WIP - 03879: Gon'Tarr Orc Shaman and 14604: Joeliyn Sister of the Blade

[Arimaythea]

My husband and I are about to join a campaign to play through the Curse of Strahd adventure for 5e.  My husband is playing as a half-orc sorcerer and I am a human fighter.  We decided to go with 03879: Gon'Tarr Orc Shaman and 14604: Joeliyn Sister of the Blade as our respective PC minis.  They will be the third and fourth minis I have ever painted, the other two being from one of the Learn to Paint kits.

 

My mini hasn't arrived yet but my husband's has so I've made a little progress on him.  I cleaned him up, glued to a square base, used some green stuff to smooth out his integrated base, primed him, and put some of the base coat colors down.  I've used all Reaper paints so far - their white primer along with Leather Brown for the leather bits, Harvest Brown for the wood, and a hobbled together mix of Camouflage Green, Military Green, and Warrior Flesh for the skin. 

 

 

 

I plan on doing a base coat of all the colors first to make sure we are both happy with the choices before moving onto washes and highlighting.  My shipment with my mini along with some bone colored paints that I need for Gon'Tarr's skull accessories should be here tomorrow!

[Darcstaar]

Great start!

[Arimaythea]

Thanks, @Darcstaar!

 

I got a moment to paint tonight so I added two more base colors - Ebony Flesh for the fur and Antique Gold for the armband.  (Plus I reused all the colors from before to touch up all the spots I messed up when painting the fur... lol.)  I like how the colors are turning out so far! 

 

 

 

 

 

For the tuft of fur? hair? something under the staff skull I want to paint a pop of color to add some extra interest, but I haven't decided what color yet.  I was originally thinking red but I'm still thinking on it, since I don't want it to blend into the wood color of the staff.  Maybe a teal?

 

[Arimaythea]

I've gotten lucky and have had a little time to paint for a few days in a row!  Usually between work and family I can't fit quite as much hobby time in. 

 

Looking at his photos I was posting here, the rough patch of metal around his stomach was bothering me so I smoothed it out some with some liquid green stuff.  I also did quite a bit of touching up some mistakes in the base coats I already put down along with adding another coat of primer to all the sections that will be painted light colors. 

 

My husband decided on a color for the staff fur bit (Dragon Blue) so I did a base coat of that as well.  I roughed in some eyes with Desert Sand, Dark Highlights, and Ebony Flesh and put some Desert Sand on his tusks.  Painted his hair/eyebrows/beard a mix of Dragon White and Weathered Stone.

 

My mini and the bone triad came in the mail today!  I wanted the bone triad for the skulls so I'll be able to base coat everything on Gon'Tarr now.

 

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by Arimaythea

[Glitterwolf]

Nice progress!

[Arimaythea]

Last night's progress - I painted the skulls on Gon'Tarr.  I used Aged Bone for the bone sections and a mix of 3:1 Bone Shadow to Leather Brown for the horns.  With that he is fully base coated so I'll be doing some washes next.  I also painted over his base with a layer of Agrellan Earth.  Learned a lesson from that - I should have painted the base a coordinating color before using the texture paint because the cracks that appear in the texture show the green stuff through them - woops!  Have to figure out how to retroactively fix that. 

 

I also cleaned up the flash and mold lines I could find on Joeliyn and gave her a bath.  I put some green stuff down on a base and used the Happy Seppuku Temple Courtyard stamp for some rough stone texture. 

 

 

[Arimaythea]

Latest updates - Gon'Tarr got a bunch of washes!  GW Drakenhof Nightshade for his blue tuft.  GW Seraphim Sepia for the leather, base, and skills.  GW Agrax Earthshade on the staff.  GW Nuln Oil on the fur and hair.  I tried using the wash medium as well in a mix with Military Green for the skin.  His chest also got some Military Green for the nipples.

Joeliyn got primed using Reaper's white primer.  I also did few quick base coats to start planning out her colors (her cloak still needs some more layers to smooth out the color since I primed white.)  I went with Imperial Purple for the cloak, Fair Skin for her face, Pure Black for her hair, Dark Highlights for her staff and sword, and Marine Teal for the stone on the staff. 

