We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

This week in #hobbystreak there was more Idoneth Deepkin, finishing up a project, stalling for time, and then doing the biggest one of all–the Akhelian Leviadon.

Day 1: Akhelian Guard

The project that I was finishing up was these Akhelian Guard. By now I felt that I was really getting the hang of what I wanted my Idoneth Deepkin to look like: very saturated colors, particularly yellow/orange and blue/green with silver and gold highlights. I also like the freedom that the big swaths of creature skin gave me to add texture to these eels. I have come to realize that when it comes to miniature painting, I absolutely adore painting creatures–whether it’s the Break-boss on Mirebrute Troggoth or the Dankhold Troggoth or the Swampdrekk.

(Buy on Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

Day Two: Namarti Reaver

So, this was when I knew I had my Akhelian Leviadon coming in the mail and I didn’t have anything else to paint. I have said before (last week) that I have absolutely no interest in the Idoneth Deepkin’s infantry, the Namarti Reavers (archers) and the Namarti Thralls (melee combat). I have never liked any of Games Workshop’s elves, not the Lumineth Realm-Lords or even the Warhammer Fantasy elves.

And, admittedly, part of my dislike for these little Namarti Reavers is that they’re just so small and my hand tremors don’t do them very well. I can accomplish a pretty decent battle ready paint job on infantry, but when you see them all blown up on the screen like this they really don’t look great. And, also, I’m not great at skin. Anyway, the point is: I only did one Namarti Reaver before I could move on to something else.

(Buy on Amazon | Buy from Element Games)

Day 3: Starting the Akhelian Leviadon

This is the reason that I ever got into the Idoneth Deepkin: the Akhelian Leviadon. I have loved this model from the first time I saw it, back when Idoneth Deepkin were initially released. I always knew that I needed to paint it, but I kept putting it off because I didn’t think I was good enough to do it justice. And even when I dipped a toe into the Idoneth with the Akhelian Allopex it was kind of a test to see if I could paint sea creatures.

I have about two hours every morning to paint (I wake up at 4:45am every morning to make sure that I have time to paint before work) and in those two hours I was able to assemble the turtle, basecoat him, and begin playing with a pattern on the scales. I didn’t know how exactly I wanted the scales to look: I had this idea of brown red fading into orange, but I didn’t know what color would fit in between the plates of the carapace, and I wasn’t sure of the fins. This is what I came up with for the first day on the Akhelian Leviadon.

Day Four: Finishing the Akhelian Leviadon’s carapace and fins

So I ended up deciding that the best color to match my brown red was a greenish turquoise. I ignored everything I had done the previous day, and I gave the Akhelian Leviadon an overall coating of Aethermatic Blue Contrast paint–the carapace and the fins, and then I gave it all a second coat to darken it. I gave the back half of the fins a third coat to darken them down even more. With the fins I then dry brushed them with Wrack White and then highlighted them with pure white. On the carapace I started over again blending Word Bearers Red into Wild Rider Red, and then highlighting it with Troll Slayer Orange. It took several hours to get all of this done–I did probably three hours in the morning before work and then several hours after work. Finally, I painted the barnacles with a really basic Zandri Dust and Screaming Skull, then painted the little bits of silver armor and leather on the fins.

Day Five: Painting the Platform

On Day Five I didn’t really have a lot of time to paint, but I did assemble and paint the platform that goes on the Akhelian Leviadon’s back. It’s the same silver recipe that I’ve used on all my Idoneth Deepkin: Iron Hands Steel washed with Drakenhof Nightshade and then drybrushed with Necron Compound. Nothing earthshattering here, but I think it looks good.

Day Six: Two crossbowmen added to the Akhelian Leviadon’s platform

Another day where I had very little time, but I painted the two crossbowmen. As I’ve said about the Namarti Reaver, I’m not in love with painting the basic Idoneth Deepkin, and these crossbowmen (who are dressed in very basic armor). Still, I got them done and could move on the next day to more interesting people.

Day Seven: Finished the Akhelian Leviadon

On this last day I had two figures to paint: the guy in front holding the chain (the turtle wrangler? the driver?) and the drummer in the back. These were a lot more fun to paint because they had much more elaborate costumes. I did the one in front mostly in blues and greens because I wanted him to contrast well with the turtle shell’s reddish brown. And I painted the drummer in mostly reds and orange to bring the color up higher on the model and to contrast with the standard behind him.

I also had to do the base, which I made with some great big hunks of cork from a very old bulletin board that had very fortuitously fallen off the wall and broken a week before. I added a little sand, then painted it all in the same basing scheme that I have done with all my Idoneth Deepkin: a coat of Vallejo Dark Sand, then a wash of Seraphim Sepia, then a drybrush of Pale Sand. I added the little grass tufts (I think these are the Army Painter Frozen Tundra, but they look good with sand).

And that’s it!

(Buy from Amazon | Buy from Element Games)