Round Three Report from Bounide

bounide writes:

First, I want to apologize for my report: it seems that Samsung is unable to fix its own digital cameras, and I have only pictures of the finished miniature taken by a friend of mine (who owns an Olympus C4000, lucky him!).

Preparation

After the usual cleaning up of the miniature with fine sandpaper and a sharp blade, I pinned the left foot and the left hand.

Then I wanted to try a tip I read about on the Figurines_fr mailing-list. First, I primed my mini with GW Chaos Black. Then I gently sprayed GW Skull White from above the head of the miniature: this allowed me to see how the light "fell" on the mini, and which areas were in the shade. In an ideal world (not mine!), your digital camera works and you can take several pictures of your mini, just to remember which areas were white-primed when you start covering your mini with other colours.

Painting

Vidar Wolf Helm has a strong Nordic/Scottish look: I thought everybody would paint him with snow on the base, blond hair, pale skin and tartan (well, it was my first idea) and I looked for something different. Then I remembered that I had painted in dark tones a Rackham Orc last year, and I was quite satisfied with the result. So I decided to use a similar colour scheme on my Celtos Dwarf.

For the flesh areas - the arms, the face and the knees - I used a base of Vallejo Burnt Umber. I shaded it with Vallejo Dark Sea Blue, and highlighted by adding more and more GW Kommando Khaki, then GW Rotting Flesh to the base.

I painted the teeth in white, and the eyes with a fine white line and a small black dot. I chose blond hair, because I thought it would make a nice contrast with the dark skin. The beard was basecoated in Kommando Khaki, then highlighted with GW Bleached Bone, and shaded in the recesses of the hair with fine strokes of GW Graveyard Earth and black (no wash or drybrush here).

Now the metallic parts: I used grey (for iron) and orange (for copper) tones. The helm, the chain and the belt were basecoated with GW Codex Grey. I highlighted them up with GW Fortress Grey, then white, and shaded them by adding a little touch of black to the base. For the loincloth thing, I used a base of GW Vermin Brown shaded with a wash of GW Dark Flesh, and with Vallejo Germ. Cam. Black Brown between the "scales." Then I highlighted each scale separately with a mix of Vermin Brown and Vallejo Light Flesh, then pure Light Flesh, then white.

To contrast with the orange loincloth, I gave my Dwarf a green kilt. I basecoated it with Vallejo Bronze Green. Then I applied a thinned layer of Vallejo German Uniform, which I highlighted by adding more and more Vallejo Deck Tan.

The boots and the purse were first painted in a mix of black and Snakebite Leather. Then I added GW Bubonic Brown to the base, and the final highlights were done by adding some Bleached Bone to the previous mix.

For the inside of the cloak, I used slightly different tones since the basecoat was pure Snakebite Leather, highlighted with GW Vomit Brown, then Vallejo Sand Light.

The fur of the boots was quick to do: Scorched Brown, highlighted with Graveyard Earth and Bleached Bone on the lower edge.

At this stage, the body of my Dwarf was finished...but I still didn't know how to paint the wolf cloak. First, I wanted to give it a hyena look, but there already was a lot of brown on the mini. Finally, I made up my mind for white fur (another contrast with the dark skin).

I started with the wolf fangs: a basecoat of Scorched Brown, highlighted with successive layers of Bestial Brown, Bleached Bone, and white.

Then I basecoated the whole cloak with Bleached Bone. When it was dry, I applied very thinned washes of Graveyard Earth. After that, I put down my favourite Raphael Martre Kolinsky 3/0 brush, and took a GW brush to drybrush the fur with pure white.

To complete the wolf head, I painted the lips in black, and the muzzle with several mixes of black and Codex Grey.

For the claws, I wanted a slightly bluish grey: I painted them with a mix of black and Vallejo Luftwaffe Uniform WWII, and highlighted them with Vallejo French Mirage Blue, then Vallejo Sky Grey, then white.

Before supergluing the sword and the hands to the arms of the mini, I painted them by using the colours described above for the flesh and the metallic areas. The runes were painted in Vallejo Dark Sea Blue, and the hilt of the sword in Bleached Bone.

Base

OK, I said no snow on this base, but I wanted to try something different from my usual cork-and-sand technique. I imagined piles of stones polished by the sea or the wind. For this, I used small blobs of Milliput, which I flattened by rolling my brush on them. When a stone was dry, I put a fresh one on it, and so on...

Once the putty totally hardened, it was drilled to receive the pin in the Dwarf foot, and the base was black-primed. I drybrushed the stones with Vallejo Basalt Grey, Vallejo Iraqi Sand, Vallejo Middlestone, and Vallejo Sky Grey, and the earth with Graveyard Earth and Iraqi Sand, and I applied washes of Scorched Brown on the earth and between the stones. Then I flocked the base with static grass, and I added small touches of Dark Flesh to it. Finally, the Dwarf was fixed to the base with superglue, and the miniature was matt-varnished.

That's it!

See the Finished Pictures