 

 

 

 

[Arimaythea]

I've had a few more little sessions to work on base coating Joeliyn~  Marine Teal was added to her cape to bring it into another part of the mini.  A few more thin coats of Imperial Purple smoothed out the base color of the cloak.  I used Shadowed Stone for the base, as well as gave her armor/sword a first coat in that (which I have since painted over.)  The base also got a wash in GW Nuln Oil.  The underside of her cloak has been based in Nightshade Purple (I also gave her hair another coat in this as well.)  Rosy Shadow was used for her lips.  I used Bleached Linen on the flower in her hair, eye whites, and some parts of her clothing (under armor bits, gloves, panels on the cape-thing.)  I also used Weathered/Shadowed Stone and Nightshade Purple in her eyes.  Dragon Bronze on the staff and sword hilt (I also plan on adding this to some parts of her armor and cape, but that will be one of the last things I add.)  Blade Steel for the sword.  Filigree Silver for the armor. 

 

Her base coats are nearly done but just need a bit of touching up in some spots.  I'm a bit nervous about the highlighting process for both minis since I'm still a very novice painter but hopefully I don't mess them up too bad! :)

 

 

 

Edited May 27, 2019 by Arimaythea

[Warlady]

Looks like you are doing well so far.  I like that green orc skin.

[Arimaythea]

Tonight I did a lot of detail work on Joeliyn.  I tried to define the eyes a bit more with Nightshade Purple (so much painting over mistakes and trying again).  Outlined a lot of the edges on the armor and cape with Dragon Bronze.  I also applied several different GW washes to her (Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade, Seraphim Sepia, Drakenhof Nightshade, Reikland Fleshshade.)  It bugs me when I take pics to share and looking at the minis zoomed in I see so many spots I need to fix, oh well!  Once I fix up those spots, I really can't procrastinate from working on the highlights anymore lol.

 

[Arimaythea]

Our Curse of Strahd adventure starts tomorrow so I'm in a bit of a hurry to try and finish up these minis so we can play day 1 with them!  I spent a few hours last night doing highlights on Gon'Tarr.  I am happy with him and I think I will call him done at this point (except for sealing and basing.)  

 

Didn't really use much in the way of new colors, just mixed a lot of what I had used already to create some lighter/darker shades for giving him some more contrast.  The past few painting sessions I've started using a wet palette and a Raphaël Kolinsky sable brush and GOODNESS do those make a huge difference in both speed and quality of painting.  I love them.

 

 

Editing to add what I think is all the Reaper colors I used on Gon'Tarr - there may have been a tiny drop of another color or two in a mix somewhere but I can't remember now.

 

Edited June 1, 2019 by Arimaythea

[Arimaythea]

I finished them just in time for our first session of the campaign yesterday!  

 

I added some basing to Gon'Tarr - some Army Painter grass tufts.  I also sealed him, and learned that brush on sealer has a tendency to bubble.  I tried popping them as I was going but missed some - which are most obvious on Gon'Tarr's cape.  Looks fine in person but stands out in photos, oh well.  I'll have to be more careful with the sealer next time.

 

For Joeliyn, I used some Amethyst Purple to mix some intermediate shades to create layers on her cloak.  I added some purple in her hair to give her highlights.  Added some shading to her face with Rosy Shadow and Fair Shadow, and highlights with Fair Highlight.  I added some light and dark brown lines (Dark Highlight mixed with Fair Shadow and Ebony Flesh) to her staff then washed over them to create a more organic wood grain look.  Used Surf Aqua and Dragon White to highlight the stone in her staff and on the back of her cape.  I dry brushed her base with a couple different stone grays and added some mossy looking flock that I got from my FLGS.  Her base is my favorite part in person!

 

 

Here is the Show Off thread:

https://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/86618-03879-gontarr-orc-shaman-and-14604-joeliyn-sister-of-the-blade/

Edited June 3, 2019 by Arimaythea