Painting Mage Knight Miniatures

EDIT: For some reason all the formatting in Blogger has gone haywire for this post. Sorry for the odd formatting...don't forget to rest your eyes after reading!

First released in 2011, Mage Knight includes painted miniatures. Although unusual for a tabletop game (which even now don't tend to come with painted minis) this made full use of one of the unique selling points of WizKids HeroClix as the character components, pre-painted stuff.

HeroClix itself launched in 2000. A collectible miniatures game focused on painted characters, each model has a 'Combat dial' base that moves to indicate damage or special abilities. While Mage Knight doesn't use combat dials for the four hero characters in the base game (instead reserving them for the city models) they do come painted and 'ready to go' on clear plastic bases. Let's take a look at them 'out of the box' first.

Four against...the unknown

The game gives you four heroes and four cities represented in game by one of the models below.

Repainting the set

I bought the game because there are painted models so I could play immediately, so why repaint them?

Improve the paint job to match the game quality.

As you can see above, each model comes essentially with 'base colours' only. In some cases these paints are applied sloppily and with a very limited range of colours, so I wanted to tidy them up. What you can't see here is that the game map tiles are lovely (scroll up to the top image). The models should be up to that standard.

Add detail.

The models look flat because they don't have any shading. This particularly applies to the cities, which are 95% white plastic with a dab of identifying colour on the roof of each city. I felt that I could capitalize on the base painting by simply adding a wash (to bring out the shadows) and a highlight to make things pop a bit.

Improved components for little investment.

This would take much less time that painting from bare plastic.

So what did I do?

• Washes. Agrax Earthshade/ Nuln Oil/ Reikland Fleshshade etc. This is an easy way to add shadows and depth to the models, looks great, and is dead simple.
• Highlights. Use lighter shades of the 'from the factory' colours to add more depth.
• Edge highlights.
• Drybrushed highlights (to quickly bring out detail on materials like chainmail).
• Details where necessary:
• Strategic spot varnish (crystal ball on Arythea's staff).
• Gems (Tovak's sword).

Results

And here we are! I've included 'before and after' photos with a couple of notes below. (Note that lighting conditions were different, but I hope the point will be made!)

Tovak

Featured on the box art, Tovak is your basic 'sword and board' mini. I like his weird dynamic 'crouching' pose - he looks hunkered down but ready for action. He comes mainly painted black, which makes it difficult to see any detail on him. Look closely though and there are places you can easily spruce up.

• Nuln Oil wash on the shield, sword, chainmail etc.
• Coloured the eyes with a green, light glow.
• 'Gemmed' the sword (blue gem).
• Details (sword hilt and pommel).
• Drybrushed the armour (steel) so that the raised areas have colour.

Enhanced: Gem, eyes, painted details (hilt, crossguard),
drybrushed edges like gauntlets, gold etc.

Original: No washes, no drybrushing etc.

Enhanced: Drybrushed armour.

Before: Shield - flat colours

Enhanced: Nuln Oil wash, silver metallic highlight,
gold drybrush

Goldyx

The draconoid Mage Knight is probably my favourite sculpt. I like the pose and the simplicity of the model overall, and that he is carrying a book (at least he has something to ready while I spent 15 minutes trying to work out how to win the next combat). The large sweeping areas of skin are perfect for washes to add some depth, and there are opportunities for little details (jewelry, book etc.)

• Agrax Earthshade wash (all over) to add depth.
• Highlights on the base colours, and/ or drybrushes - especially skin.
• Details such as book edges, rings, bracelet, pouch etc. (Jewelry in particular - which comes painted yellow.)

Before: notice yellow bracelets, flat colours

Enhanced: Washes, green highlights, drybrushing. 
Details: gold ring, bracelets, claws etc.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade washes, highlights and layers (robes),
drybrush wings, and some detail (scabbard fittings), claws/ nails.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade wash (see shadows in the wings)
 drybrush, details

Arythea

I found this character both the hardest and the easiest to enhance. At first glance you can't see any detail because of the black used, but a simple drybrush brings them out - easy and quick! BUT, what is going on with the face and 'mask'(?) No matter how I look at the face I just can't get what the sculpt is supposed to be. Are there eyes?

• Biggest difference here was drybrushing red the 'web' texture of the cape.
• Drybrush hair (grey).
• Magical staff 'orb': highlights, and then spot gloss varnish.
• Washes: Reikland Fleshshade.

Before

Enhanced: Green magic orb, washes on skin
drybrushed web/ cape

Before: flat black cape, hair.

Enhanced: Red drybrush on cape, green orb,
drybrushed grey on hair.

Norowas

The elf Mage Knight has some great textures to work with. Chainmail, cloth with lots of folds, some platemail, nicely defined facial features (compared to Arythea above...)

• Nuln Oil wash over metal armour. Lots of armour here so this makes a big difference!
• Reikland Fleshshade wash on skin, then Tallarn Flesh/ Elf flesh highlights.
• Drybrush the cloth (trousers).
• Details - blond layers on hair, bronze armour fittings.

Before

Enhanced: Nuln Oil washes on armour/ chainmail with
Runefang Steel drybrush. Skin with layers. 
Agrax Earthshade on cloth, with blue highlights. 
Gold details.

Before

Enhanced: Lighter brown layers on boots.
Sword guard in bronze

Before

Enhanced: Nuln Oil washes on armour, gold details
and highlights, different yellow for hair,
Tallarn Flesh highlights on arm. 

Cities

Strangely enough, these are the components that came out the best after a bit of work! I like the look now more than any of the other pieces. The 'enhanced' versions just look better and impactful for little work and they leap off the table (in my eyes).

• Agrax Earthshade wash to bring out shadows/ texture.
• Drybrush white to add more depth/ contrast.
• Repainted coloured roofs and highlighted.

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade wash, white drybrush

Before

Enhanced: Agrax Earthshade, white drybrush,
rock base has an Agrax Earthshade wash, grey drybrushing
and light grey edge highlights

Cities!

There we go!

Although I bought Mage Knight in part because I didn't want to spend a lot of time painting before playing (why am I so obsessive about that?) it was a pleasure to 'add' to these. They look good on the table and have moved from 'playable' to 'enhancing the game' - even if only because I know I put some time into them!


Now, when will I get to enhancing the Lost Legion characters...

General Volkare...

...and Wolfhawk

Thanks for reading. Take care and happy gaming everyone.