Miniature of the Month Masterclass - Warcry: Rotmire Creed Mirefolk Outcast

 

For a while now, Games Workshop have been giving away a 'miniature of the month' in their stores but the launch of the second edition of Warcry heralds a pretty cool new a approach to this promotion: from August 2022 onwards the miniature will be taken from that month's 'big release' with the first being one of the Rotmire Creed Mirefolk Outcasts with Bilewood Weapons that can be found in the 'Warcry: Heart of Ghur' box set that's released on the 13th August. 

In what might be the first in another ongoing series on the blog (depending on the miniatures we see in future and my own hobby capacity) I thought I'd do a short review of the model itself along with an in-depth 'masterclass' on painting the model, inspired in no small part by the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass articles that have featured in White Dwarf over the years.

This isn't a step by step tutorial, so rather than having photos of each and every stage of the process, there are only pictures of the finished miniature. It would have been a bit tricky doing a full step by step as there was quite a lot of jumping around the various elements of the miniature to build things up but I do go through how everything was painted and all of the colours used are highlighted in bold. To get best use out of this tutorial, you'll need to have a little bit of painting knowledge already as it makes use of a couple of more advanced techniques, but as a quick note; glazing is using a diluted paint to apply a tint to an existing colour. Stippling is using the brush to apply paint in a 'stabbing' motion so as to create or accentuate texture. 

In the past, if you picked up a miniature of the month it would already be assembled and would come from an existing kit within the Citadel range, but as you can see, the Mirefolk Outcast comes on an individual sprue in a wee red Warhammer box, which I think is what we're likely to see each month now going forward. This is a nice touch as in the past there was a real risk of miniatures of the month being assembled while still covered in mould lines and sprue attachment points - don't get me wrong, I can't imagine cleaning up and assembling boxes of models in a hurry is fun, but trying to clean up a fully assembled mini isn't the easiest of tasks either.

With only six components, the Mirefolk Outcast was pretty quick and easy to assemble, though I would recommend adding the blowpipe and pouch (part 6) to the left leg prior to gluing the left arm and front of the body in place, otherwise it's a bit tricky to reach without some tweezers. I threw together a fairly simple base using a skull from the Citadel Skulls set, a couple of wee bits of slate and some texture paste.

In painting the miniature, I took inspiration from the artwork that's been shown off from the Warcry: Heart of Ghur set, as well as the Studio's Rotmire Creed paint scheme, and the ideas that some of the fantastic review painters have been showing off as well.

You'll notice that I make heavy use of Agrax Earthshade throughout the painting process and you might find it easier apply basecoats to most of the model and shade everything at once, though this will depend on your own preferences and painting style and it may mean you'll need to go back and reapply some basecoats in places that Agrax Earthshade isn't used. 

Pallid Skin

As the Rotmire Creed are both inadvertent worshippers of Nurgle and make their homes in swampy places that are unlikely to get much light, I wanted to give the Outcast an unhealthy, pale look, which would have the additional benefit of letting me make the sores and open wounds look all the more ‘nasty’. I started out with a basecoat of Rakarth Flesh which was shade with Agrax Earth and then re-layered with Rakarth Flesh. Try and keep these layers thin so you can build up the colour where you most want it while retaining the shading. Flayed One Flesh was then used to apply highlights, focusing on the areas of skin that catch the light. For the elbows, knees and heels, you want to make sure you apply the highlights 'across' them to help keep the definition on the roughened skin at these joints. 

For the areas where the Outcast's skin has sloughed off his arm and leg, I started with a basecoat of Khorne Red and then stippled over this with Wazdakka Red followed by Squig Orange to create the impression of exposed subcutaneous tissue.

The buboes were then glazed with thinned Averland Sunset before a roughly 50:50 mix of Flayed One Flesh and Carroberg Crimson was then glazed around them and applied to the Outcast’s lower lip. I thinned this down a little more and applied it to the models knuckles, to the rough patches of skin at the elbows, knees and heels, and around the open wounds repeating until I was happy with the look.

Miscellaneous Details

The model has a bottle gourd at his belt, which I thought was a really cool wee detail as metal and glass are likely to be quite rare and thus pretty valuable in the swamps of Ghur, making natural materials much more practical, especially for those lower in the Rotmire Creed's hierarchy like the Mirefolk Outcasts. I started with a couple of layers of XV-88 to get a nice basecoat before shading it with Agrax Earth. I then applied thinned layers of XV-88, Balor Brown and Zamesi Desert to create the look of tough, dried Calabash skin.

For the twine used to hold the leather straps together and secure the Bilewood shoulder spike, I used Ionrach Skin which was highlighted with Deepkin Flesh. Finally for the blowfly icon fastened to the haft of the Bilewood weapon, a basecoat of Balthasar Gold which was shaded with Agrax Earth. After neatening it up a little with some more Balthasar Gold, Nihilakh Oxide was used to add some verdigris before a rough highlight of Hashut Copper finished things off.

