"Judas the Just" Vampire -> Paladin Conversion

[Grim]

No, seriously, this is a thing I'm doing. A friend of mine is commissioning me to paint some of his minis - in exchange he's going to load me down with minis from his Bones KS I. Well, that and some paints. Anyway, we were looking for a Paladin - he's playing an Andoren Paladin in a Pathfinder game, and he handed me Judas Bloodspire. I was truly intrigued by the challenge.

 

So, I've made only a few the actual changes. I sliced off the part of the cloak that is definitely making a bat wing, and I used superglue to fill in the eye- and nose-holes of the skulls on his epaulets and the guard of the sword. The intention is to paint them up as big blue gems. The skull on the back of the sword I think I can get to look like a crown - which is actually a not-uncommon historical pommel. I also used an X-acto knife to "de-fang" him, though unfortunately they didn't show up until I started painting the face.

 

This is my progress so far, I decided to take a break today and get this up on the forum to seek advice - besides a really high res picture can help me see fine mistakes. I think I consider the skirts finished, though I could work on them a bit more. The armor is mostly finished but for touch ups, the sword needs real-touching up 'cause it caught paint from the skirts. The hilt and pommel of the sword are completely undone - I haven't mixed up my gold yet. The cloak is base-coated only, I plan do to more work shading there (though most of that will only show up in the back.) I'd like to call the face and hair done, but I'll definitely take good advice on these things - I've probably spent 3-4 hours painting this guy so far, and easily an hour of it has been doing and redoing the face. I've even hit it with Reaper's matte sealer (thanks Ub3r_n3rd!) to take away a bit of roughness.

 

So without further ado, I present an alternate good version of Judas:

 

 

 

 

 

[youwashock]

The face is looking good, but what is going on on his right side between the face and hair? Is that unpainted or varnish build-up? Either way a nice dark there will cut the face away from the hair and give you some nice depth.

 

The skirt looks good as well, but could be punched up with some real deep shadows where it layers.

 

Really though, paint until you are comfortable. It's "done" when you say it is.

Edited December 13, 2013 by youwashock

[ub3r_n3rd]

The face actually looks pretty dang good, the eyes are much better than your previous attempts and I'm happy that you found the sealer a nice little tool for your kit. I read about it myself on here from one of the pro painters and am happy to pass it along to other people.

 

A couple of questions:

 

Did you pick the color scheme for him or did your friend have a specific way that they wanted you to paint up the figure? Just wondering because that's a lot of blue between his cape and clothing. If it's a special request keep with it and make sure to go higher on the highlights and deeper on the shadows, if it's not a specific request you might want to think about a complementary color using color theory.

 

Would you mind posting a picture of the back of the figure so we can see the cape and the hair from that angle?

[Grim]

I actually just decided while you were posting to do three more angle shots. To answer some questions - I believe the while spot on the figure's right is an unpainted spot. I'm going to go after that with some shadows - probably a shade of brown like Oiled Leather. The figure's left side of the face is kind of grainy, as the first of the pictures below will show.

 

The Andorens a really heavy on blue, white, and gold for coloration. They also use clothing that looks much more 17th century that other fantasy groups. That decided my coloration - at this stage I'm not sure I really want to change it, but I could paint the "shirt" white for a bit more contrast. I could post some of the pictures I've been using for reference, but that would probably be a copyright violation. OTOH, Reaper has two Andoren minis, so you can see what I mean from the painted ones:

 

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/andoren/sku-down/60050#detail/IG_1530_1

 

http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/steel%20falcon/sku-down/60119

 

Here are the other pictures. As I said before, I haven't done anything to the cloak other than base coat it in Valeo's "Dark Prussian Blue."

 

 

[ub3r_n3rd]

Cool, nice to see the other angles of him.

 

The left side of his face from these other angles does look like a miscast. I had that same kind of problem on my Juliette figure, ended up giving her a "phantom mask" in the end to cover it up, this was before I knew about the sealer trick.

 

As far as the ruffled shirt goes, just hit it with some white or a shade a bit lighter than what you are using at the higher places to give it some more depth. I see what you mean about the cape being just base coated. Are you going with a deeper, darker, and richer blue for that? Maybe towards the end add some yellow (or other complementary Andoran color) to the bottom edges of the cape (a border) or if you are good at freehand maybe some cool designs/shapes?

