House of Zoxe: Hot of the Desk: KDM Butcher

Not this Butcher. Hooray for Diablo 1.

I'm never sure if it's "the Butcher" or just "Butcher." And I'm also forced to smirk as I recall the Butcher from the Diablo PC game series. Long live the 1990s.

Anyway, let's get on with this!

Build Notes:

Had my first panic attack with the Butcher. I followed the build order from the official page but then had issues inserting his left leg.
The problem was that his cape was canted just a bit and interfered with the leg (the cape hit his calf). For about 10 minutes I thought I was going to have to pull apart / cut off the cape from the torso. I got it to work, but my build is twisted slightly at the waist.
If I ever build him again, I would install the legs first, then the cape.
Other than that, the build has some small parts that require some finesse to get into place, but everything fits together well enough. Just be sure to trim any sprues/gates that are on mating surfaces to reduce gaps and dry fit everything.

Colors:
If you're just here for the airbrush pictures, please skip ahead.

If this is your first post in this series, let's get you caught up.

Here's the gist: for my KDM set, I'm using an airbrush to provide shadows in a pseudo-statue, almost monochrome paint scheme. I want a lot of high contrast from light to dark, with near-black in the shadows and near-whites in the light. I'm using warm colors (creamy grays, buttery whites, and a bright mustard yellow) for the SURVIVORS and cool colors (blue-grays and a neon blue) for the MONSTERS.

Before I go on, I want to talk a little bit about color selection and PLANNING. I'll use more bullet points. Bullet points are cool.

The painting process I'm using is dirt simple. There's virtually no detail work involved and I'm living proof that it doesn't take a steady hand with the airbrush.
That doesn't mean you can slop on any color in any order and get a wonderful result. The trick to this method is some careful planning and color selection.
All of the colors have to work together perfectly. It's just Airbrush, Shade, then Dry Brush. There's not much opportunity to fix colors that are clashing, and there are so few colors that if one it out of place it will throw the whole effect.
I also want the individual pieces to be consistent with another. But I know that I may be painting these pieces weeks/months (and possibly several years) apart as the KDM KS waves ship. Part of the reason for these blog posts is for my own notes and future reference.
So I can't emphasize enough: Have a plan. Test. Try some colors together. It might be enough to line the bottles up together on the table and squint, but if you're not sure then take the time to test.

For the Antelope and Lion, I tested colors with dabs on a paper towel.
For the Butcher, I grabbed a sprue from the trash and actually layered the colors up in my intended order. It was sloppy, but it let me see the "stack" of colors actually working.

Ok, back to the Butcher. He's an important crossroads in painting the core set because he's the first Monster wearing armor and wielding weapons. When I started with the build I just assumed I'd plow ahead and use exactly the same colors in nearly the same way as the Lion and Antelope. Which would have looked fine.

But as I was building, I saw those two big, beautiful cleavers and thought, "Wow, those really need some accent. And look at that bone saw too. Huh."

So I paused the painting process, built up the King's Man and the Hand, just to get my brain around them. As a result of my color test mentioned above, I'm retiring AP Wolf Gray in favor of a more neutral AP Uniform Gray. (Wolf Gray will return for the Phoenix and the Watcher).

I want to be careful not to get too detailed. I still want the result to have the same abstract feel. I'm also cognizant of the amount of work and complexity I'm adding; I have a TON of models coming and would like to have them all painted before my 132nd birthday.

Butcher, assembled with the Young and Old Survivor

Painting Process:

Vallejo Surface Primer - Black. Thinned for easier shooting.
ArmyPainter (AP) Necromancer Cloak - Sweep the airbrush from straight down to about parallel with the table. Do not shoot "up" into any of the underparts.
AP Uniform Gray - Sweep from vertical to about 45 degrees to the table.
AP Gorgun Hide - Mostly vertically, but highlighting the cloak mainly, leaving the armor a little darker. I also hit the bone-helm and bone-armor (shoulder) a little harder with Gorgun Hide.
Wash: Reaper Black Wash, thinned 1:1 (Actually, I was more like 8 drops distilled water to 12 drops wash). This was a little too thin but I went with it.
Dry Brush: Reaper Gunmetal Blue on all Armor and Blades (but not scabbards)
Dry Brush: AP Chainmail Metal on all Armor and Blades

Note 1: I started with AP Gunmetal but it didn't offer enough pop. The Chainmail is just a TOUCH brighter
Note 2: I did a little dance here trying to find the balance between the Gunmetal Blue (which is my very favorite new color!) and the silver, striking a balance between color and highlight.

Dry Brush: AP Gorgun Hide on cloak
Dry Brush: AP Crystal Blue on cloak, highlighting lanterns

Note: I went back over the Crystal Blue with more Gorgun Hide to soften it a bit.

Dry Brush: AP Matt White on bone helm, bone shoulder, and skulls in the cloak for a little extra pop

Butcher, in Vallejo Surface Primer, and ready to hack on Old Joe next to him.

Butcher, in Necromancer Cloak. Looks lighter than it really is under the direct light of the booth.

Butcher and Friends, in Uniform Gray.

Uniform Gray, reverse view.

Gorgun Hide applied.

Starting to dry brush the Reaper Gunmetal Blue. This was the first pass and a light test. I reworked this several times before I was happy.

Initial Gunmetal Blue and Silver work done on all 3 figures. I'm about to go start the Gorgun Hide.

Initial pass with Gorgun Hide and Crystal Blue.

More work on balancing. This is almost complete, under the harsh light of the airbrush booth.

Finished model, natural light on a fairly overcast day.

Alternate view.

Alternate view, with a Survivor for color reference.

Final notes: It's super hard to get the glisten of the metallics to show via a crappy phone camera. This scheme is very gray-on-gray-on-gray, so the silver highlights aren't as apparent in still shot as they are on the table. I've got the Hand and King's Man done, but will retake those pictures to help convey the full effect.

-- EDIT 23 December --

Here are some additional pictures while I had the camera out. I'm playing with a photo booth, alternate lighting, and a new cell camera app.