Githyanki (vintage Dark Horse early 80s)

[Choppertown]

Gave a shot at this funky Dark Horse githyanki yesterday. I only had a few Dark Horse pieces circa 1983, not the sharpest sculpts, but always interesting and I loved their newsletter and indie vibe. I pulled out my old Fiend Folio for inspiration.

 

[Glitterwolf]

Oldschool mini!

Nice!

[Mad Jack]

 

 Feeling a sudden urge to boot up Planescape: Torment for a bit...

 

Definitely hits the FF color scheme nicely.

 

[Choppertown]

9 hours ago, Mad Jack said:

 

 Feeling a sudden urge to boot up Planescape: Torment for a bit...

 

Definitely hits the FF color scheme nicely.

 

Thanks!  As a beginner I found it very difficult to layer on such a small sculpt. It feels like the minis nowadays are a larger scale?  So many of my 80s guys are these tiny little things.

[Mad Jack]

 

 Yup - the old Ral Partha and Grenadier minis are "True 25mm" scale, generally 25mm to the eyes or top of the head (it varies from company to company),while Reaper's figures are what's known as 28mm "Heroic" scale... Aside from being just a bit larger overall, they're intentionally sculpted with slightly larger hands, weapons and heads to emphasize the detail and make them more visible when playing with them or displaying them.

A lot of companies that produce their figures strictly for their tabletop skirmish games actually use 32mm as their standard.

 

[Peithetairos]

The sculpt is definitely not the greatest, but looking at the cover I can see where they got the inspiration from. 

 

You did reproduce the colour scheme well.

 

With the next miniature I would focus on delineating areas more. This can be achieved via a controlled wash or with a dark shadow tone, that you apply to borders between areas /surfaces.

 

I think thinning down your paint a tad would also yield better results and make layering easier. 

 

I also use a wet palette. If you do not, give it a try. Really changed the way I painted.

 

If such small sculpts don't provide enough surface try a different approach:

 

1. Basecolour nice and even. Say a dark purple.
2. Make a glaze of a fairly light highlight colour. For purple maybe a bright blue. The glaze can be made using just water (about 5 parts water to paint) or you get a dedicated glaze medium (1:1). The latter is a better idea, as it is acrylic medium and your pigments won't separate.
3. Wet your brush with the glaze and dab it on a piece of tissue. You want some moisture left, but not a wet brush.
4. Now brush towards the highlight area on the miniature. You should get a blend from basecolour to the highlight colour, with pigment being the most concentrated at the end of your brush stroke. Repeat as needed.

 

An example for this technique is this raven:

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

The shield of this miniature was done with a similar technique: First you follow the same steps as above. here it is a dark green basecoat and a RMS Kraken Skin with a bit of green and yellow mixed in glaze. usually the beginning of the brush stroke will not be smooth blend, so you go back in to the transition line with a moist brush (just rinse the one you are using) and feather the line until it disappears. 

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Jeepnewbie]

Very cool, I love old school minis.