"The Third Eye" - Espern Locarno

I am the gateway to the stars.

- Espern Locarno

Welcome back, adventurers, to another Friday on The Art of Caesura!

Today is a bit of a special one, it's the last hero (and indeed the last model) that I painted for Blackstone Fortress. There is, however one final model to reveal after today's post...But today, we're looking at the Imperial Navigator, Espern Locarno.

Espern has the dubious honour of being the only explorer that my wife and I (and parents who popped in for one session) have never used during our whole campaign (which has been running VERY intermittently over the past two years or so). But don't get the wrong idea, it's one of those "it's not you, it's me" situations, where I had painted many of the other heroes so wanted to use painted models.

I think Espern, and indeed the idea of Imperial Navigators, is pretty cool. In Warhammer 40k, Navigators are people with the mutation of a third eye in the middle of their forehead. But it's not just any third eye, this one can peer into the warp which allows them to "carefully" guide spaceships through this alternate dimension (40k's version of faster than light travel).

If I recall correctly, this idea was taken almost wholesale from Dune where the whole point of the Spice that launches the whole adversarial plot is that it gives people the ability guide ships through some means of faster than light travel. I think I have that right. I think they might even have been called Navigators, I'll have to check that one.

Espern is a cool model. Once I got painting him, I noticed a lot of similarities between his steampunk contraptions, and those of my Kharadron Overlords, so he was quite a joy to paint. It was also fun to dabble in the more ornate colours of golds and purples than my usual, more muted, palette.

This is the only Blackstone Fortress model that I painted post-Marco Frisoni's workshop (which has left a lasting impression on my miniature painting). One of the methods that I drew on from his workshop, was the idea of using different techniques to emphasize a focal point.

I laid down a very basic (and speckley) value sketch - or zenithal undercoat to lay the foundations for drawing attention towards his face. I then fired contrast paints through the airbrush over the value sketch (Leviadon Blue and Shyish Purple) to give some volume to his robes. This created an easy gradient, getting lighter towards his head, to draw the eye upwards.

For the gold, I did the old Druchii Violet over Retributor Armour. I love the analogue walkman / tape recorder slung under his arm, so gave it a big red button for some presence.