Masters of the guiding winds,
Aetheric Navigators are aero-cartographers,
atmospheric map-makers that help chart courses,
find currents and steer along perilous trade routes.
Yo ho Skyfarers and welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!
We're deep into Kharadron Overlords at the moment; having spent a few weeks on my Skyriggers and then last week looking at the Endrinmaster, today we have the Navigator!
Another iconic Kharadron Overlords model, the Navigator is brimming with detail!
Like I said with last week's Endrinmaster, whenever a model has loads of details, it is important to really distill down your colour palette.
In addition to narrowing the metals down to only copper and steel (okay and a tiny bit of brass on his anemometer on his right shoulder), I also limited the amount that was painted with metalics - opting to paint as much of his armour as possible blue.
By maximizing the amount of non-metalic blue I have on the model, not only does it more obviously tie him to the specific colour-scheme of his skyport (Barak Mhornar), but it also makes him look more combat-ready than if he was painted all in ornate metals.
From an artistic point of view, breaking up the metals with swaths of matte colour helps the eye read the details better and provides more visual interest. It also provides me a deep colour from which to contrast the pale blue aether-effects. Plus I just like painting this blue!
Thankfully, this guy didn't require as many sub-assemblies as my skyriggers, and as you can see from the picture above, I chose to magnetize his head. I actually really like the navigator head, I think it is reminiscent of the look of an observatory (with the telescopic eye-lenses and domed top with a further telescope-like protuberance coming from the top) which is in keeping with his role. It also harkens to our image of ancient Greek and Roman philosophers with gaunt faces and dramatic beards thrust forward as they gaze at the sky.
I have spoke about my painting process for my KO at length before, but I will post the recipe below for your reference. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to fire them into the comments below.
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
Gold medallion: Retributor Armour
Weapon wrapping: Screamer Pink
Effects:
Aether-effects: cover white with 1:4 Contrast Talassar Blue : Contrast Medium
Shades:
Under-suit, Copper, Brown: Agrax Earthshade
Armour, Steel: Nuln Oil
Gold: Agrax Earthshade, followed by Druchii Violet
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
While I made his base in the same way as my other KO, I had the added challenge of him coming with a bit of rock sculpted to his right foot. I toyed with the idea of just cutting away the sculpted rock, but worried I wouldn't be able to get his feet to stand flat on a real rock. So with a tiny bit of greenstuff I tried to bring the rocks together. If you don't focus on it too much I think it works fine.
As I mentioned above, I actually think the Navigator's head really fits the theme of the model. I chose to magnitize it (because it's quick and easy to do) so now I can swap it with any of my other KO leaders.
My Kharadron fleet is really coming along! I now have one unit of each "troop" type and one of each class of leader model, all that's missing are the Skyvessels - but that will be a (monumental) job for another time on The Art of Caesura!
Drinking: My beer Advent calendar! Currently Metalman Pale Ale
Reading: Absalom - Gordon Rennie
Gaming: MK11
Next Week:
Ho, ho, ho!
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