From ByronM - Kingdom Death Black Knight (25 points)

For todays post I give you all a very non-Kingdom Death, Kingdom Death model.  What on earth do I mean by that???  Well, this is a KD model that has no nudity, tentacles, testicles, vaginas, boobs, babies, extra hands/limbs, etc, etc, etc.  Meaning it is actually a safe for work, rather normal looking model which is really strange for a KD model!  So all you KD haters out there, might actually like this model!

I have had this model for at least a year or two and was never sure what to do with it, as I was a little leery about the huge as plain cloak on him. With such a big surface I was not sure about getting a smooth and realistic looking blend / shade on it, so he sat.  Then it dawned on me, why the F$#& am I not painting with oils and doing a complete wet blend on it???   So, I pulled out the red, blue, black and white oil paints and got to work.  20 minutes later and I had a perfect (in my not so humble opinion) blend on the cloak, and was left wonder why the F$#& I don't use my oils more often as it was such a fast and easy way to get silky smooth transitions.

With that in mind, I went on to paint all the blue inner jacket, fur, quilted leather, belts and bandages all with oils!  Only to find out there are limitations, especially with small surface areas.  The blue and quilted leather worked awesome, however the bandages and belts were very problematic and probably would have been better done with acrylics, but hey, I gave it a shot!

After all the oils were in place and sealed, I went on to painting all the metallic armour panels. I used the awesome vallejo metallic paints, then sealed them and washed them with a thinned down oil paint so that I could use makeup sponges to clean up everything that left the recesses.  This is a great process and I highly recommend everyone give it a try at least once.  Washing with oils is night and day better and easier than acrylic washes, if for no other reason than you can clean up any overflow super easily and cleanly.

With that the Black Knight was done and ready to terrorize the battlefield in Kingdom Death, I can not wait to face him!  I have included a picture with him next to a standard 40k model to show just how big the KD monsters tend to be.  I am once again claiming 25 points for him as a 40mm monster.

On a side note, this is probably my last post for at least a few weeks as I finished him last week, and by this time will have gone back in for surgery on my ankle and will be unable to sit at a desk for any length of time for a few weeks.  This is to correct some issues from a surgery earlier this year when I was hit by a car going 70, while on my motorcycle at a red light.  Hopefully this will be it and I will be back up and fully mobile in about a month (and back riding this summer)!!!

Byron - wow - this is quite a piece of work. I can only admire the blending with oils here as you will never catch me messing with that hell-spawned medium. This giant knight looks incredible, you've really done some awesome work here. Twenty-five points for your tally!

Dallas 

ByronM - Frogdog, Mole Preacher, and Stone Building ( 45 points)

Today I have a group of three submissions that are all vastly different.  Let's start out with my favourite and the oddest, most NSFW one, which of course means a Kingdom Death model.  This is one I have waited a while to get to and paint, the mighty Frogdog and her multitude of dogpoles. This is a huge model, being on a 100mm round base and towering a little over that in height.

This is one of the newer KD models and as is normal in KD, she is anything but normal.  This is a cross between what looks like a simian face and a frog/toad body.  To help add to the strangeness of the model, she has human breasts hanging underneath and 6 human faces on her back, each with a vagina for a mouth and is giving birth to more "dogpoles".  Only in the strange and inhuman world of Kingdom Death could this creature be a thing! 

In game, the monster likes hopping around the swamp from lily-pad to lily pad that it treats as trampolines, sending people flying through the air.  She also charges up her double sphincter before releasing the most noxious of farts (she even has a fart AI deck with various toxic odours ready to release) that cause you to pass out and potentially drown in the swamp.  All in all it sounds like a cool and different fight, which is what KD is all about (although definitely not for everyone!).

Next up I have a small addition for my Burrows & Badgers collection, a small mole preacher.  I call him Friar Tuck, since he reminds me of the outfit in the Disney Robin Hood animated movie, just not big enough or fat enough, but its all they have that is close in the line.  As with all my B&B stuff it is a pretty simple cartoony paint job, but looks good with all the other miniatures.

