I show you how to paint AOW Warrior Priest

My Avatar of War Warrior Priest is finally done up for the contest, meantime, waiting for the deadline to close and judging/voting to begin. For now, let me run through my work in progress and how you how I got my Avatar of War Warrior Priest painted.

Like I mentioned in my previous post, I was inspired by the Warrior Priest in the Warhammer Mark of Chaos trailer. The plan was to paint the Hammer in a full sort of white yellow glow with lights spilling all over one side of the Priest’s face, armour and clothes. Before I started, I watched the Warhammer Mark of Chaos trailer over quite a few times just to get the idea of the colours and the effects of the glow. Looked around for pictures on the web as well to see how glow or bright light would be like when it lands on clothes and such. I even got a touch light and shine the light from the miniature Warrior Priest’s hammer position just to see where the light would fall upon on the priest miniature. So much research for painting a glow…haha, but it was a fun paint job. I guess I was too excited as well, that I forgot to snap more pictures of some of the painting stages.

Once the Priest miniature is assembled, I did a base coat of Citadel Chaos Black on the Priest, leaving the hammer arm and a small portion of the body which I later base coated in Skull White. Blended the Citadel Chaos Black and Skull white to form a grey tone between the black and white transition. Once that is dried, did a first round base colour of Citadel Red Gore on the cloth area, Beastial Brown for the belts and leather, Chainmail for the armour and Bleach bone for the scrolls.

Next, washed the whole miniature with Citadel wash Badab Black except the scroll which is wash with Devlan Mud. Blended and highlighted the cloth, leather & belts with mix of skull white and the base colours. It’s the one colour base system highlight I have always been painting my style with.

For the hammer arm, I diluted some Citadel Sunburst yellow and wash the hammer arm. Mixing Citadel Blood Red and Sunburst Yellow to create an orange mix, I painted the edges of the hammer and slowing blend to the white yellowish base colour of the hammer. The hammer handle, the arm and the one side of the face, I highlighted with sunburst yellow, and slowly blending it to the base colour. Finished it off with a final thin highlights of Skull White on the high areas. The armour is also washed with a diluted Citadel Sunburst Yellow, thereafter some minor dry bush and highlights with Mithril Silver. The cloth pattern was freehand painted with a mix of Citadel Sunburst yellow and Shinning Gold. After that, I wash the pattern with Devlan Mud, followed by highlights of Citadel Sunburst Yellow & Skull White on the high points of the fire-ball pattern in front. Sure had lots of fun painting the freehand patterns.

Finally, after touching up all the minor details with highlights and such, I based the Warrior Priest with a small slate of wood with 2 arrows. I did some minor dry brush highlight of Citadel Sunburst Yellow on the ends of the arrows to show some glow light landing on the arrows’ end as well.

Overall, I sure had lots of fun painting the Avatar of War Warrior Priest, especially the glowing hammer arm side. The result did not really turn out to my expected expectation or what I had imagined in my mind. I figured that maybe its the colours and blend, probably with try out another project later on for more practice experiment. Another possible reason I figured, maybe the miniature lacks a diorama, like a wall or tree beside him. Cos if there are walls or tall object beside him, there would be light landing on them, thus creating a more wholesome glowing effect. So maybe painting the glows on these surrounding objects would bring out a greater wholesome glow feel. Will definitely explore these effect more… Cheers!