"A Hardy Crew" - Thundrik's Profiteers - Part I

Bjorgen Thundrik and his crew of skyfarers
were not the first among the Kharadron Overlords 
to search for Shadespire...

~ Games Workshop


Welcome to our first miniatures post of 2020 on The Art of Caesura!

Last week we started the new year off with something...new. Check out last week's Coma-Community post to read about the 2P's Podcast if you're not already familiar with them. 

Today we're going back to one of my great loves: Kharadron Overlords! I was hotly anticipating Thundrik's Profiteers when they were first teased by Games Workshop during season 2 of Warhammer Underworlds last year, and now I've finally got around to painting them!!

Like all the Warhammer Underworlds gangs that I've painted so far, these were an absolute joy! With two Arkanauts, a Thunderer, a Skywarden and an Aether-Khemist, there is a lot of variety in the miniatures of this set. 

I started out with a production line; blocking in all of the base colours. As with The Briar Queen, I quickly realized that the leader model (Ol' Thundrik himself) would require a lot more attention than the rank-and-file (well the ones on foot anyway) because he is just covered in details that the rest of them are not. So this week lets focus on Garodd Alensen (the guy with the  sword), Enrik Ironhail (the guy with the 'Gatling Gun'), Dead-Eye Lund (the Thunderer) and Khazgan Drakkskewer (the Skywarden). Next week we'll devote more time to Bjorgen Thundrik. 

Here are some of the work-in-progress shots, with my fancy photos to follow. 

Getting the base colours in. Pre-shades.

Squeaky clean - pre-shade.

These next few pictures are of the nearly completed mini, during the weathering process. I used my new AK Weathering Pencils (that I got for Christmas) and was thrilled with them, I will devote a future post to going into them in detail. 

Working some dried dirt and grime into his pauldron.

More dirt on this pauldron and the dings on the gun barrel were also done with the weathering pencils.

This unorthodox, 'up the skirt' shot is showing the scuffing on his elbow guard for which I used a light blue pencil. Also a few marks on the copper backpack are visible. 

Here, I made streaky rust marks on his dirigible by first drawing on the rust with the pencil and then wetting it with a damp brush. 

Recipe:

Base Colours
Under-suit: Ushabti Bone
Armour: Stegadon Scale Green
Copper: Screaming Bell
Steel: Leadbelcher
Brown: 2:1 mix of Doombull Brown + Abaddon Black
Aether-effects: White Scar
Rope: Averland Sunset
Brass (only on Drakkskewer's bomb on his back - will feature much more prominently next week...): Leadbelcher


Effects:
Brass: cover Leadbelcher with Contrast Snakebite Leather
Aether-effects: cover white with Soulstone Blue


Shades
Under-suit, Copper, Brown, Rope, Brass: Agrax Earthshade
Armour, Steel: Nuln Oil


Highlights
Under-suit: Ushabti Bone + White Scar
Armour: Stegadon Scale Green + Sotek Green then adding Lothern Blue
Copper: Hashut Copper + Stormhost Silver. 
Steel: Runefang Steel + Stormhost Silver
Brown: 2:1 mix of Doombull Brown + Ushabti Bone
Rope: Averland Sunset + Ushabti Bone

Garodd Alensen

Usually I would go through my process right about now, but to be honest I painted the models largely in the order written above. The only thing I'd say, is I painted the white for the aether-effects last (after the shading) so I could be quick and loose with the shades and wouldn't have to go back and touch-up the white. 

Enrik Ironhail (check out his "aether-pipe")

I used tons of reference models from the KO I've already painted to have some conformity across my army (did I previously paint the compass housing steel or copper etc.) and though doing this, I noticed that I painted the clasps on the pouches of my Arkanauts steel, but on the Thunderers, I painted them copper. I think it fits, to show their different ranks. 

Dead-eye Lund

Ooo shiny crystals!

It has been so nice to get back to my Kharadron Overlords! They are really having their resurgence at the moment with the new Battletome and all!

Khazgan Drakkskewer

We'll finish out Thundrik's Profiteers and talk about their basing next week. I'll see you then on The Art of Caesura!


Reading: Beyond the Rift - Peter Watts (which has a great short story based on The Thing, but from the monster's perspective!)


Next Week:

Bearing an Atmospheric Anatomiser...