Derek Schubert's (dks's) Pathfinder Society characters 1: Thaalo

[dks]

I've played in home campaigns and in organized play campaigns (Living Greyhawk, Living Forgotten Realms, Pathfinder Society), but I'm usually the guy with an unpainted metal figure on the table.  Even when I'm using a painted figure, it's a figure that I painted for some other purpose and is "close enough" to represent my character.  In Living Greyhawk, I used a Warhammer elf to represent my main character throughout the character's 16-level career ... and then I sculpted a figure of her for Reaper. (That's this figure: link to Forum post.)

 

Now I've decided to customize and paint miniatures specific to my characters in Pathfinder Society, so I've created this thread to show them off.

 

First up: Thaalo.

(Character build: fighter / sorcerer / dragon disciple, total level 7.)

He's an Ulfen ("Scandinavian") human, but his parents raised him in the desert land of Osirion ("Egypt"), so his skin is tanned and freckled.  He generally fights unarmed but carries a bow (for ranged attacks) and a longsword (for dealing slashing damage).

The base figure is 60005 Arael, half-elf cleric (link), a nice lightly-armored figure with the lanky build, stern face, and long hair that I had in mind for Thaalo.  I removed the sword from the figure's hand and sculpted a cestus (spiked boxing-glove) over the stump.  I cut away most of the existing scabbard (at the left hip) and turned it into a pouch, but later decided to add a sheathed sword... on his right hip.  The sword, bow, and quiver are from Reaper weapon packs; I put some putty over the blade of the sword to make a scabbard, and then glued the weapons into place.  Other conversions: remove the pointy ears and patch the hair, add "Nordic" braids, make his eyes a little less deeply set, and add putty over the boots -- basically just sculpt them thicker. (The boots got compressed during the moldmaking and casting processes, and looked a little fragile. Now the figure should be more durable.) 

Conversions took about 6 hours in total. 

The priming and painting also took about 6 hours -- with a disproportionate amount on the face and hair.  But I like the facial expression that I achieved, and I painted scales on his neck/jawline and left hand, since dragon disciples develop tough scaly skin.

 

Thanks for looking,

Derek

 

[trystangst]

6 hours? I MIGHT have gotten the brown done in that timeframe. Amazing.

[Stern Kestrelmann]

Nice. The cool blues and soft browns look good together.

 

SK

[Loim]

Thanks for sharing this. I look forward to seeing more of these. Cheers.

[Dontfear]

hell of a good speed paint. as always, I love your use of light.

[CashWiley]

You continue to be an inspiration both as a sculptor and painter.

 

I think I'm going to start mushing green stuff into any eyes I don't like.

 

I mean on minis. Not people, because that would be wrong.

[lexomatic]

I really like how that turned out.

[LittleBluberry]

I am hoping from the title that we will get to see more of these beautiful characters in the future. :) Brilliant job, and the skin & hair tones just happen to be a combination I will be needing to steal.

[youwashock]

I love the palette and all the little customizations you've made to bring it right into line with your vision for the character.

[ub3r_n3rd]

I wanna be... I wanna be like DKS! *sings*

[Kuro Cleanbrush]

Wow! I can't believe that took you a mere 6 hours to paint! I really love the conversions, and the scales on the face add some super character to him!

[Clint]

Impressive.

[sigmaone]

I'm still trying to lift my jaw from the floor. Beautiful. On so many levels.

[dks]

Thanks for the compliments!

 

The 6 hours of priming and painting: 90 minutes of brush-on priming in black and white (I forgot to photograph him at this stage, but see my WIP of Xanesha for what this entails), 30 minutes on the face and hands, another 60 minutes of work with Brown Liner and Driftwood Brown so it became a brown monochrome, and 3 hours of miscellaneous glazing and touch-ups (the blues/indigo/teal, making the hair a yellower blond instead of cold and ashy, scales on the face, brighter highlights, etc.). Speed comes with practice. I usually get the color, consistency, and placement of my paint right the first time. Even if not, I'm OK with being a little careless at first and then touching up, rather than trying to be perfect at every step. But this is after 25 years of painting. I think I was much more careful (and slower) 10 or 15 years ago.

 

@CashWiley: Yes, mash putty only into miniatures' eyes! "Ocular assault with a polymeric compound" only sounds impressive, but it's really nasty.

 

@LittleBluberry: Yes, I have at least 2 other figures to paint for my characters. I'll post them here when they're ready.

 

Derek

[Darkmeer]

*snaps brushes*

 

That would be a 20+ hour figure for me, WITHOUT the conversion. This is a great figure and nice to see painted up so well over your excellent conversion.