Lastly, I have a 3D printed stone house from the Greendale line that can be found on myminifactory (there is also an equivalent line called Grimdale that is the destroyed versions of each building).  I printed this on my Anycubic Kobra S1 that I got a few months back, and it did a great job for a filament printer.  

However it did really remind me why I HATE filament prints. The lines and textures are a pain in the ass to work with, and I would really rather have printed in in resin.  The only reason I didn't is that I have about 10 buildings to paint up in this line, and another 10 for the ruined versions, and filament costs about $5 a building to print while resin would be $30-$50 per building.  To be fair, once on the table and at arms reach you can not really see the lines, so while I hate dealing with them, its not really noticeable when you are playing a game with them. 

The building is 5.5" long, 3.5" wide, and 5" tall, making it fairly substantial.  I painted it a stone grey colour to start with, then went in with 5 different shades of tan and brown and started painting random stones different colours.  From there it was washed to mute the colours a bit and then onto the roof and all the details.  Honestly, it too WAY too long to paint and was not worth it in the challenge due to the huge time sink it was as I had to be careful to always wet-brush and not dry-brush for the print lines to show up.  It probably took me twice as long as the frogdog to paint!  I am still thinking of adding some flock and moss to the roof, but decided to leave it for now until all are painted and I decide if I am going to do snow or moss.

And providing a group shot with a standard space marine for scale.

 

Overall these models should give me a grand total of  45 points.  The Frogdog is equivalent to the King I posted earlier in the challenge and should count as a 40mm monster for 25 points.  The mole preacher is a 25mm model for 5 points. Lastly the building is equivalent to many others that I have awarded 15 points to, so am claiming the same for myself here. As always though, points don't really matter to me, I am happy to just be getting stuff done, so adjust as you see fit.

Great stuff here Byron and I'm glad that at least ONE of my Maniacs has a post for Monday! The Frogdog is suitably repulsive and disturbing, and we'd expect nothing less from Kingdom Death of course. I like your paintwork on it and how you picked out the veins in a lighter green, really nice work on a really gross model. The cute li'l mole preacher, what can I say, he is great. Holding forth on the principle that four legs are good and two legs are better, maybe? The Greendale house is a beauty, you've done a great job on the stonework!

Forty-five points duly added.

Dallas

 

From ByronM - Kingdom Death: The King in Yellow (25 Points)

It was a busy Christmas so I didn't get much painting done, but I did manage to get some base colours on a bunch of models and at least this one model done, so I am posting it alone this week.  It is a figure that has caused much consternation with the wife, as she despises the colours I am using.  However, how could I not do an evil demonic king in any colour other than yellow?  So, I present to you my version of the Kingdom Death (KD) king as the King in Yellow.

I wanted to do him yellow since I first got him a few years ago, but delayed and delayed as painting anything in yellow sucks!  It's such a hard colour to work with, and its so easy to get it wrong (which unfortunately I probably did as I am not super happy with it but nothing I did made it better so I just left it). Over all though, despite the yellow being a bit muddier than I wanted, since I was looking for more of a shade of ochre through yellow, I think it suits the model.  It makes the fleshy bits a little harder to see and they blend in a bit, but overall I am not un-pleased with the result, just not thrilled with it either, if that makes any sense.

This is a huge model at almost 6" tall as shown with the already fairly tall KD survivor next to it!

 

As with all KD models he is full or strange, dark, twisted details.  For KD that usually means tentacles, penises, extra body parts (normally arms and hands), and babies and the King does not disappoint. While there are no tentacles or penises, the whole King appears to be made up of human arms and hands and babies.  No idea why, and really not sure I even want to question or know.  All I know is that it is creepy and disturbing to many people, but I love it! Heck, he even has a flowing chain of babies around his neck and back.  I normally don't paint pupils on models as it always looks like they are shocked with wide eyes, but I felt in this case that look would work on the babies, as it gives them a confused "why the F am I here" look to them, so I went with it.

 

Anyway, since we have always counted KD as 40mm scale, I am submitting him as a vehicle/monster of 40mm scale for 25 points.  Please feel free to adjust as required if that is incorrect. 

