Eldolan, Elf Fighter: Unboxing to Finish

[Rood.Inverse]

Priming is an art unto itself, I'm guessing. I did my best to follow the instructions I'd seen on the net, as well as on "Hot Lead," which usually meant start the spray before the mini (8-12 inches away), and make a quick, steady sweep across in one direction. After that, turn the mini at a different angle, and repeat until you have coverage across the mini from all angles.

 

I think I'm still seeing metal under the primer in some places, but I'm also seeing places on the mini where it's totally white, and I'm afraid if I go back for a second coat of spray, I'm going to start losing details. I just can't believe how quickly the primer caught and filled in those spaces on the mini. The problem is that I have no brush-on primer, and am currently out of hobby budget until next month, so I can't go pick some up and touch in the places where I missed with spray primer. =\

 

Here's the next series of pics.

 

 

 

 

[Fruggs]

He looks ok you should be able to paint him as is although I would hit the silver side of him briefly again. Make sure you are shaking your primer a lot. Also what kind of primer are you using?

[Zonto]

You don't need to have the entire mini covered in pure primer. If there are some metal bits still showing, that should be fine, as long as it's mostly primed.

[Rood.Inverse]

PLANNING AHEAD: BASING

I have a square 25mm base for this figure, because he's going to be used for D&D. I'm not terribly big on the lush greens and browns that you see for most fantasy minis - the verdant forests and greenlands you see so many elves storming around in. I'm thinking more "Russian Steppes," where it's greens and browns of scrub-like plant life, or those tall brown grasses, instead of the rich, dark humus and vibrant greens of the archetypal German forest.

 

 

 

 

What kind of basing materials should I look at picking up? Or kinds of colors (actual paint names) should I be looking towards for a more arid feel in my landscape?

[Ferox]

I wouldn't worry about seeing metal through the primer like that (although it's been years since I spray-primed a miniature, so take that with a grain of salt). The primer's job is to give the basecoat something to stick to, not necessarily to contribute to the final colour of the mini (though it probably will, at least a little bit). As long as the see-through patches have some primer on them, you should be fine.

 

As for arid terrain: it's not quite the same thing as you're looking for, but I've been using Khaki Shadow as a base for my Legion of Everblight figures. Shading with purple and highlighting with Ghost White gives it a nice cool look, rather than "warm and toasty sandy desert". Add some tall green and brown grasses and you might have a winner.

[Rood.Inverse]

Tell me more about how you got the shepherd mounted like that, please. That's ideal (as soon as I can find some grasses that would match) for the kind of terrain I'd like to put my mini on.

[Ferox]

Tell me more about how you got the shepherd mounted like that, please. That's ideal (as soon as I can find some grasses that would match) for the kind of terrain I'd like to put my mini on.

She's mounted on a slab of ground cork sheet, ripped off of a length of cork I bought at a model railroad store (I think it's for cushioning lengths of track from vibration). You can get similar sheets of cork just about anywhere; lately I've been buying cheap cork trivets at Ikea, but I've also seen them as flooring material at hardware stores and pinboard tiles at office supply stores.

 

The rocks are bits of gravel I picked up off a construction site, washed, then cooked in the oven for a little while to remove the dirt and dust. I mixed a bit of something purple-ish with the khaki shadow to make it a bit greyer.

 

The sticking point is how to mount the actual mini on the base. The Shepherd had a slotted base, so it was pretty easy to cut out the middle and use the remaining tabs under her feet to anchor her into the cork. Cutting out little notches in the cork is a pain, though, even with a sharp knife. Lately I've been cutting away the entire base with a jeweler's saw and drilling a pinhole up a quarter-inch or so into the leg, then inserting a length of paperclip and pinning into the base the same way. For a first attempt, though, I suggest you get your hands on some epoxy putty -- preferably Milliput -- and just slather it onto the top of the cork up to the same level as the mini's base. You can give the Milliput a rough texture with a wet toothpick or hobby knife, and it'll blend right in with the cork. I did something similar with Lylyth.

