ICM Night King

[Kimmo]

I decided to pick up ICM's Night King in 1/16th scale on a bit of a whim. An interesting character and will be a nice painting challenge. Basically out of the box with the addition of a hunk of bark to represent an outcropping of rock. The kit is ok, details are generally good, but there is room for improvement with the fit. I opened up the thorns on his head as they are molded "solid" due to molding limitations, otherwise not a lot of extra work. If one wanted to get completely accurate, the armour studs should be replaced as they are really louvers, not small plates. It would be quite tedious, but not impossible. A nice touch is the sword molded in clear plastic.













And broken down for painting.




I have another project on the go as well, so painting will be done as and when I have time.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

After a couple of quick sessions, we have the figure and rock blocked in and the plinth finished. I used my customary Vallejo primer technique to make "cherry wood". A brief description on how I do this can be found here.







I want something cold and dead so the base coats should help in that regard, we'll see how things progress.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Two months to the day after starting the blog, it's time to get going again. I spent the day getting the armour and leather worked on, which wasn't perhaps as straightforward as I had thought it might be. The armour is covered in studs (they should actually be louvers) which makes painting tricky. I ended up adding silver to the base colour to get a metallic sheen, then black and worked in some shadows. A dry brush of wolf grey mixed with silver established highlights, then a dark grey wash, followed by a dry brush of steel, then a final ultra thin glaze of black with a bit of black brown mixed in to get a nice and tarnished appearance. I like the look so far, it may darken up a bit once the skin tones are brought up, I want some nice contrast for this once. The leather was roughly shaded and then highlights were edged in and an overall dry brush in a couple of lighter shades followed by the black brown glaze. I tried to be fairly rough to get a really worn and beaten look. I'll need another round of edging and some pin washes for definition. Our rock was given a similar wash/glaze/dry brush treatment as well.








I'll get the skin tones sorted out next. I realised the process with the armour and leather would have messed things up, and I needed a reference point for how dark or light to get the tones.

Kimmo

 

[Oda]

A great start.Will follow.

Oda.

 

[Kevtk135]

The King is looking very nice. Thanks too for the wood base tutorial.
I've just been using an orange brown and Agrax Earthshade. Now I can start mixing things up. Thanks again.

 

[Kimmo]

Cheers Oda and Kev! Glad you found the tutorial useful, that's one of the reasons I like to blog, to pass on tips and techniques.

A little more progress today, I went and added some pure black pin washes to get some definition to the leather and for a bit more shading to the armour. The skin tones also got blocked in and shaded using the Nocturna Malefic Flesh set produced by Vallejo (a very useful set) and wolf grey and ivory.








Having time on my hands, I got the head mostly done as well using the Malefic set and blues, white and a touch of warlord purple to add just a dash of colour.



I'll revisit the head tomorrow after everything has had a chance to dry properly and with a fresh set of eyes. He's certainly looking rather chilly.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

Close to calling the main painting done. I worked in the arms and hands and sword. The sword was fun, and I wasn't quite sure what it was going to turn out like. I started off with a very light sand to take the sheen off the high points, then a very thin glaze of turquoise with a bit more concentration toward the haft. Then a rough edging in ivory, gloss coat, and another quick edging in ivory again.















Tomorrow I'm going to winterise things. The rock will get a bit of snow, and then our chilly lad will get some streaking to simulate snow and frost. A bit nervous about the latter idea, but I think he needs it to really get the temperature to drop and blend it in with the base. I did a quick and dirty with some spare figures, the process looks pretty straight forward, I'm just concerned how easily the paint can be removed if things don't look right. I suppose that will just add to the randomness of the look and feel if it doesn't come off...




More over the weekend.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

With the outside temperature at -15 C and dropping, this update seems very fitting. I messed about with some snow mixes yesterday and settled on going with a paste made from Vallejo Transparent Water (or Heavy Gloss Gel) and mixed in the coarser snow from the Precision Ice and Snow set, slathered that about, then dusted off with their finer snow. This is just the first stage. I'll apply another dusting of fine and see where we're at. I gave our chilly lad a light dry brush of white/ivory mixed in with a bit of glaze medium. I worked at an angle to give a sense of movement and whipping snow. The glaze medium gives you a bit of extra time to work with, and I needed it in a few places where I wasn't happy with the effect. I immediately scrubbed the area with a moist brush and toned down or basically removed the offending streaks. This also added a thin glaze in some areas which heightens the effect nicely. I might add a bit more of a glaze to the lower edges of the skirt and shoes.












I'm really pleased with how this is turning out, my biggest worry was that the streaking would look "fake" or something like that, but I think it looks rather nifty. I'll try and get this wrapped up tomorrow.

Kimmo

 

[Kimmo]

With the temperature back up to a balmy -3 C, and the snow still falling, here's the finished product.





I added another couple of layers of snow and some Ice and Snow wash from the Precision set. If you're looking at doing wintry scenes, you might want to grab the set. The wash went mainly to the hem of the skirt and shoes and a touch to the body and a very light dusting on the ice sword. The gloss coat was just a bit too shiny for my liking and the wash flattened it out a bit and created some more visual interest. That's another one in the books, thanks to those who followed along and commented. A full gallery can be found here:

https://www.planetfigure.com/threads/king-of-the-night.123623/


Kimmo