Painting Challenge Finished: Paul Wagner

                                               Today's Lesson: Paul Wagner is crazy.
        But... seriously.  How else would you explain a painting challenge for a Nurgle Chaos Lord turning into this? I can't.  Well, technically I can, but don't blame me if it's illogical.  I thought that I should just put one measly spider in the background of my base.  That would be kind of fun.  I have an army of spiders, and I put a spider on the base huh? #meta  Then I thought, well maybe I could do more.  This monstrosity literally sprang into my head, like Venus rising from the foam, but not sexy, not naked, and a half goblin, half spider abomination instead of the most beautiful goddess in mythology  (I said it might be illogical.)  Before I knew it, bits of models lay strewn about my counter and my wife was giving me yet another long suffering look of confusion.  But I can rationalize anything (I do have an art degree.)
         Stikki Hwikkit earned his name by right, the first came from the constant cloud of web that shrouded his form, and the last from the way the tribal elders loved to hit him with rocks. 
         He ran the paths of the forest floor for survival.  He never slowed for the spiderwebs in his way, or even the spiders themselves.  As he became faster and faster, he felt one of them, weaving between their skittering legs.  In truth he would have become yet one more meal had he not discovered the hidden nests.  
         The nests held a myriad of  glowing eggs, and within their leathery shell, tiny spiders wriggled in blind struggle, awaiting the moment they became strong enough to emerge.  Stikki was strong enough to overcome some arachnids as they broke free, and through practice could pick out the weaker morsels, forcing them down his gullet, sating himself for one more day.  Soon he realized that their bites held no poison for him and he became bolder, learning how to trap and bind his prey, consuming more and more each day until not one hatchling escaped.  
          The elders noticed the arrogance of their former target, but more worryingly, the spiders were becoming scarce.  A grand ceremony was enacted, with many hallucinogenic spiders consumed by the great shaman to concerned whispering.  When he did not die, the village followed the wizened mage to the sacred nesting grounds, catching Stikki in the act of choking upon his latest meal.  He was quickly caught and thrust with great ceremony into the lair of the tribes' Arachnarok in atonement for the great transgression.  His tale became a warning to grunts everywhere not to betray the will of Da Spider God.
           The Great Shaman died, the spiders grew in numbers and the village returned to normal, but Stikki was not done.  His days were filled with constant peril until his eyes began to adjust to the dark lair and he returned to his former ways, but now his thoughts were filled only with revenge.  He discovered the caves within the heaped refuse and bones of the lair.  He began to roam, searching for anything of use to escape the foul darkness.  
          He found it then, in the depths of the earth, scratching out an existence feeding on forgotten mushroom groves.  It charged Stikki, but through experience with the hatchlings, the runt was barely able to subdue him and train him to loyalty.  How it had come to be, I could not say, but it was obvious that this thing was touched by the spider god.  Through much training the tiny goblin was able to teach it a few commands, but conscious thought was beyond the beast, only rage and violence came naturally.
         Weaving a tether from bundled webs, Stikki rode the abomination as it clawed its' way past the sleeping Arachnarok and clambered up the walls of the pit. Swarms of hatchlings followed in their wake, rustling beneath leaves and over logs.  The runt guided the monstrosity back to the village.  Stikki Hwikkit's only words were screamed in revenge as his beast cut down  goblins in a frenzy of gore and blood.  "Behold da Curse of Da Spider God!  Behold da Curse of Da Spider God!  Behold da Curse of Da Spider God!"
          Stikki Hwikkit was no longer a suitable name for one so grand.  He no longer needed to run through spider webs for food, and no-one dared raise a hand, much less a rock at him.  He became known simply as Da Master.  Soon another Goblin obsessed with revenge sought him out.  Snagla Grobspit swore allegiance instantly to one so obviously blessed.  The Deff Creepers joining what had become known as Da Spider God's Revenge.  
         The Curse of Da Spider God made goblin form skittering in his wake, Da Master runs as swift as ever.  At his command the spiders of the forest travel in vanguard surging from the arachnid shadows.

Here I start construction on the base, with the mini placed on top, just to test out scale etc.  It was glued together using gorilla glue, which made some nice ovoid shapes (more on those later.)  I decided to paint the wood with a black base after doing some hiking in swampy areas, and checking out the exposed trunks.                  The bone is my standard recipe at this point, appearing more fresh and scavenged than the typical look.  The white parts are the only ones that have been scraped of crud and dirt, instead of the whole bone bleached in the sun.  I start with Rhinox Hide, thinned with Lahmian Medium, then up through P3 Idrian Flesh, to GW Flayed One Flesh, to a final highlight of P3 Menoth White Highlight.   
           The wood paint scheme is based on my observation of the swampy areas in the neighborhood.  Only fresh wood has significant brown in it.  Almost all the trunks I observed were black with grey highlights, and light brown where it has been scraped or rubbed.  My wood starts with Abaddon Black mixed with Lahmian Medium, then adding in small amounts of Flayed One Flesh until the final highlight is pure Flayed one Flesh.
           The cloth (and spider web later,) start with Warpstone Glow thinned with Lahmian, then washed with Biel-Tan Green.  First highlight is the Warpstone, then up to Skarsnik Green, through to Gauss Blaster Green with the final highlight from added Flayed one Flesh. 
              Also at this stage I cut off the bottom two bones from the spider mask as they made the face look skinnier by drawing the eye from the double chin back to the mask, which didn't fit with what I wanted, and made the face look squished.  You can see here the spot colors I was talking about. They are a nice point of interest in the void of the spider legs on the right hand side.  That loin cloth is starting to bother me at this point.  It makes the torso look lighter than I want, appearing to "float" rather than look substantial.
              The purple is started with Naggaroth Night thinned down with Lahmian, washed with Guilliman Blue, then Naggaroth Night again as the first highlight.  I worked up the color through Genestealer Purple up into Flayed One Flesh, with a final Highlight of straight Flayed one Flesh.
             The feathers were basecoated with Flayed one Flesh mixed with Lahmian,  Washed with Agrax Earthshade then highlighted alternately with Gauss Blaster Green and Lugganoth Orange with single highlight for each color mixed from 50/50 Edge color and Flayed one Flesh.  The blood on the feathers is Blood for the Blood God from GW with the Central Spine of the feathers highlighted with a single coat of P3 Menoth White Highlight.
              This is more like it!  I added a codpiece to break up that field of green, and also to draw the spot colors down farther.  I really like the purple accenting the face and spider, and the feathers just add some nice contrasting color.  I started to hesitate here as I could not decide how I wanted the legs to look.  I thought about painting bands of color before I decided to let the focus stay on the center of the miniature.
There we go!  I wanted the orange to frame the torso, and it turned out very nicely, with the first three segments of all six legs forming a pinwheel effect.  Oh, I also added a tiny spider on the chest to tie in the orange of the legs into the body.
              I painted the orange with a basecoat of Macharius Solar Orange thinned with water for a more natural pattern.  I added Bloodletter Glaze, then the first highlight was the original mix of Macharius, before highlighting up through Jokaero Orange and on into Lugganoth.  
          The Black was based Abaddon thinned with Lahmian before mixing in Kantor Blue.
 Whew!  That's done then right?  Umm no.
 Okay this is really busy, and also my first attempt.  I added a lot of vertical lines to draw the eye up, but cut most of that out later, as it didn't look right. I wanted to look like he was going through a forest, not a campsite.  The base has already had a layer of Stirland Mud added over the Apoxie Sculpt.