 

For basing material, check out Army Painter's basing materials. I think the Winter Tuft set would be right up your alley.

[Rood.Inverse]

He looks ok you should be able to paint him as is although I would hit the silver side of him briefly again. Make sure you are shaking your primer a lot. Also what kind of primer are you using?

 

Missed this question first time through.

 

ANSWER: Games Workshop spray primer, Skull White

[Doug Sundseth]

What kind of basing materials should I look at picking up? Or kinds of colors (actual paint names) should I be looking towards for a more arid feel in my landscape?

 

I use a mix of Woodland Scenics Burnt Grass and Yellow Grass flocking laid thinly over a base painted in a grayish, reddish, or yellowish brown dirt color. I also add some small rocks (sandstone crushed with a hammer works well for me) and place a few larger and darker bits of flocking for weeds. The weeds mostly go near the rocks (because the shade from the rock helps to hold water to support the larger vegetation. If I'm feeling ambitious, I might "plant" some static grass for tall grass or weeds.

[Kormydigar]

 

I'll do my filing tonight and post a few more pics to make sure I haven't missed anywhere else. (Does anyone else suffer from, "I didn't see those mold lines until I took the picture?")

 

 

My trick for finding mold lines is simple. After the initial inspection/filing, I coat the mini with a brush full of very thinned out black paint, kind of a wash consistency. I use cheap craft paint for this along with a larger worn out brush. The wash will run all over the bare metal and bring mold lines into sharp relief. Once identified these can be filed & shaved away and the black wash rinsed away easily with water.

[Rood.Inverse]

I did another round of primer, but only across the narrow sides, where you could still see some metal shining through. It looks better, but not perfect. No more primer, though, because I really think I've lost some detail. Maybe I'm over-stating it, but we'll be able to tell on the final product.

 

I start painting sometime next week. Sadly, I have to prep for a road trip this holiday weekend, and won't get to sit down with this before at next Friday at least (classes start up again next week - hence the road trip this weekend). I was making good progress on this, and am reluctant to leave it. If I take my paints with me... I wonder if I'd have time to do anything. I expect to have time to get to some hobby shops (mostly for railroaders), so I might be able to get some turf and ballast for my base.

 

Sorry, internal musings should be internal. I'll post pics once I've started painting with some colors. See you guys on the other side of next week. Thanks for continuing to watch and reply!

[Rood.Inverse]

Just got an ott-lite for free (no bulb), and an ott-lite bulb for 40% off price. I don't have to worry about having enough daylight to paint anymore when I get home from work. I'm going to see if I can spend some time getting back to this in the next couple of days.

[Rood.Inverse]

First Coat of paint... So many lessons learned.

 

(1) Not everything can be painted in order of "skin outward" as I came across several tight places I didn't notice before, usually around the back and trying to get things like the polearm under the arm (it would have been easier to paint the polearm under his arm's crook and then the uniform, but now I have to touch up the uniform

 

(2) Brown is not brown. Brown is orange. No matter what shade on the bottle or the sample under the paint rack. In hex codes, the tabard (is that the right word) should have been 663300, and the belts should have been 330000. Can this be rescued at all? The colors as they stand are just butt ugly. It was supposed to be simple reds and browns and blacks that complimented each other. Not oranges. That's why I painted the bow Bone White: because I couldn't paint everything the same dark brown and not hate myself for it, I just said, "It's a bow made out of ash, or some other white wood that's not orange, I mean brown, no wait... that's orange, who are you kidding?"

 

(3) I recognized there was another set of cloth and straps under that holding his arrows in place. Instead of another shade of brown, I opted for black, to set it off. How the nice solid black of the straps turned into what I can only describe as a poor wash is beyond me - I didn't thin my paints down beyond the two drops I initially used on my palette with the black. Watch where and when you dip your brush - maybe it just wasn't dry enough and I watered my palette without knowing it.

