4 - Clothing the Orc Slayers

Dressed for Success, or Clothing the Dwarves

After watching me paint up some Time Machine 54mm historicals (hey, I can SEE them!), the dwarves began demanding equal time and attention. Apparently they were tired of the grey look. Relenting, I took brush in hand to give these guys their due.

I began by lining their loincloths with a 10% neutral grey gradient. This would serve to both separate the loincloth from the flesh tones and provide the beginnings of a highlight where one would naturally occur. On larger scale figures, blacklining is often used to exaggerate the divisions between areas, but at this smaller size I prefer to go lighter rather than darker.

The balance of the loincloth area was done in Cel-Vinyl Greyed Yellow, cutting it back to the grey line I had previously established.

Looking more closely at them while doing this, I found that the axemen either were wearing pants or were prime candidates for liposuction. As most of the colors used on them were considered to be warm colors (reds, yellows, browns) I chose to go with a cooler blue for contrast. The color used here was Cel-Vinyl Middle Blue.

Having come this far, boots seemed like a good idea, so a quick application of Cel-Vinyl Red Brown was used. This is a very warm strong color, which tones down very nicely with a darker brown wash.

Having decided to go with the spotted fur pattern, I set about placing the spots in random patterns on the loincloths, using Cel-Vinyl Raw Umber. The spots are not to "scale" as they needed to be exaggerated for visibility. More important than the scale of the pattern is the placement of the spots. They need to appear random and of varying sizes, while providing an obvious breakup of the loincloth from all viewing angles.

Next: I will be accessorizing these guys with weapons, belts, and any other detail they have except for their hair. Stay tuned.