writes:The face and hands were painted with a base coat of GW Dwarf Flesh, and this was highlighted with i-Kore Flesh. Then some shading was done with a mix of GW Dark Flesh and Americana Raw Sienna. This creates a reddish-brown color, and works well as a deeper shade for areas around the beard and hairline, as well as the recesses of the eyes under the brow.
The eyes - how do you do the eyes? I have tried every trick or technique under the sun that there is for doing eyes. I could write a PHD thesis on the pros and cons of all the different techniques for eyes... but I will explain what I like to do and why and leave the PHDs for my younger counterparts.
The first thing I did was to fill in the gaps in the figure. The figure has irises already put in the figure for me - which is something I personally do not care for, so I filled them with a tiny amount of green stuff. When dry, I painted the region inside the eye with Apple Barrel Black. The next thing is to paint the inside of the eye with white - or, because the figure is larger in scale, I used Americana Buttermilk for a slightly less dramatic eye that looks more realistic. I then went in with a small brush - about a 0/1 or a GW fine detail brush, either one will work - and painted in the eye with black. It takes some patience to get a nice round eyeball, but if you mess up, a small touch with the "white" is easy to do.
The hair was done with a series of washes and a little careful drybrushing. I painted the hair in a base of Ceramcoat Chocolate. This was drybrushed with a light coat of Chocolate mixed with Americana Slate Grey. Then I washed with thinned Apple Barrel Black. When the wash dried, I drybrushed again with the chocolate-grey mix. Next I drybrushed with Ceramcoat Autumn Brown in a few "side of the head" areas, so the top would look lighter than the sides. Once this all dried, I took a thin Slate Grey with a mix of Autumn Brown and painted along the temples, forehead and areas of the beard, so this guy would look like he's been around a few years and is showing some greying at the temples. I kept carefully highlighting select areas till the desired level of grey was achieved.
The belt, necklace and weapon shaft were painted Ceramcoat Autumn Brown. The weapon shaft was painted in little individual lines, so the woodgrain would show. Well, there wasn't any woodgrain to show really, so I made it up with small careful lines. The armbands and jewelery were painted with GW Tin Bitz and shaded with GW Brown Ink, then highlighted with Vallejo Model Color Brass and washed again. The final application of Brass was applied. The left-hand armband was done with the Brass in angled little bands so it looks like it has been worked somewhat - like rope, if you will.
The eyes were finished by using Americana True Blue for the color, the bottom of the eye was highlighted with Ceramcoat Blue Heaven, and the center dotted black.
The belts were painted with angled strips of Raw Sienna, and then highlighted with Americana Toffee for a final highlight. I wanted the belts to look like rope, and thought these colors would work well.
