U'Zuhl, or Skulltaker to his mates (if he has many), is a bloodletter herald of Khorne special character in daemon armies. His points cost is very reasonable, and when embedded in a large squad of bloodletters he can prove to be a real asset for the daemons player, in either a mixed daemons squad or a mono-Khorne list. Moreover, I like the model!
Painting.
The colours of Khorne are typically black, brass and red - and those are the colours that I wanted to stick to for Skulltaker. After undercoating in black, I made a conscious choice to keep Skulltaker's cape black, but with white runes of Khorne stitched to the inside of his cape and brass metal bits. So, instead of worrying about the cape, I tackled the flesh of Skulltaker first.
The flesh was painted in mechrite red for the basecoat. I decided to follow my usual bloodletter painting scheme and go with an inking of red with a spot of black on top of the basecoat to give it some depth. The flesh was then drybrushed with blazing orange and highlighted (or overbrushed) with more solid orange colours on the raised portions. His "bumps" or "spots" (e.g. on his legs) were painted in a cream colour.
Next, I went on to the armoured portions. I didn't apply any basecoat here, but steadily drybrushed up from the black undercoat to a more grey colour. A very light application of skull white drybrushing finished the effect and then I carefully painted brass around the edges of the armour - e.g. the shoulder pads.
The skulls on the rear of the cape followed the shoulder pads and armour - progressive drybrushing up to a more skull white colour. The hooks that support the skulls were picked out brass. On other details, the hellblade has my standard bloodletter molten look; the tongue is done in a couple of blue colours; the flaming skull held in his hand has yellows and reds added to it, with flecks of black to suggest dying embers of heat; and the Khorne runes are picked out in pure skull white.
I've placed a genestealer sprue skull on the base - I'm fairly sure that Khorne doesn't discriminate between different species when it comes to skulls and blood (etc.). The rest of the base is going to get some attention at a later date.
Painting.The colours of Khorne are typically black, brass and red - and those are the colours that I wanted to stick to for Skulltaker. After undercoating in black, I made a conscious choice to keep Skulltaker's cape black, but with white runes of Khorne stitched to the inside of his cape and brass metal bits. So, instead of worrying about the cape, I tackled the flesh of Skulltaker first.
The flesh was painted in mechrite red for the basecoat. I decided to follow my usual bloodletter painting scheme and go with an inking of red with a spot of black on top of the basecoat to give it some depth. The flesh was then drybrushed with blazing orange and highlighted (or overbrushed) with more solid orange colours on the raised portions. His "bumps" or "spots" (e.g. on his legs) were painted in a cream colour.
Next, I went on to the armoured portions. I didn't apply any basecoat here, but steadily drybrushed up from the black undercoat to a more grey colour. A very light application of skull white drybrushing finished the effect and then I carefully painted brass around the edges of the armour - e.g. the shoulder pads.
The skulls on the rear of the cape followed the shoulder pads and armour - progressive drybrushing up to a more skull white colour. The hooks that support the skulls were picked out brass. On other details, the hellblade has my standard bloodletter molten look; the tongue is done in a couple of blue colours; the flaming skull held in his hand has yellows and reds added to it, with flecks of black to suggest dying embers of heat; and the Khorne runes are picked out in pure skull white.
I've placed a genestealer sprue skull on the base - I'm fairly sure that Khorne doesn't discriminate between different species when it comes to skulls and blood (etc.). The rest of the base is going to get some attention at a later date.
Looks pretty spiffy!
ReplyDeleteVery nice. I can't see if the base is finished, but no matter he still looks really good.
ReplyDeleteThat looks very nice. I cannot quite make out what the gold things on the back are. Is it a skull linked cape? Are those the clasps holding the skulls together? I am sure if I actually saw the model and not the picture I would know.
ReplyDeleteI really like that tongue...it stands out without distracting from the awesomeness of the rest of the model.
ReplyDeleteGreat work! I appreciate that you post a little walkthru on how you got to the end. It really helps me think about how I paint my models!
I see how he got his name, could he fit any more skulls on his cape!.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great paint job you've done, he'll look suitably mean on the table i'm sure.
Hi Folks - thanks for the comments!
ReplyDeleteOni: The base still needs to be finished off yet - that's a job for another day though.
Eriochrome: The gold things are like unusually shaped hooks. On the miniature, they look like they're the things that hold or "knit" the skulls in to the cape.