 

(4) I either need better brush control, or a brush with fewer bristles. I tried to accent the design on his blades and a small stylized thing on his boots with gold (and the buckles) and ended up just painting the whole damn area (the blade I washed gold out of disgust - that was the point I gave up for the night), instead of just the tiny accent mark.

 

(5) Even for beginners, one brush is not enough to complete a job. I only had one - an Army Painter highlighter brush - because the GW starter brush I had flattened out and won't keep a tip. This whole first coat was done with the highlight brush. I need to get a standard brush tomorrow at the FLGS.

 

(6) Thin golden yellow over thin gretchen green doesn't make "dirty blonde" quite as well as I wanted it... But the effect is not unpleasing. Might not work with the reds and browns I'd originally planned though.

 

(7) Eyes are not for beginners. Even when you have an excellent tutorial for it. It could be my inexperience, my brush, or just trying to do it on a mini with a half-profile which made it impossible for me, at my skill level, to accomplish.

 

(8) I don't know how to dot rivets in a studded armor uniform. Almost all my attempts either filled the "reservoir" around the rivet, touched just the tip of the rivet, or got the rivet, the reservoir and some of the surrounding tabard. Probably requires a special brush, I'm guessing?

 

PROCESS

Pretty simple setup. Wet palette, worked with single colors, tried working from the skin outward. I was only using GW paints because that's all I had from my original set of purchases, and I'm budgeted out on paints until next month (or I get really desperate for one particular color).

 

EVALUATION

This is supposed to be a mini I'm taking to a con in 2 weeks. And, yes, I know everyone's first mini sucks... But this doesn't quite measure up to my original standard of "not garbage" (or "tabletop ready"). Colors ended up wrong, there are so many gaps and spillovers that I missed or couldn't reach... I'm not sure if I should just strip this and pay someone to do it for me before the con and move onto my next mini, or if I can save this horror of a crafts project...

 

Pictures next post.

[Rood.Inverse]

My very humble workspace with my free ott-lite.

 

My humble-is-an-understatement-shop-class-ashtray-project-of-a-mini paintjob.

 

Also: Macro settings on cameras are a wonderful thing, once you learn how to use them properly. These pictures were SO much easier to take this time around.

[Ferox]

(1) Not everything can be painted in order of "skin outward" as I came across several tight places I didn't notice before, usually around the back and trying to get things like the polearm under the arm (it would have been easier to paint the polearm under his arm's crook and then the uniform, but now I have to touch up the uniform

Don't feel like you've screwed up if you have to retouch an area. It happens to everyone; better to get the confidence that you can do it and move on. Mini painting, like most things, isn't about not making mistakes: it's about making mistakes and correcting them before they get out of hand. Besides, painting in small, constricted areas will help you improve your brush control, and brush control is vital to just about everything.

 

(2) Brown is not brown. Brown is orange. No matter what shade on the bottle or the sample under the paint rack. In hex codes, the tabard (is that the right word) should have been 663300, and the belts should have been 330000. Can this be rescued at all? The colors as they stand are just butt ugly. It was supposed to be simple reds and browns and blacks that complimented each other. Not oranges. That's why I painted the bow Bone White: because I couldn't paint everything the same dark brown and not hate myself for it, I just said, "It's a bow made out of ash, or some other white wood that's not orange, I mean brown, no wait... that's orange, who are you kidding?"

Yeah, seriously, brown is just a dark dull orange. Or a dark dull yellow. What you have on the tabard is more like a dark bright orange. I'd call it brownish, depending on the context, and I've used RMS Intense Brown -- which isn't too far off -- as a base for leather quite a bit. If you want to dull it down, you can take a bit of blue and mix it in, then go over the tabard again. If you don't have blue, black will probably work reasonably well, but you'll want less of it.

 

(4) I either need better brush control, or a brush with fewer bristles. I tried to accent the design on his blades and a small stylized thing on his boots with gold (and the buckles) and ended up just painting the whole damn area (the blade I washed gold out of disgust - that was the point I gave up for the night), instead of just the tiny accent mark.

