And then there were three - Bault and Vlash of The Exiled Dead

"...I don't care whether it's technology or magic powering those damned 'deadwalkers'. No one raises the dead in my burgh and lives."

Attrib. Watch-Serjent Marsen Brieg 

Having finished painting Kamoteph the Crooked, I found myself in a position that I'm sure is familiar to a great many hobbyists, in that I was completely unsure of what I wanted to work on next. I tried sitting down to work on a couple of things, but nothing was quite scratching the hobby itch. 

Then I thought, why don't I try another couple of The Exiled Dead? This made a particular kind of sense because not only had I painted up Regulus of The Exiled Dead recently, but I also had a 'spare' Vlash and Bault lying around as I bought them with the idea of using their bases a couple of years ago, but had ended up going with another idea instead. So, last weekend while my son was painting up the Fire Dragon Miniature of the Month we'd picked up for him from our local Warhammer store, I cleaned up and assembled Vlash and Bault. This didn't take very long as they only consist of two components each, plus their bases, so I was ready to get some paint on them in no time. 

Because I was painting Regulus as a 'one off' I didn't make full notes of how I went about painting his base.  With hindsight, I wish I had made a proper note because I wasn't quite able to recreate it from memory and as the keen eyed reader will note, there's a very slight difference between his base and Vlash and Bault's ones - though I suppose there wouldn't be complete uniformity on flagstones in real life, so it's not a huge issue, but I know it's there. Lesson learned though, I wrote down everything I did the second time round, just in case I want to do more fighters from the warband in future! 

For the most part, I drew heavily on the 'studio' paint schemes for both characters, though made a few changes in places. As any budding mad scientist knows, you can't do macabre experiments properly without copper wire, so I switched out the silver in the studio scheme for a nice rich copper tone built up from Balthasar Gold which was shaded with Agrax Earth and then highlighted with Hashut Copper and Ironbreaker. 

I also decided to use Targor Rage to shade Vlash and Bault's skin as I wanted it to look, pale, unhealthy and, well, dead. To lean into this, I took a similar approach to their faces as I did with Regulus, glazing their eye sockets red and their lower lip blue, switching the two tones around from how I would normally approach painting living flesh. Unlike Regulus though, this pair are being animated by the force dynamic so I popped a little Nihilakh Oxide into their eyes. Coupled with the energy arcing over the surface of the Van de Graaff looking apparatus, I think it's clear that what is driving them forward is definitely unnatural. 

Speaking of arcing energy, the Van de Graaff 'balls' were painted Leadbelcher before being shaded with Coelia Green. From there, I used some Sybarite Green to sketch some rough zigzagging lines around the spheres which I then refined using Gauss Blaster Green, before applying a wee dot of Ulthuan Grey where any of the lines met. It's not perfect, but I think it does the job of suggesting that there is electricity crackling around the spheres. 

I'm weirdly pleased with how I managed to get poor Bault's exposed brain looking. Healthy brains are pinkish in colour as they're filled with blood vessels and while Bault's is anything but healthy given that it's got a roofing nail sticking out if it, I reasoned that it looking like it was would be a good contrast to his waxen flesh. I started out by basecoating it with Screamer Pink and then applying shades of Berserker Blood and then Targor Rage. From here, I reapplied some Screamer Pink to redefine the tissue a bit, then moved on to some Pink Horror and from there just sort of played with a variety of increasingly lighter pink tones using Pink Horror and Kislev Flesh to add highlights until I was happy, before using a glaze of Berserker Bloodshade to tie everything together and redefine the edges of Bault's skull. 

With three of the warband now completed, it would be a little foolish not to paint up the rest of them but I'm quite enjoying taking things slow so I can lavish a little more attention on each fighter in turn rather than batch painting them all at the same time. On this basis, I'll probably get Ione and Coyl ready to work on next as they're the two remaining Deadwalkers, leaving Deintalos and his apprentice Markov until last, but I'll see how things go.

Until next time, thanks for reading and happy hobbying!