Amazon Warrior from Dark Sword

[cookjimjr]

Hello All,

 

I just recently purchased 3 Dark Sword Miniatures and decided to give this one a try first. She is the Female Amazon w/Bastard Sword #DSM-7204.

 

Basically I am pleased with how she turned out, but there are a few things that could use some more work. Dark sword miniatures do not seem to be the same scale as Reapers, so everything is a lot smaller. Her eyes for instance were so small, the tip of my 20/0 would darken the whole socket. I think it took me 8 tries to get them to the point they are now which is not very good. The other thing that needs some work is the skin. I could not seem to get rid of the chalkiness, especially on her face. One other thing would be the nail polish. It was the first time I tried that, but I think I need to treat them more like jewels, but with the size of her fingers, I did not think I could pull that off.

 

She is the last non-Reaper mini I will be working on for a while (Thank God) Seems that no other company can get the sculpts easier to paint than Reaper. I have 4 Reaper Projects working right now, so you should see them pop up here in the next couple of weeks.

 

Comments and Critiques always welcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mercius]

Jim, great job as always, the only nitpicky thing I can see for myself is what you said about the skin....To me with the full body bikini and being and amazon I personally picture her as being more dark skinned and tan. Just a personal opinion though. Do you use Reaper paints? I use the same formula for elf skin that I do for female fair skin, but I only know GW colors, but it works without being too chalky, which tends to happen the more white you add, even watering down the paints until they are clear doesnt help if I add white to the mix. Tallarn flesh from GW and a bit of bleached bone work well without getting too chalky, but I don't know the Reaper equivilant. The base is phenonmenal! I always love your paint jobs, always great work, but your bases tend to be my favorite parts of your works. Great job buddy, I look forward to seeing all of your upcoming Reaper minis!!

[nytflyr]

I like the look of her! too bad about her being difficult to paint, though you did a good job.

[cookjimjr]

Jim, great job as always, the only nitpicky thing I can see for myself is what you said about the skin....To me with the full body bikini and being and amazon I personally picture her as being more dark skinned and tan. Just a personal opinion though. Do you use Reaper paints? I use the same formula for elf skin that I do for female fair skin, but I only know GW colors, but it works without being too chalky, which tends to happen the more white you add, even watering down the paints until they are clear doesnt help if I add white to the mix. Tallarn flesh from GW and a bit of bleached bone work well without getting too chalky, but I don't know the Reaper equivilant. The base is phenonmenal! I always love your paint jobs, always great work, but your bases tend to be my favorite parts of your works. Great job buddy, I look forward to seeing all of your upcoming Reaper minis!!

 

Thanks Mercius,

 

I actually used a combination of the fair Skin Triad and Tanned Skin triad from Reaper. No white was added. I think the chalkiness was do to the small areas and maybe my base was a little thick. The legs seemed to be better. The reason why she is light skinned was for 2 reasons. One, I did not want her to be a typical Amazon, She is from a more Northern Sect and does not get out much , LOL and two is that the tatoo would not come out very well while she was darker. I tried a little darker but the tat just blended in. Here it looks faded but still can be seen. Thanks for the compliment on base. I only painted it and added some grass, the figure actually comes with the cool fur covered stone with the skulls. I did mount it within the round plastic base though and had to fill in some with Green-Stuff.

[cookjimjr]

I like the look of her! too bad about her being difficult to paint, though you did a good job.

 

Thank you for compliment. She is small, but my skill set is not quite good enough yet to hit that kind of detail on the smaller figures. Glad you like her though.

[Mini Killer]

It is a great paint job on a nice looking mini. The fair skin works for me. I really like the leporded skin on the base. great job and cant wait to see more.

[JimL]

Nice work, possibly a really thin ink wash or glaze might help get rid of the chalkiness.

[cookjimjr]

Nice work, possibly a really thin ink wash or glaze might help get rid of the chalkiness.

 

 

Yeah, I tried a couple of glazes, but they did not work as well as I would have liked. I have not dull coated her yet, so I will probably give that another shot before I do. The areas I am most concerned with are the face and her cleavage. Not a lot of room to glaze.

[cookjimjr]

It is a great paint job on a nice looking mini. The fair skin works for me. I really like the leporded skin on the base. great job and cant wait to see more.

 

Thank you for kind comments. I really like this skulpt. I just wish she was made in Reaper's Heroic 25mm Scale. I guess she was good practice for the smaller stuff. I already noticed a difference in some detail work on another figure I am painting now. I will probably purchase more of her in the future, trying out different versions and techniques.

[Inarah]

I know what you mean about the detail on these. I have a few and they are much more delicate than the average Reaper sculpt. I haven't had the nerve to tackle any of mine yet.

 

I think the NMM on her sword came out very well. I'm not fond of the blue bikini, just a personal preference. I think it contrasts too much with her fair skin.

[cookjimjr]

I'm not fond of the blue bikini, just a personal preference. I think it contrasts too much with her fair skin.

 

Inarah,

I thought about orange or green, but I have always had the vision of a blond in blue (Not just bikinis). I enjoy a lot of contrast in colors, but that is just a mood thing. I am going to get a few more of this sculpt and try out different colors. What would you suggest?

 

Jim

[Zinzig]

Overall very good. I'd suggest a little darklining to help define the difference between skin and clothing since both seem very light to me. I think the blue goes fine with the light skin and blonde hair, just needs a little breakup. For the skin if I'm doing a light skinned figure I tend to gravitate towards the tanned skin triad for shading, otherwise I feel there isn't enough contrast between highlights and shadows. I usually start with the light skin shadow as a base, wash with tanned skin and then go from there down through to the highlight.

 

I have one dark sword model I'm working on now and agree, the detail is there, just doesn't seem as pronounced as reapers normally do. For instance the armband is only distinguished by two really thin lines in the surface rather than the armband being raised above the surface of the arm. That and the scale feels a wee bit smaller...noticeable mostly in the fine details.

 

-Z