02879: Vidor, Northman Warrior

[BunnyPuncher]

This is my PC mini for our very exciting and exuberant Iron Heroes Campaign run by a very good DM.

 

I've been looking for a mini to use for my PC - Keigan Oldcastle - and ol' Vidor here turned out to be perfect. Looking forward to dropping this mini down when the party enters combat.

 

 

 

Every time I paint a reaper I'm always appreciative of how painter friendly these models tend to be. This is really a pretty simple model, but there is lots of room to experiment on him.

 

All feedback, praise, derision, and rotten tomotoes are, as always, appreciated.

 

Cheers.

[Baphomet69]

Awesome! I love the shading and color choices! I don't really see anything to critique...

[skavenbabe]

Very nice. I like the skin and the gold armor.

[mlavanish]

Nice work! The skin looks great. The metal seems a bit flat in comparison. The one thing I would change is the color of the belt. It seems to blend in with the fur. But an overall very nice looking mini.

[BunnyPuncher]

Thanks for the kind words.

 

You can toss the big boy a vote on cmon.

 

Cheers.

 

http://www.coolminiornot.com/browse/submitter/BunnyPuncher

[SwordofOmens]

Very nice mini. The flesh tones are spectacular. How did you accomplish that? I'm at the level of painting right now where my flesh tones usually consist of a flesh base, a brown wash of some sort, and a flesh mixed with white highlight...not bad, but not nearly as realistic and dynamic as what you have achieved with this mini. I'd love to hear your expertise on this.

[fieldarchy]

Definately a cool lookin' mini. I like how he turned out.

[Krztoff]

How did you do that wonderful skin?

 

Could maybe use a little darklining between the bracelet and his arm.

 

The blade of the sword looks just a bit off, but the rest of the steel looks excellent.

 

Overall great job.

[BunnyPuncher]

To all, thank you for the kind words, and yes I am proud of this guy's "skin tones", only wish I'd had time to do some of the other parts of him to par. But since he's a "beater" who's going to see a lot of table top action I didn't want to put more than a few hours into him.

 

Very nice mini. The flesh tones are spectacular. How did you accomplish that? I'm at the level of painting right now where my flesh tones usually consist of a flesh base, a brown wash of some sort, and a flesh mixed with white highlight...not bad, but not nearly as realistic and dynamic as what you have achieved with this mini. I'd love to hear your expertise on this.

 

Well, the first two steps are the same...

 

1/4 Bestial Brown + 3/4 Dwarf Flesh for the base coat

Wash with brown ink

 

I then go back and clean up areas that sucked up too much ink with the original base coat and lightly reink those areas as well.

 

What I've personally found to be important in the highlighting is to use a suspension medium of some kind (I use 30% Future floor finish and 70% water or app 2/3 water). This lets you thin your paints a whole lot and avoid the chalky look I find you get with just water (the paint is full of pigment, rather just in blotches).

 

I'd recommend reading the "let it flow" article on the reaper home page.

 

With this mini I gradually highlighted from 1/8 Bestial 7/8 Dwarf Flesh to 50% Dwarf Flesh 50% Elf Flesh, with 5 steps on the flesh and 7 on the face. You might want to use an extender so you can keep "upping" the lightness without having to remix every step.

 

It's really a simple process: just paint smaller and smaller areas as you go up the muscle towards the peaks. I find adding "streaks" across the biceps and large muscles helps create extra detail.

 

Also, immediately after the basecoat I "save" my work like Anne using a quick spray of dullcote. I also save before messing with eyes. This lets you erase your mistakes :)

 

Here is a larger model using the same technique which may be easier to follow...

 

 

Hope that helps :)