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.