Round Two Report from Rob Jedi - Part 4

Rob Jedi continues:

Next up on the menu was the base. I had prepared it earlier with a good amount of surface detail - thanks to some cut-down tank parts, stuck to the top of the base.

With the main sections of the mini done, I realised I'd need him on the base to work out the lighting for the base. So I snipped off the tab from the mini, then drilled into his feet with my Dremel. Then, after gluing in small pieces of pin into his feet, pushed him into the top of the base where I wanted him to go, then drilled through the marks.

OK - ready to start painting the base.

First I gave the base a drybrush of medium grey, followed by a light grey on the edges. This was then over-painted with a drybrush of Brilliant Red under the area of the left sword.

After putting the mini on the base to check directions, a little bit of red was applied near his right foot - where light from the right sword would go.

These areas were then highlighted by another drybrush of Hobgoblin Orange, and - after gluing the mini down with a bit of Zap - I highlighted the area under the left sword with a bit of yellow as well.

After all this drybrushing, I stuck the base onto a jar so I could hold something, and cleaned up the edge of the base with flat black.

Now onto the gun. I decided to paint the gun in NMM, since I figured combining normal metallics and lighting effects would be a bit tricky. I mixed up an unusual mix of Forest Green (Palmer) and black, which I applied to all of the gun parts, and to the crosspiece and pommels of the swords. This I highlighted first with Forest Green, then with Forest Green mixed with White Ink (Art Spectrum). The final highlights were only applied to the barrel of the gun and the pommels of the swords - since they were round, they would pick up the brightest highlight.

After this, I decided the gun looked too greenish (Forest Green is actually a very blue green), so I went over it with Blue Ink (GW). This brought round the colour to where I wanted it. Next on the gun was to make the grip parts look different from the rest of the gun. I used some Raw Umber (Palmer) to brown up the stock, pistol grip and fore grip areas, and highlighted them with a bit of white ink mixed into the colour. I painted the highlights on the very edges, and added some grip lines on the pistol grip.

The final part of the gun was the magazine, I painted this a medium grey, and highlighted it with a lighter grey.

For the lighting effects, I realised I'd need to glue the gun on first. I did this with a drop of zap, and pushed it into the hole I had drilled earlier. Once the glue was dry, I went in with the Brilliant Red and edged the top of the gun (facing the left sword). I also picked which other areas would catch light - those being the back of the magazine, and the ends of the pistol grip and stock. These were then lightly highlighted with orange. I also decided to add a little bit more detail by painting in a dot of red at the front of the scope of the gun, and make the back of the scope "lit up." I used Teal Green (GW) highlighted with Bilious Green (GW). I then put a splodge of Teal Green on the coat sleeve above the gun.

Next on the list here was to paint up the coat. I'd been wondering what to do with this for a while, but in the end decided to make it look like my leather coat.

So I went in with a very dark grey and highlighted all the raised areas, then mixed in some white ink and did very light edging on the raised areas, then feathered them back into the dark grey colour. I also feathered into the red areas to tone them back and blend them into the coat - oh, and the little light from the gun scope was also blended in this way. I followed up all this with some light washes of black paint to bring back the folds of the coat.

After this, there was only the face and the swords left to do. I painted in his face on the right side with Brilliant Red, and the left side with Tanned Flesh (GW). I didn't think I needed to go brighter than this. I then whited the eyes with white ink, and then dotted them looking to the left along the lowered sword. The hair was left black, but highlighted on the right side with Brilliant Red and orange.

Last to go were the swords. I highlighted these along the middle of the blades with Sunburst Yellow. Unfortunately I didn't like 'em like this - they looked too bright and yellow compared to the light they where giving off. So I went over them with orange ink, which brought them back into the colours I had already used - but they looked a bit too dark now, so I went over them with yellow ink this time (instead of paint), which after a few coats looked just right.

OK, that was it. After all this, I think I'll use lighting effects more often. It really isn't that hard a technique, but the most important thing is to get the colours you use right. Unless you have a good contrasting colour to go with the lighting, you generally won't see the effect. I realise with my bright blue highlights the mini looks a bit more comic book that realistic, but it's a pleasing result.

Hope you all found this informative. Now look at the finished result and don't vote me out. (^_^)

See the Finished Pictures