Fabrics

The green fabric about the shoulders was basecoated with Death Korps Drab. This was then shaded with Agrax Earth before being layered with Death Korps Drab. I then began to create the highlights and wear and tear, first using Deathworld Forest followed by Straken Green. These were applied perpendicularly in places to create the impression of wear and tear. Finally I added some small dots of Nurgling Green to accentuate some of the highlights.

For the Outcast’s shorts, I applied a basecoat of Incubi Darkness which was shaded Agrax Earth to tie it in with the rest of the model, before having a shade of Nuln Oil applied to darken it down a little further. I then layered them with Incubi Darkness before applying highlights with Kabalite Green mainly focusing on the ragged edges of the fabric. A final highlight of Sybarite Green was applied very sparingly to the most prominent points of the fabric.

Leather

I went with two leather tones on the model for a little more variety and visual interest, though both are done in a very similar fashion. For the darker leather of the cowl and pouch of darts for the blowpipe was basecoated with Thondia Brown which was shaded with Agrax Earth and then layered with Thondia Brown to re-establish some definition. Once this was in place, I began adding highlights using first Mournfang Brown and then Skrag Brown with some of the brush strokes placed perpendicular to the edges and ridges to mimic very worn leather. The most extreme highlights were picked out with dots of Deathclaw Brown.

The tan leather of the belt and bracelet simply skips the stages involving Thondia Brown.

Plants and Moss

To help camouflage himself when lying in ambush, the Outcast has incorporated some vegetation from the Gnarlwood into his clothing. The mossy plant was basecoated with Death Guard Green while the more leafy ‘pondweed’ looking one was done with Orruk Flesh. After shading both Agrax Earth, I then stippled the moss with Death Guard Green followed by Elysian Green and then Ogryn Camo. I then applied a very sparing highlight using Ushabti Bone before glazing it with thinned Athonian Camoshade. With that done I turned to the ‘pondweed’, applying a layer of Orruk Flesh and then highlighting it with Ogryn Camo and Krieg Khaki.

Bilewood Weapons and Bamboo Armour

I divided the wooden weapons and shoulder spike into two main areas, with the bark being a familiar dark brown and the sapwood being much lighter. The bark was basecoated with Dryad Bark while the sapwood was painted Steel Legion Drab. After shading both with Agrax Earth they were both re-layered with their basecoats before the bark was highlighted with Gorthor Brown then Baneblade Brown. The sapwood was then highlighted with Tallarn Sand and then Karak Stone, with the latter focused more towards the sharpened points of the branches. Bilewood is described as "...so coated in the mire's contagions are the bilewood trees, that a single scratch from their bark can cause lesions and abscesses instantly." in order to try and convey this on the Outcast’s weapons I thinned some Athonian Camoshade with Lahmian Medium and glazed it onto the sapwood to give a slightly green tinge to it. 

The iron stakes used to secure the tines of the weapons were painted Iron Warriors and then shaded with Agrax Earth followed by Nuln Oil so they’d look both crudely forged and encrusted with dirt. I added a couple of highlights of Iron Warriors to the squared edges and points, but kept them light so they didn’t undo the dirty dark iron look I was going for.

The bamboo armour and blowpipe were painted using the same colours as the sapwood, though the Tallarn Sand and Karak Stone were applied only to the edges and ridges of the culms.

The Base

The base was painted Dryad Bark and shaded with Agrax Earth before being drybrushed Morghast Bone followed by a little Karak Stone. This went a little brighter than intended so I thinned some Dryad Bark down with a little Lahmian Medium and applied it over the soil to darken it back down a little. 

The stones were basecoated with Dawnstone, shaded Agrax Earth before I reapplied some thinned Dawnstone, focussing on creating texture using short brushstrokes. With this done, Adminstratum Grey was used to create some lighter areas and then add highlights to the edges of the stones, these were then reinforced with some Celestra Grey on the edges that would catch the most light. To help convey the ‘swampy’ feel of the base, I thinned a little Athonian Camoshade and Skrag Brown and glazed them into some of the crevices in the rocks to look like lichen or mould was growing on them. 

It’s not a Warhammer model without some skulls, and to get a nice bleached bone to the ones on this one, I went applied a couple of layers of Morghast Bone as a basecoat, then used Agrax Earth to shade the eye sockets and cracks/scratches. After tidying up any Agrax that had ended up on the bone with Morghast Bone, a shade of Seraphim Sepia was applied over the whole skull. A layer of Morghast Bone was then carefully applied so as to leave the recesses shaded. Once this was dry, Ushabti Bone was layered onto the areas of the skulls that would catch the light and then some highlights were added to the harder edges using Screaming Skull. To help tie everything together and smooth the layers a little, I thinned some Morghast Bone and used it to apply a glaze to the skulls.

To finish things off, I added some mossy tufts and painted the base rim with Abaddon Black. Once the tufts were secure, I carefully pushed some thinned Dryad Bark down between the 'bristles' to help blend them into the base. And with that you're finished! There are a lot of steps to most of the colours, but although they take time to do, I think the finished textures speak for themselves and although it would take quite a while to do, I think if you did a whole warband up like this they'd look stunning on the tabletop.

Until next time, as always, thanks for reading and if you've any thoughts on this or any other posts on the blog, I'd love to hear from you.