Holy terror batman! You've let yourself go! (Terrorgheist and Zombie Dragon join the horde)

Last year I started painting a proud band of noble Bretonnians to add to my collection of armies. For those of you scratching their heads, these Bretonnians are actually known as Flesh Eater Court ghouls, they just don't know it. As part of their menagerie I wanted a noble pegasus with rider and a unicorn. To this end I got started building a Zombie Dragon and a Terrorgheist. After the build I even airbrushed a few basic colors on them. At that point I felt uninspired and set them aside. These monster are quite big, so they got demoted from the Window Sill of Shame to Doorstops in under a week. This is no way to treat dragons; not even dead ones. So recently I decided to follow two distinct paths towards getting these monsters painted. This is the result.

Getting a Zombie Dragon and a Terrorgheist in frame together is even harder then painting them.

The Zombie Dragon on the left has been painted using a mix of regular acrylics, Contrast paints (yes I've successfully applied them!*) and an oil wash followed by blood. Lots and lots of blood. Peter Jackson before he slo-motioned us through Lord of the Rings quantities of blood. Painted blood to be sure, but still. A lot of blood. Ah the joys of typing a blog, no editor to tell me to get to the point. Did I mention blood? The Terrorgheist on the right has been painted using acrylics and oil paints (and also a lot of blood, but enough about that**). Lets have a look at these monsters, starting with the Zombie Dragon.

* I think.
** For now...

I think I can safely state I finally managed to conquer Contrast paints, although I'm still not ecstatic about them. 

Part of my problem painting the Zombie Dragon and Terrorgheist kit is the enormous amount of bone mixed in with rotting flesh. If only the damn beastie had made a choice...you can't whiste a happy tune while airbrushing the skin because there's bone in the way. At first I started airbrushing bone colors on the zombie dragon. He was the first of the two doorstops I dusted off with the intent to paint. I didn't feel like properly painting all the strips of skin between the bone so I decided to try cutting corners. I picked up a brown Contrast paint (Snakebite Leather), decided it looked likedead flesh to me and applied it as instructed (thick). It looked ok, so building on that succes I painted the wing membranes with Blood Angles Red (Contrast). I don't know what it is, but to me (and rather a lot of other painters it seems) these wings just scream 'paint me in the brightest red you can!' Who am I to say no to a vampire('s beast)?

A barren base with a brown and red monstrosity on it, was too bland. I added some plants for contrast.

The plus of Contrast paint (throw on one glob of paint) is also its minus. I think it dries rather patchy and I tend to dislike the end results (although of late I've seen some interesting other applications of Contrast I should try). This time I told myself to stop whining and add a gloss coat. Over the gloss went a black and brown oil wash. I know you're supposed to pin wash with this, but I can't help myself and tend to go for 'drown the model in oil and clean up later'. After the 'pin wash' (and cleanup) I varnished mat and reworked the bone with Pallid Whych Flesh (it was close on hand and I didn't really care for color consistency). Applying fresh bone color destroyed a lot of interesting wash effects. Undeterred I decided to fix this by adding more blood (You're mother ate my dog/Not all of it was ringing through my head). To apply the blood I sprayed Reikland Flesh shade through the airbrush, following this up with Vallejo Smoke mixed with Minitaire Fresh Blood (Ghost Tint). As a final step I just went wild spraying pure Fresh Blood on select locations to make the model come to life. I may have chortled whilst applying the paint, but luckily no audio recordings where made of me at this point in time...

I should've added a sign stating: 'I yea can reade thise the Lady fell off.' (Shakespeare has nothing on me! (also I need to work on my y'olde English)).

As a proud pegasus for my Bretonnian army this creature will end up being riden by an Abhorrent Ghoul King (still half finished with the last unit of ghouls and 'the lady'). As I had stuck the vampire rider from the kit together anyway I decided to paint him as a temporary rider. I used standard acrylics and washes for this model. The idea was to get a clean looking monster on this blood stained, rotting flesh hulk. I like the idea of a squeaky clean vampire sitting on a rotten pile of flesh, pretending to be noble. I used some Agrax (a lot of Agrax) on him to get the ye'olde armour look, but I tried to keep rust effects and the like to a minimum. Say what you want about this vampire, he does take proper care of his ancient battle plate. 

When I said 'where's the bloody Terrorgheist? I didn't expect you to take me literally!' 

The Terrorgheist gave me unique problems of its own. For starters I think this model is just awesome. It really ranks high on my list of favorite models AND the list of things I don't want to meet in real life (ever). I really wanted to get the paint job right on him and that just blocked me from starting. Perfectionism, it should be avoided like the plague. As I was screwing around with Contrast Paints on the other, I decided to try fixing this one using oils. It worked on the Vermin Lord. I applied red to the wings and drab green to the skin. Then I went to town blending colors into these parts. I don't think photos do justice to the color transitions you can make with oil paints I also should've gone even wilder on the skin. Having said that, I think he came out wonderfully hideous and I only had to wait two weeks before the model was dry enough to safely apply a varnish. 

These wings just demand to be painted red for some reason, can't help myself. 

With the oils dried, I applied Zandri Dust to most of the bones to bring them back into existence (I covered a lot of them with oil paints). After the Zandri Dust I added a lighter touch of VMA Aged White with the brush to make them stand out more. 

I actually planned to make some of those interesting gory slime trails from the monster to the base. Looking at all the blood on display my mind went 'nah, not needed here, It may force me to look up a word that surpasses overkill.' 

As the red painted and blended with oils had quite a lot more interesting transitions going, I skipped all the mucking about with flesh washes and smoke colored paints. Instead I used Minitaire Fresh Blood and calmly layered it on, taking extra care not to hit too much of the bone areas (while also hitting the tongue a couple of extra times)  Then I went completely wild with the nasty teeth in bloody mouth look. 

Now there's a face only a mother could love...Has radio been invented on the Mortal Realms?

I usually try to avoid adding blood to miniatures because I think it looks easy and gauche. Looking at this rather terror inspiring slobbering mouth I can't help but wonder if I may be repressing the urge with a bit too much fervor. It looks there's a pent-up Khorne Khaine fanatic itching to get out ;) Well worth it I say (also Blood for the Blood God!*) On a final note I tried to keep the bases brown with a barren look to fit with the rest of my undead. As the brown base provided zero contrast with the brown (well  red/green/brown) models on top of them I had to add some contrasting plants. I compensated this botanical necessity by adding blood and gore to the vegetation. These dragons drip, so to speak. I'll now declare the Zombie Dragon and Terrorgheidt finished. and promote them from doorstop to display case material...I really need to plan a battle soon :)

* Not the technical paint, its slightly too thick for models (although I did use it on the grass of the base).