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Yes, Kingdom Death figures are typically very strange and disturbing, and this one certainly does not break from the norm. That being said, as a study in yellow, I think you hit the mark, Byron. It has depth and warmth while the grey bits provide a nice contrast. I also find that the colours benefit from the high definition of the figures details. Very creepy but well painted. Mission accomplished!

I'll go with your points assessment and mark you down for 25 points. Great work Byron!

- Curt

From ByronM: Last dash to the end [Lady Sarah's Cart](40 points)

 It has been a super slow challenge for me with a lot going on this year distracting me, so I will be missing my points goal for the first time since being involved with the challenge.  Sigh....  Oh well, life goes on, and I may as well try to get a few last points up today.

First up is a Kingdom Death: Monster figure that I painted up for some bonus points with Sarah's Library Cart, to take a trip, hmm.... anywhere.... I don't plan on getting any other bonus points so it doesn't really matter where I go, I just had this female figure on the painting table to finish at some point.  

She is a survivor done up in leather gear (including the bondage face mask and gear) and has her Dom whip in hand!  Kingdom Death is not for the weak of heart, so she makes sure you can pass the test before letting you out of the settlement!

I was not sure on colours, other than the leather needing to be black or brown.  I went with a very Karen blue hair as I wanted something to contrast against the brown and flesh of the rest of the model, and I think it worked out well.

Next up I have 2 models that have been kicking around on my painting table for at least 2 years and maybe 3 or 4!  They are the last models for the Ten Thunders gang for Malifaux that got tucked behind a bunch of other stuff years ago when I did the other models of the gang and forgotten.  Since we haven't played in years, it hasn't been an issue.  However, we started talking about giving it another go recently so I figured I should get them done.  

The female is a caster of types to help out the rest of the faction, and the guy is a oni spirit that they bring with them to crush their enemies.  Not my best work, but they are done and table worthy.

Overall this should be 40 points.  10 for the 35mm KD figure, 20 for Sara's Library Cart, and then 5 for each of the Malifaux figures.  

I should be back later tonight for one last post, I am just trying to finish up my Turnip28 figures, but we will see how that goes.

Ha, you thought you'd escape me didn't you? No way! I won't miss minioning this absolutely stunning KD figure. The leatherwork is fantastic, you may have had your doubts about the colours but they work very well and the overall effect is fabulous. What a great piece! I think the photos don't do the Malifaux figures enough justice, but they look great too. A great post, Byron! I am not entirely sure about the maths, there is no 35mm category and it is not really possible to judge the size of the KD figure, so I went along with your suggestion and scored it as a 54mm figure. In any case 10 points seems fair. So, 40 in total,let's hope we'll see you back later today!

Martijn 

From ByronM - Kingdom Death Good vs Evil on Corsucant (64 Points)

This is a submission LONG in the making, I originally primed these up about 4 challenges ago and then never got around to them.  I kept putting them off as I was not quite sure how to deal with 2 of them and didn't want to screw up such expensive models.  Well, this year it was time to bite the bullet and do them anyway, and I think I nailed it on one and screwed the pooch on the other, but you be the judge.

First up the one I think I nailed, and the one I was most worried about, the Watcher.  This enigmatic entity is your saviour and killer in Kingdom Death.  In this bleak world there is no sky, no sun, just endless darkness and evil, when you wake up in the world though you find magic lanterns that keep the darkness and monsters at bay and let you survive.  [SKIP THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU DON'T WANT KD SPOILERS!] What you don't realize up front is that Watchers provide and power these lanterns as a way to gather groups of humans into settlements.  Then after a while (25 years/games) they come out from their underground lairs to devour the now hopefully highly populated grown up settlement.  Yeah Kingdom Death is an evil evil place.

The Watchers are supposed to both create and devour light (and hopefully I am getting all this lore correct as its pieced all over the books and cards and not clear on purpose) so I wanted to try and paint something both dark and light.  I went with black but didn't want a pure black so it is actually a deep blue then shaded down to black in the crevasses and up to a slightly lighter blue at the highlights.  I then painted his sash in a bone colour to provide some kind of colour contrast (going black/white but not true colours at either side of the spectrum) and lastly painted the lanterns and some OSL light effects from them, but kept them muted on purpose to show that the light is fading around him.  I am super happy with the result, and I am almost NEVER happy with my own painting, which makes it even better!

