From Zero to Hero IV: Commander Coleman Stryker - Cygnar Warcaster

Hey All,

it took a while, but I've finished my first ever Warcaster a few days back - Commander Coleman Stryker from the Cygnar plastic Battle Box. I took my time with this one to do him justice, and also tried out some things with him. First off, I primed and painted before assembly, as the figure has some nooks and crannies that are awfully hard to get to when assembled. I must apologize for the lack of pictures in this one, as my camera had a slight snafu and ate some of my WIP shots.

First, I cleaned and primed all the parts. For drying, I just stuck them on a empty paintjar with poster tac.

I wanted to give Stryker a regal appearance, so I kept his coat mostly in an ivory color - since most of my Cygnar army to this point is keeping to a color scheme of mostly turquoise, bronze and ivory he would fit right in.

For shading I used a special airbrushing color, which is translucent and is ideal for shading bright surfaces. I just airbrushed it into the recesses of the cloak and was very pleased with the results.

The face was really important on this mini, as the whole pose of the model draws the eye to the face. I basecoated the face with two coats of thinned down Tallarn Flesh and then washed it with Ogryn Flesh to shade the recesses. Then I cleaned the face up with Tallarn Flesh again and added more and more Cadmium Skin to the Tallarn Flesh to brighten up the high spots. The last highlight was done with a dab of Bleached Bone on the cheeks and nose.

Basecoating done

The hair was done in a very cartoony style. I basecoated it with Orange Fire, then washed it with a Blood Red Glaze to shade the recesses. Then I drybrushed it with Orange Fire again, adding more and more Sunburst Yellow, till the final highlight was done very lightly with pure Sunburst Yellow.

The lenses where done with a basecoat of Blood Red, and highlights of Orange Fire and Sunburst Yellow - here I tried to highlight the curvature of the lens, to give a threedimensional feel to the goggles. The final stage was adding a dot of Skull White opposite to the brightest highlight, to add a reflection point.

The finished head.

The Armor was done using a basecoat of Hawk Turquoise, adding Electric Blue into the mix for the highlights. The ornamental metal parts where done with a Brassy Brass Basecoat which was highlighted by layering Bright Bronze and Glorious Gold on top of it.

When all was done, I sealed the figure with two coats of gloss varnish, followed by two coats of matte varnish to get rid of the sheen.

I hope you could take something from this short step by step, as always, enjoy and have fun,


IK-Painter