Today marks the official start of painting models for my Shadows crew. While I’d like to say I was incredibly efficient and accomplished a lot, the truth is that I wanted to first try out how to get that ‘ethereal’ look by working on a couple of Wisps, and I have learned that ethereal ghostly models are not something I’m particularly good at yet. Thankfully, this means that I have plenty of models for practice, because most Shadows models will have some of that ghostliness.

The Wisps

Since I have a bunch of these models to do, I’m opting to work in batches on the Wisps. As such, there are two models today, rather than my usual single model post – exciting!

My initial plan, if you could call it that, was to prime the model black with my airbrush, add some white ink through the same airbrush to get a bit of simulated light and tonal variation, and then use a blue-toned pthalo green through the airbrush to get a nice glow. Unfortunately, the final result came out looking spotty, too glossy, and without the kind of ‘glow’ I was hoping to capture, so that turned into the base over which I’ll be layering all of the colors.

For the smoke and glow-y bits, I opted to get the deepest parts with a very dark warm gray, then added glazes of turquoise, ivory, a bluish-white, a cold bright yellow, and finally white ink, followed by a glaze of turquoise again to get a bit of glow. It isn’t quite there yet, but I think the idea is quite sound and will come together once I’ve played with placements more.

The mask and body were done the same way, minus the final turquoise glaze, so that it stands out more. This helps it to maintain the pallor without looking undifferentiated from the smoke and curling mists, though again, I think it’s still pretty rough.

Beyond that, there’s not much to say about the painting process – I think I’m definitely more comfortable with non-Shadow models, so this is a chance to practice. I think rather than continuing with the Wisps for next session, I’ll try one of the proper Deckhand models for my crew in hopes of figuring out how to color the ghost pirates a bit better.

As far as roles go, Wisps are glorified tokens – they’re generated whenever a model with the Vaporization trait is taken out of action and can be used to reform Deckhands, Specialists, or your Leader model if they get close to one another. It’s one of the more interesting mechanical parts of Shadows, so I’m hoping to have enough to really show off this mechanic. Sure, it’s some extra work on my part (and I still need more Wisps: I’ve only got 4 and I feel like having more will probably be helpful for the sorts of larger scenarios that have Shadows as NPC opponents), but whenever possible, I like to have high-quality representation of everything that’s on the board.

Hobby Progress

Today’s hobby progress was painting Wisps, as well as finishing the primer coats on all the models I started priming. Thankfully, this was successful, so now all I need to do is keep painting and continue making progress on my various miniatures for the demo crews.

• Goblin Pirates: 1/7 painted
• Shadows: 2/10 painted
• Brotherhood: 1/4 painted