[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - The sword

For the sword, the idea was to paint a demonic ice blade.
I've started with a wet blending of azure, blue, purple and black. Then I've highlighted the details with pure white to create the illusion of ice.
I've finished the job with a gloss varnish to increase the effect.
The handle has been painted with the same colour I've used for the other bones parts.

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - The horns

After a little bit of anger  for my "non painting" situation, I've been lucky yesterday evening as my kids have decided to go to bed early. (Finally!!!)

So I've catched the opportunity to go ahead with my Grand Crane. Just a short session but enough to complete the huge horns of my skull warrior.

The base color was already painted. I used a  yellow ocre + a touch of blue wet blended with pure black.

Mainly I've worked the light and shadow, defining again the volume. For the color recipe I've semply used the base color with black and white to desaturate the overall color. The base color was a little bit too yellow, not in line with the rest of the miniature and because I wanted to make the horns old and worn, it was important to not let the colors too satutared.

I've also painted some dammages  just to add a little bit of texture because the horns were a little bit too flat for my taste.

    

Next step: finish the legs and the hoofs.

[ACHERON ARMY- WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE- finishing the metals

After finishing my steel metal, I've decided to add some details to make my undead warrior more realistic. So I've painted some battle damage on the armor. The effect is very simple to do and it's a cool added value to the overall result.
Paint your damage in black and underline the reflection of the light in silver on the lower part of the damage. And you have a 3D effect on your flat surface. Quick and simple.
I've also created a little bit of weathering just to make the armor even more broken looking. I've painted the rust with orange brown focusing the effect on the deep spot (including the fake battle damage).
I've decided to go very easy with the rust because I want to keep my color hue the most colder as possible which is quite incompatible with the orange of the rust.  

Enough with the steel metal, it's time to proceed with the golden part of the armor.
Following the same principle than the other color of the mini, I've choosen a cold color for my gold. So pale gold (warcolour) with a drop of black to desature it and a drop of blue to make it colder.
 The result is a fondation of pale greenish gold.

Then I've worked the shades with a first washe of Dark Sepia (secret weapon) and a second wash for the extreme shades of Dark Sepia + Black ink (warcolour) then finished the shading process with a glaze of purple ink (warcolour) always for the extreme shades.

 For the highlights, I've come back first on the light zone with my fondation of pale gold and then increase the light adding silver (warcolour) to the mix until reach pure silver for the extreme lights.
Then some glazes of green ink (warcolour) in the mid light area and finally some touches of turquoise on the deeper textured area to create some verd-de-gris.

 

That's all for today. Next step: the horns.

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE - let's play with metal.

A little bit of advancement with my Almighty Skull.
I've decided to work with true metal for the armor parts. I've tried to follow the good tips of Ben Komets on his TMM tutorial.
The most difficult part with true metal is to make it interesting in term of color and not only "metal looking". By the way, mixing pure color to the metal recipe and applying inks you can reach interesting results.

Unfortunatly, my pics are not good enough to catch the color reflections but at least you have an idea of the overall results.

It still in progress because I've planned to paint some damages and weathering to make the skull warrior more credible.     

  

So about the method:
Surface: pure black
The base color has been painted in wet blending mixing Steel (with a touch of blue), black metal and silver following light and shadows of course.
The shades has been increased first with washes of black metal + pure black and then with washes of Black armor (secret weapon).
The higlights has been increased with pure silver I've added to the blue steel I've used for the base color.

For the color variation, I've used very diluted glazes of dark brown ink in the mid shades and blue ink for the mid lights.

Next step: damages and weathering on steel part. If I 've found enough time maybe I will work also on the golden parts. 

[ACHERON ARMY - WINTER IS COMING] LE GRAND CRANE pt 1

After a break away from my pencils, I've finally come back and decided to start painting my Rackham Acheron undead army. Inspired by the new Game of Thrones season, I've choosen to paint my army in a frozen atmosphere. It's also an opportunity for me to try new techniques as I've never created winter and snow base.
Flying on the wave of motivation, I've decided to kick off with the biggest piece of the undead serie: Le Grand Crane ( the Almighty Skull) . It's not only the biggest in term of army point as he's a "living legend" which is, in Confrontation game, the most powerful unit of the army but it also in literary the biggest miniature.
The guy is a massive skull warrior, the skeleton I put on the base give you an idea of the scale. Considering he's a metal miniature, that's also mean he's very heavy. In fact I've struggle a lot to put together and consolidate the different pieces and the base.
The wooden pike I've placed on the base are not only for aesthetic purpose but to maintain the cork under the weight of the mini.
In term of painting, Le Grand Crane is going to be challenging. Not only because he's large but due to the profusion of elements in the sculpture, each of them heavily textured.
Fortunatly the most confusing part of the sculpture is on his back which will be mostly hidden by the huge cloak (which will be itself a challenge in the challenge).
After a black and white priming, I've started to paint to face and the skin parts. Because the colours hue will be mainly cold, I've tried to put some magic effect on his eyes with flashy orange just to create a contrasting focus on his face.
I think it's too soon to understand if the idea is good...