Nemesis: Alien Queen Painting Tutorial - Next Level Board Gaming

Last year Nemesis by Awaken Realms was one of the biggest Kickstarters ever seen with over 30 000 backers. Of course, this had to be a good game, and we think it’s amongst the best. It’s very cinematic and as a player, you are really on the edge of panic when an alien shows up, because man, they are strong! The Alien Queen is the strongest of them all, that why we thought it would be a great idea to make a tutorial on how to make your Aliens as scary and horrifying as possible.

To start off make sure your model is clean, just wash it with some soap and let it dry. As always the first thing that goes on the model is a primer, to make sure later on the paint will stick the model. In this case, we went for a zenithal highlight, starting with a Chaos Black Spray coat, followed by a Corax White Spray coat only sprayed from the top. Now, this is important if you want the zenithal highlight to come out okay. You only want to hit the model with white where sunlight would naturally hit. This effect helps to bring out details of the model, if you did it right it should look something like in the picture below.

We like the idea of the alien having some kind of futuristic cyborg-like feel to it, so we’re going to use Gun Metal to drybrush over the whole model without being too worried about getting too much on the model. Drybrushing is a technique used to bring out highlights in a very easy way. You simply put some paint on a larger brush, then wipe the paint off to a paper towel until hardly any paint is left (your brush is basically dry) and start brushing your model. Because the paint is dry it will only hit the raised areas of the model, ideal for quick and dirty highlighting. We switch to Shining Silver and basically do the same, but this time we only hit the absolute top bits of the model or parts we want to give some extra attention to.

Now, this might look like nothing to you yet, but don’t you worry, it will get better as we progress to the next steps. We like the blue glow we see in the Nemesis artwork so getting some blue shade in the form of Drakenhof Nightshade sounds like a plan. Because the shade is almost like ink, it sinks into the nooks and crannies naturally, which is exactly what we want when we’re trying to create shadows. Later when it’s all dried up we apply some extra Nuln Oil shade in the deepest and darkest parts of the body to give it just a bit of extra contrast.

Next up, it’s time to define this model with some nice vibrant colors, starting with Elemental Bolt. You don’t want to overdo it, so just pick some nice parts you think should catch the viewers attention. Now while the paint on the model is still wet we add Kraken Skin to create a gradient. Dark Elemental Bolt from the bottom working our way up to the lighter Kraken Skin. On the very top, we blend in some Brainmatter Beige. Wet-blending is a thougher skill to master, but once you’ve got the hang of it you can really get some nice results.

To dull down the greens you can put another thin layer of Drakenhof Nightshade. The next step is to get some organic look into the model. We used Bloodletter, a glaze by Citadel to make some areas look like it’s some kind of muscle tissue. When this is done we add a little more Drakenhof Nightshade to the whole model to make the model slightly darker and work our way up again by highlighting with Brainmatter Beige.

Bring out the ridges of the armor take Matt Black and paint a thin line underneath every armor scale. Then for the final steps we take out some effect paints by The Army Painter, first off we want some slime! Disgusting Slime is what you need to get that gooey finish, we like it a lot, so we put loads on. The same goes for the final step: Glistering Blood. We like our model to be covered in this as the Queen has brought down many unlucky humans, but of course, you can use as much of it as you want.

All finished! Make sure to spray your model with some Color Primer: Anti Shine Matt Varnish to put that protective layer over your model. If you’re interested in Nemesis content, subscribe to our Youtube channel or like us on Facebook. We have something very special coming up for Nemesis fans regarding game upgrades, stay tuned!

Products used:

Rick

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