A 'quick' guide to painting ghostly and ethereal figures pt1

The latest releases from Games a Workshop are here - and they've taken the form Nagash and his minions.



Kidding. That's the old 28mm figure.




Each of these epic kits shows the main character 'riding' upon a sea of malevolent spirits. These spirits have a faded green glow about them - very effective, especially if the character is painted in contrast to the spirits.




While catching up on GW's current
batch of painting videos, I saw a nice technique for painting this type of elemental being. I'm going to reproduce that technique here, but with some slight differences.

Instead of Nagash, I'll be using a Finecast Galadriel, Protectress of Lothlorien figure. This would work well with any of the Army of the Dead figures from Return of the King, too.




If you remember the scene in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Frodo offers the lady Galadriel the One Ring to keep. She freaks out, turning green and warlike - "All shall love me, and despair!" she bellows, and then controls herself, becoming the peaceful queen of the forest we know and understand.



It's this scary Galadriel we'll be working on. See how she glows...




First things first: clean up the figure - removing all flash and mould lines. A dunk and light scrub in soapy water preps the surface for priming. An old toothbrush is best for this. And soapy water.

Brush on Citadel Imperial Primer. This stuff goes on nicely, but takes two coats or so to cover properly.



When dry, a foundation of Astronomicon Grey will bring the overall shade where we want it.




So here's the magic ingredient: Nihilakh Oxide. A bit thicker than a wash, and a tad chalky, but exactly the right feel for this ghostly effect.




With a number 2 sable brush, apply the Nihilakh oxide to the whole figure. It goes on easily, and the only retouching you're likely to need to do is in the recesses, with a smaller brush.




Next, shade the pleats and other sunken areas with Thraka Green.




Let her dry.

And that's it for part 1.

In part 2, we'll highlight using a varying mix of Nihilakh Oxide and Ceramite White - we want her to glow as well as be deep in shadow, and we'll work on the armour, too.

And we'll try to avoid drybrushing anything at all.