We had originally been planning to attend Breakout 2020, a convention in Toronto last weekend. Because of this, all our efforts had been focused on preparing for Hardsix Gaming’s first convention experience. Unfortunately, like so many other conventions and gatherings, Breakout 2020 was cancelled due to the global pandemic we find ourselves dealing with. So what was going to be our first blog post about the convention experience metamorphosed into a post about painting starter sets during quarantine.
I chose to start with one of the two Ithican Imperial Praetorian Pilots you receive in the upcoming Ithican Empire starter kit. Pilots play a large role in Kingdom & Empire and can be one of the most versatile models in your force. Regardless of faction, Praetorian Pilots are required to make use of a Praetorian suit (another type of K&E unit). A Pilot must physically be piloting the suit to make use of the Praetorian on the table top and there are a variety of Pilots available to each faction. Generic pilots will have an average level of skill and not many special abilities while named pilots will considerably change the way a Praetorian plays. Mastering which pilot to bring to an engagement is part of the fun of using these powerful units. To start I decided to paint the basic male Ithican Imperial Pilot pictured below.
Before we dive into painting the model I want to make it clear that I am not a Golden Demon level painter. While I enjoy painting miniatures, I strive for a table top quality level of painting. especially for models I intend to game with. These models will definitely be used on the gaming table. I will paint the models to the best of my ability to show what an average painter can achieve with our models. There won’t be any NMM or Zenetial highlighting etc, I’ll leave that to the professionals!
I wanted to start with the miniature in its primed format. I STILL use GW Skull White Primer on most of my miniatures as I find it is reliable and provides a great base. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!
Just speaking a bit about the sculpt I want to highlight a few details I really like about this model. When we designed the Ithican Empire Logo we wanted to highlight that they are experiencing the beginning of an industrial revolution and that as a society they rely on magic to power this industry. Carrying over the Blacksmith hammer into the hilt of the sword is a cool nod to this theme. Also Ithican Imperial Soldiers always have a lot of gear to help them survive harsh environments. I really like the abundance of pouches, ammo charges and even the water canteen hanging over the right thigh. I also feel that the sculpt is a faithful representation of the concept art above and I was really excited to sit down and paint it.
THE FIRST 30
With regards to the blog, what I decided to do was run a 30 minute timer, and every time it went off I would finish what I was working on and take pictures in our light box. This way you get a time lapse of the process as I work through the Miniatures.
This was also my first time using GW Air paints. These paints are thinned out to be used with air brushes. The best thing about it is the paint does not require additional thinning, which saves time. As someone who is told often that I don’t thin my paints enough (read: at all), not having to do this manually is a huge perk. The whole model was painted with GW Washes and Air paints. After the first 30 minutes I had managed to make a decent amount of progress with the model, I blocked out the main colours on torso and legs and you can start to see my “MESSY” work on the arcane core and eye slits.
THE SECOND 30
Thirty minutes flew by here. I was able to get most of the model base coated fairly fast after the break to take pictures. Once the paint dried I went over trouble areas again with the paint before waiting a few minutes until it dried again. Then right when the timer went off I did my first pass of GW washes. I used a black wash for the armored parts and a sepia wash for the leather and cloak. I have to say I switched over to Vallejo paints awhile back but the new GW line of paints are really easy to work with and provide fantastic results.
THE FINAL 30
Not bad for 1.5 hours of work. I added some light highlights, cleaned up the wash a bit and painted the gold details missing from the previous pictures. I also waited 30 minutes to let the glue dry on the base before adding some sepia wash and the tall grass but I don’t think that needs to be it’s own separate entry. Honestly this was a great project for a rainy Monday night and I am really looking forward to tackling the rest of this starter set in the coming days.
I figured I should list the paints I used in case anyone wants to mirror the colour scheme. All the paints are produced by Citadel except for the golds:
- Citadel Washes
- Casandora Yellow
- Nuln Oil
- Seraphim Sepia
- Citadel Air Line
- Steel Legion Drab
- Eshin Grey
- Karak Stone
- Leadbelcher
- Tau Light Ochre
- Vallejo Game Color
- Polished Gold
- Glorious Gold
Finally I want to thank you for taking the time to read this post, Hopefully you like the look of the model. If you have any questions about the model, how the model behaves in our game or the design decisions that went into making it, please let me know in the comments and I will do my best to answer any questions. Stay tuned as I’ll be tackling the Ithican Imperial Legionnaires in the coming days.