La Biblioteca de Alfred: Painting step by step: The Batmobile

Today I will explain step by step the process of painting the Batmobile of Arkham Knight videogame belonging to the exclusive line of miniatures Knight Models Legends.

While in the videogame Batmobile looks more black, although this may be due to the play of light and shadows caused by the darkness of the night, I decided to paint it as close to Knight Models model with the military green.

Primer

For primer I recommend using black paint, in my case I used black primer spray from Army Painter.

Painted of the chassis

As I said to the chassis of the Batmobile we seek to give it a green similar to military tanks.

For base color I used Ardennes Green from Scalecolor especially in the chassis and after drying applied a wash with much water with Abaddon Black from Citadel to apply the shadows and darken the tone.

Wash with plenty of water with Abaddon Black.

Then to obtain a metal effect on the chassis, I outlined the edges and protrusions of the Batmobile with Chainmail Silver from Vallejo, similarly to when we outline to get lights in a miniature.

Edges marked with Chainmail Silver from Vallejo.

The result is quite coarse, so to soften these metal edges first I applied a new wash with much water with the Ardennes Green I used before as base colour of chassis and once dry, a new wash well with plenty of water of Charred Brown from Vallejo. It is important to apply both washes around the chassis to avoid tone changes in different areas of the Batmobile and I repeat, with plenty of water to achieve a transparency effect on metal.

It is important perform both washed with plenty of water.

In my case after washing I found the chassis was quite dark with what used Autumn Green from Scalecolor to light again with the technique of washing some parts and edges.

Last details

Once we painted the chassis and we can only finish painting the rest of the details of the Batmobile.

For glass cabin I used Stegadon Scale Green from Citadel as base color and then I applied a inked with Abaddon Black from Citadel to darken. To top it off I outlined a fine line with Lothern Blue from Citadel on top of the glass and edges.

In the side area where we see the dampers and other engine tubes I used as base color Shining Gold from Citadel, then applied a inked with shade Agrax Earthshade from Citadel and finally paint lights with Chainmail from Vallejo. The same process would apply on painted brake discs wheels as you can see in the final images.

Detail of the cab and shock absorvers.

For the wheels I made a drybrush of Celestial Citadel Grey mixed with a little black to get the lights. After, between the gaps of wheels I did some stains with Skrag Brown from Citadel and finally applied an inked with Abaddon Black from Citadel.

And finally as a last detail I decided to paint the lights on of the Batmobile to provide more details to the set and, why not, give it a more personal touch.

For this I noticed in the image of the head of this article, seeking to achieve the effect of those red lights so striking.

First I painted what would be the headlights of the wheels, front and rear with Aldebaran Red from Scalecolor. Then I applied a wash with the same color in areas close to the headlights for the effect of reflected red light, as always very important to washing with plenty of water for making a transparence in red. Finally I mixed the Aldebaran Red with a little of white to highlight the points of light more marked, headlights, edges, etc ...

The lights marked in a pink almost white.

Final result

Well, here you have some photos that you can observe in detail the final result. As you may have noticed I have often stressed throughout the article on the importance of washing with plenty of water, I think it's important to do so because otherwise we run the risk that the brushstrokes looks exaggerated to have a surface painted bigger than a normal miniature.

After the pictures you can also see a detailed list with the various paintings named during the tutorial. I hope you liked it and if you have any questions you can ask me in the comments.