For the most part Vayl was a pretty standard paint job – a more muted dark blue cloak over blue robes with basic cool metallics. The colors are slightly more distinct in person, but the similarity between the two was intentional. My Nyssian paint scheme is all about being monochromatic and cold and I think these two colors together really help convey that. I went with a rather risqué way of painting her up; my initial intent was to take a light ink and make her chest and stomach look as if it was covered in translucent fabric like Vayl’s concept art in Hordes: Primal but I decided to change at the last minute and leave it as bare skin.
The Oraculus – the orb in her hand – didn’t photograph well but is far more interesting in person. One of the local Warmachine/Hordes players is a paint chemist by trade. He had some color shifting pigments that he mixes with matte medium to create color-shifting paints. If I remember the terminology correctly these paints are referred to by their face and flop colors – the colors they appear when looking directly at a surface and when looking nearly perpendicular to the surface. I used a purple-cyan pigment for the Oraculus so when you look at the model from different angles the colors shift between the two. It’s a neat effect that doesn’t carry over to photographs at all. The pointy bits of the ball were razor highlighted with some very thin GW Chainmail to finish them off.