"Dashing Dandy" - Janus Draik

And by circumstance, or perhaps by divine will,

it has fallen to me, Captain Janus Draik,

Rogue Trader and first son of House Draik,

to codify the myriad threats aligned against us.

- Games Workshop

Hello, welcome to your weekly Friday fix of The Art of Caesura!

We're working our way through all the goodies and baddies of Blackstone Fortress. After last week's Beastmen, I only have a few villains left to paint, but I still have most of the heroes from the core box...speaking of which (of whom)...Today we're looking at Janus Draik!

Janus Draik is my main man when my wife and I play (and, while I believe his name is pronounced Yah-nis (as in the two-faced Roman god), she insists on pronouncing it Ja-nis (like a middle-aged female Walmart employee) just to irk me. Love ya, babe.

He's also kind of the poster boy of the game: he's prominent on the cover, and is the protagonist of the tie-in novel that I really enjoyed. You get to learn a lot about his back story in that novel.

There is even a book "written by Draik": Liber Xenologis - it's basically an in-world bestiary of creatures that Draik has come across on his exploits. I am so gutted to have missed this, not realizing that it was a limited edition. I would love if it were to be re-released in soft cover, or eventually came out in the Warhammer + Vault.

Anyway, he's a dandy swashbuckler, and I think he's great!

To paint this awesome character, I stepped out of my normal palette. Longtime readers know that I favour neutral or muted (pastel) colours to give an air of realism, but for Draik, I wanted him to boldly stand out.

To achieve really vibrant colours, I tried something that I've never tried before...I mixed my standard acrylic paints with Contrast Paints. Contrast paints are basically pigment-rich paints with flow improver and - as it transpires - they mix really well with standard paints.

So for the outer surface of Janus' greatcoat, I used a 2:1 mix of Macragge Blue (base) : Contrast Leviadon Blue. I found that the base paint + contrast gave a really nice consistency without needing to add any medium.

For the luscious red interior of his greatcoat I used 1:1 evil sunz Scarlet : Contrast Flesh Tearers Red.

I wanted the base colour of his pants to be ever-so-slightly different than his coat, so I used 2:1 Macragge Blue : Contrast Black Templar (rather than the Contrast Leviadon Blue that I used for the coat). For the lighter stripes I used The Fang + Warboss Green + Contrast Aethermatic Blue in approximately equal parts.

Next, it was on to his fur stole. For this I used equal parts Doombull Brown, Steel Legion Drab and Contrast Snakebite Leather. I painted the head Bugman's Glow.

I painted his skin Cadian Fleshtone, shaded with Contrast Guilliman Flesh, and then highlighted with my Scale 75 skin set. I shaded his lower jaw and sides of his head with heavily thinned Nuln Oil + Drakenhoff Nightshade to give the impression of stubble.

Once this was complete, the model was really coming together, and it was time to move on to metallics. I tried some new metallic paints that I bought recently, so for the bronze areas I used Vallejo Game Colour Bright Bronze. For the silver of his breastplate, I initially tried Vallejo Gunmetal Grey, but it was much too dark. Unfortunately, I also found it quite difficult to control; I think I must have been using the Airbrush version because it had very low viscosity and was a similar consistency to a Citadel shade. Anyway, I repainted his breastplate with Leadbelcher.

With the metals complete, it was on to shading. Above, you can see the model once all of the shades were applied and dried. Below are the shades I used for each area:

Shades:
Contrast Guilliman Flesh: Skin, stole, shirt, spikes, bronze
Carroburg Crimson: Red (inner jacket)
1:1 Nuln Oil : Lahmian Medium : Sword, lho pipe, pants
Neat Nuln Oil: Brown leather belt, holster, pouches, boots

Then it was on to highlights and details. I highlighted each area using the base colours that I had previously used, but where I would usually mix in Ushabti Bone for a more natural look, here, to keep the vibrancy, I added yellow to the red, and a brighter blue (Lothern Blue) to the blue areas. I took my time with the highlighting, stippling it on the cloth, and edge-highlighting the metal to diversify the textures.

A detail I love is one that I added on a whim: the grey streak in his hair (very Sweeny Todd or Bride of Frankenstein) but I think it makes him look distinguished.

Draik is probably my favourite mini in the whole set, and I think I only like him more after having taken the time to pour over the details while painting him. He is a fantastic exemplar for the Science-Fantasy genre that Warhammer 40k occupies with his sword in one hand and alien creature draped over his shoulders.