"A Nose for Aether-gold" - Thundrik's Profiteers - Part II

With a hardy crew and a magnificent skyvessel 
at his command, Thundrik set out to achieve 
what all others had failed to do.

~ Games Workshop


Ahoy-hoy and welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

Last week we looked at the "profiteers" part of the Warhammer Underworlds warband Thundrik's Profiteers, this week let's look at Thundrik himself!

As I said last week, I really love this set. I have been enjoying all of the Warhammer Underworlds warbands that I've painted so far - they are a characterful snapshot of a given faction in Age of Sigmar. Obviously, with my love for Kharadron Overlords, this one has been my favorite so far!

Today, I will reproduce the recipes that I use for my KO, discuss some of my process, and note some of the weathering and basing techniques for these guys. All aboard!

Pre-washes (well, just about! I just shaded his right leg before remembering to take this picture!)

Beige and blue highlighted, now on to highlight the metallics. 

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
Brass: Leadbelcher


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


Shades
Under-suit, Copper, Brown, 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

It's funny, from looking back at my Arkanauts and Thunderers for this project I realized that I highlighted their armour differently. For the Arkanauts I just started with Stegadon Scale Green and added more and more white, but for the Thunderers and Admiral I made a lot more work for myself, starting with Stegadon Scale Green and adding Sotek Green, then Lothern Blue then white. 

The first method gave a cool desaturated militaristic grey-blue, while the latter method gave a more fantastical, saturated blue-blue. Looking back, I prefer the former method, but only realized this after I had painted the models in last week's post. For Thundrik (and hopefully for the rest of my Kharadron Overlords going forward - if I can remember), I used (and will use) the former method. Honestly, when there're a load of models side-by-side it doesn't make a whole heap of difference. 

As I showed in my work-in-progress shots last week, I've been using my new AK Weathering Pencils, and having an absolute blast with them! I will devote a separate post to them once I have had a bit more experience with them. 

On to the bases of the Profiteers. For the mud I started with Steel Legion Drab, washed with Reikland Fleshshade then dry brushed with Ushabti Bone and then re-washed with Seraphim Sepia to make it look less chalky. 

For the crystals on some of the bases I used Stegadon Scale Green, then Drakenhoff Nightshade then Stegadon Scale with Sotek Green and then Lothern Blue added up to a few dots of pure white on the sharpest edges. Then gave it a gloss varnish. 

For Thundrik's little volcanoes on his base, I just dabbed around the edge of the mouth of the volcano with white and then covered that with Soulstone Blue - to give a similar look to the models' aether-effects, making it look like maybe these are Aether-Gold vents that Thundrik is vacuuming up. 

And thar she be! It's exciting to have a few warbands to choose from now...but now that I've got a KO team, who else would I pick!?

See you next week for the blog's big 4th birthday party right here on The Art of Caesura!


Watching: Downsizing (2017) - Alexander Payne


Next Week:

Happy 4th Birthday!!