Things Get Painted - Seishin, and some first impressions of Hexwraith Flame

Note: I started writing this post before the GW Contrast Paints were released, so this post doesn't directly compare the two. I understand that Hexwraith Flame was one of their prototype Contrast paints, however having used the two, there appears to be enough difference for me to warrant treating them differently to each other for the course of this post. 

 

Even though I only recently finished the first models of my Leveticus crew, I've started a new Malifaux Crew! I'm enjoying getting some older metal models through the process quickly, as I'm not aiming for a display piece on older models, just a tabletop quality piece where I can try something new.

This time round, I realised that Kirai's crew full of spirits would be a great chance to try out Hexwraith Flame. I have planned out the colour scheme in more detail, but am still in the process of writing that up. But with 5 Seishin staring at me, I figured it was a good chance to quickly get these started and test out Hexwraith Flame quickly.

Look at them there, judging me in their unpainted shame...

I had already watched the GW video on using Hexwraith Flame (Here), but found that there were a lot of YouTube videos (Like These) where people had already tried them a bit with differing end results. I was able to watch a few of them pretty quickly, and came to the conclusion that:

• Matte Medium will be useful when thinning these
• The green is REALLY strong straight out of the pot
• A few layers can produce a nice gradient, and coupled with drybrushing, it has a nice, quick ghostly effect. 
• A solid basecoat is going to work well, as opposed to my usual patchy undercoat

I decided I was going to use Reaper Leather White as part of my scheme, so after a quick white undercoat spray, I started doing a solid layer of Leather White all over the model. 

Terrible photo, but the left photo is with Reaper Leather White, and the right is just bare undercoat with some metal showing through in places. 

As a side note, Leather White has a really nice, neutral off-white feel, and reminds me a bit of plaster models when the model is drying. After a few minutes, I had my first coat of Hexwraith Flame on the models, and after allowing drying time in between, put down a few more layers, focusing the saturation of the colour towards the bottom of the model. I wasn't going to leave this as is though, and put some shades in the final low points of the model using Secret Weapon Algae. I then drybrushed the top of the spirits with Reaper Leather White. This really worked well I fetl on the three serpent-headed Seishin, who have some scales near the hair which was picked out well by this.

 Usually at this point I have no solid feel for if I like the direction of the models or not. This time I was happy with the result so far. 

I left the models overnight to dry, and was pleased that in morning light, the green seemed brighter, and showed more contrast to what I had seen the previous night. I was already happy with the results, so I was pleased with the improvement!

A (dog-faced?) Seishin poses for the camera in the 9am light of day...

The remaining work took a few more hours, however I did find one main concern as I continued - damaging the already painted areas. With other models, I am more confident just painting over small ships of paint splashes as I go. Considering that this requires more setup of the model before using the technical paint, I was a bit concerned by any paint rubbing off (And there was some small instances of this due to how I handled the models at on point for transport), or bleeding from other colours (Thankfully, none that I spotted). I found that a small amount of the highlight (Leather White) was all that was needed, as it just covered up the small mark, but was close enough to the surrounding colours to not stand out and draw attention to itself. 

Hiding among the flower beds... plotting...

After the spirit parts were completed, it was pretty straightforward to complete the rest of the model. I painted the bases to match the dirt of my McMourning Crew, and finished with some Silflor grass tufts with violet flowers. The only other big decision I made was to blackline most areas of the models. I rarely do this, especially with gaming standard models, but I think that the dark contrast made the lighter spirit areas really pop this time round. 

What's next for the crew? Well, I have a few models to mix in, but the next steps will be the metal Kirai, Datsue-Ba, and Kitchener so that the crew can actually be lead, or at least help out my McMourning crew when 3rd ed hits the table.