Nightgaunts
There’s something about the design of these creatures that always resonated with me. The rubbery jet black skin and elongated, imp-like proportions are enough to freak anyone out, but… they don’t have a face. They have everything else you’d expect from a monster, but the smooth, featureless face really grabs my attention and doesn’t let go.
So naturally, when Duncan Shadow announced he was going to crowdfund a set of Lovecraft-inspired sculpts and the Nightgaunts would be included, I went all-in. Printing the models was a simple, straightforward process. The campaign includes pre-supported models so they can be loaded onto the printer straight away and cleanup was no problem. Here they are, printed and mounted on their bases.
The original plan was to paint them with ink washes to take advantage of all those great ridges and recesses, but it ended up looking a little too flat and stonelike. They were ok, but not great. Plan B, break out the airbrush.
Painting these was a straightforward process. The wings were airbrushed with Golden Fluid Acrylic’s Violet Oxide then highlighted with Red Oxide so they were red, but not too bright. I wanted them to be a more muted contrast against the dark skin. For that, I used Daler Rowney’s FW inks, airbrushing Payne’s Grey as the basecoat with a focused highlight of Indigo around the head to help it draw your eye to the lack of a face. To further differentiate the skin and wings, I sprayed the skin with a satin varnish from Liquitex and the wings with Varnish+ from INSTAR Paint. Once that was all dry, all that was left was my favorite step, using the appropriately named Starship Filth enamel wash by Mig Jimenez.
And there they are! From file on my desktop to painted model in no time. I’ll definitely be working my way through the rest of the sculpts in the set and if you wanted to pick them up for yourself, you can check out the crowdfunding campaign on MyMiniFactory, or just buy them directly from Duncan Shadow’s shop if the campaign has ended by the time you see this.
Be good,
-Dave
how the mind does shout for rest