Caw and rider

I've had this weird little chap for a few months and got around to painting him over the last week.

He's a wonderfully odd little sculpt by Knucklebone Miniatures which I found on, you guessed it, Etsy shortly after I began buying stuff on the site. I snapped him up immediately as he's just so different, I guess. I mean, who doesn't want an almost-naked post-apocalyptic thingy riding a featherless wingless chicken in their collection?

I've since discovered he's designed to be used in the game Turnip28, created by Max Fitzgerald. According to his Patreon:

A thousand years after the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the world has fallen into decay. Endless war has led to technology stagnating, and beautiful countrysides have been ground to a thick ruin under the boots of a million dead men.

Now, nothing grows. A bizarre and horrible root covers the land; strangling the life from the trees, poisoning the water, and filling the sky with an acrid mist. Humanity barely endures by harvesting this disgusting tuber. It twists their bodies and minds, infesting their thoughts with divine visions of lost vegetables.

Bizarre religious orders have formed. They stockpile abandoned weapons unearthed by the twisting roots. Marching in column under fluttering banners, brandishing mud-clogged muskets and rusted bayonets, they are cruel parodies of long-forgotten armies on the march.

Ooo, sounds interesting. You can get the rules for free here and some free STL files here.

Anyway, the mini.

I first thought the model was of some post-apoc scavenger, given the amount of crap he's lugging around. I kicked off with grey spray primer and then started on the caw, giving it a coat of Chocolate Brown as a base. A wash with thinned Agrax Earthshade brought out the shadows, and then it was a case of highlighting with layers of Mahogany Brown to give the caw a reddish tint. 

The growths(?) on its head and neck were painted with Caliban and Kabalite greens and washed with Biel-Tan. I highlighted them with Moot Green. Finally, its beak was painted Flat Earth, to which I added Filthy Brown for the highlights.

Oh dear Cthulhu, the details. All the metal areas are Iron Warriors, Nuln Oil and Leadbelcher, with a touch of homemade orange wash. The petrol can is Loren Green over Castellan Green, and the vase is Khorne and Wazdakka reds with a glaze of Bloodletter.

I painted the rider's harness (dunno if that's the right word) Calvary Brown and highlighted it with Red Leather. I'm not sure why but I'm pretty happy with it. The bits that look like stitches are Ivory shaded with Seraphim Sepia.

In between doing all that, I painted the mushrooms for the base. They're just Ionrach Skin for the stems and Death Guard Green for the caps, with some Athonian Camoshade to darken the green.

The last thing I painted was the rider. I knew I wanted to go with a light colour for his skin, so I did his gasmask first in Black and highlighted it with some Black Grey and Neutral Grey. The lenses are Casandora Yellow over some Heavy Orange.

I was happy with the way the mushrooms looked, so I used Ionrach Skin on the rider. To give it more of a post-apoc mutant tone I thinned some Coelia Greenshade and used it as a glaze/wash to add a touch of blue to his skin. I then highlighted him with more Ionrach mixed with a little Pallid Wytch Flesh.

I slathered the base with Stirland Battlemire and put the mushrooms in it. Once dry, I added some Stirland Mud and drybrushed a few areas with Bugman's Glow. After painting the base rim Black and giving everything a coat of matte varnish, he was done.

Although he was fiddly to paint I'm well happy with how he turned out. There's a real "what the hell is that?" look to the entire model, and he stands out on the shelf. Well, the kitchen table to be totally honest as I haven't taken him into the spare room yet.

I'm also happy to finally get a post up this month. Thanks to our manager leaving, one of our assistant managers being on vacation and another staffer having Covid, the last week has been a nightmare with me working six days in a row and then being called in on my day off and having to close the store early due to a lack of warm bodies. The good news is I had yesterday off, the bad news is I'm working another six days in a row from today. I'm trying to catch up with other blogs, so forgive me if you don't see me commenting, unless you're Simon, in which case I couldn't keep up with his posts if I was unemployed and bedridden :-)

Heading for the kitchen painting table soon is more Calden Keep stuff, including a couple of larger models; a dark elf witch and her coven; and — wait for it — NIGHT GOBLINS!