Post by BetaWülf on Jun 28, 2016 1:19:45 GMT -6
As we seem to have a burgeoning population of members who paint miniatures, I figured I'd post up some of my own as I am among them.
I'll start with my newest addition, my Bloodletter of Khorne. I received the model in the mail today, and was so excited I immediately began working on it. I got the mini to see if I liked painting them(as they normally come in groups), and I have to say I had a blast on this lil one.
Hope you all like my miniature! Will upload some of my Tyranids next time!
I'll start with my newest addition, my Bloodletter of Khorne. I received the model in the mail today, and was so excited I immediately began working on it. I got the mini to see if I liked painting them(as they normally come in groups), and I have to say I had a blast on this lil one.
.:Bloodletter of Khorne:.
What is a Bloodletter? : A Bloodletter is a lesser Daemon of the Chaos God Khorne. They are his most numerous servants and revel in bloodshed and carnage, their sole purpose being to spill the blood of their Master's enemies and collect their skulls for his great throne.
They are cunning, fierce, fast, and prolific warriors with a reputation for having an impressive melee prowess despite their seeming cannon fodder nature. Needless to say, you do not want to be on the receiving end of Khorne's wrath as hordes without number of Bloodletters would be upon you, spilling forth from a gaping rip in reality.
Assembly process: Firstly, I started by taking the miniature out and examining it for imperfections. Luckily mine was in excellent condition. Next I took a very small razor blade, one with a fine blade, and ever so carefully trimmed off the seams on the miniature that come from when it is poured in it's mold(note; always use the blade so that you are going away from yourself, so as to not stab or cut oneself if the tool slips or breaks free).
After I finished trimming the seam lines, I then base coated the figure(detailed in the painting process below), then went about assembling the figure. This miniature was designed in such a way that it's limbs fitted to it's torso in a uniform fashion, so I could not customize the pose of the figure(aside from the head, which goes on a ball socket).
The head of the figure came in two pieces, one half being the face with the largest of the horns, and the other half being the elongated cranium with the long tongue. They fit together so that the tongue on piece A fits through the open mouth of piece B, meaning you can get really outstanding detail on the mouth area. I waited until after I had painted both halves before I assembled them.
For my adhesive I used Locktite super glue, the gel control variety which comes in a larger container and has a weird but useful trigger/button that allows you to really control what you're doing instead of getting glue all over the place. I applied a small quantity of glue to the gluing surfaces of the two pieces I intended to attach, making sure to get some on both pieces before I actually glued them. After that, all I had to do was press them together and hold them for about ten seconds and then poof! They were glued and dried enough that they would stay together for the rest of the assembly process.
Painting process: I started painting by base coating the entire miniature(except small areas where I intended to glue parts together) in black acrylic paint. This is a very common technique and one I use very often, as I find it give excellent results(note; I base coated the mini before I assembled it). The purpose of base coating in black is to give the next layer of paint a deep richness, and to make recessed areas visual depth. I did about two layers of black via dry brushing, just to make sure I had a nice even coating(dry brushing is the process of dipping the paint brush, but wiping most of the paint off with a piece of paper or a towel before actually dusting the paint onto the miniature).
Next I mixed my paints for the skin. I took bottle of red and gold acrylic and mixed the two together. I did about a fifty fifty mix of the two colors, and ended up with the color you see above. This time around I just painted it on normally, making sure to spread it out so as to not obscure the fine details of the model. I applied the red/gold mix to the entire miniature, excluding the claws, teeth, and the upper half of his horns; all of which I left black.
After the skin dried, I went about detailing the small areas like the eyes, claws, teeth, and fire mane. I used a toothpick to just barely dot the eyes with gold, and gently stroked the gold onto each tooth with a single thick bristle from my brush. I did the same for the claws, but with two coats of black to make them pop a little bit. I also did a double coat of black for the upper half of his horns. And next took the tooth pick and carefully spread gold onto the metal mark of Khorne strapped to its cranium.
When it came to the seams where the pieces were glued together, however, I found them to be painfully obvious and really take away from the bad ass potential of the creature. So I globbed the red/gold mix into the seams, and then spread the paint out around the area so that the seams were filled but not overly noticeable.
Next came the sword, which was like the rest of him base coated in black. I mixed two different colors to achieve the effect, two parts metallic emerald green and one part cobalt blue. I dry brushed two layers onto the blade, followed by two coatings of a clear glow in the dark paint. When left in the dark, the Bloodletter's hellblade glows bright blue, but by day it looks like it does in the pictures. I made sure to get the metallic emerald green/cobalt blue mix into the recessed area of the tang that shows through the cross hilt. For the hilt itself, I just carefully swiped some gold paint over it and used the toothpick to get down into the hard to reach areas.
I painted the mane and tongue in solid red, then I painted the mane with orange streaks to simulate flame, and I used a shiny pink nail polish my Mom has on the tongue(I got her permission to use it, of course).
