Friday 7 August 2015

McDeath: McDeath!


One of the miniatures I managed to acquire, thank you Steve Casey, at the Oldhammer Weekend was the high desirable McDeath. With two examples selling on eBay over the week of our event for £100 or more, I was pleased to finally get hold of this elusive miniature. 

But how to approach painting him? After all, he is so rare that hardly anyone has a painted version. I am pretty sure I saw one in part of Orclord's collection, painted in black armour, but after searching again online I was unable to find it. In the end, I opted for the colour scheme on the original box art.There was only one snag, most of the figure is gold and that particular colour is not at all a strength for me. So armed with little more than a paintbrush, I took on the task with trepidation. 


I undercoated the entire miniature in brown and worked the face and beard up in my usual way. The gold was harder, and in the end I decided to make his helmet a little lighter. I mixed in loads of brown to my Foundry gold paint and worked up successive layers of highlights, ending with a muted silver. I then washed the entire suit of armour with a chestnut glaze to help dampen things down. I used silver as a spot colour on the chainmail between the legs and under the arms, washing this with a black ink glaze and giving the lots a final highlight of silver. I did the same with the swordblade. 

I used Foundry's excellent bone triad for the skulls on his armour and highlighting the gloves, boots and belt up was a simple task. I wasn't at all sure what to do with his shield - as the McDeath banner was complex and I didn't want to cut off the boss from the figure. In the end, I copied some of the themes from the banner example and included some green knotwork and a freehand shield. 

What do you think?


I know that the model isn't one of my best pieces but I am pleased to have got a satisfactory result on his armour after working so long to improve my metallic painting skills. I still think Lady McDeath is the far better paintjob but where else on the internet can you see both models fully painted and standing side by side, eh?

Orlygg

8 comments:

  1. Great addition to the collection and I think a very good paint job. Free internet permitting, I'll be posting my pictures from Oldhammer USA Weekend.

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    1. I am looking forwards immensely to seeing what you get up to on the other side of the pond! Hurry up and blog about it! (;

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  2. £100 for the Mcdeath figure!! Amazing....I shall keep hold of mine then, esp. now I've painted him & his Ladyship (maybe I shouldn't have? ...although nobody down here in NZ would pay that much......)

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    1. I know, it's madness the price a lump of white metal can cost. But McDeath has long been an expensive buy.

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  3. Great job! I'm glad you decided to paint him =)

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    1. I believe that these models should be painted and played with, not hidden away in cupboards and plastic bags never to see the light of day!

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  4. There's some nice tips for gold on this youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3MqSyG5HkjKseY5QLhS4dA

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    1. Thank you for the link, and I shall watch with interest.

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