Aerisi Kalinoth and Air Cult Priest painting guide

With the components cleaned up and attached to their individual stands, they are then sprayed with a mid-grey primer. Any imperfections can easily be seen at this point and any further cleaning completed.

Aerisi

I generally start painting the largest part on the model. The colour scheme of her dress is white with blue shadows to reflect the air theme; this keeps the coverall colour scheme light and will compliment her raven hair and silver spear.

This ink is dark midnight blue. I have concentrated the shading near the waist armour plates and the deepest creases.

With the black undercoat added, the contrast with the dress is even more dramatic.

Skin

The brief asked for Aerisi to have pale grey skin with violet and blue undertones.  I am a big fan of painting pot to pot when I can, taking out the more complicated stage of making paint mixes, which are difficult to replicate exactly. Games Workshop’s Demonette Hide, Slannesh Grey and white are just the right tone for her skin.

This image shows the transition through the skin colours, right up to off-white with the final highlight.

The lips are painted with dark magenta basecoat, followed by magenta highlights. The same paint was used in a thinner watercolour mix for the eye makeup.

Her blue/black raven hair was only highlighted at the extreme ends, to keep the overall colour still black.

Amour

The armour was painted in dark turquoise with a gloss varnish to add depth, richness and a contrasting finish.

Windvane spear

A very simple silver and black colour scheme, with subtle blue ink washes mid-way through the process.

Wings

Using the cover art for ‘Princes of the Apocalypse’ as reference, I have opted for a warm grey and black colour scheme. The first two stages are blocking each part, to create individual feathers and then small lines were painted on to add texture. These lines are then highlighted up to white then the black caps and small bands were added last.

The back wings are a ochre colour scheme with black and white wing-tips, providing the contrasting colours needed to pop the details out, even more.

The wings were carefully removed from their holding pin, re-drilled and pinned to the body for a solid fit. A final touch-up with the highlight colours on the extreme edges in done in situ, I can see the lightsourcing properly in its final position and make any small adjustments.

Base

The pale grey blue stone block flooring compliments the overall pale blue and white colour scheme. The final stage is thin washes of green in small patches over the blocks to add subtle variations, with a neutral brown colour for the screed bedding material.

With the painting completed and varnished, (never varnish the plastic stand as it will turn cloudy), gluing the flying stand in place is next, followed by a dry-fit with the miniature and then final attachment. I will leave the static grass stage till both figures are ready.

Priest

The reference for the Air Cult priest shows him wearing a warm oatmeal / white cassock with vulture feathered mantle.

The feathers are painted in a similar way to Aerisi’s raven hair. The final black ink wash is just to calm down the highlights and bring the overall colour back to black.

Skin tones

This selection of paints are my standard Caucasian skin colour, followed by the pink/brown paint, Brown Rose for the lips.

Helmet

After applying a basecoat of black, I have combined dark silver and black paint into a 50/50 mix.

This is followed by lighter silver then ink washed with a thin black to bring out the details.

Sleeves

With a miniature which has a very limited colour scheme, it is important to have at least one contrasting colours. Painting a mid-tone blue on the sleeves adds another point of interest.

Censer of controlling air elementals

This important magical item has rolling clouds inside. To replicate that effect, I have painted lightning-esque pattern over the ceramic parts and then added thin coats of mid-blue in watercolour washes to give some variation.

Static grass

Now all the components are fully painted, the last thing to finish with is to glue the static grass on the bases, inbetween the stone blocks.