Next up is the one I don't like how he came out, the Manhunter.  This is another super cheery monster in Kingdom Death who comes to settlements and demands you sacrifice people to him.  If you don't he likes toying with you in the fight breaking arms, legs, and backs as he breaks you down and then hauls you away.  It never says what he does with the people he takes, but it can't be pleasant.

He is dressed pretty mono-chromatically as he is supposed to be wearing leather made from animals and people, so I tried to use various browns, tans, and skin tones to make up some division in his outfit, but I am just not happy with the overall result.  I struggled with thinking about what to do with him for the last few weeks, but just couldn't come up with a solution, so am submitting him as is, as he is at least usable for the game even though he is not great.

Next up are two survivors to add some extra weapon options to my collection of figures.  The female figure is a Savior figure holding what could be a great sword or twilight sword in game, either a very useful option (even though the twilight sword makes you super powerful for about 8 games then kills you).  

The male is just a random fighter with an axe.  I fell in love with this figure due to the fish head he is wearing as a helmet, so I had to make sure it stood out so painted it a bright green and refer to him as the Fisherman. He kinda suffers from the same monochromatic issue that the Manhunter does though with all his leather items, but again, I wasn't sure where to go from there.

 

 

Overall, I really like the Watcher and the Saviour figures and the Manhunter and Fisherman may need a revisit at some point for more contrast of a few colour changes.  If anyone has suggestions, I would love to hear them.

As for points, I am not sure so leave it at your discretion Millsy.  Kingdom Death is a 40mm game, so the 2 heroes are easy (2 @ 7 = 14 points), but I am not sure how you want to count the monsters.  Normally monsters are equal to vehicles, but these don't seem quite big enough to count as 25 points each, but they are also not cavalry, but I think it would be more reasonable points wise to count them as such and 15 points each instead of the 25?  Your call completely.  Whatever you come up with, I also get the bonus 20 points for completing a good vs evil post for the planet of Corsucant.  

Oh, and I almost forgot, this will also be my 4th squirrel point! So far my topics for Squirrel points include:

1. 15mm Eldar
2. 10mm Undead
3. 30k Marines
4. Kingdom Death Monsters and Heroes
   

From Millsy:

This is the best of your three entries today Byron IMHO. I love everything about these, the painting style, the colour choices, the glowing light, etc. all just gorgeous. The Manhunter is absolutely ripped with 66% more six pack than the rest of the human race!

I know what you mean about not wanting to paint something for fear of screwing up. I prefer to think of it as letting the resin or the undercoat cure properly [insert eyeroll]. Sometimes you just have to start and see where it takes you. Mistakes are just a part of the process. FWIW I think you nailed it.

I'm happy with 15 points per monster so that's 2 x 7 (14) points + 2 x 15 (30) points + 20 points = 64 points. Well done on three great entries in one week!

From ByronM - A visit to Piper's Peak - Kingdom Death nightmare ram (45 points)

As I continue having fun blundering around the island, I came upon Piper's Peak, and the challenge was to come up with something mountain based.  Hmmm, what to do?  As luck would have it I just very recently received a package from Kingdom Death with a copy of the new Nightmare Ram model.

The nightmare ram is a creature that lives on or near the inverted mountain range, and while the base of the inverted mountain is the highest area from the ground, and the peaks nearly touch the ground, I still think a mutant plant turned mountain goat should qualify for a mountain creature, no matter how screwed up the actual mountain is!

The nightmare ram is the living spawn of a parasitic plant. It subsists on the salt of creatures which it metabolizes to power the glowing bulbs that grow atop its tough horns and the large lantern organ it carries outside its body. They are sensitive, lonesome creatures that carefully cultivate beautiful, hidden gardens containing the plants that produce them. They will often beat trespassers into a pulp and use them as salt-rich fertilizer.

