| Description |
: |
This month, I present Kristian, from Hasslefree Miniatures. I finished him I think on the 29th, and in the end, I am most pleased with the results. He is a very cool model, and I really enjoyed painting him! Please be sure to check out my Painter's album for alternate views of him!
Some particulars now... Well the basing was done first. I used several pieces of cork, and then with super glue, I added sand over certain areas and attached him to the base. Everythign was spray primed black with Krylon rust paint :)
First thing I felt, was the skin. Wanted to start there, and I also find that doign a lot of work on the face first helps breathe life into the figure. Using cork brown again as a base color, I used a lot of heavy washes of chocolate brown to get the skin tone down to the shade I wanted. I kind of found a neat South American coloring in the end, and I only did a little highlighting to keep it darker.
Next came the cloth. I wanted some color and it seems I always base the cloth in blues and do red gems, so I went opposite and using Scar Red, Bloody Red and light skintone, I did the clothe up. Now there is skin and soem nice color! I wasn't sure what to do with the cloth now, so I thought I would wait. Seemed a tartan pattern would be too busy.
The fur was fun, and though maybe not a realistic look, I wanted to make it colorful. I used various browns to basically ddo the middle of it, and some greys for the outer areas. Once this was blocked in, I washed some smoke along the edges to avoid the fur looking to similar to the chainmail. The fur even pokes out at the front, so Ihad to be sure to keep his hair color different later on. The inside bit of his fur, under his right arm, was painted using bonewhite, and mixing in soem glazes of scar red to give it a little color.
Armor.... Good fun, and a real pain this time. I based it all in London grey again, and began blocking in shading using my mix of dark brown and black for shadows. After smoothing out most of this, I went back and blocked in some highlight areas with the wolf Grey and white mix, and this is where the hassles started! Nothign wanted to smooth out. In the end, after much coaxing, I got it to an accepteable level of smooth :D through the wet blending and glazing techniques. The runes were all painted in with black, then edged with wolf grey.
Chainmail is the worst for NMM. In the end, I painted the chain almost as if it were a solid sheet and tried to smooth out a bit of a chromey look. Using azure blue for the sky side... After, I simply added some white glints where the chinks of chain may catch some light.
The gold is still an experiment. I have to go back and base coat everythign white that will be gold I find, or it simply takes toolong to build the colors up over black. Starting with snakebite leather, I base color the areas, and then mix some white in to block in the highlights. Wet blending and layering in between, all that is left is soem edging and glints. However, I did try somethign a bit different with this one. I added a little bubonic brown glaze here and there for more contrast... Looks nice i think.
Leather parts, such as the girdle, bracer, sporin and boots were painted using various browns, though I like a mix of snakebite in for part of the boots, to add some color and more detail to the mini. other details, like the chain holding the sporin, were done almost last. It was done with a chrome look, to slightly differentiate between the steel scales behind. Also, I like to pay attention to details, like having the thin part at the top of the boots a different color than the rest. The hilt of the sword was painted in reds, and bonewhite to give an extra zing of eye candy as well.
The gems really had one choice, and that was tourquoise. Basically, used straigh old tourquoise, black and white fo rall the coloring. I did all the gems the same color to keep em unified.
Back to the cloth. It was nice and red, but plain. All the details make the figure busy already, so a tartan pattern is out. I decided on a simple gold trim. Well, simple is lunacy as we all know in this hobby :D I began with a black stripe, that was fairly wide (a 1.5 mm anyways) and then using the cheapo optivisor I have, and my new Series 7 sable, I painted on two very thin snakebite lines, beign careful to leave a hint of the black on both sides of each. Some highlights etc, and cleanup, and I had an impressive tiny stripe. Most stripes I feel are too big considering the scale fo the figures, so I wanted to keep them as small as possible.
The sword was the last thing. I had a ton of ideas, and finally, I decided to do the blade in NMM and the runes kind of glowy looking. Same mix for the blade, and the tourquoise for the glow. I think this was the only real rushed part. Even then, it took ages.
The hair is a funny story. He came out almost darker than I expected, so I got to thinking about what makes models stand out over the rest. I had an idea fo rcolors, to tie with the skin, so I split the mohawk down the middle with white and black. Almost like Wesley Snipes from Demolition Man (one of my least favorite movies ever) made me do it!
The base was painted using all sorts of browns, and even some spots with yellowy green and greys mixed in fo rthe exposed cork areas. The snad was painted to be like a moss, using Dark Angels green, snot green, and scorpion green. There was one spot on theback, where the sand looked like a flower, so I used a little violet and pink to make it so! Provides a very nice little contrast in both color and theme I think.
Lastly, I just want to say that I will likely keep this figure in memory of my Step Father, Charles (Scotty) Spence, who passed away on October 1st in his sleep at home. He was a veteran of the Korean war, and a volunteer at the Provincial Park here in Alberta. He gave thanklessly to others, and willbe mssed sorely. |
Back to Painting Clinics Lobby 
