Thursday, June 26, 2014

Finished - Skulltaker

I can't believe it only took my a week to paint this guy. I think the only things I needed to do on this mini since I posted about him last was to paint some black on the flames. I have been in a kick lately of painting single models from start to finish rather than batch painting. I find it much more rewarding, gratifying and faster. 

I am going to try some new things on my Finished articles by talking about 2-3 thing I liked about how the mini turned out and 2-3 things that disappointed me. 

I like how the base turned out. I was worried about adding so many skulls and that it would be overkill. I think that the attention with painting and the extra sand between skulls diffused that. I also like how it gives the model a lot of height. He is head and shoulder above Terminators. I like the cape from start to finish. I like the black on the inside and how it frames the red skin well. I like the skulls on the back and the hooks. In some other images of the Skulltaker, people paint the skulls too white and the hooks too bronze and it looks weird. I think that the sepia and mud washes homogenized the colors so that nothing stands out. 

I do not like how the flames tuned out. I think that I left too much white showing, but they do not look right. I am not a fan of the face at all. I dislike the textured horns and how I painted them. I would have preferred a distinct but less ornate head and how set. It is too much and to diffuse that, I did not give the horns a glossy coat like I did with my other Bloodletters. I dislike how the armor turned out. I don't know where I went wrong, but I wanted it to look like weathered bronze or brass like on my Iron Warriors, bit it looks more gold to me. I tried hitting it with extra washes of Agrax Earthshade, but that only deepened the shadows and made the areas too dark for my taste.

I am concerned with trying to give him a chariot or mount later but I think I can convert something to support him. I may need to just waste a Bloodcrusher to make a mount for him or a Herald. I think that making a Chariot mount would be the easiest route but that's a bridge that I'll burn when I come to it.

On the table top, this guy needs to get into close combat to be effective and when he does, he can eat almost anything. I think that only Greater Daemons will give him a challenge. I am unsure about the BS 9 he has, but that will be a nifty surprise if he ever gets to man a gunnery platform.

This mini retails for $22.25 in resin. As this is a metal model, current secondary markets value it at about $30 wish I feel is fair. The paint job is easily worth $30-$40 and the extra metal skulls are worth $10 as they are also no longer easily available. I would estimate that to replace this min would take $40 and in terms of sale value I would estimate it at $80. I don't think that I would take less for it. I might trade it on Bartertown for for a large kit that values between $60 and $80 but no less. 

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