Studio Painter Andrés Amián Fernandes is at it again! Not content with his gorgeous heraldic Stahltruppen, he’s expanded his Axis Konflikt ’47 force with a squad of Nachtalben. Andrés, how do you do it?
AAF – After I painted the iconic Axis Stahltruppen, I decided to work on some of the weird Nachtalben for a change of pace. There are five of them in the Axis Starter Army, so I thought that it would be a good size group for batch painting. I always wash my figures, regardless of whether they are plastic, metal or resin. I clean any visible mould lines, and after that, I give them a good scrub with a toothbrush with warm water and dishwashing soap in a bowl. That gets rid of the mould release agent, debris and any other unwanted particles. Once the figures were completely dry, I primed them with Army Painter Uniform Grey Spray Primer – this gave me a good, neutral base for the colours I wanted to use for the unit.
I wanted to give my Nachtalben a more otherworldly appearance, like they were closer to a different species than simply mutated humans. For this, I chose a purple skin tone with reddish and black spots and splodges to create an appearance of sickly skin covered in sores. I used mainly the Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic (WF) range for this unit, which provided almost all the colours I needed.
I started with a mixture of WF Hexed Violet with WF Uniform Grey over all of the flesh, followed by a wash of WF Purple Tone in the recesses and creases. Then, I went back over with the first mixture again, correcting anywhere I’d made a mistake or gone too dark with the ink. Then, I highlighted the flesh by adding WF Brigade Grey to the mix, and then worked up to a last highlight in only the most raised areas with pure Brigade Grey. For the spots, I painted the inners with WF Matt Black, then painted around them with WF Red Tone, painting some tiny spots outside the bigger red splotches.
The other distinctive characteristic in these models is their camouflage clothing. I used the WWII German ‘splinter’ camouflage as a base, but instead of painting the green ‘raindrops’, I did some a kind of ‘pea dot’ inspired shape instead. After I painted the beige trousers, I did the geometric forms with WF Brigandine Brown, and smaller shapes with WF Olive Drab. Once they were dry, I used WF Dusty Skull for the beige dots over the brown and green blotches, and a mix of WF Olive Drab and WF Brigandine Brown to do the dots over the beige areas. It not difficult to do, though you do need to be a bit patient! Once finished, I think the resulting camo is quite convincing, and it contrasts very well with the purplish skin tone.
I’m happy with this little squad, and I’m already thinking which walker of the two included in the box to do next!
Has Andrés got you inspired to do your own squad of terrifying Nachtalben? The first place you can get your hands on them is the Axis Starter Army!
