Bushido: Painting Takashi Akira Part 1
Time to look at how I painted Akira from the brand new Bushido 2-player starter.
If you want to see any of the pictures larger you can always right click them.
The basecoat was a mix of GWs Screamer Pink (more of a deep red than a pink) and Skrag Brown. I began blending a little black and Kantor Blue into the recesses while it was still wet.
Since you can see the cloth a little better on the back, I flipped him around. I’ve gone in with a second coat of that base color to make that raspberry tone really pop and also gotten some more blue/black in the recesses. A bit too dark maybe but its all part of the process.
I go back over the all the raised folds in the cloth with the base color. Then to really make them pop I blend in some more intense highlights of Menoth White Highlight (p3) in a few places.
After basecoating the armor with a mix of Kantor Blue and black, I decided maybe the mask should be finished first. I started off working with a NMM brass scheme complete with a little patina. The colors at this stage were Rhinox Hide, Averland Sunset, Bleached Bone and Arcane Blue with a little Caliban Green mixed in for the Patina.
I continued adding definition; increasing the shading and highlights with Rhinox Hide and Bleached Bone. I also added a little Skrag Brown to get it more orange/coppery.
While the center image looked good at this stage, person I thought the highlights were a little too intense.
So I brought back in some more midtones. Thinking it was about done at this point I added the eyes and moved on to the next step. To get a lacquered Samurai armor appearance I painted alternating bands of highlight and shadow over the blue armor in a way very similar to what I’d do with NMM.
After adding a few more layers to even out the blending I add a thin line of highlight along the top of every strip of armor.
Then A thin line of black in every recess. While I have the black out I also paint all the threads that bind the armor together, and pretty much everything else that I think should have a black outline. I also start on some of the other extras. The sheath is painted Maccrage Blue. The socks get a basecoat of Screaming Skull mixed with just a tiny amount of Rhinox Hide.
I bring more of that blue into the sandal straps and highlight it with a little Menoth White Highlight.
Then (probably the most painstaking part) each thread is picked out with Evil Sunz Scarlet. The yellow cloth and gold NMM get a basecoat of Averland Sunset. Bad Moon Yellow is used to highlight the cloth. For the NMM gold, the Averland Sunset base is blended up into pure white for a more reflective highlight. Hopefully this will distinguish it from the similarly colored cloth
Skrag Brown and Rhinox Hide are used to shade the gold to really make it pop. Teeny tiny highlights of Troll Slayer Orange mixed with a little Pallid Wych Flesh are used to pick out each red thread. You have to be careful to keep them from looking pink. Additionally the sash is repainted with the Kantor Blue/Maccrage Blue scheme. This blue shows up a lot in the other Ryu models and I felt Akira could use a little more of it.
I continue to add more layers, sharpening highlights and smoothing out shadows. As always I still feel like there are a hundred more things I could do to clean everything up and sharpen the detail that much more. But I still have the Ito half to finish. Not to mention all those squigs. And all those Cultists. And those orcs…
~Hope you enjoyed the article. Does the new edition of Bushido have you wanting to try it out?
If you enjoyed the article please check out my blog toomini. I publish tons of articles there that never make it to BoLS. Hope you find lots of stuff to click on.
