Painting Challenge: "Would Sir like some scorn with that drink?"

Chico comes through with another challenge (number 7)  that gives me a jolt of interest to paint. This time the theme is 'Other companies.' Which is just any other mini manufacturer than Citadel/GW.

Which means I now have an excuse to paint this supercillious little b'stard from Dragonbait miniatures.

 

This is the halfling butler which was an extra given to people who backed Dragonbait Miniature's indiegogo campaign. As I painted this, I was distracting my family with my giggling. I have never had this much fun painting a miniature. There is a lot of character in this sculpt that just thumped me in the funny bone, from the pose to the hair to the expression (the EXPRESSION!) I knew that Kevin Adams was a skilled sculptor but this was the first time that I had really, consciously experienced it.

The paint job was simple.
Base coats of pale green, red, slate gray (facial hair, foot hair and pony tail), white and pale blue.

A wash of army painter's strong wash.

And then touching up with the base coat again. 

"Would sir like some phlegm with sir's wine?" 

I spent the most time on the face. I wanted this guy to be a powdered fop stereotype. I worked up the colour on the face to a very pale flesh. Brushed as light as I could some red on the cheeks and drew a line of red on the bottom lip.

And 'Frederic, butler to the villainous' is born.

The kicker for me is that all the way through the campaign and right up until I got the miniatures in my hand, I HATED this miniature. Didn't think much of it at all.

I am glad to be 100% wrong.

Monday Night Painting at the Ceramics Shop: Dark Elf Warrior Women

Finally brought myself around to complete the half-painted Dark Elves I'd had lying in my travel case. These were the ladies that had become a millstone around my neck for the last three months. I'm been a little burnt out on Dark Elves. Still more to be done, but these seven are no longer on the list.

I didn't realise that white hair on dark elves was the trope for the Dungeons & Dragons Drow until recently. I must have absorbed it some time or other. I'm really thinking I may need to add in another colour. Electrics, perhaps?

Seven little dark elves all in a row. Rough as guts, and looking pretty all ranked up.

It took me a moment to work out why I couldn't get them to face the same direction. The mysteries of basing catch me again...

I love the poses on these two. The knock-knees on the mace-wielder and the tongue on the swordmaiden (which I need to pick out) are nice touches.

Another Chico's Challenge: Sci Fi

It feels like I haven't posted here for a while. Been what? 2 weeks or so. Not much painting done until the last week, and the planned construction and cleaning of hordes didn't happen at all. The Dragon Bait miniatures indiegogo campaign arrived which was like Christmas in June and I think I'll save that for when I am truly uninspired.

It was only with Chico's latest painting challenge (as here: http://oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/challenge-week-sci-fi.html) that I got the brushes out and as I only had 4 miniatures that fit the bill (the other 2 being the Peter Davison Doctor and the Delgado Master) terminators it was.

I decided to try colours from opposite sides of the wheel. Blue and orange, and purple and yellow. I also decided that I would try not to use the quickwash to create shadow. I was semi-successful. On the Inquisitor the blue was blended (clumsily) from blue-black up to electric blue. I think the lesson here is that I need more inbetween tones to make the gradation smoother. The orange was three tones.

The Daemon hunter ended up being purple and bone with drucci purple and quickshade washes. The bone was worked up with increasing ivory added to the bone. The hood was given a wash of stong quickshade and then highlighted with a couple of shades of tan.

The 'metal' (bionic leg and gun barrels) was dark black-gray highlighted with slate gray. I'm kind of pleased with the lit buttons on the legs, they're just a simple thing that set the whole mini off. The force rod was bone, highlighted with ivory and then white.

The photos hide some of the scruffiness of the work!

Chico's Challenge: Finished Chaos. A rose between two thorns.

Three miniatures finished with bases, shields and as many highlights as I could fit in before the hysterical crying (between three and four).

Marigold with her two very protective friends.

It's only when I had all three miniatures together like this that I realised that they fit wonderfully. The idea insinuates that the reason Marigold is yellow isn't because she's a mixed up necromancer, it's because she's a Princess in Yellow, a follower of Hastur's King avatar. Clickity, clickity, click. I love it when something unintended surfaces.

 

The chaos warriors ranked up and with a look at their shields. The shields turned out well with a little careful work. I'd initially painted the design in a white/yellow mix over black. The step today was to sharpen the edges with black and then went over the design with the standard yellow. I'm pleased with the look and I'm glad that I have finally got the shield hurdle out of the way. I appreciate just how little space there are on these things now, and really have great admiration for the steady of hand who perform little masterworks on their shields. I'm aiming for stick figures.

The bases were beach sand glued on with watered down PVA. They were painted black with a 1:1 paint with water. This gave a near black with a hint of brown underneath. After I'd finished painting the minis I dabbed PVA patches onto the base and sprinkled HO scale coal clinkers on. These were drybrushed slate gray, washed with strong quickshade and finally patches of flock were stuck in opportune places. Voila, bases.

Different angled views of the three minis are below.