Warhammer 40,000 - Operative Umbral-Six

One of the rewards for the first year of Warhammer+, I’ve been trying to decide what to do with them for a few years. A ridiculous miniature, no one would use this model in an actual game of Warhammer. The concept is pretty cool, a vignette of a sniper watching for targets at the top of a ruined statue. It just doesn’t work as a model. As mentioned above you wouldn’t use this bobble-game in a game of Warhammer, and it being a snapshot of the top of a statue makes it hard to integrate into a diorama unless you want to scratch build the rest of the statue. Hence, why this model has sat on the shelf for a while. But I have decided that it’s time to get this son of a gun built and painted. 

Assembly was fairly simple. I toyed with the idea of carefully separating the sniper from the rebar that he’s standing on, and magnetising him so that he could be used as a regular game piece. I decided against it in the end, happy to keep him as a display piece. So I left him standing on his platform and assembled the remaining parts of the miniature. For ease of painting, I left the two parts of the statue’s cladding separate from the rest of the miniature. To finish the assembly off, I added a few dabs of Typhus Corrosion to some select areas to give them a bit of texture.  With that done I primed everything black. 

To begin the painting proper I started by giving the rebar and platform a coat of Vallejo Metal Colour Magnesium through the airbrush, this gave the areas a nice dark steel look. To differentiate the grappling hook I painted that with Scale75 Thrash Metal which is a little brighter than Magnesium. The rope I then painted with Corvus Black. To break all the silver and black, I then painted the filigree with Vallejo Hammered Copper. The platform, rebar and filigree were then given a coat of Basilicanum Grey contrast paint. This was then drybrushed with Necron Compound to highlight the edges. To finish things off I dabbed on some heavily thinned Skrag Brown around rivets and in corners to simulate rust. In the end I don’t think the Typhus Corrosion made all that much difference. 

For the assassin himself, whilst I did want to have him darker colours I didn’t want to paint him in black I find it to be quite a flat colour. Especially, when using greys to highlight it. Instead, I basecoated him with a few thin coats of Incubi Darkness, a green so dark it’s nearly black. In keeping with the dark theme I painted all the leather with Rhinox Hide, a nice dark and rich brown.  The handle of the dagger I painted with Screamer Pink, whilst the tassel I painted with Dawnstone. While I had it out, I also used Screamer Pink for the eye lenses. For the rifle, I painted the casing with Vulkan Green and the working parts with Scale75 Dark Metal. The aquila on the barrel I picked out with Scale75 Old Copper. With that done I then gave the model a wash of Nuln Oil. Once that was dry, I then layered the undersuit with Incubi Darkness on the raised areas. For highlights I didn’t want to mix that Incubi Darkness with white as they would have resulted in a washed out green. Equally, I didn’t want to mix it with yellow, as that would have made too bright a colour for an assassin. Instead I mixed Incubi Darkness with a bit of Sotek Green and then used that for the first highlight. For the second highlight I mixed in yet more Sotek Green, which at this point was a nice turquoise colour, Incubi Darkness must have a fair amount of blue in it I guess. For all the leather, I gave them an edge of Skrag Brown which really popped on such a dark model. 

Moving onto the statue, I have been watching a fair amount of Artis Opus and his drybrushing shenanigans that I wanted to test out. I started by mixing Vallejo Hammered Copper with Rhinox Hide to make a dark copper colour, I then applied this in two thin coats all over the statue facing. With that done I then washed the statue with a couple coats of thinned Garaghak's Sewer contrast paint. As it’s a rich brown colour it deepened the shadows without making them too dark like a black wash would. To brighten things back up I gave the statue a drybrush of pure Hammered Copper. For highlights I gave the statue a very light drybrush with Necron Compound, light enough that I only really caught the edges. To add some variety to the statue I then picked out the bracing struts that run around the inside with Scale75 Thrash Metal. Then like Byron on Artis Opus, instead of giving the thin bars a traditional wash I dotted Basilicanum Grey along their length. By doing it this way the wash stays in the middle of the bars and effectively does the edge highlighting for you. Last but not least, I added some verdigris to the bronze areas by painting in some thin lines of Nihilakh Oxide in select areas. Naturally, I couldn’t resist adding some under the eye to make it look like the statue was crying. 

As the base is not a focal point of the model I didn’t spend all that much time on it. I globbed on enough Astrogranite to blend the transition between the model and the base, and once that was dry I gave it a wash of Basilicanum Grey. I finished up by painting the rim of the base Steel Legion Drab.