixed with Badger Prussian Blue) to match those on the demon's head and the upper talons on the wings.
Making the Base
After all was said and done I felt that a special base was needed. I cut apart a Ral Partha "skeleton with sword" and laid him out on a bed of kneadatite with his head turned to the side and his body partly submerged in the muck. I carved toes into the undersides of his feet and removed his shield as well. He was painted in the same manner as the bone staff, except with a brown ink wash added to make him look older. The staff, by contrast, is painted as sun bleached bone. The skeletal corpse's sword was painted with a mixture of Ral Partha Autumn Gold (an orange color) and silver, and given a Citadel Chestnut ink wash. I find this makes a very convincing rust effect. Another skull on the back of the base came from a Reaper skeletal archer. The whole base was painted brown and then given a light coat of flock to wrap things up.
Conclusion
Well that's my take on Abyst. The whole thing took about 7 or 8 hours, spread out over roughly 2 and a half months. The hardest part (not including when I dropped him on a cement floor and broke him into three pieces - don't ask!) was taking halfway decent photographs of the final result. I hope you agree that he was worth all the trouble!
Bob Lippman
