The Dark Knight Rises, The fire rises.

A few weeks ago I took at look at the Brave, Bold and generally fine and upstanding models of the Batman side of the Dark Knight Rises range of models. Today, I'll be taking a look at the enigmatic Bane, and his team of Mercenaries, as well as the alternative version of him without his coat on. 

As before I'll not be discussing the rules, and just be discussing the models, and a few colour notes I used on painting them. All of the figures were primed with grey auto primer, and then pre shaded with black and white zenithal pre shading and highlighting applied vie air brush. All the paints used on these figures were thinned down to around the consistency of an ink. All the skin tones were painted in the same way as on the Brave and the Bold figures as well.

Bane

Bane is probably my favourite villain of Batman's Rogues Gallery, and although different to the comic book canon, Tom Hardy's portrayal of the character is brilliant, and has become an iconic screen villain.  

The Dark Knight Rises starter set includes a single piece casting of Bane in his long flying coat, and holding his body armour straps. Those who pre ordered the set through the Knight Models website, also received an alternative sculpt of the figure in the same pose, but without the coat. Both the sculpts I worked on were excellent quality casts, with only minimal clean up. Being one piece too meant there was very little clean up. 

To get the variety of tones on Banes jacket, I started off using a mix of the GW yellow ink, and agrax earth shade, in a roughly 50-50 mix, once that had dried, I applied alternative glazes of agrax and and yellow onto the figure without mixing, and used a few highlights of pale sand to help up the contrast.

The green parts of his clothing were painted with mixes of Coellia Greenshade and Athonian Camoshade, with the yellow glaze again over the webbing and straps. The black items of clothing on both figures were alternating glazes of black and Goellia Greenshade, with a few layers of highlighting as well to again bring up the level of 'pop' 

Talia

 Talia is another simple, single piece figure from the set, and again was very 

cleanly cast, though some of the detail on her tunic was a little faint, and hard to pick out. She stands with her foot on the obligatory tactical rock, something I'm not massively fond of but she  does look good, so I'll give it a pass! .

The black parts of her clothing were painted in the same way and at the same time as Banes, though the red was built up using heavily thinned Wild Rider Red and Evil Suns Scarlet from GW. This was mixed with water and flow improver, and had extra depth added to the colour using a glaze of Reikland Fleshshade mixed with Carrouberg Crimson. Highlights were Evil Suns Scarlett mixed with Lugganeth orange. The gold trim was both of the GW golds shaded with the same glaze as the rest of the tunic.

The Mercenaries

The three mercenaries all have separate weapons, and these were the only figures to have a little flash on them, especially around the weapons and fingers as the parts were so delicate, this made clean up somewhat time consuming, The details were good though, and the parts fitted together nicely, so it wasn't too painful in the end.  I particularly like the poses of these figures, they are better armed and armoured than the mercenaries in the movie, but the aesthetic fits well with Bane, and the existing Bane range too, which is handy. 

I decided to use dark green, olive green and brown for the bulk of the models clothing, and these were very simply achieved using layers of GW washes, Athonian camoshade for the olive, Coellea Greenshade mixed with Nuln Oil for the dark green, and then simply Agrax earth shade for the brown. Each of these was finished off with a layered highlight of very thin Vallejo pale sand.  Quick, easy but looked great. 

Bane Tumbler 

All the comments relating to the Batman Tumbler apply here too, although the paint job was far more intricate on this version. As with the rest of the models, it was pre shaded with black and white, to which I brush applied a glaze mixed with yellow ink, Agrax earthshade, and a touch of Athonian camoshade.

 It took a few layers to build up a nice rich base, but the modulation of the pre shading still provided plenty of variety to the finish.  For the brown disruptive scheme, I debated masking and spraying the model, however with the angles and shapes of the Tumbler, this seemed like it would be an exercise in frustration, so I decided to free hand it,using a good quality brush. The brown is just Vallejo skin wash, applied in two straight from the pot.  

To weather the Tumbler, I used a sponge to chip the edges lightly using Vallejo German camouflage Black Brown, before applying filters of MIG productions enamel brown for dark green. I decided the vehicle needed a little more contrast and streaking, and these were added using Abteilung 502 Bitume. 

 Next time in my quick over views I'll be rounding the Dark knight Rises releases, and looking at the Why so Serious? set, and Harvey Dent. If you're new to Batman the Miniatures Game, head over to the Facebook and join the Batman Miniatures Game and DC Universe Miniatures Game support group. And if you fancy getting your hands on of the these sets, you can over at Knight Models.

Step-by-step tutorial for big bases

If you have the recent Dark Knight Rises box you'll notice that the Batmobile and Military tumbler's come with large oval bases. If you need more large oval bases Games Workshop just happen to make the same size (120mm x 92mm).

This is a step-by-step guide on how to makke them look cool.

Here's what you will need..

Obviously you can choose your own grey paints but as long as you can make a few different shades, that's fine. I got the textured paint from B&Q (local hardware store). The brush was from Hobbycraft under the decoupage section. The stencil came from Multiverse Gaming but there's nothing stopping you making your own from thin card.