Like any fruit that has been picked, their life span is short.

Well, that's not disturbing at all, is it....

I was not really sure what to do with the nightmare ram, but felt most of it had to be flesh tone, but wanted it to be fairly pale and gray since they are in the shadow of the mountain most of the time.

I also wanted to have the stone face that the hands are holding up show as paler than the flesh so that it is easy to see as stone.

Beyond that, I knew I had to have the pods on the horns and the lantern glow.  Since the glow comes from the parasitic plant that forms the ram, I wanted to use something other than the yellow I use for all the lanterns in KD.  I decided to go with a cold blue effect as I felt going with a warm colour would not work as well against the flesh and fur.

I like to imagine that this is mother natures revenge against vegans, as it is a plant the beats people to a pulp to grow more of its own kind in their bodies.

While KD is a 35-40mm scale game, and while this guy is quite large, I think just counting him as a horse is good enough, as he is not quite big enough to count as a monster in this scale.  So I should score 15 points for him, 30 points for Piper's Peak, and hopefully some nightmares and squeels of disgust by the people that view him.



That certainly is a beast to give you nightmares, Byron. Great colour choices - the blue glow works really well against the flesh and fur shades.

TamsinP

From ByronM - A visit to Roundwood's Tower (44 points)

Well, it has been a little while since my last post and that is for a few reason, one of which being that I had no clue where to go next on the map, or what to do for it.  After some thought I decided to climb down from the peaks along the path of imagination and visit Roundwood's Tower.

To score points for the map space I had to do something alternate history based, and I had just the model for it that I have been wanted to paint up, a female Roman centurion.  This is a big model measuring in at just about 45mm tall and is pretty beefy as well.  It is supposedly 35mm scale (heroic scale) but is larger than that, and will fit in nicely with either my Arena Rex figures or as a Kingdom Death hero in a pinch.

 

The thought here was, what if women were allowed to fight in the Legions?  I for one would not want to face off against her, as she looks suitably intimidating!

I painted her up in much the same manor as I painted my Greeks, using vallejo steel and bronze washed with earthshade for her armour, and deep reds washed with dark browns for her red fabric.

Overall I am super happy with how she came out, even though I have to go back and redo her face once I get to picking up new glasses (getting older sucks and my focus is changing and I need new prescription reader / painting glasses so that I can paint fine details again).  She still looks ok, but it is very annoying when your eyes won't focus like they used to!

Oh, and did I mention, this is a 3d printed figure? I picked up a whole set of great files by a very talented sculpter "Francesca Musumeci" from a kickstarter she ran earlier this year (Amazons) which despite the name came with a ton of other themed figures as well, amazing value for the money.

Also in this post is another monster from Kingdom Death, that has sat too long with only primer on him.  I was just never sure what to do with him colour-wise.  He is the Hand of the King and is a royal pain in the @$$ in game.

The fight against him is essentially trying to prove your worth to him by hurting him enough that you earn his respect and he leaves you alone, or surviving long enough that he gets bored with you.  In typical Kingdom Death style, neither outcome is good for the settlement, although one is less bad than the other.

My biggest issue trying to come up with colours for him was that he has an open brain at the top of his skull and therefore I could not do a red cloak, and a royal purple one didn't work either. So he sat...

Then recently I saw a picture where someone did his cloak yellow and it just looked right, so it was time to paint him up.

With these two 40mm+ figures I should rack up 14 points plus the 30 points for the visit the Roundwood's Tower.

***

Fine brushwork once again Byron. It's always great to see new and cool miniatures arrive from your 3D printer. The female centurion looks great - in particular the Vallejo colours seem perfect for armour plates, very nice work. Whatever state your glasses are in, rest assured the output is still impressive.

And yet another unsettling Kingdom Death creature...though perhaps not so unsettling as the last one...at any rate, it's good to see there is one fellow in the setting with an open mind *cough*. 

44 points for you, keep up the great work!