After that, all I did was put on my Dad's reading glasses so I could see in really fine detail and touched it up here and there, and added facial tattoos on the right side of his face above and below the eye. I think I probably should actually get a pair of glasses to be honest after today, I just cant see little things when they're within about ten inches of my face. ;D
After that, I was done! I had a blast, and I hope this experience can be helpful to others as well.
What is a Bloodletter? : A Bloodletter is a lesser Daemon of the Chaos God Khorne. They are his most numerous servants and revel in bloodshed and carnage, their sole purpose being to spill the blood of their Master's enemies and collect their skulls for his great throne.
They are cunning, fierce, fast, and prolific warriors with a reputation for having an impressive melee prowess despite their seeming cannon fodder nature. Needless to say, you do not want to be on the receiving end of Khorne's wrath as hordes without number of Bloodletters would be upon you, spilling forth from a gaping rip in reality.
Assembly process: Firstly, I started by taking the miniature out and examining it for imperfections. Luckily mine was in excellent condition. Next I took a very small razor blade, one with a fine blade, and ever so carefully trimmed off the seams on the miniature that come from when it is poured in it's mold(note; always use the blade so that you are going away from yourself, so as to not stab or cut oneself if the tool slips or breaks free).
After I finished trimming the seam lines, I then base coated the figure(detailed in the painting process below), then went about assembling the figure. This miniature was designed in such a way that it's limbs fitted to it's torso in a uniform fashion, so I could not customize the pose of the figure(aside from the head, which goes on a ball socket).
The head of the figure came in two pieces, one half being the face with the largest of the horns, and the other half being the elongated cranium with the long tongue. They fit together so that the tongue on piece A fits through the open mouth of piece B, meaning you can get really outstanding detail on the mouth area. I waited until after I had painted both halves before I assembled them.
For my adhesive I used Locktite super glue, the gel control variety which comes in a larger container and has a weird but useful trigger/button that allows you to really control what you're doing instead of getting glue all over the place. I applied a small quantity of glue to the gluing surfaces of the two pieces I intended to attach, making sure to get some on both pieces before I actually glued them. After that, all I had to do was press them together and hold them for about ten seconds and then poof! They were glued and dried enough that they would stay together for the rest of the assembly process.
Painting process: I started painting by base coating the entire miniature(except small areas where I intended to glue parts together) in black acrylic paint. This is a very common technique and one I use very often, as I find it give excellent results(note; I base coated the mini before I assembled it). The purpose of base coating in black is to give the next layer of paint a deep richness, and to make recessed areas visual depth. I did about two layers of black via dry brushing, just to make sure I had a nice even coating(dry brushing is the process of dipping the paint brush, but wiping most of the paint off with a piece of paper or a towel before actually dusting the paint onto the miniature).
Next I mixed my paints for the skin. I took bottle of red and gold acrylic and mixed the two together. I did about a fifty fifty mix of the two colors, and ended up with the color you see above. This time around I just painted it on normally, making sure to spread it out so as to not obscure the fine details of the model. I applied the red/gold mix to the entire miniature, excluding the claws, teeth, and the upper half of his horns; all of which I left black.
After the skin dried, I went about detailing the small areas like the eyes, claws, teeth, and fire mane. I used a toothpick to just barely dot the eyes with gold, and gently stroked the gold onto each tooth with a single thick bristle from my brush. I did the same for the claws, but with two coats of black to make them pop a little bit. I also did a double coat of black for the upper half of his horns. And next took the tooth pick and carefully spread gold onto the metal mark of Khorne strapped to its cranium.
When it came to the seams where the pieces were glued together, however, I found them to be painfully obvious and really take away from the bad ass potential of the creature. So I globbed the red/gold mix into the seams, and then spread the paint out around the area so that the seams were filled but not overly noticeable.
Next came the sword, which was like the rest of him base coated in black. I mixed two different colors to achieve the effect, two parts metallic emerald green and one part cobalt blue. I dry brushed two layers onto the blade, followed by two coatings of a clear glow in the dark paint. When left in the dark, the Bloodletter's hellblade glows bright blue, but by day it looks like it does in the pictures. I made sure to get the metallic emerald green/cobalt blue mix into the recessed area of the tang that shows through the cross hilt. For the hilt itself, I just carefully swiped some gold paint over it and used the toothpick to get down into the hard to reach areas.
I painted the mane and tongue in solid red, then I painted the mane with orange streaks to simulate flame, and I used a shiny pink nail polish my Mom has on the tongue(I got her permission to use it, of course).
After that, all I did was put on my Dad's reading glasses so I could see in really fine detail and touched it up here and there, and added facial tattoos on the right side of his face above and below the eye. I think I probably should actually get a pair of glasses to be honest after today, I just cant see little things when they're within about ten inches of my face. ;D
After that, I was done! I had a blast, and I hope this experience can be helpful to others as well.
Hope you all like my miniature! Will upload some of my Tyranids next time!