 

Examples of what I'm talking about:

 

Freehand Designs

 

Freehand Border Design

 

Solid Border Design

[Grim]

The grainyness of the right side of his face is barely noticeable - I probably won't do much further and he looks pretty good head-on. These are very close up. I touched up the mouth a bit more, since it doesn't seem to extend much to that side (hit it with my shade flesh color, which is oiled leather.)

 

I think free-handing the base of the cape would be difficult. I'm not particularly good at free-hand, the the cape is very ragged because of the intended use (vampire with grave-clothes.) Any kind of edging will emphasize that raggedness. I'm toying with the idea of a white shirt - I think gold wouldn't do well because of his hair. It wouldn't add too much work, either...

 

Incidentally, the guard and pommel of the sword will be gold, and the buttons on the back of his skirt will be too.

[Grim]

Oh, as far as the cape goes - that's about as dark as I have. I have some Ultramarine but it doesn't cover well, and it really isn't that much darker. The only issue I think I have with the Prussian blue is that it seems to have a bit of green, so it isn't as rich as it could be...

[ub3r_n3rd]

Totally agree with you and not wanting to do much more on the face.

 

I'm not an artist either, so I've not tried my hand at the elaborate free-hand stuff on clothing. I greatly respect people who can do it on these figures though. Usually I do like to do the solid border thing though. One thing you might do if you don't like the "ragged look" to is is to clean up that cloak using your sharp hobby knife and trim it all up a little more even, then if you wanted to you could slap a small border on it to give it a little more punch and interest. No pressure though, just some thoughts on what I'd be tempted to do with it if I was painting it up.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Oh, as far as the cape goes - that's about as dark as I have. I have some Ultramarine but it doesn't cover well, and it really isn't that much darker. The only issue I think I have with the Prussian blue is that it seems to have a bit of green, so it isn't as rich as it could be...

 

Do you have some pure black?

 

Maybe do a 5:1 blue:black ratio and mix up a darker blue paint that way? I do a lot of experimenting with colors, it's for science!

[Grim]

Totally agree with you and not wanting to do much more on the face.

 

I'm not an artist either, so I've not tried my hand at the elaborate free-hand stuff on clothing. I greatly respect people who can do it on these figures though. Usually I do like to do the solid border thing though. One thing you might do if you don't like the "ragged look" to is is to clean up that cloak using your sharp hobby knife and trim it all up a little more even, then if you wanted to you could slap a small border on it to give it a little more punch and interest. No pressure though, just some thoughts on what I'd be tempted to do with it if I was painting it up.

The thought had occurred to me - I could clean it up with a hobby knife and green stuff. I decided I just didn't have enough experience to trust myself, and it would probably be too much work, all in all. I'll get there eventually.

[ub3r_n3rd]

The cutting wouldn't be any problem and green stuff is pretty easy to work with, just make sure you have some petroleum jelly based product (Vaseline or even chapstick) nearby to lightly coat your fingers and any tools you would be using to shape it as the stuff gets really sticky. I personally like a challenge and when it comes to modification and basing stuff I don't just dip a toe in, I jump in head first so my advice will usually consist of what I would personally do if it was me painting, basing, or converting the figure(s). In the end it's all in the name of science!

Edited December 13, 2013 by ub3r_n3rd

[Grim]

I probably will do that next time I'm a situation like this.

[LittleBluberry]

I really like what you're doing with this conversion, the idea of converting a vampire to a Paladin had never occurred to me. Definitely Judas lends himself to the style you're going for and it's looking good so far.

[Grim]

I lightened the sleeves a little more with a mix of "Andrea Blue" and "linen white." I also deepened the shadows of the cloak a bit more with clear blue - I got my new paints! I'll screw around with Sapphire blue as well, see if it makes the folds a bit richer. I painted the guard, pommel, and painted the broaches on the armor gold for a bit more color interest.

 

I also did some small touch ups to the face and hair. I think this fixed some of the issues all in all. Still to come - I want to make the gold a bit more "yellow" with highlights and I need to do the shading on the cloak. Two views this time, since the work on the cloak was pretty minor:

 

 

 

 

 

[Grim]

I'm closing in on done! I shaded the cloak, made the gold a bit more yellow, and added some more highlights. I also fixed a lot, and in the process made a few more spots (I know about the one on his chin, I'll get it.)

 

At this point, I'm just doing some final tidying, just a bit more shading on the sword (my fixes made it a bit too bright in places,) and I'll take suggestions if there is more to do on the shading. Let me know what you think needs doing!