MamaGeek Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 I'm painting this figure: Neroli, Female Half Orc I've converted her sword to an axe, because I'll be using this for my axe-wielding DnD character. I'm not terribly proficient with green stuff, so the axe haft looks a bit thick where it connects to the hand, but hopefully it's not too noticeable. I spent a couple hours starting on her armor. The NMM still needs blend-smoothing, but the basics are there. The gold is just a base coat. Here's a closeup of the axehead: I'll be using this figure for a gaming character that is often Enlarged, and in the past, I just sticky-tacked a large base under her to indicate her size on the gaming table. I wanted to do something a little special for this, so I constructed her base to be inserted into a large base: The stone is made from wood bark from my yard, with sand filling in between. The moss is some Woodland Scenics stuff. The leaves are birch tree seeds. The skulls are Reaper paint bottle agitators, and the monkey came with a Freebooter Miniatures figure I painted a while back. The skulls, monkey, and leaves are yet to be painted, and I may touch up some of the rest of the base later as well. Here's the figure on the base: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Posted December 30, 2010 Share Posted December 30, 2010 Awesome looking figure and awesome that you're playing a half orc! I'm excited to see this complete!The base is looking really great! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
72moonglum Posted December 31, 2010 Share Posted December 31, 2010 Coming along very nicely, my only questions is do you actually paint the skin and hair last? I've always thought people painted from the body going outward? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted December 31, 2010 Author Share Posted December 31, 2010 @72moonglum: I don't follow any kind of rules about what to paint first. I just paint the parts I want to paint! In this case, I don't know what colors I'll use for the face/hair/clothes, yet, so I'm painting the armor first. Here's some more progress. I worked on the armor blending, and put a lot of time into the base. I think the base is pretty much done, now, so you'll see much more progress on the figure in future posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spike Posted January 1, 2011 Share Posted January 1, 2011 Looking forward to seeing the finished product. She's such a nice sculpt...downright cute, even in spite of her human parenting :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 1, 2011 Author Share Posted January 1, 2011 I did the shading/highlighting on the gold armor, and base coated the rest of the figure. The silver armor parts got messed up a bit during all of this, so I'll have to go back and make some touchups. I'm still not 100% satisfied with the NMM, anyway, so that will get more work as well. My camera batteries ran out before I could get a picture of the shield. I'll just include it in the next post later on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpeakerDad Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 Wow! Love the colors and that base is fantastic. Might have to steal the idea :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 2, 2011 Author Share Posted January 2, 2011 I put her on the base to take these shots, but she's not glued on yet. I still have work to do touching up the armor, and the axe haft, brown belts and straps, and pants, hair, and red tunic all are only just begun. My painting recipes, if anyone is interested, are as follows: Silver armor: Base = gray + reddish brown Highlight = white Shadow = teal + black Gold armor: Base = GW snakebite leather Highlight = white Shadow1 = GW bestial brown Shadow2 = bluish purple Skin: Base = lime green + white Highlight = tan + white + white Shadow = magenta + black Eyes: Black line around White across eyeball Black circle White dot at top and bottom of black circle Orange over white dot at the bottom I put the shield on with some sticky tack, to show you where it will be mounted, and how it's coming along: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 @SpeakerDad - steal my ideas? Please do! I wouldn't post them up for everyone to see if I didn't want to share! @Anne - this half-orc represents my longest-running D&D character. I've been playing her for almost 5 years now. She's a level 26 barbarian/swordsage, soon to be Legendary Dreadnought. I've been using this figure since I painted it in 2008, but my skills have come a long way since then, and I wanted to give my longest-running character a long-deserved makeover. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator TaleSpinner Posted January 3, 2011 Moderator Share Posted January 3, 2011 I absolutely love the face. The only nit I have there is that the lip reflect skews to the side a bit much and is brightest on the bottom instead of on the upper radius of the lower lip (I hope that made sense). OK, I'm not a big NMM painter, so take this for what it is worth. I think the armor is almost there, but not quite. Some of the plates seem to have a very smooth, gradual transition from dark to light, but with NMM I believe that you want a more abrupt transition. I think you got this the closest on the blade of the axe. I'll save any comments on the parts you are still working on for later. I can't get over your skin work on this one. Here face is beautiful. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Oh, thanks for noticing the lip reflection. That is something I completely missed! I'll definitely put it on my "to be fixed" list. I did plan on working on the armor some more, so I do appreciate that as well. Abrupt transitions are, of course, much harder to blend than gradual ones, but I'll give it a shot. Thanks so much for the feedback! Oh, and I am very proud of the way the face turned out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimwolf Posted January 4, 2011 Share Posted January 4, 2011 This is very well done Mama. I really like the armor and the shield. The face has got to be the kicker though, the eyes especially. Great stuff! May the dice gods accompany this magnificent paint job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabberwocky Posted January 5, 2011 Share Posted January 5, 2011 I'd echo what the others have mentioned. The face is just splendid! The steel armor is coming along nicely, but I think need both additional highlights and shading to give it that elusive "pop". The basing idea is brilliant! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 5, 2011 Author Share Posted January 5, 2011 I worked on her for about an hour and a half last night. I didn't have time to take and post photos, though, or paint any longer than that. It's amazing how much less time you have once you go back to work. Oh, how I enjoyed my Christmas break! I gave the armor more midtones, highlighted and shaded the red tunic, fixed the placement of the highlight on her lower lip, and made the spot highlight in each eye brighter. There's still a lot to be done. The pants and all the brown parts (axe haft, belt, straps) all still have just a base coat, and even after that, I will do a final nitpick over everything before I call her done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Updated photos! Without shield, and on large base insert: Face closeup, not much change here, just the lip highlight adjustment, and the brighter highlight in each eye: Monkey! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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