One of the interesting things about the Midwest WFB scene is
our dedication to painting and fielding amazing armies. At any given tournament, you can expect to
see work that would rival the stuff that appears in White Dwarf (R.I.P.) or on
the GW website. While having such a rich
environment when it comes to painted armies, it also means that the standards
can be pretty high when it comes to paint judging. To this end, it has become almost mandatory
that an army has some level of freehand if it wants to earn maximum points at
the majority of tournaments.
Typically when someone is doing freehand, it is done on a
standard as they are a great way to add a little uniqueness to a regiment. Since another element of many local
tournaments is to award points for a scratch built model, I decided to combine
the requirement with free-hand details to create a custom gong for my
ironguts.
When it came to picking the actual image, I debated for a
period whether or not to do some kind of dragon. It seemed like the obvious choice and easily
tied into the Asian inspired theme of the army.
In the end, I felt it was too obvious and decided to explore other
Japanese images that might work. I considered
Kirin and phoenix pictures, but again they felt too obvious. As I was looking at various pictures, I
started to notice that koi were a common theme among many of them. After a bit more searching on the topic, I
decided to use one as the basis for the free-hand on the gong.
Using a picture I found on the website Quiet Forest, I drew
a similar image on the gong I had created using plastic rods, wire and a wooden
40mm base. One the image was drawn, I
traced over it using a fine detail brush and Vallejo Charred Brown. Next, I used Reaper Golden triad, Vallejo
Brown ink and GW Sepia wash to color the fish.
Once the fish was colored, I reapplied the Charred Brown to better bring
out the details.
To complete the background of the gong, I first used a
pencil and another 40mm base to trace a semi-circle. Next, I colored in the first part of the
circle using a combination of Vallejo Hexed Purple, Vallejo Purple Blue, and
Vallejo Dead White. As for the blue
sections of the model, I used Vallejo Imperial Blue, Vallejo Dark Blue, and
Vallejo White to shade and highlight the area around the koi.
To complete the model, I painted the outside ring on the
gong using Vallejo London Grey, Vallejo Black Grey, and Vallejo Light
Grey. The wood holding the gong was
painted using a combination of Vallejo Charred Brown and Vallejo Vermin
Brown. The base was painted using the
same scheme as the army and flocked with a combination of Army Painter and GF9
products.
