My Fourth Monster: The Butcher (Painted Late Oct, 18)

"There once was a man who could not hide his fear. He wore a mask that transformed his cowardice to rage. In turn, the man transformed into a monster All that remained was a devouring fury that stalked the night, collecting the fearful faces of others."

- Excerpt from Kingdom Death: Monster, Butcher Showdown

After painting the Pinup Sci-Fi Twilight Knight miniature, I took a bit of (unwanted) time off from miniature painting. By late October/early November, 2018, I got some free time and so chose to try another monster miniature. In the regular KDM campaign, after encountering the Screaming Antelope, the Butcher becomes the next monster that is encountered. Given this, I wanted to try painting the Butcher. 

I learned something interesting about this miniature as I painted it: it was a hell of a lot of fun! I've enjoyed painting all my miniatures so far, but sometimes I felt frustration at my lacking skills, or sometimes fatigue from staring at the same miniature for sometimes 8 or more hours. I had no such issues with this one, even though it was difficult and time consuming.

My color palate was decided based on art from the KDM 1.5 manual. In the showdown segment for the Butcher, there's a detailed rendition of the imposing figure, and so I tried to recreate that to the best of my ability.

This time, I tried to utilize all my accumulated skills to make the Butcher look the best that I could make it. I started with the armor; I provided a base copper metallic shade, then moved out, providing a bone color base for the helmet and the shoulder armor, grey for the arm guards, and a steel metallic shade for the butcher knives.  

For the imposing cloak, I actually kept this part separate until everything was completely finished. I gave a grey base coat for the fur cloak and then worked on the lanterns last. 

Every part of the miniature got detailing with wash shadowing and then dry-brush highlights. Given the contrast in coloring for this miniature, I think that the effects come out pretty well in the pictures. I was pretty happy with the finished product.

There was one new technique that I wanted to try on this miniature. If you look at the picture to the left that shows off the fur cloak, you may note that around the lanterns, there's a yellow wash effect around them. I did this so as to give the effect of illumination around the lanterns. I've seen a lot of other painters do this for their miniatures (and most are much better) so I wanted to give it a try here. If a first attempt, I think it came out pretty well.

So another monster painted. It's been a while sine I've actually played KDM (busy painting and doing end-of-year stuff) but when I finally get to fight this bad boy, I'll be ready.

This was a great experience overall. Other than light touch-ups that I've noticed after-the-fact, I think I may be pretty much finished to this miniature. Of course, I hope that this showcase is enjoyed and please feel free share any comments or critiques. As always, if you find my blog enjoyable, be sure to follow or subscribe.