A Legion Rises

I had a pretty good idea of the look I was aiming for and decided to do some paint test, partly to ensure I could achieve the look I wanted, but also to work out a process that would be straightforward and repeatable. As the majority of each model was armoured, my approach would be to tackle the armour first, before painting in the non armoured areas.

For this I used some spare shields that I primed with a can of GW’s Retributor Armour.

I wanted to break up the majority gold of the armoured areas with a bronze or copper colour and so used GW Balthasar Gold on the more decorative features. I would also be using a silver for the more functional aspects of the miniature and so applied GW Ironbreaker to each shield boss.

I had initially intended to try three different washes, Army Painter Soft and Mid tones, as well as GW Agrax Earthshade. However as I had four shields I decided to try Drakenhorf Nightshade as well. I’ve used this wash a lot to tarnish silver armour in the past but generally wouldn’t use it on gold.

I was glad I had tried the Drakenhorf as at this stage it was my preferred result out of the four. I hadn’t anticipated how much the blue would desaturate the gold, making it look more aged and less decorative than the other samples. The next stage was to bring the detail out with a little dry brushing. For this I used Gehenna’s Gold over the entire shield, avoiding the shield boss.

I then dry brushed Runefang Steel over the whole shield in order to add a tarnished appearance to the metal, while also adding a bright highlight. The final step was to add a verdigris effect by using Model Mates Mould weathering fluid.

I applied the weathering liberally but used a fairly small brush as I wanted the Verdigris in some of the deeper recesses, as well as on the armoured surface. What’s lovely about these fluids is that they are water soluble, allowing you to adjust their placement if you aren’t happy with how they land on application. The result is an aged look to the metal with some nice contrast between the turquoise and gold. Hopefully the following image shows the variations between the shields more clearly, though it is fairly subtle!