Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion - Voidwarden
Having finished up with the Red Guard and Cragheart, I was keen to progress with the other Gloomhaven miniatures. Helped in no small part by the amazing sculpts, I saw the Voidwarden’s character art first and figured that I would have to free hand all the dark swirls. But no, they are in fact part of the model.
As with the other models I primed her with Army Painter Uniform Grey and kicked things off by base coating her robes with a few layers of Ulthuan Grey before giving them a wash with Apothecary White contrast paint. I then highlighted them back up using Ulthuan Grey followed by Matt White, both steps there a little tedious to get around all the swirls and patterns on the cloth.
She does have a couple armour plates which in the artwork are gold, that in turn provided all the excuse I needed to practice gold non-metallic metal. I had good results using Squidmar’s recipe before with my Myth Forged Vampire Soldier, so I saw no reason not to use it again. The only change I made was that this time I used one of Scale 75’s Instant Colour paints for the yellow glaze. Sulphur Yellow isn’t as vibrant as the Yriel Yellow that I used last time but I can use almost straight from the pot. In fact I ended up going back over it with a Yriel Yellow glaze anyway. In the end it wasn’t my best work but practice is the only way to get better.
I filled out the remaining details using Dryad Bark for the leather straps, Mournfang Brown for the leather pouch and Corvus Black for the flask on her waist. I painted the hair with Steel Legion Drab before giving it a wash with Strong Tone and then layering with Steel Legion Drab again. The book cover I painted with Dark Fleshtone and the pages I painted with Skeleton Bone.
The skin I basecoated with a few thin coats of Kislev Flesh which gave me a nice canvas for what I wanted to do. As per the artwork, half of the Voidwarden’s skin, her left half in fact, is blackened and necrotic. No doubt as a consequence of utilising the void from which she gets her name. For the right side of her face and right arm I washed them with Reikland Fleshshade and the other half and left arm I washed Nuln Oil. The latter didn’t turn out quite as dark as I had hoped but it was a good starting point. Rather than apply more layers of Nuln Oil to make the skin darker I thinned some Corvus Black so that it was almost transparent and applied it in a few thin layers. This meant that the skin got darker without having an excessive amount of wash settle in the recesses.
I wasn’t sure how I was going to paint the staff, the artwork has it in silver and whilst I could have slapped some Leadbelcher on it I felt that it would look out of place as I had done gold NMM. In the end I decided to use Pale Sand which I then washed with Strong Tone. The orb on the end of the staff I painted with a few coats of Matt Black. To give the illusion of depth to the orb I heavily thinned some Vallejo Dark Grey and applied to one side, while it was still wet I blended in a bit of Dawnstone in the center.
And then it was time to bite the bullet and paint those damn swirls. Honestly I had been putting this off as I don’t have particularly steady hands, in fact I pretty much completed a couple of other models before mustering the courage for this detailed work. The biggest choice was what paint to use, I wanted something that flowed nicely and covered well. With that in mind I mixed some Army Painter Matt Black with a drop of Liquitex Black Ink, which gave me a super black paint that flowed nicely enough that I shouldn’t have to go over an area twice. And for that purpose it worked really well, I got some relatively neat flowing lines.
As always I based the Voidwarden in the same way that I have for my other Gloomhaven miniatures: slapped on some Stirland Mud texture paint, washed it with Strong Tone and drybrushed with Tyrant Skull. Stuck a tuft or two down and I was done!
Overall, she turned out okay. The gold NMM certainly isn’t my best week, the void swirls are a little sloppy and her eyes are a bit squiffy. But! I’m pleased with it, she isn’t meant to be winning any painting competitions but she is going to look nice on the tabletop when we play Jaws of the Lion with my friend.
First boardgame miniature done in 2022, it might only be one but I’m at least on the scoreboard now! Just seven hundred and sixty-five left to go…
Boardgame miniatures left to paint: 765
Boardgame miniatures painted this year: 1