Slaanesh Warband: Phemorous Vardonai, Champion of Chaos

Slaanesh: Championing gender fluidity since 1986!

I don't know about anyone else, but there are some minis that I approach with trepidation. It's as if I feel my paintjob isn't going do justice to the sculpt. Phemorous is one of those minis. Sculpted by Jes Goodwin in 1988, it's such a classic Citadel figure that I didn't know where to start and just sat there, trying to sum up the confidence to paint it. But once I had the colour scheme worked out it went really well.

Phemorous was painted in stages, starting with his armour. The black bits were done first, followed by a drybrushing with a mix of Vallejo Electric Blue and Metallic Medium. Then the trim/edges of his armour were given a once over with Electric Blue and a highlight of Deep Sky Blue. And would you believe it, I just spotted a bit of armour trim I missed. No, I'm not taking the pics again so just use your imaginations.

His kneepad is Army Painter Moonstone shaded with Purple Tone and came out surprisingly well given I think I've used Moonstone twice in the past couple of years.

His right leg was next, coated in Blue-Green with Polished Gold for the studs. This was the only bit of him I was worried about as my layering skills seem to come and go randomly. I ended up just adding white and drybrushing to highlight it.

Phemorous has been "blessed" by Slaanesh with the gift of a Daemonette claw. I've only painted these crab-like claws once before and didn't want the usual pink-brown colour, so I used Vallejo Violet Red and added white for the highlights. After much debate I decided on Army Painter Mummy Robes for his glove to add a lighter colour, and I've just realised I forgot to add gold to the studs. Phems will be heading back to the painting desk this afternoon.

As everyone knows, you can't have a Slaanesh champ without pink and his shoulder pad was the obvious spot. After painting it Vallejo Pink I washed it with Army Painter Red Tone and it was a total mess. I ended up repainting the pink and painted in Warlord Purple to shade it.

I painted his loincloth (look, it's Slaanesh, he probably needs easy access) Mummy Robes to tie it in with the glove and to provide a break between the blue/black armour and blue/green leg. Polished Gold was the obvious choice for the icons, with the symbols on his chest painted Warlord Purple.

I had such high hopes for his sword, but in the end cowardice prevailed. It's Vallejo Tinny Tin and the daemonic face is a light coat of Tinny Tin mixed with Shining Silver. The jewels on the hilt are Vallejo fluorescent Magenta.

There's always one bit that's going to go give me hassle and in this case it was his hair. As I'd recently bought the Vallejo fluorescent paints I had an idea:

Yeah, no. Then I decided to do his hair in white, so after repriming it I tried Vallejo Ivory shaded with Grey Wash and the result was so crap that I didn't even bother taking a pic.

If in doubt, play it safe and go with black. It's highlighted with Wizard's Robe and Purple, and I could/should have done another, lighter layer but at this point I was happy to have him finished.

I have another Slaanesh champion to paint, so whenever I get around to it I'm banning blue from his colour scheme. But that one's on the back burner while I try to get my Chaos warriors and Daemonettes out of the way.