Painting Oathsworn - Chapter 1 - Giant Rats - Part 1

Nobody near me here but rats, 

and they are fine stealthy secret fellows.

Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop

Greetings Oathsworn! Welcome to The Art of Caesura!

I hope you all have a very happy Hallowe'en! If you're up for a bit of Hallowe'en fun, you can try out the Hallowe'en pub quiz I created a few years ago: here

And welcome, indeed, to my first Oathsworn painting post. I have had a few other posts on Oathsworn: Into the Deepwood - including my short story submission, a summary of the game and lore, and most recently, the game's arrival - but this is the first one on painting these awesome miniatures. 

A quick note before we begin, Oathsworn is full of secrets and mysteries. The models that I'm painting today are the first enemies you face in the game and are not considered spoilers. 

So, on we go to the Giant Rats!

My plan for these guys was to get them painted to a standard that I was happy with, while devoting the minimum possible amount of time to them. For more on this philosophy, check out this post. It's not that I didn't want to paint them, but rather, with so many cool models in this game, my priority was getting them done so I can get playing, rather than getting them perfect. That said, I'm really happy with how they turned out, and proud of the fact that I got all 12 giant rats (as well as the big mass of rats on the back of the Broodmother) painted in under 4 hours - bases and all!

Using a rattel can, I started by spraying them all black. Then sprayed them grey from above (zenithal). 

Then, I used an airbrush (the only thing I can really do with an airbrush) and sprayed them white (Liquitex Acrylic Ink) on just their faces, and the ridge along their back. 

Now I had my value sketch. Here's a post all about value sketching. 

Over this value sketch, I started using transluscent paints. Before painting all 12, I did a colour test on two: one Contrast Skeleton Horde and the other Snakebite Leather.

I opted for the lighter Skeleton Horde, and didn't bother repainting the Snakebite Leather one. I then used Fyreslayer Flesh for their tails and feet. Using a large brush, these steps took less than one minute per rat. 

Now it was time to gritty them up a little. I painted Streaking Grime all over each one...

...and then removed most of it with mineral spirits and q-tips (in retrospect, for organic surfaces like this, it would have been much faster just to use dry make-up sponges. 

I decided that I wasn't quite happy with their tails. I tried one darker - painting it S75 Indian Shadow...

And another lighter (S75 Pink Flesh) 

I liked the lighter one better, but wanted more texture, so on the other rats, I painted the Pink Flesh in streaky lines over the Fyreslayer undercoat. 

Now I was on the home stretch, and on to highlights. I used S75 Light Skin on the most prominant areas of the face and ears. 

I must admit, that even at the time, while I was highlighting their faces, I was thinking "what the hell am I doing?" This step was a bit time-intensive, and it didn't add a huge amount, so if I was doing them again, I might skip this step - or do a simple light drybrush over the faces. 

Something I wouldn't skip though, is the next step - the little beedy rat eyes!

Using Evil Sunz Scarlet and Yriel Yellow, I carefully dotted each and every eye!

With the eyes complete the rats themselves were just about done. So <SNAP!> I did the bases. Okay, okay, the bases were easy, but not quite as easy as that. I'll devote a post to how I'm doing my Oathsworn bases next week. 

The final detail was to change the finish of some parts. The S75 flesh range turn out super matte when dry, but I wanted their tails to look a bit...damper. So I covered their tails with Stormshield (which gives a satin finish). 

I dabbed some gloss varnish in to their mouths - yummy!

And the last thing to do was paint the base rims!

Boom! Done!

I hope you enjoyed this look at my quick and dirty painting of the giant rats. Kudos if you can spot the one that started out with Snakebite Leather in the picture above!

I'll see you next Friday for more Oathsworn!

Reading: Paradise Lost - John Milton

Listening: Zimushka - Arkona

Next Week:

The forest floor...