Is there anything more angst-inducing than a scythe-wielding gheist wizard atop an ethereally winged nightmare? No clue, but it's certainly a masterpiece of character design and another challenging painting project that soothed countless of lockdown-hours.
When this hitherto unnamed Grim Reaper on his horror stallion was first teased in the Soul Wars Announcement Trailer, the first thought that crossed my mind was: OMG Nagash corrupted Balthasar Gelt and his pegasus into spectral afterlife. The resemblance of these two figures was so obvious to me that I even was a bit astonished, if not disappointed, when Reikenor the Grimhailer was properly introduced. Nonetheless, the model leaves nothing to be desired for a Nighthaunt hero - from the blazing corpse candles attached to the armor pieces to the skeletal, smoke-like wings of his nightmare.
The painting scheme for Reikenor itself follows my previous approach of painting the ectoplasm and the ghostly shrouds pretty closely, so check those out if you are interested. The only thing I did differently this time was to let the tips of the shrouds dissolve into ectoplasm as well, which nicely ties the different tendrils of Reikenor's ghostform together. The look was achieved by wetblending the mix of Dryad Bark/Gorthor Brown and Dark Reaper with Thunderhawk Blue and Ionrach Skin.
Something totally new for me was painting Reikenor's mount Kyllaron and its wings as I haven't painted any of the ethereal steeds before. There was one thing though I knew right from the start: There wouldn't be anything corporeaI of this model except for the armor. This meant no actual bones at all, the entire creature should be composed of ectoplasm. I also didn't want it to be as dark and seemingly "solid" as in the original version. I considered Kyllaron's wings a particular challenge - bigger and rather even surfaces is something I haven't been doing well with in the past. I thought the only way I could reach for my desired smooth transitions (without having an airbrush, not to mention the skill to use one) would be wetblending again. Here's how I proceeded:
I first applied the following paints on my wet palette (order from dark to bright): Incubi Darkness, Sotek Green, a mix of Sotek Green and Sybarite Green (for a lighter midtone), and Ionrack Skin. There was also a few drops of Vallejo Retarder Medium and Glaze Medium added to the paints so that they remain wet and blendable on the minature. It has to be noted here that this makes the paints more transparent, meaning one single coat would not suffice at all. I then started to lay paint after paint next to each other onto the miniature, starting with Incubi Darkness and Sotek Green. I used a damp brush mix the transitions of both colours on the model. In addition to that, I also mixed the paints on my wet pallete so that I could smooth out any harsh transitions on the model right away. Then I repeated the process with Sotek Green and the lighter mix, finishing with Ionrach Skin. Let the first coat dry and do everything again. The result after a constant back and forth between Incubi Darkness and Ionrach Skin looked like this:
The second stage involved careful applications of several shades - all heavily diluted with Lahmian Medium to avoid blotches, stains or derkening the colours down too much. I used a Nihilakh Oxide for the brighter parts, Nighthaunt Gloom for the transitions and a mix of Nighthaunt Gloom, Coelia Greenshade and Nuln Oil for the darker parts. For some recesses, for example on the pure Incubi Darkness parts on the head or the bony parts of the wings, I used pure Nuln Oil. The final and most time consuming stage was the highlighting. For that, I used all the paints and midtones on my wet pallette. The outmost smokey bits were edge-highlighted with Deepkin Flesh and White Scar. With that, Kyllarons ghost body was finished.
So here we are, enjoy a few more pictures of the finished model. This might also be the chance to answer a previously asked question: How do I paint the hexflames? Easy! Basecoat of White Scar, a quick wetblend of yellow, light green and dark green as well as a final wash with thinned Tesseract Glow/Waywatcher Green that I also extended to the surroundings for a simple OSL effect.
I hope you enjoyed this post. Have fun replicating the painting method to the ethereal steeds or other Nighthaunt models. I'd love to see new nighthaunt models in the future, but I guess the Soulblight bloodsuckers are next - not that I'm complaining, the old Vampire Counts got me into Warhammer painting in the first place. ;)
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