Hot off the Desk: KDM Starting Survivors

Starting Survivors, ready for the worst.

Build Notes:

• No particular building difficulties.  Just take your time.  I typically had BOTH vibrant lantern and the official instructions open.
• Tamiya plastic cement used throughout.
• Chose to use the special stone face bases.
• Trimmed what minimal flash there was with Citadel Moldline Scraper and the back of a hobby knife.
• I opted NOT to make every glue seam perfect, but did fill some gaps with Vallejo Matt Varnish.
• I always wash my plastic models in warm/hot tap water and a bit of Dawn, a light scrub with a disposable toothbrush and a thorough dry.  This removes whatever mold release may be on the plastic that will make your primer angry.

Assembly mostly complete.  At this point I'm scraping mold lines and about to glue to the stone face bases.

Paint process:
The GenCon2016 "statue" models are what really brought me to KDM.  I knew from the moment that I pledged that I wanted to emulate that minimalistic stone style. 

As I looked at how others were painting their models, I drifted away from a very highly lit "ancient Rome" statue towards a dimly lit abstract statue.  I wanted a lot of contrast (i.e. a lot of very dark darks and near-white highs) almost like some comic book styles. Lastly, I'm working with the idea that my "good guys" are going to lean on warm colors while the bad guys are going to lean on cool colors.

Here's the process I used:

1. (Airbrush) Vallejo Black Surface Primer, thinned a bit.
2. (Airbrush) Zenithal highlighting 1 - ArmyPainter Necromancer Cloak all over.  Airbrush angle ranged from horizontal to the table and higher.  Did not shoot "up" under cloaks and overhangs, but there is always some splash.
3. (Airbrush) Zenithal highlighting 2 - 50/50 (approx) mix of AP Necromancer Cloak and Skeleton Bone.  Airbrush angle ranged from straight down to about 45 degrees from straight down, and a bit of highlighting where the lantern light would hit.  
4. (Airbrush) Zenithal highlighting 3 - AP Skeleton Bone almost completely straight down and more highlighting of the lantern-lit areas.
5. Wash:  AP Soft Tone Ink all over.  Unthinned.  This made the Skeleton Bone very brown and pushed the Necromancer Cloak recesses back towards black.
6. Dry Brush:  AP Skeleton Bone, figure and base; attempt to highlight muscles, cloth, and other details.
7. Dry Brush:  AP Phoenix Flames, on the lantern and immediately around to give a splash of lanterny warm glow.
8. (Airbrush) Varnish:  Vallejo Matt Varnish - 3 coats
9. Outer bases: Vallejo Black Surface Primer, 3 coats of varnish

Fresh from primer. Horrible backlit picture.

Necromancer Cloak being applied to pull details out of the depth of pure black.

Left: The 50/50 Skeleton Bone and Necromancer Cloak mix.  Right:  AP Skeleton Bone.

Wash applied. I was initially dismayed at how BROWN everything got, but I was able to bring the highlights back up with Skeleton Bone dry brushing.

Finished product; dry brushed with AP Skeleton Bone and lantern glow via AP Phoenix Flames.

Reverse view. I'm most happy with how the cloth and the hair came out.

I really don't have a lot of time invested in this method.  Priming with the airbrush takes longer than rattle can, but gives a far more controlled result. After letting the primer cure 24 hours, the Zenithal highlighting was basically done in one sitting.

The biggest time sinks are the cleanup of the airbrush and playing around with thinner to make the non-airbrush paint shootable through the brush.