Truthsayer of Albion
It’s Wednesday, and that means I dig up another oldie for you readers to inspect! I’m glad to be on time for a change. Life is getting a bit less hectic again, my health has returned and with that a major dose of productivity. I’ll talk more on my recent work later, so let’s take a look at this model!
When I first started out with Warhammer, the Albion campaign was in full swing, but as I got into it mainly for the painting I gave the gaming a square poo-poo at the time. However, this model caught my attention, and I quickly picked up one of the remaining blisters at the end of 2002. I largely followed the painting guide that was included in a French White Dwarf (they didn’t sell the English ones in Brussels back then) and at the time I was very satisfied with my paintjob. I still am today. I consider this my first showcase model and also the oldest paintjob that I’m unashamed of.
As per the White Dwarf painting guide, I painted the model’s skin with bestial brown to which first dwarf flesh and then elf flesh were added in successively lighter tones. However, as I had started off too light, I added a glaze of chestnut ink at the very last stage. This probably darkened the recesses of the model’s skin way too much (at least for many peoples’ tastes) but then again the great musculature and heroic pose was what drew me to painting this model. Then again, I have no idea what I did with the hair – I think it’s a basecoat of vomit brown followed by bleached bone and/or white highlights. It’s been such a long time that I can’t tell you everything about the paintjob anymore.
In the close up, you can see how crude my brushing techniques were back in the day. These days I do a sort of angled brushwork in the direction of the muscle fibres which you would expect to see underneath a man or beast’s skin, check my Beastmen Minotaurs all the way back on this page for examples of this technique. If I were to paint a Truthsayer again one day I’d of course submit him to the same treatment. The chances of a second Truthsayer are however rather minute, as I’ve just seen on their website that they are casting these great models in not-so-great Finecast these days – and at exactly double the price I paid ten years ago. Well that’s inflation for you.
In other news, I’m very close to completing a small unit of Sarmatian horse archers. All that’s left is some minor highlighting and the bases. You’ll hear more about them this weekend, and if I’m left unhindered then there might even be a speedpainted batch of Berserkers rearing their bearded heads at the end of it. You’ll find out soon enough!
Love that model – very Slaine. And that’s a nice paintjob too.