Reaper's old Kitsune, two copies by Pingo

[Pingo]

Two copies, primed with Titanium White and a wash of Burnt Umber:

 

This is a Kitsune figure Reaper offers only as part of a set.  I got mine from two copies of 03495: DHL Classics: Lady Lycanthropes (which also includes a werewolf and a weretiger).  She also comes in the set 02900: Beastmen of the Wyld (which also includes a boar-man and an elk-man (American elk or wapiti, not European elk or moose)).

 

I will confess, I had seen her around in the store and thought her sculpt only okay and kind of flat looking.

 

But then a couple of gorgeously painted examples changed my mind:

 

So I got two copies of 03495: DHL Classics: Lady Lycanthropes, since I knew I was going to need lycanthropes for a game soon and there aren't too many females out there.

 

Just to get a sense of place I sloshed a little drab green, mixed from Burnt Sienna, Yellow Oxide, and a dab of Phthalocyanine Green, onto their bases.

 

I decided to paint one up as a silver fox and one as a classic red fox.  Using my standard method of slopping some beginning colors on, I mixed up a neutral grey from Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna plus some white and daubed it on one of the figures (plus some pure white on the tail tip).

 

I took some of the straight Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna mix -- which is a transparent dark near-black with violet overtones -- and laid it on the silver fox in the standard places.  If you Google silver foxes they are beautiful, almost like Siamese cats, with silver heads and backs and black legs, tail, ears, and face.

 

I did similar things with the reddish kitsune.  I mixed a dull rusty red from Burnt Sienna, Yellow Oxide, a dab of Titanium White, and a minuscule amount of Phthalo Green to grey it down just a hair, then I daubed it on the parts of a fox that would be red.  I washed her darker bits with that same Ultramarine Blue-Burnt Sienna near-black, and a light brushing of pure white on her tail tip.

 

Then I took some pure Carbon Black and laid in their eyes, noses, and lips.  It's really hard to see on the silver fox, but there is a difference between it and the "black" on her face.

 

So they are a real mess right now, but there should be some interesting developments as we go along.

[Glitterwolf]

Foxy ladies!

 

Nice Start!

[Loim]

Fantastic.

[Pochi]

Another awesome WIP!

[Rahz]

Wonderful stuff! 

[Pingo]

I laid some bright green on the bases.  It's mixed from Hansa Yellow Opaque and a touch of Carbon Black (Seriously, it's the weirdest color combination but it actually works).  I lightened it up with increasing amounts of yellow.

 

This is also when I really began to notice all the tiny, tiny pits in the broccoli bases.  They are microscopic little pits so narrow that paint cannot easily get into them.  They show up as white dots in the photos, the effect of the lights hitting the shiny metal at the bottom of the pits.  They are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, so I had to keep checking with photos and trying to catch the ones I identified.  I spent at least as much time trying to correct them as I did painting the whole rest of the figures and I'm still not done.  Grr. Argh.

 

 

 

 

I began to paint their garments.  (Looking at them, I am pretty sure they are meant to be soft leather.)  I painted the red fox's clothing a medium blue mixed from Ultramarine Blue and Titanium White.  The silver fox's clothing is pure Red Iron Oxide, and I also painted that on herwristlets (it's a great color for under gold) and arrow fletching.

 

 

 

 

 

So many pits remain. 

[Glitterwolf]

Very nice!

[lowlylowlycook]

Yeah, these two are shaping up nicely.

[Doug Sundseth]

Those broccoli bases are annoying enough that I'm moving to removing the bases entirely from almost all of the minis I'm painting now and sculpting something in epoxy putty. As I understand it, Reaper keeps them because it makes playing straight from the package (or at least with minimal prep and basic painting) simple, and that's a major part of their market.

 

For future reference, on figures where you intend to keep the bases, gray spray primer works pretty well for getting into the pits. Anything that's left can be handled fairly well with one of the Reaper liners. (Not your usual materials, but there you go.)