writes:
I thought I'd show you this Herdstone that I recently painted.
The model came from an eBay auction, and is composed of two white-resin parts: stone and base. It's roughly 3 inches tall, and the base is about 3 inches in diameter.
My thinking was to go with a "red obsidian" look for the stone itself, so I spray-primed it black, basecoated it with the darkest shade of red I had, then gave it an intense black ink wash to tone it down even further.
I then highlighted it by drybrushing with red, orange, and finally, yellow.
The base had been left alone so far, as I'd originally thought to do it in brown tones. However, when I thought about it further, it seemed a better idea to make the rubble on the base match the stone itself - so I painted the base in the same manner as I'd painted the stone.
If I'd known I was going to do this from the beginning, I'd have assembled the parts before painting them! As it was, I found that the parts - which had fit together perfectly before painting - now needed some trimming, patience, and a second helping of two-part epoxy to assemble.
To finish things off, I flocked the base to match my game table, painted the base edges green, and gave it a spray of Testors Dullcote to remove some of the inky gloss.
All in all, a simple project - though I'd love to hear your comments on how to do it better.
The company's name is Mercenary Miniatures, and their website is mercminis.com - but it's offline. I don't know if this is the same company as the Mercenary Miniatures in Ohio (but it's definitely not the Mercenary Miniatures painting service in Kent). Sadly, it does seem to be the same Mercenary Miniatures mentioned in a 2003 consumer complaint from Australia.
