Repainting Bloodletters (1)

Introduction

Among my first painted miniatures were two squads of Bloodletters. At the time, I was happy with how they looked. Now, I considered it was time for some retouching.

Repainting

Red skin

My original color scheme - red, black wash, red drybrush  - wasn't necessarily bad. I just tried to have enough highlights, and in places I managed to highlight the shadows away. All in all, the skin looked a uniform flat red from a distance. Time to fix that. Treat the skin areas as if they were only basecoated with Gory Red.

First darken down the color with an overall wash of Carroburg Crimson.

Line highlight using Heavy Orange. I expected a more orange-y color, but this pinkish result will do.

More highlights with Orange Fire. I went over some of the Heavy Orange lines, and I did other lines, as well as dots here and there.

Using the flat of the brush, I tried to catch all the raised bumps on the backs.

Finish with an overall glaze of Bloodletter (quite fitting). This restores the colors to the red spectrum, but the lighter lines underneath remain - there are our highlights.

Horns and teeth

Again, the original highlights are barely visible. There are also overlaps with the red. I re-did the Bonewhite basecoat. Look at the horns painting tip.

Tongues

Wash in Biel-Tan Green.

Highlight in Scorpion Green.

Silver swords

The monochrome black blades were too bland. Instead, basecoat Gunmetal and wash black.

Then highlight in Chainmail Silver. I highlighted opposing quarters of the blades. (Still too bland? Have no fear!)

Black parts

I left the Bloodreaper's sword black, to distinguish him from the unit; then there is the horn and banner. Highlight as I do black.

Bronze parts

Treat as if basecoated in bronze. Wash Agrax Earthshade.

Edge highlight Bright Bronze.

Edge highlight Glorious Gold.

Blood for the Blood God!

An excellent technical paint. I used it here to mark the swords, simulating bloody marks left by cutting up bodies. Paint it across the blade, leaving most of it at the blade edge.

Using an old large brush I also did blood splatters on them. Cutting up that many enemies with those swords is sure to leave some drops behind.

Finally, I painted this on the banner. Originally, I painted the symbol in red and drybrushed red to simulate blood. Now I repainted the symbol with Blood for the Blood God! and painted blood streaking down from the symbol. Also blood splatters across the banner, including the icon up top. Never enough blood.

Off the base

It always hurts to cut minis from their base. The legs will invariably be damaged. To cover it up, I primed the plastic surfaces.

Then simply painted the skin in Gore Red. I painted the claws in grey, then black wash, then grey highlight. I did not want them to look like bone to keep them visually separate from the bases.

Basing

Mounds of skulls!

Prepare the bases

As per the Skulls and bone painting tip.

Also paint their rim black.

Mount the minis

I know for a fact that the round surfaces of the skulls make for a poor basing. I had one Bloodreaper standing on a home-made mound of skulls, and he broke off every time I touched him.

Initially, I thought of pinning the models to the bases. However, Bloodletter legs are a) very thin and b) bended c) the wrong way. I had to come up with something else.

Enter green stuff. First I dryfitted the mini to decide where to place then. Then I scraped off the surface to be under the feet, and put a bit of green stuff to level out. Most minis stood on the first try. I had a couple which were too top heavy and kept falling on their face, so I helped a bit with super glue.

Clean up

Of course, on closer inspection the green stuff was visible under their feet. So, for the second time, I ripped them off their bases.

I primed and painted the visible bits of green stuff brown.

Then used super glue to stick them back on.

Finished!