Warhammer Underworlds - The Crimson Court
Whilst I was in the mood for Warhammer Underworlds and had the tools out to assemble Skaeth’s Wild Hunt I figured I may as well put together the Crimson Court as well. Although admittedly it has taken me a while to find the motivation to get them painted. I’m not even sure why to be honest, I guess some projects just don’t grip you.
In any case I got the models assembled, although I didn’t glue any of them to their bases to make painting easier.
Prince Duvalle
Starting with the Prince I knew I wanted to paint the Crimson Court in a similar scheme to Anasta Malkorion. Which, for Duvalle, means lovely blood red armour as befitting his status as Prince. With that in mind I started by priming him with Retributor Armour spray and then gave the armour a coat of Blood Angels Red contrast paint. I use a gold undercoat instead of silver as the gold makes the red so much more rich and vibrant.
Moving onto the rest of the base coats, painted his skin with a couple thin coats of Ionrach Skin and his hair with Dawnstone. His tabard and cloak I painted with Xereus Purple, whilst all the leather pouches and straps I painted with Rhinox Hide. The blade of his sword I painted with Scale75 Thrash Metal.
Gorath the Enforcer
In many ways painting Gorath was the same as Duvalle. Starting from a black primer I gave his armour an even coat of Vallejo Metal Colour Magnesium. Once that was done I gave the armour an even coat of Black Templar contrast paint. The spikes that hold his cloak aloft I painted with Army Painter Skeleton Bone.
Then like Duvalle, I painted his cloak and tabard with Xereus Purple, his skin with Ionrach Skin and any leather details with Rhinox Hide. Lastly, to differentiate the weapon from his armour I painted it with Scale75 Trash Metal.
Vellas von Faine
The remaining two members of the Crimson Court I primed grey and while I had the Vallejo Metal Colour Magnesium out I used it to roughly block in the armour plates on Vellas’ legs, hips and shoulders, as well as the blades of the two swords. Her hair I painted with Corvus Black to keep with the general dark scheme of the warband.
From there it was business as usual painting the skin with Ionrach Skin and the undersuit with Rhinox Hide. The gloves, her top and the tabard I painted with Xereus Purple. The sword hilts and baskets I painted with Scale75 Dwarven Gold.
Ennais Curse-Born
For the most part the base coats for Ennais were basically the same as Vellas. From a grey prime the skin was painted with Ionrach Skin and the undersuit with Rhinox Hide. As I had used my usual leather colour for the undersuit I painted the leather straps and shoes with Corvus Black, and while I had it out I used it for Ennais’ hair as well. Lastly, I picked out the armour and weapon with Scale 75 Thrash Metal, and any jewellery with Scale75 Dwarven Gold.
Bases
With the models done I could move into the bases. I started by basecoating them with Two Thin Coats Dungeon Stone. The wooden stake I painted with Two Thin Coats Scorched Earth. Any skulls or bone details I painted with Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The iron shackles I painted with Scale75 Trash Metal and the candelabra I painted with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. The small stubs of candles I then painted with Ulthuan Grey.
Washes
As I wanted to do some oil washes the first thing I needed to do was to give all the models a coat of Matt Varnish. Historically for other Warhammer Underworlds warbands I have only used oils for the shading step, but for the Crimson Court I frankly couldn’t be bothered so I only did an oil wash on the skin with Abteilung 502 Flesh Shadow and on the bases with Burnt Umber with a bit of Black mixed in to darken it down. In both cases I used some ??? to thin the oil paint down to a wash consistency. I then left the oil washes about half an hour to dry but not fully cure, I then came back with a makeup sponge dampened with white spirits to remove the oil wash from the raised areas. With that done I left the models a few days for the oil paint to completely cure.
Moving onto the acrylic washes I used Army Painter Strong Tone on the gold details and then Nuln Oil on everything else that hadn’t already been washed.
Highlights
Once everything was completely dry it was time to move onto the highlights. As I was keen to get the warband completed I kept the highlights fairly minimal. I started by layering the skin with Ionrach Skin, the oil wash had shaded the recesses nicely but in some places it had smeared across the raised areas where I had cleaned with white spirits. So it was a simple case of painting a thin layer of Ionrach Skin on the raised areas to brighten and tidy them up. Next I edge highlighted all the purple cloth with Two Thin Coats Runic Purple and any bone details were highlighted with Vallejo Pale Sand. For the flagstones on the bases, instead of highlighting all the edges I instead thinned out some Dawnstone and dabbed it into the centre of each one. This produced a very stark difference between the stones and the recesses between them but I quite like how it turned out. I then tidied up the bases by painting the rims black. Lastly, to help differentiate the armour plates on Duvalle and Gorath I highlighted the edges of the armour with Scale75 Thrash Metal. It was super tedious but it really helped the armour to pop.
Done?
I really don’t know why I didn’t have the same drive to complete these guys as I did for the other Warhammer Underworlds warbands. Perhaps the process of painstakingly doing all the base coats then an oil wash, which takes a bit more thought than an acrylic wash, is at odds with my current painting method of effectively pre-shading the model and then throwing contrast paints at it. Whatever the reason, I am happy to have finally gotten them done and I’m reasonably happy with how they’ve turned out.