Matt's Demon-in-Progress

Step 1:  Understanding the miniature

Since the miniature was provided to me cleaned and primed, I was saved a lot of prep-time.  However, part of cleaning the miniatures is getting a very good understanding of the detail in the miniature.  So, my first step was to thoroughly examine the miniature.  I needed to become familiar with the entire miniature and try to "see" all of the detail.  What and where is skin?  What and where is armor?  What and where are all of the belts, buckles and other ornaments...etc.  Once I had decided that I had a fairly good idea what was going on, then I compared the miniature with the artwork I was provided with.

I really like this miniature and I thought that the artwork seemed a little too "cartoony" for my liking.  I asked Bill Armintrout, the owner, if he minded if I went by the basic color scheme only to try for a more "real" look.  He agreed and I was happy.

Step 2: The approach

The skin color of this bad-nasty guy is blue with a yellow underbelly and red webbing on his bat-like wings.  Gold, red, and silver armor, black belts and toe/finger nails, brown fading to yellow on the staff, green eyes and perhaps a few other colors for detail as we go.

Step 3: The skins - First, I had the blues

The base coat of blue

I began with a very light coat of Ral Partha Paints 77-780 Behir Blue.  With this initial, very light coat of paint, it is not really necessary to be accurate with where the paint goes, as none of the detail will be lost on this mini.  The reason for this coat being light is because it will not be the last step for the blue skin.  There will be a wash, a drybrushing, and highlighting to follow.  It will also allow me to blend the red and blue on the wings easier.  I'll explain when I get there.

Now I had to wash him (and he's not even dirty)

I followed the base coat with a wash of Ral Partha Paints 77-775 Paladin Blue.

(Note: I almost exclusively use Ral Partha Paints, and therefore, from now on I will merely give the part number and description.  If the paint is from another company, I will let you know.)

This had the effect of darkening the Behir so it is not so bright and plastic looking.  It will also fill the ripples of his muscle so that when I drybrush and highlight they will stand out even better.  Before continuing, this wash must be completely dry.  You can either wait for an hour or so, or use a blow drier to speed up the process.

Drybrushing

To help with the primary colors (shown in the illustration), I drybrushed this mini with 77-720 True Blue.  This was a very light drybrushing, intended only to enhance the blue coloring of the skin.

Highlights

Using a combination of drybrushing, and actual block-style painting with 77-779 Storm Giant Green (which is more of a light blue than green), I highlighted the muscles for the effect of depth.

The Underbelly

I started with 77-921 Lantern Yellow, and then washed the yellow with 77-768 Goblin Flesh Tangerine. On this miniature, the only places that the underbelly is really visible is on his chest and under his chin. I also brushed just a bit on the palms of his hands.

Next, I lightly drybrushed over the yellow-orange combo with 77-711 Dun.

The last step was to paint the nipples blue, using the Behir Blue.

This whole process leaves the darker orange in the cracks and crevasses, and the contrasting darker yellow on the higher areas.

The Wings

The wing webbing I wanted to blend from the blue into a red, so here's how I did it.

First I used a rich purple color (unfortunately, this was a sample bottle, so I don't know for sure what part number and description to tell you) next to the blue bones of the wings.

Then I used a deep blood red (this was also a sample bottle) and blended this closer to the center of each wing web.

I washed over this with a mix of the blood red and black, to deepen the colors and fill in the tiny wrinkles of skin on the wing webs.

And the last step - I drybrushed over the center of the webbing with 77-718 Red.  This gives the effect of the skin fading from the blue to a brilliant red color.

(Note: I'm only showing one picture of the miniature with the skin completed, as I don't think that my video snaps are going to show the subtlety of the changes. So I am just showing the finished skin.)