Star Wars Shatterpoint Paint Guide: Kalani
Next up in the Shatterpoint Paint Guide series is the Super Tactical Droid, Kalani! Able to guide the B1 Battle Droids to greater efficacy on the battlefield, let’s get him painted up and ready to strategize.
Primer: Mechanicus Standard Grey (Citadel)
Base Coats: Caliban Green, AK Interactive Black
Wash: Nuln Oil
Kalani has quite a bit of exposed grey metal, but I’ve made the design choice for most metal greys to not use true metallics, as I feel it fits the Star Wars visual style better. Therefore, we can use the primer for a base tone for those parts (though it’s still advisable to go over with a quick thin coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey, as the primer differs slightly due to the different ingredients in it to make it stick.
Quick and simple stage, Caliban Green for the body plating and AK Black for the decorative panels. Of course, feel free to use whichever black you prefer!
Edge Highlights: Warpstone Glow, Dawnstone
Edge highlights go, go, go! With a mini like Kalani which has a lot of very sharp edges, this is going to be the stage at which he really starts to take form.
Take your time, and use the edge of your brush. Make sure to find a good anchor point for your hand, and make sweeping motions towards you - let gravity help you.
Edge Highlight: Moot Green, Administratum Grey
Trim: Retributor Armour
Base Coat: AK Interactive White
A second, more refined edge highlight to really bring out those sharp edges - I recommend about 25% of what was previously covered, but adjust to your own aesthetic preferences!
The gold trim gets a base coat of Retributor Armour, a deep rich gold that doesn’t overpower the more subdued tones of the rest of the mini.
Lastly for this stage, his hologram and eyes get a base coat of AK Interactive White, which is one of my preferred whites for base tones as I find it goes on nice and smooth, but use whichever your favourite is.
Eyes: Blood Angels Red Contrast, Gryph-Hound Orange Contrast
Hologram: Aethermatic Blue Contrast
Recess Shade: AK Black
The eyes get first a coat of Blood Angels Red contrast, followed by a more controlled Gryph-Hound Orange to add depth.
The hologram just gets an all over Aethermatic Blue - I love the effect of this paint, but I do find it often needs a couple of thin coats, as it is a very subtle shade at first. Also, I misinterpreted the base of the hologram as a device - if I were to do this again, I think I would do the conical shape in the same way.
Lastly, I felt some of the areas where colours meet needed some more definition, so a thinned down line of AK Black was run into them to really make the recesses stand out - this is most apparent on his face.