You probably need better brush control and a brush that holds a sharper tip. For the brush, you probably want a Kolinsky sable -- and in this case, bigger might be better: the tip will be just as sharp, but the belly will keep the paint fluid for longer, so it'll flow better. For the brush control... well, that's one place where everyone needs more practice.

 

You might find it easier to paint accents like the one on the blade by slopping gold over the whole thing, overshooting a bit, and then coming back in with silver to clean up the edges from the other side.

 

(5) Even for beginners, one brush is not enough to complete a job. I only had one - an Army Painter highlighter brush - because the GW starter brush I had flattened out and won't keep a tip. This whole first coat was done with the highlight brush. I need to get a standard brush tomorrow at the FLGS.

Keep the GW brush for mixing paints and applying things like glue and varnish.

 

(7) Eyes are not for beginners. Even when you have an excellent tutorial for it. It could be my inexperience, my brush, or just trying to do it on a mini with a half-profile which made it impossible for me, at my skill level, to accomplish.

Kudos on the attempt. Even if you can't do it yet, attempting things like clean basecoats and detailed eyes will push your skills and develop better brush control.

 

(8) I don't know how to dot rivets in a studded armor uniform. Almost all my attempts either filled the "reservoir" around the rivet, touched just the tip of the rivet, or got the rivet, the reservoir and some of the surrounding tabard. Probably requires a special brush, I'm guessing?

One answer is "brush control", yes, but that's not the whole story. It looks like your gold was pretty thin when you were painting the rivets. That's good -- but if you have too much thin paint on your brush, it'll all gush out and do what it just did. Even with a bigger brush, painting is a constant battle against impatience: get only as much paint as you need on your brush, and wipe the rest off on a damp paper towel if you need to. Don't worry about wasting paint; it'll last nearly forever. Better to have to touch up an area because you didn't have enough paint on the brush to do it than to get too much paint on the model.

 

Another thing you can do to emphasize the rivets is to paint them up -- not worrying too much about "coloring inside the lines". Then thin some dark blue or black, get just a tiny bit on your brush, and let it run into the "reservoir" to create a nice shadow around the rivet. Finally, take your leather colour and touch up the surrounding area. (I make it sound so easy, don't I?)

 

This is supposed to be a mini I'm taking to a con in 2 weeks. And, yes, I know everyone's first mini sucks... But this doesn't quite measure up to my original standard of "not garbage" (or "tabletop ready"). Colors ended up wrong, there are so many gaps and spillovers that I missed or couldn't reach... I'm not sure if I should just strip this and pay someone to do it for me before the con and move onto my next mini, or if I can save this horror of a crafts project....

Save it, definitely. Strip it if it'll make you feel better. Move on to your next mini -- try to paint half a dozen figures in the next week or so, if you can. You'll be surprised how quickly you improve. Post pics here, get some advice, and you'll improve even faster. Then a few days before the con, come back to Eldolan and paint 'im up with all of your new-found skills. If nothing else, your neatness and brush control will be vastly improved, and that's really all it takes to produce a tabletop-standard mini.

 

You've catalogued every flaw you've found with this miniature, so let me point out you did well: the colour scheme. You may not like the orange-brown; I don't mind it, but that may be my laptop's display. Overall, you're sticking to a cohesive, warm palette that looks really damn good. You have plenty of variation in tone, from black and dark-brown to the creamy off-white of the leggings and bow. You have plenty of variation of hue, from the purple-red coat to the yellow-green hair. Either you've studied colour theory before or you have a good intuition for colour -- and the latter, like a musician having perfect pitch, is going to make learning this game a lot easier.

 

You also did a solid job of preparing the figure. I think I see a mould line on the bow, but the rest is clean, and you obviously got the primer right. And speaking of paint, you've thinned your paints well enough to avoid chunky-basecoat syndrome. That's not an insignificant achievement.