GregB

From ByronM: Snow Lord's Peak Challenge: Kingdom Death Sunstalker (50 Points)

Well, the challenge was set by the Snowlord himself, to paint a Kingdom Death (KD) monster as a tribute submission.  I needed to get one ready for a pending game of KD anyway as we are nearing the end of a "People of the Sun" campaign and the fight with the Sunstalker is looming near!

I was also looking for an excuse to work with some new toys I got for the challenge and that I had not broken out yet, as everything I have been painting was for tabletop quality, not character or show quality.  So, overall a great challenge event as it filled two things I wanted to do anyway.

The official artwork and colours for the Sunstalker

First up the Sunstalker, in all his disgusting kingdom death obscenity and strangeness.  I really wanted to keep him similar to the official artwork as I have pretty much done my own thing with most of the monsters, so trying to match an existing scheme would be a different king of challenge, and one I think I came pretty close on.

My interpretation in paint of the artwork, I think it's pretty close.

"Once sky had no day. There was a Shadow that was sad, it could only play in the small light of a lantern. The Shadow found a hole in the sky and decided to steal enough lanterns to fill it. It took many generations, and when it was done the shadow slept under its big light, dreaming dreams about how it would play. When it awoke, all of the light was gone! At the center of the hole in the sky, was a tiny shining entity, with a great big mouth. The shadow named the tiny thing the sun and they played forever."

To paint the Sunstalker I started with the airbrush and put on the basic colours starting with the green, light tan, then brown.  I then went back and laid in some highlights and shadows, again with the airbrush to keep things smooth.

Once all the airbrushing was done,  I went in and stippled the skin all over using slightly different tones of each colour, partially to try my new brushes described below, and partially to break up the colours a little.   

Then to get some contrast added in, and to not ruin the smooth airbrush / stippling effect with a wash over the whole thing, I used washes to actually paint in all the crevasses, instead of as a wash. After that I went over each fold and crack and applied a few thin layers of highlights so that they are visible and add depth to the model.

I kept the rest fairly simple, with a little bit of highlights via dry brushing on the hands / hair.  Then the mouth and teeth and eye stalks.  All kept very simple at a technical level, but trying to do it very cleanly.  Oh, and of course his "tentacle" needed some pinky flesh tone.

The Sunstalker with some survivors for scale.

So, back to the new toys I bought that I wanted to play with.  At the start of every challenge I generally order a new set of brushes or two, as I tend to burn through a set over the challenge or over the year leading up to it.  Normally I buy Windsor & Newton series 7's (and I strongly suggest them as they seem to last forever compared to cheaper brushes.  Sure they are expensive, but they last 4-5 times longer for me than brushes that cost 1/2 as much, therefore they are definitely worth it to me) but I have been hearing about some other brushes that are supposed to be really good, so I decided to give them a shot.

They are from Artis Opus and come in some snazzy wooden boxes and are apparently equivalent to W&N 7's but cheaper.  I picked up a standard set of 000-2 and a set of dry brushing brushes to try out.  I have to say so far they are living up to the hype and are very nice to work with, especially the dry brushes which are a dream and don't leave a chalky finish due to how soft they are.

I can not say for sure how well they will hold up, as I just broke them out of the case and am just starting to break them in so they have seen very little use, but so far they function and flow paint almost exactly like W&N and are in fact cheaper.  I will let you guys know at the end of the challenge how they have held up, as that will be the real test!

I am completely out to lunch on what he should be scored for points wise, I am just happy to have him done.  He is fairly large at a little over 130mm tall and his identical hang over all sides of a 135mm round base, but then again he painted up super fast and easy due to most of the work being done with the airbrush.

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Wow. Putting aside the more than somewhat disturbing subject matter (this guys pretty much breaks the 'Creep-o-Meter'), one can't deny that your paintjob is absolutely stunning Byron. I'm really impressed with the fades and smooth transitions you achieved with your airbrushing, and the subsequent detail work with your new brushes is superb as well. What an amazing piece.

Due to the size of this model, I'm going to score it as the equivalent of a 28mm vehicle. 

Your prize for completing the challenge of Snow Lord's Peak is Greg's brilliant warp navigator, Espern Locarno.

Congratulations Byron, and well done!

-Curt