Round Three Report from Kezley

kezley writes:

Round 3 for the Last Painter Standing - Vidar Wolf Helm. A very nice figure – he has the Viking look, so I decided to go with the Viking style.

Preparing the miniature

Not much assembly needed on this figure. The arm sprue fits nicely, with no gap-filling needed. I put 2 pins under his leg and tabard so I can mount him later on the custom base.

Painting the base

With the wolf cloak, I'm thinking of a snow base. So I started with piling up the cork bits, glued the dried stalks - actually from a craft broom that I got from Michaels – pretty handy for terrain :-). Once the glue dried, I painted light grey to the cork and the stalks for basecoat on the snow. While waiting for the paint to dry, I mix the Hudson Allen slush snow powder with water to create a paste, and put the paste on top of the cork and put some on the stalks.

Painting the skin and face

This time, I want my Viking to have pinkish tone on the skin. Started with Vallejo Antique Rose, highlighted with Basic Skin Tone, followed with Pale Skin Tone.

Then I painted the eye sockets with Vallejo Light Brown for shade. Ivory was then painted over the Light Brown. For the pupil, I painted Vallejo Dark Blue, highlighted with GW Ice Blue.

Painting the fur cloak

Started with Vallejo Light Brown mixed with little bit of Burnt Umber. Then highlighted with Ivory – drybrushed over the basecoat – layer by layer, with the outer edge being the lightest color.

Painting the beard and helmet

I painted the beard using Vallejo Red Leather, followed by adding GW Fiery Orange to create a bright red, bearded Viking.

Continued with painting black on the mask for basecoat. I used a new method for the mask. I mixed Vallejo Gun Metal (metallic paint) with Vallejo Neutral Grey, and the highlight was Vallejo Silver with Neutral Grey mix. So, it's MM/NMM mix, painted with NMM method. I don't know what to call that method :-)

I'm pretty happy with the result. It still has the shine of metallic, but the nice, clean highlight of NMM in person.

Painting the tunic and tabard

I painted the tunic blue to contrast with the red beard. Basecoated with Vallejo Blue, highlighted with GW Ice Blue. Then I painted the border design with black, followed with GW Snakebite Leather and Bubonic Brown, with a touch of Ivory on the top and bottom for the final highlight.

The tabard was painted by using the same MM/NMM mix method (Vallejo Gun Metal with Neutral Grey).

The rest of the metallic objects on the figure - sword, hilt, bracelet - were also painted using the MM/NMM mix.

I hope you all like him. I had fun experimenting with this new method on him. :-)

See the Finished Pictures