The White Lion is the first Monster you face in Kingdom Death and is regularly hunted throughout most campaigns. When approaching the model to paint I was aware that there were a lot of large smooth areas to paint so I would need to thin my paint and achieve smooth transitions between the areas of light and shadow. I aimed to paint the model as if the main light source was hitting the Lion from its face as the Survivors lanterns would generally be in that direction (insert your own joke about lighting the blind spot instead). I base coated the lion black and then painted it in a couple of thin layers of Zandri Dust. For the mane I base coated it in Ushabti Bone, again using multiple thin layers.

It was then a case of gradually adding Rhinox Hide and Macaragge Blue to the Zhandri dust in gradually increasing amounts and applying it in thin glazes to all of the areas of shadow. I applied a wash of watered down Rhinox Hide to the mane and tail. For the highlights I first painting thin strokes of Vallejo Ivory all over the upper areas of the model in order to simulate hairs. Use a thin brush and light strokes while aiming to place the strokes where the hair would naturally flow over the muscles. Once this was done I used glazes of Ushabti bone to paint over the upper areas which leaves the lighter Ivory hairs showing through but tones down the harsh contrast between the undercoat. Apply more glazes the uppermost areas. For the hands I applied a Bugmans Glow glaze over the hands applying more glazes to the recess of the hands. The lions mane was finished off by using Ushabti Bone and then pure Ivory to painstakingly pick out individual hairs.

The whole paint job took around 8h but turned out far better than I had hoped. The light transition ended up more vertical than horizontal as I got my light source confused half way through painting but the shadows add a nice sense of depth and an impression of darkness that works for the Kingdom Death setting.