Spray the bases with the textured paint and leave overnight to dry, try to get a nice even coverage.

 Prime the bases with you preferred primer. I like using Halfords spray primer.

I painted the base using Vallejo's Dark Bluegrey then marked out the lines using some thin masking tape and stipple on the yellow using the stiff brush.



 

Remove the masking tape

Using some sponge from an old blister pack I applied a 50/50 mix of Dark Bluegrey anf Heavy Bluegrey and left to dry. Remember to remove the excess paint by dabbing it on a paper towel first. This will give you an idea of what kind of patterns you can create with the sponge so you will know where to dab it on the base.Use the same piece of spong to apply some Heavy Bluegrey to your liking.

The next stage if so wish is to add some pigments and litter. I found a couple of images online of newspapers and shrinked them down then printed them off.

 Mix some PVA glue with some water and Agrax Earthshade in a pot or empty blister pack. Cut the newspaper out and leave them soak for about a minute in the PVA mix.

 
I then used some tweezers to lift them out of the pot and scrunch them up before placing them on the bases.

The Dark Knight Rises, Beginning with Batman

In the first of a new series on this blog, I'll be taking a quick look at each factions models from the Christopher Nolan Dark Knight trilogy, starting with the Dark Knight and his allies this week.

Today, we have two versions each of Batman and Catwoman, one on foot and one on Batpod. 3 Gotham City Police officers, the Batmobile, and everyone's favourite, Alfred.

I'll not cover rules in this series as I don't play enough to have an opinion, and everyone's play style is different, so with the cards being available on the Knight Models store page, I'd rather let you decide for yourself. 

For those curious, all the models are provided in dark grey resin. The resin is the same as that used in other Knight Models releases, and is a fairly matt texture. I still give it a quick wash and spray with grey automotive primer though.

All of these figures were given zenith airbrushed highlights and shades, and all paints were thinned to the consistency of ink and applied by paint brush.

Batman

The Batman portrayed by Christian Bale is a sleek, stealthy character and the figure reflects this feel well. Assembly has good, solid, location points, though this example had a few mould lines along the edge of the cape and between  the ears. I used a fresh scalpel blade to carefully clean these up.

Colours used were GW Eshin Grey for his armour, and GW Drakenhoff Nightshade on his cape. These were built up with numerous layers of thin glazing, before contrast was added with GW White Scar on the highlights and Nuln Oil glazes to darken everything down again. Flesh on all of these is GW Luganeth orange as a base, then lots of highlight, shading and glaze work with various mixes.

Catwoman

Catwoman is again an elegantly cast figure, and captures the tone of Anne Hathaways performance nicely.

There were a few mould lines again, but she was simple to clean up, and I painted her the same way as Batman, though I used a few more layers of Nuln Oil, and less blending on the white to get the slight sheen she has in her outfit.

whilst painting her skin, I also blended the colour more than with Batman to reduce any harshness and bring a softness  and life to her skin.

Batpods

These kits look most intimidating in the box. They consist of around five, fine and very delicate parts, and you absolutely have to be thorough in your clean up and preparation. I also cant stress dry fitting the parts first so you can check fit and alignment. 



 

The models are designed to swap riders, though I've just built 2 here and fixed the figures. I also tilted the front wheel on Catwomans to add a little variety.

Both figures were painted like their foot versions, and the pods were painted Vallejo metallic black then weathered with artists oils. 

Alfred 

Alfred was included as a surprise free gift in initial runs of the DKR box, I'm not sure if there'll be any future availability, but it'd be great if he were.

The figure was a very clean, single piece cast, and the likeness to Michael Caine is astonishing.

As with the other figures, I use GW Luganeth orange as the base then mixed in various amounts of white in to highlight him. I used GW reikland fleshade mixed with Carroberg crimson to shade the skin.

GCPD

Three members of the GCPD are included in the Dark Knight Rises set, and each is a multi part figure, usually 2 arms and a torso. These had a few prominent mould lines that needed removing, and there are a few sneaky undercuts from  the casting process under chins and cap peaks to eatch out for too 

The body armour was painted with a few layers of Nuln Oil, and the armour with Drakenhoff Nightshade, and a highlight of GW Fenris Grey finished them off.

Batmobile

This is another multipart kit that requires careful clean up, especially around the spoiler and exhaust. I also again thoroughly recommend dry fitting and building the model without glue a few times before committing the Superglue...

The model was given the same grey primer, and black and white shade and highlight as the figures, before getting a very dark grey glaze. I built up the black with maybe 6 thin coats, then painted the windows and details. I finished the Batmobile with some oil paint  weathering.

Bases

I've had a few people ask about the bases, and they were very simple. I painted them Vallejo Black Grey, stippled on Vallejo Medium Grey, then put alternating layers of gloss Nuln Oil and Hexwraith flame on, allowing the two to flow together over a few applications to get the feel of a city at night in the rain.

That's all for this week, check back soon for my look at Bane and his Mercenaries.

In the meantime, if you want to see more of my work, or discuss a commission, please take a look at Volley fire painting service.