My Third Monster: The Lion Knight (unfinished, Painted Late Sept, 18))

"There was once a monster who was shunned by its creator and left to wander the darkness. Lost in the world of humans, it was driven insane in its attempts to comprehend them. Now, the only reality it accepts exists deep inside it hollow, broken mind."

- Excerpt from Kingdom Death: Monster, Lion Knight Showdown

By early October, 2018, I was getting restless and wanted to get another monster miniature painted. I had a lot to choose from but in the end I wanted to try one of the humanoid monsters. I had recently purchased the Lion Knight Expansion from Ebay (they were sold out on the Kingdom Death Shop website at the time). This monster didn't have a detailed art design like many of the individual miniatures available, so I scanned the web for some inspiration. In the end, I found this site and I loved how the artist interpreted the miniature, so I copied much of the art design. You know what they say, "imitation is the highest form of flattery" or something like that.

I started with the base and went the traditional route with the color scheme. A lot of the stone faces seen are depicted with a somewhat tan sandstone color hue. I put down a grey base color (seen around the edges) then I layered colors for the stone faces, getting lighter as I went. After all that, I put down a wash with The Army Painter Strong Tone Wash. 

 My favorite aspect of the original art is the way the armor looks. I used a copper metallic shade for the base of the armor, and then afterwards created a green wash and put down several coats until it began to stand out. I'm most proud of this aspect of the semi-finished product.

The last aspect of the miniature that I really focused on was the mane of the Lion Knight. I painted the mane with two separate bases, then gave each separate wash shades and dry-brush highlights. The top of the mane encompassed the lighter elements and I went darker with the colors as I went down the mane. I used the darker colors for the face with a bit of the lighter base colors for the highlights. I also tried to do the eyes, and they came out a bit better than my previous attempt.

As described in the blog title, this miniature is not finished. There are supposed to be three separate female servants that sit in front of the Lion Knight. I didn't work on them when I originally painted this miniature (and still haven't at the time of this posting). The reason for this is two-fold:

1. I see the three servants as the hardest aspect to paint with this overall miniature. I wanted to get more skilled (especially with free-hand painting) before attempting them.

2. I get antsy easily and find that when I'm finishing a miniature, instead of really getting the last details down, I want to move on to the next miniature. Also, as a lot of miniature painters can attest, I have very limited time in an average week, and I have a lot of unpainted miniatures to get through still.

I fully intend on finishing up this miniature and including the three servants. I really want to do this miniature justice. One day I'll post the update, and I look forward to comparing the before and after.

Oh, also - if the owner of the site I referenced sees this post, I hope that you'll excuse my lack of imagination and my use of your art design. Your work is great and you deserve the compliments that you receive.