A thing that goes bump in the dark...

The ClaphamWargamers Guild organised a Malifaux story event day and I intend to take a Dead Rider in my crew. As the official model is not out yet, I looked around for a few proxies.

These were the ones I found sufficient:

Cryx Solo from Privateer Press

Drune Riders from Rackham

Acheron Necromancer from Rackham

Fir Bolg Wraith on Steed from Brigade Models (Celtos)

After little contemplating I decided that since this is a proxy and I need to paint it quickly there is no point buying an expensive model that I will want to work on for a long time to do it justice, so settled on the Wraith from Brigade Models. It is good looking enough to be on the table as part of my Malifaux crew but quite simple to paint.

After cleaning and washing and pinning I started playing around with the parts. The horse itself came in two bits: right side with head and left side. The interesting thing about the model is that it is hollow and you can see into its belly even after assembly, so, since this is a skeletal horse, I painted the ribs on the inside of it.

 After the bone parts were done I glued the sides together and started the base it was to stand on. Nothing fancy here, just some milliput on the normal 50 mm base for an uneven ground. While the milliput was drying I started converting the rider himself. Cut off the right arm (holding a mini hand-scythe) and get rid of the handle of the scythe. With a simple brass rod I made the armature for a decent sized scythe and pushed some green stuff on it. Again, nothing fancy, but it does the job.

 Now the milliput was dry so I finished the base with some sand painted black/grey and a little burnt out grass (also known as old bamboo paintbrush). All parts ready I tried them together to see if everything is right.

 Then came painting the horse. I remembered a tutorial in an old Cry Havoc magazine for weathered bronze that I wanted to try and this model seemed perfect for that. So I primed the armour and basecoated with an ochre colour. Then added some green to the paint for the darker areas and used white for highlighting. I added both with little care, in fact quite roughly which only enhanced the battered look. Then painted some cuts / scratches on it which didn't turn out to be great, but being short of time I decided not to clean them up.

Next up was the weathering with faint blues and greens and some light grey / white in places.

I was happy with the armour so moved on to the fabric bits. Primed it with black and based with purple, then worked shadows and highlights buy adding black and white - respectively.

 Last thing left was the rider himself. I just primed him all black and added some grey to highlight his armour. Based the handle of the scythe brown and drybrushed it with a lighter shade. Then painted the scythe itself with greys for a lousy nmm effect. And voila: from £3.50, a little green stuff and milliput and 2 evenings of painting I have my Dead Rider proxy ready to go.

 I left the rider pinned without gluing him to the horse so it is easier to transport him in a case. The horse itself is blocky with no poking out bits and the rider fits in a normal infantry slot on the tray so it's just perfect.