Draugr for Midgard

The first three unit bases are finished.  There is a unit of Draugr Warriors, a unit of Spirits and one of the Level 2 leader bases.

As you can see I’ve put some suitable grass tufts on.  I have some from a local supplier that I picked up at the Legionary show in Exeter.  Both are very dark in colour – a nearly black undertone with either a dark green or dark brown fibre in the tuft.

Having reviewed the pictures of the test model there were a couple of areas I wanted to improve.  The cloak isn’t dark enough so another layer of black is needed.  Also the armguard should be leather colour, I missed it out the first time.  Amendments made and I photographed it again in better light.

We are calling this done.  Now to replicate across the rest of his unit.  Let batch painting begin!

An easy and subtle paint job needs an easy and subtle basing scheme.  I have boxes of pre-mixed basing materials in the modelling cupboard.  I pulled out one which is a mix of sand and two types of grey stone railway scatter along with some lumps of railway scale coal.  This is what it looks like neat on the bases:

That’s okay but I’d like to step up the contrast with the model a bit.  I went and found my pot of Nuln Oil and gave the basing material a good heavy wash with that.  Now we have this:

Not much difference in the photo but it looks noticeably darker IRL.  That’ll do.  I’ve got some dark grass tufts that I’ll put on once they are varnished.

I had a crack at painting today.  If I’m unsure of what the final look will be, especially if I’m going to be batch painting, then I’ll do a test model or two.  The other thing I like is a colour swatch.  I’ve not used these terrain pigment paints before so I did a test of each one.  They are in two sets of four,the stone colours: black through grey to white and the earth colours: umber and ochre tones.

With the swatch painted onto white paper I can see the brightest highlight I’ll get on my model and I can also get an idea of the opacity.  These are good and translucent so I’ll get a lot of effect coming through from the undercoat, which is what I’m after.

I gave the colour scheme some thought again and decided to go against my initial idea of rusty armour.   I like the Stone Gray colour and this will be an excellent NMM iron/steel.  Therefore I’ll do the armour in this, leather in Burnt Umber and that leaves Raw Umber for the wood and spearshafts which will also work very well.  I can pick up any missing colour on the clothing with Stone Gray and I’ll give the skin a quick highlight with Concrete.  Hair will be a 50/50 blend of Yellow Ochre and Burnt Umber.  Black can be reserved for the cloaks as I originally wanted.  I’ll “highlight” as I go by wiping back the paint from the top surfaces, edges and creases with my finger.  This quick highlight technique is what I use on Speedpaints and although rather rough and ready, it works.

I gave it a go on the model I picked for the close up photo and this is what we got:

The effect is hard to see in these images – the lighting isn’t strong enough in the quick shot spot I’ve got set up on the painting table.  My lightbox is packed away for the move.  IRL the colours do show through but you get the slightly ethereal glow still as the undercoat can still be seen beneath the paint.

I found some other models with cloaks that aren’t in the Hearthguard unit and had a go at them:

It is a bit easier to see the different colours on these but still not too clear.  I’m happy with this stage.  I’ll wait for them to dry fully before making any final adjustments and then getting going with the batch painting.

After the three colour zenithed undercoat we have this:

I like the way the green has added a very subtle ethereal effect and I’m concerned I don’t lose that in the final paint scheme.

I really liked the painting on the original Kickstarter which was done by the sculptor himself.  I asked Colin what he used and he told me it was Woodland Scenics Earth Colors Liquid Pigment set.  I wasn’t aware of this product so I bought a set.

My favourite unit was the look he achieved on the Berserkers.

I love the low contrast and similar tone these models have.  For my army I’m not crazy about how green these models are so I’m looking for a pale skintone, very similar to what I have from the undercoat.

Overall I’m strongly reminded of the Draugr in Skyrim.  In the Eldar Scrolls games there are always undead guarding the underground tombs of the Nords.  The way they are rendered with the monotone lighting effects used to represent such places give the Skyrim Draugr a very distinctive look:

This is the light skintone I’m after.  I’m also very impressed with the effect the digital artist has achieved with a very limited palette.  With subtle variations of brown and grey he’s differentiated between the leather under armour, the bronze plate armour, the rusty iron of the chainmail, the steel of the sword and the grey of the clothing.  He has used plenty of edge highlighting to drive the graphical impact and this is something I’ll have to consider.  With so many to do though then I’m probably going to shortcut that bit – a final drybrush in Brainmatter Beige anyone 😀

The Kickstarter helpfully divided up into units of 8 plus the various characters and a couple of half sets too.  So to start with I’ve got:

• A Necromancer and two banner bearers
• Two leaders, each with a banner bearer
• A unit of 8 hearthguard
• Six units of 8 warriors
• A unit of 4 beserkers
• a unit of 4 archers

A notable absence here is any cavalry or other speedy unit.  I’m hoping there will be enough points left in my 300 limit for one so I’ve also picked up some WotC D&D ghosts/spirits to act as a light cavalry unit.

Feeding everything into the Midgard force builder spreadsheet we can start to stat and point everything up.  The spreadsheet available at Mogsymakes where the support documentation for the game can be found.  There is an app for this too if you like.

Heroes

Necromancer Level 3 Sorcerer with Raise Dead (Obvs), Cloud of Fear and Dispel Magic plus some traits 49 points

2 Level 2 Draugr Heroes 15 points each

79 points of Heroes (within the 100 point limit for a 300 point force)  Total Rep = 10.

Units

Everyone will get Relentless as they are Undead.

1 unit of Draugr Hearthguard Heavy Infantry with Spears as Tribute and Fearsome 34 points

6 units of Draugr Heavy Infantry 23 points each = 138 points

1 unit of 4 Draugr Beserker (skirmishing light infantry) 15 points

1 unit of Draugr Hunters with bows (skirmishers shooters) 12 points

1 unit of spirit host (Light Riders: Scouts) with flying 22 points

Units total 221 points with a Reputation of 20

Force total : 79+221= 300 points with a Reputation of 30.

I want these done super quickly.  Therefore I have decided to mix things up a bit by including a colour in the zenithal highlights of my undercoat.  I wanted an unnatural look, they are undead after all.  Therefore in between the Halfords Grey basecoat and Halfords White zenithal highlight I went with some Necrotic Flesh – a pale green colour.  This was zenithed on but from a slightly lower angle than the white (which comes from directly above the standing minis) and a with more fulsome coating.

So that is what we got after building miniatures,  attaching to bases and the three tone spray undercoat.