#scythean

[skepticalskull]

Have to say this is one of the simplest models to assemble I have done in a long time!! #legionofeverblight @privateerpress #scythean #warmahordes

[primerjohn]

I've been so involved with painting and modeling, I haven't bothered to post anything for a while. Here is my magnetized Heavy Warbeast kit for Legion of Everblight. I can change out the heads and arms to make a Ravagore, Scythean and Carnivean. I could have kitted it out for Proteus, but I don't own that kit yet. Perhaps sometime soon.

[gibbi]

The incredibly talented Gothscum photographed some of my painted Hordes models and made them look way nicer than they do in person. I'll be posting more in the next few days.

They'll probably all be Legion of Everblight models. This one's a Scythean.

[joccosminis-blog]

PAINTED SCYTHEAN

The gallery above shows the photos of my recently-painted scythean. I basically followed the steps that I took in painting my previous warbeasts (see the end of the post for an abbreviated painting guide if you're interested).

I think that in many ways my painting technique has improved. I'm very pleased with how the skin and muscle definition came out for this guy. I think his mouth and sharp teeth do a good job of popping, and most importantly, I think I did a great job with his armor. I've found that the key to good carapace armor is to push the limits of the contrast. I made sure to leave some parts like the tips and cracks totally black, while at the same time, I used a layering technique to smoothly highlight other parts of the armor. While painting him, I reached several points where I thought I had finished painting, but then decided to give him another lighter shade. High contrast really pays off with armor like this, and can make the difference between a boring brown blob and a sharp detailed product. Both my carnivean and scythean have pretty good contrast in their armor, and seeing them next to my Typhon is making me think I should go back over some of his armor to lighten parts of it up.

I have enormous respect for the people who professionally paint models for Privateer Press, but at the same time, I have to say that I actually prefer the way my high-contrast armor came out as opposed to the model featured on the PP website (seen here). They obviously have incredible technique and masterful detail in a lot of aspects of their paint job, but I think they could have gotten away with pushing the contrast limit a little further. After all, those two giant spikes on his back (which I think are just a little ridiculous) need all the sprucing up they can get to look believable.

As is the case with most of my models, I gave him some rocks to stand on composed of painted cork board, kitty litter, and fake dead grass. As I've mentioned before, the cork board does an amazing job of letting you successfully base a model that has uneven feet.

Well there you have it, my scythean in his full glory. Check back next week to see my post about my new warlock!

Appendix I: Painting Steps

Prime model with gesso

Paint a protective base coat of white paint over the model

Cover the skin with P3's Frostbite color (light blue)

Mix water and P3's Coal Black and give the 'beast a wash

Go back over the skin with frostbite to bring out the highlights, use coal black or a mixture of frostbite and coal black for recesses

Mix red and white to gently add pink to his "tender bits" AKA his arm pits and undersides, etc.

Paint the mouth all black

Paint the teeth with GW's Bleached Bone. Leave the space between the teeth black

Paint the gums pink, but use a redder pink than that used for the tender bits

Paint the armor GW's Scorched Brown

Fill in major armor cracks with black

Use progressively lighter shades of scorched brown mixed with bleached bone to highlight the armor, don't forget the edges of the underbelly plates

Smoothly add black to the tips of all pointy things and other low-light areas and cracks between the plates of the underbelly

Dry brush the tiny armor bumps with bleached bone

[joccosminis-blog]

CONSTRUCTING THE SCYTHEAN

Intro

One of the models I got for X-mas was the Scythean. Scythean is a heavy warbeast like Carnivean and Typhon. What sets him apart is that he's specifically designed to be a melee killing machine. With no ranged attacks, and two powerful melee attacks and 2" reach, once he gets up in the action, he rips everything apart.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Above are several photos I snapped while putting this guy together.

Construction

The first thing I noticed about this model is that it has the same legs, torso, and minor arm pieces as the carnivean. To set the two models apart, they gave the scythean a new head, different shoulder spikes (which I think are a little extreme), a tail that curves in a different way, and of course two giant scythes where the carnivean's hulking arms were.

After noticing the similarities between this model and the carnivean, I noticed one interesting difference: the upper torso of the sythean comes as two hollow pieces whereas the carnivean's upper torso was one solid piece. I guess this saves a little on the amount of metal that goes into the model and it also does a lot to attempt to balance out this already top-heavy model. 

I think it does a lot for the integrity of the model to have a hollowed-out upper torso, but this does also present a bit of an assembly challenge: how do you stick two halves of the hollow torso together? The walls of the pieces are quite thin (I didn't measure, but they could have been 1/8th inch thick or less). After several minutes of inspecting and pondering, I found two spots, one on each side of the torso, where I could drill in just enough to place pins. I have no idea how Privateer Press expects people to put this model together without pinning, and I'm surprised they didn't make it easier to pin.

Tip: Just like for other models, in order to make the holes on both halves line up, I first drilled one, then cut a pin that was just a little longer than the hole. I put a spot of paint on the end of the pin and then placed the two pieces together. The paint dot marked on the correct place to drill on the second half.

At this point I had figured out how to handle the torso parts, but I also realized that putting the torso together had to be one of the last steps in the whole assembly. Build order matters for some models more than others, and I'd say that scythean is a model for which it counts. Because the torso was hollow and the walls were relatively thin, I had to make sure that all other pins (connecting the arms, head, and lower torso) were well-secured. As you can see in a photo above, I bent two right angles into one long pin to make it staple-shaped. This pin was used to connect the upper torso to the lower torso.

Tip: As was the case with the carnivean, when pinning the scythean, you're going to want to make sure to double-pin the upper torso to the lower torso. This model is very top-heavy, and the front end puts a lot of strain on that one joint. While a single pin is better than no pin at all, two pins are the best way to go to distribute that weight and maximize the endurance of your model.

Tip: In order to make sure the heavy arms would stay in place, I bent the arm pins into "L" shapes. The "L" pins act as a hook (placing the bottom part of the L inside the hollow torso, while leaving the top straight part of the L sticking out to attach the arms) and keep the arms well-anchored in place.

Tip: When assembling the arms, make sure to put the correct shoulder piece with the correct arm piece. One combination will fit much better than the other.

Summary

It didn't take too terribly long for me to finish pinning, gluing, and then green-stuffing the joints. Overall, I'm pleased with how my scythean looks once assembled. I can tell already that he'll be a terrific and terrifying addition to my force.

The biggest complaint I have now that he's assembled is that his feet don't all lie flat on the ground. I know I've talked about this in a previous post, and my solution for him will be to put him on cork-board rocky terrain that's uneven in just the right way to let him have all three feet secure on the ground. I highly recommend this approach for anyone experiencing similar problems.

As for a sneak-peak at next week's post, I'll let you know right now that the scythean is completely painted. Check back next week when I post his painted gallery, and my comments on his paint job.