Once again the paint scheme is red, but in contrast to the chaos knights where both rider and horse were red, I knew that for this monster I had to paint the rider another color than red, or else he would simply blend in with the rest of the model. I went with very dark blue, same as with the banner on the chaos knights, its a good contrasting color for red. For the monster itself, I googled “Chaos Manticore” and mostly copied the color scheme of an image I found. Khorne takes no shame in stealing what is his by right anyway.
The Red
The manticore’s body and wings were spray primed with Memphiston Red. Then darker tones of red (Vallejo Gory Red and Black Red) were applied to recessed/shaded areas using and airbrush. Vallejo Bloody Red and mixes of other reds were then airbrushed onto raised areas. Normally, I would spend additional hours with my airbrush on further shading and highlighting, but with time being an issue and not trying to win any contests, I used Carroburg Crimson in the really dark recesses, such as between fingers. In an effort to please his dark eminence and further speed up the process, I then made a mistake… I opened an old can of Wild Rider Red and drybrushed. One should only ever drybrush parts with sharp contours such as fur, cloth or other types of naturally textured areas. The result was a mess of parts where dusty streaks were clearly visible from the drybrush. To add insult, the old pot of paint turned out to dry up with a very glossy tint. I suspect the paint has parted over time, and I failed to mix it back into its original consistency. So, back to Memphiston Red in my airbrush and repeat the above, this time no drybrushing.
One should only ever drybrush parts with sharp contours such as fur, cloth or other types of naturally textured areas!
– yours truly, devoted servant of the Dark Lord
Finally a drybrush with orange to catch the contours on the wings. Wait what? didn’t I just say never drybrush!?! Well, this is the one part where it makes sense to drybrush as the wings have a rough surface, representing folded skin and presents enough texture to actually permit a drybrush. I went with pure orange (Fire Dragon Bright), producing a bold highlight that at first glance seems too bold, but once it dries and you place the model more than 5 inches from your nose, it looks ace.
The Black
Claws and bone structure are based black, then highlighted (some drybrushing) with Vallejo Dark Sea Blue. Followed up with edge highlighting using mixes of the former and white. This produces a blue tint, which is better than trying to highlight black with just pure white. Again, the blue color will serve to tie the model together with the rider.
The Yellow
The mane is first given a couple of coats of Averland Sunset, a yellow that has quite a decent coverage. Then shaded with Casandora Yellow. Although there is no such thing as too much shade, make sure it doesn’t flow to unwanted areas of the model. That’s free advice, your welcome.
Intense drybrush with Yriel Yellow, followed up with a lighter drybrush with Yriel Yellow mixed with white.
Textured base – unholy symbols
I’ve been wanting to try out the textured rolling pins (greenstuffworld.com) that I bought some time ago and decided this was such an occasion. First I mixed up a bunch of greenstuff and rolled it out across most of the base in a thin layer, about 2 mm thick. I then applied a bit of petroleumgelé on the roller pin to prevent the greenstuff from sticking. It took me a couple of attempts of rolling and pressing the pin into the greenstuff to get it exactly how I wanted it, but I’m pleased with the final result. I then applied Stirland Mud (GW technical) on some parts of the greenstuff to get some texture on to it and also around the edges, where the greenstuff ended.
The whole thing was then given a black undercoat, but I decided to use more earthly tones on this base. The idea was to represent arcane sinister symbols forming in the ground and I just couldn’t wrap my head around what that would look like if I went with the rock-like appearance, which is what the rest of the army has. Earthly tones are Stirland Mud to Steel Legion Drab and ending with a drybrush of Rakarth Flesh and white. Since this model will stand alone on the battlefield and not be joining any units, I think it’s okay to deviate slightly from the basing scheme.
A murderous rider
Someone had already taken the liberty of assembling the rider and basecoating him white. I would probably have used black, but since Naggaroth Blue has really good coverage, a white undercoat will do fine. After applying Naggaroth Blue, the armor parts were shaded with Nuln Oil and then edges were highlighted with blue and white. With quick being the keyword, the edging of the armor is really rough but from a distance it looks alright. I spent a bit more time on the helmet horns, as they are dead in the center of the model it’s one of those places that catches your eyes.
The horns are based Ushabiti Bone but black at the bottom. Then shaded with Agrax Earthshade. I then drew lines of black from the base of the horns towards the tip, and vice versa with Ushabiti Bone, did lines from the tip towards the base. It’s a quick way of blending colors and produces a good resemblance of real horn. Finally the horn tips were highlighted with Vallejo Ebony White.
Slowlypainted 