Daemon Inks Studios: Kingdom Death: The Slenderman By Sven

As hinted in DiStudios last post, I have finally finished off some more Kingdom Death goodness in the form of The Slender Man. This figure was first shown off as part of the Kickstarter Monster campaign and immediately ranked among my top 3 Kingdom Death miniatures; the others being the King and Lion God. So when Adam released a resin version I was instantly sold. The concept of a baroque Slenderman being just too awesome to resist. The miniature is quite unique in it's own way, the proportions are just so unnatural and I think it has a great, spooky atmosphere about it, it's also very tall, about twice the size of a regular KD-human and... well slender.

Most of you will have heard about the original Slenderman, an urban legend based on an internet competition. Quite recently it got quite bad attention due to a crime being committed on it's behalf. The Slenderman is a eerie creature, often associated with the woods (probably due to a video game) that makes people, mainly children, vanish. I think the KD version is a great adaption of the creature concept, as you still see that it's very true to the urban legend art works, but it has it's own vibe about it. The artwork shows it in very light pastel colours, that contrast greatly with it's sinister nature. I like that concept a lot, and will probably use it for my KD: Monster plastic-version, but for my showcase piece I wanted to get him closer with the original, which is wearing a black suit.

Following that idea, I went for a black and white contrast, even staying a bit monochrome with the clothes. No fancy technique used there, but just some subtle highlighting and washing. I didn't want the Slender Man's skin to contrast too much with this and chose a skin tone that I used with my Dark Eldar back in the days. It's basically a 50:50 mix of Tallarn Flesh (regular readers will see a pattern here) and a very light blue-grey, washed with GW's Ogryn Flesh. This is highlighted by adding more white and blue-grey to the mix. Finally I applied a very thin coat of purple wash, to tie the layers together and achieve an unnatural look.

The Slender Man miniature has some very, very fine textures and details, which gave me a hard time picking them up with the real metal colours. I used Green Gold, which I had never used before and it seemed to have suffered quite a bit. The consistency was very oily and didn't stick properly. Well in the end it turned out alright, but that was really annoying and definitely lessened the quality of the paint job. The head was quickly done with a light beige basecoat, a strong tone wash and light beige dry brush for highlights. Inspired by the artwork, I then applied Ogryn flesh around all these "veins" that form it's face and a bit of strong tone in the centres. The result was satisfying and carries a nice effect, that makes you think you see a face with different expressions there, depending on the angle you're looking at it.

Finally I took care of the thorns on his back, for which I had planned for a ghostly green look, that carries a spooky yet natural feeling. I base coated and highlighted the thorns with different shades of grey (which I should have done in the very beginning, as the process sprinkled the black clothes and gave me a hard time to fix it). Then I used green and blue inks to colour them subtly, using green on everything and then blue in the shades and recesses.

Finally I added some trees and a childlike stone face to the base to underline the original Slenderman's concept and complete the atmosphere. I'm quite happy with the result and think it's one of the most characterful miniatures in the KD line. Also I had to realise that I got a bit out of practise painting the high KD-standard (specially concerning blending), but I think the Slender Man was a good piece to start again. I'd be happy to hear what you're thinking.