Abyst
by Dominic Heutelbeck
Initial thoughts
The most obvious color choice for this figure would of course be red. But I thought that too many would do this so I looked for something other. The texture on the body then gave me the idea of making Abyst a snake like beast. This would have included the removal of the lower body and the sculpting of a snake tail. But then I took a look at the calender and found out that I only had one week of time to paint this guy. So forget about the conversions or extreme paint jobs. I decided to do a straight paint up of the figure with a limited pallette of colors. Still influenced from the snake idea I chose green as the main color for Abyst.
Assembly
The main body and the hands had almost no flash lines to clean up but the wings needed some serious filing. I pinned the hands into place and they did fit very well so no additional filling of gaps was needed. Then I decided to attach the wings after painting because it would be almost impossible to paint the back of the demon with the wings attached. Also priming would have been difficult. So I drilled two holes into the place where the wings would rest and attached two pins to the wings at the corresponding places. Then I covered the region in which the wings would be attached and the middle of the wings with the pins with some tape to protect them from the primer. This was done to make sure that the glue would get a good hold when the wings are finally attached. Then I primed the figure with white spray primer.
Painting the Body
The texture of the body made it an ideal candidate for a shading from light to dark by a washing technique. As a base-coat I used GW Emerald Green (old style) mixed with RP Alshain Yellow a pale yellow. The front side was base-coated with a mix that had more yellow in it than the mix on the rest of the figure. Then I applied a number of washes starting with the base-coat color plus some Emerald Green going to pure Emerald Green and GW Dark Angeles Green for the dark shadows. The main idea of these washes is to use the transparency of the color to give the underlying layer of color a tint of the new color. One also doesn't splatter the wash all over the miniature and hopes that gravity will do the shading (like described in some painting guides). One has to work hard to control where the pigments go. Only put the wash where you want to shade the miniature and work on the edges with a clean damp brush until you are satisfied with the result. Then let the paint dry and apply the next layer. Of course I had to touch up the effect at several places after the main shading was done. The legs where done similar. They are base-coated with Alshain Yellow and washed with mixes of this yellow and GW Scorched Brown.The lion cloth of Abyst was painted in cool not too vibrant colors. The reason for this is that I didnīt want to distract the eye of the viewer from the really interesting parts of the figure. I have once seen a figure painted up neatly, but the shoes where painted in a very vibrant green. I noticed, that all I did see of the figure where the shoes. This shouldn't happen to Abyst. I also avoided complementary colors in the color scheme (not counting the flaming sword). The golden parts where shaded with brown ink.
Staff and Sword
The Staff was base-coated with RP Ivory, washed with RP Dun and subsequent mixes of Dun with Hobby Line Dark Brown. Then some highlights where set with pure Ivory again. The teeth (and the spikes of the wings) where painted with GW Bestial Brown and highlighted up to GW Bleached Bone. Finally the eye sockets where painted black.
I tried to give the sword the appearance of glowing steel with some flames licking up the blade. For this I base-coated it with GW Bad Moon Yellow and washed it with GW Sunburst Yellow, Sunburst Yellow + GW Blood Red and this mix plus some brown. The flames got the same colors with a lot of smoke at the tips. Then some highlights of Bad Moon Yellow and white where placed at the point of the sword where it is supposed to be hottest.
The wings
The inner regions of the wings are painted with the same colors as the legs and with the same technique as the body. For the bone things of the wings I had to go from dark to light (Emerald Green to Emerald Green + Alshain Yellow) because the washes would have bleeded into the inner regions of the wings ruining the blending there. Personally I found the task of painting the wings quite boring.
Well that are the main painting steps. I didnīt think of a story of some kind for this figure but I am quite pleased how it came out in the limited time I had for it (even if it actually took longer than I wanted).
Dominic Heutelbeck
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