Painting Scythe – Nordic Kingdom

With half-term looming and the chance to get some time on the computer, I may be able to catch up on the backlog of reviews I’ve got, as well as several other lengthy posts that I’ve been making slow progress with. But until then, here are more minis…

I finished these some time ago, they’d just been sitting around waiting for conditions to improve before getting a coat or two of varnish. As with all the Scythe minis I tried to capture the card art, but with this one I think I went a bit awry.

I was undecided if Bjorn’s greatcoat was dark blue or purple; it really depended on the light and how I squinted at it. In the end I went for Dark Blue (VGC – Key at the end of post), but I’m not particularly happy with it and should have gone with something a little closer to a deep purple.

It might have helped if I’d crosshatched the blanket with the same blue (as it shows in the art – I’d meant to, but I forgot!), as the colour needed to be elsewhere to balance the look of the model.

So far this has been my least favourite character to paint. It lacked detail, I wasn’t keen on the colours or the miniature in general, and hence, motivation was somewhat lacking.

I also had a hard time painting Mox. Starting with Beasty Brown (VGC) I then drybrushed Ivory (VMC), moving up to Dead White (VGC) towards the top.

This didn’t look right at all when compared to the art, as there was grey in there too. In the end I lumped for a coat of Space Wolves Grey (GWC), just to see what would happen.

I keep trying these contrast paints in different situations and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I didn’t think it was too bad here, and I couldn’t be bothered to spend any more time on it than I needed to, so that was that!

One part I did quite like, though, was Bjorn’s hair and I think it matches the art pretty good.

Bascoated Orange Brown (VMC), washed with Nuln Oil (GWS) and then highlighted with the original colour and then again with a little Filthy Brown (VGC) added.

For the Mechs I just went with something simple, not really having much to go on in the way of card art. A basecoat of Dark Fleshtone (VGC) with Gunmetal (VGC) sprayed thinly with the airbrush.

I hear a lot about how you shouldn’t spray metallic paint through an airbrush; I’ve never had a problem, but I do give it a really good clean afterwards. In this case, spraying four mechs, it was quicker to do and easier to get a nice thin coat – I often find thinned metallic paints difficult to apply with a brush.

I gave them a bit of a tint by using a Blue Wash (VGCW) and a light drybrush of Chainmail (VGC) to finish them off.

The snow on the base is simply fine white sand – I dabbed a little glue in the grass tuft to catch a little of it and I really like the way that bit looks.

Not my favourites from Scythe, but they’ll do; I may try harder when I paint the other set, at least in choice of colours.

Key

• VGC – Vallejo Game Colour
• VMC – Vallejo Model Colour
• VGCW – Vallejo Game Colour Wash
• GWC – Games Workshop Contrast
• GWS – Games Workshop Shade