Search the Community

I've never taken so long, after starting to paint a miniature, to finish it. She is Svetlana, the Frost Giant Princess. The metal version is DHL 3431; in Bones, she's 77107. Read below the pics for the backstory of sculpting and painting. THE SAGA I sculpted her in 2009, from this drawing by Wayne Reynolds: He designed some other frost giants and the new icy-themed dark elf faction for Reaper around that time. Werner Klocke had recently sculpted Reaper's fire giant queen, with a clever metal-saving design: a body cast in front-and-back parts that left a hollow center. I stole that idea for the front giant princess. I took my sculpting kit along on my 3-week bicycle ride from ReaperCon '09 (late May) to Asheville, North Carolina (mid-June). I didn't sculpt much along the ride, but I do remember a day in Monteagle, Tennessee, when the fog was so thick I didn't want to risk being on the road. I gave my legs a rest that day and spent a few hours sculpting in my hotel room. I finished sculpting the figure in late July, and she was released in September. Some folks on the Reaper Forum debated whether the princess's face was exposed skin or a mask. I weighed in here. You can see how different people have painted her over the years, mostly with masks. I didn't get around to painting my own version with the bare skin. I got a metal copy of this figure in late 2009 or early 2010. May 2010: 1 hour cleaning the figure. ((wait 1 year 10 months)) March 2012: 4 hours assembling the body (but not the left hand and spear), and using Greenstuff to patch the gaps and adding volume to the back of the hair. April 2012: 3 hours doing a primer coat / value-study in White and Black Brush-On Primer. ((wait 3 years)) April 2015: 5 hours verifying the assembly, attaching the hand, refining the shape of the eyes a bit, setting wires for the extra hair strand & the spear strap (in WAR's sketch but not the stock figure), and then sculpting over the wires. Thin things like these can make a miniature look more dynamic and realistic because they aren't limited by the considerations for casting. (I got that advice from Jeremie Bonamont when he was at ReaperCon one year.) WIP pics then: That evening / night / early morning, I spent another 7 hours in 3 sessions roughing in blended base coats over everything. And then I lost interest. She went into the cabinet. ((wait 5 years 9 months)) I decided to include the fox in some way. (The fox goes with Feiya the Pathfinder iconic witch, #60048, sculpted by Julie Guthrie.) I occasionally got nebulous ideas for an ice/snow base, but I never sat down to give physical form to these ideas. Jan-Feb 2021: She called to me again at 1am one night / morning. I painted until 5:30am. More painting sessions over the following week, and then basing. Built the base from rough masses to final shapes -- just start building, and then edit and refine. Devised the sticks-with-straps elements to fill the front-right area and show the wind. Added the snow, including drifts and footprints. Refined the colors, especially the ice-spear and the snow. Glazed, glazed, glazed. In all, about 50 hours over the last 3 weeks. And for now, she is finished. I think the sculpt holds up pretty well, though I deviated on several points from WAR's sketch (partly from my own design sense, but mostly from my lack of sculpting skill). If I were sculpting her today, I could do better on some proportions and making the fur and hair more spiky/icy than wavy. Thanks for reading! Enjoy! Derek

Well either she is a giant or she is carrying a collection of children's skulls. Painted for a Trio with @Pochi and @Kuroneko The base seemed to take forever, the first one I have put on a slant, previously I built up a hill rather than tilting the base, and using park ledges for a horizontal plane. The tree is made from twigs and flocking. One of these days ill figure out trees. the painted backdrop is a Bob Ross inspired mountain on canvas that I did last year. They work pretty well together but not enough for me to tie in the colors of the grass and match the tree more carefully. Next time I do this with a landscape I will choose one that is less busy, or at least focuses the eye toward the mini.

Always really loved this model this is my second go at it. Thought I would try something different with the clothes most of the painted ones I've seen are very brown.

For a recent game I was able to finish these two pieces, Svetlana, Frost Giant Princess and Boerogg Blackrime, Frost Giant Jarl. I was going for a whiter skin on the giants. I tried it on Boerogg, but it did not work out like I wanted so I left Svetlana the way she was. If you want to see their in between stages, check out my blog.

This thread may be very sporadic. My painting time is usually between art projects, and these puppies are pretty big. I have gotten started on some frost giants: Reaper's 02599: Frorigh, Frost Giant, 77107: Svetlana, Frost Giant Princess, and 77106: Boerogg Blackrime, Frost Giant Jarl. I am also painting a frost giant from Otherworld Miniatures that is a really nice figure, and a 54mm scale jester I bought by mistake and decided to paint up as a frost giant (he was on sale for such a good price I just assumed he was 28mm scale). The metal figures I primed in my usual fashion, with a layer of white paint followed by a wash of Burnt Umber. For the two Bones figures, however, I used Buglips' recommended method of priming with Reaper Brown Liner. Let me just say this is my first use of Reaper paints, and I was impressed with the handling. Although I thinned the Brown Liner considerably, it gave full coverage of the Bones figures with a single coat. Indeed, the surprisingly dark and greyish liner gave the figures a bronzey metallic look where it went on thinly. Burnt Umber is a dark color when applied thickly, but the contrast between it and Brown Liner was striking. I started painting the giants' skin with a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna, adjusted to just the blue side of a neutral grey and lightened with various amounts of Titanium White. These are the only color mixes I have used so far. I like to do the faces first so I don't have to worry about them later. (Although I will probably add refinements as I go along because I can never seem to let a part of a figure be done when I am painting it, but always see more places which can be improved.) I figured frost giants would have icy blue eyes. One odd thing, these figures are huge but their eyes are tiny. They were definitely just within the range of my being able to see what I was doing, and I still had to check things with a loupe as I worked. The Reaper frost giant princess, Svetlana, is usually painted as though she were wearing a mask, although I gather that was not the original sculptor's intent. I decided to paint her wearing a mask open at the mouth, showing her mouth and chin. I haven't painted the Reaper jarl's teeth yet, so his face looks a little odd. The older Reaper frost giant is really big. He reminds me a little of a Muppet giant monster. The Otherworld frost giant is really exquisitely sculpted. I should look up the artist. I need to go back and look up the company that made the jester figure. It comes with two alternate heads and is kind of cute. I decided to make this one looking soulfully up and out rather than malevolently down at puny humans like the others. No that he's painted it's harder to see, but under that smiley-looking moustache his mouth is actually set rather sadly.

77107- Svetlana, Frost Giant Princess I painted her entirely with two colors, plus white. I found a long time ago that one could get a broad range of colors, from brilliant blues and firey oranges to soft greys and a deep violet near-black simply by mixing different proportions of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna with white. So she's not quite a monochrome, more of a duochrome. It was a fun exercise. The pictures are mostly taken from a low point of view to give a human's-eye look up at the giant. There is a companion to this figure, 77106- Boerogg Blackrime, Frost Giant Jarl

Loved painting this one up. Super fun. That's why we paint right? Thanks for looking!