Game of Thrones - Shae [Completed]

On my first attempt at painting sheer fabric, I resisted a strong urge to overdo it a la the "wet t-shirt effect" and instead went for a more subtle effect. So the end result was more of a hint of flesh through diaphanous material. A less subtler effect would have made the miniature's paint job look too sleazy.

Shae with a hint of skin showing through the fabric

While admittedly her skin could have been smoother, Shae actually looks nice under normal eyesight. But under a closeup shot with a macro lens, the chalkiness is unfortunately very noticeable. It's ironic that I got a smoother texture for the whitish cloth than her skin since white is so much more difficult to paint. Since Shae was completed, I have had more practice on other miniatures and managed to reduce chalkiness by adding more flow improver/enhancer to paints. A drawback to this is a glossier finish to the skin, so more experimenting is needed to find a technique that works for me.

Game of Thrones - Shae

Painting cloth to stimulate a diaphanous material

Game of Thrones - Shae, side view (right)

For the base, I went with a dark brown wooden flooring which provided contrast to Shae's lighter skin tone and the cloth she is holding. For touch ups, I painted additional highlights on her hair. 

Game of Thrones - Shae, back view

At first glance, Shae seems to be a very simple miniature to paint. While it is true there are only two things of note to the miniature, namely the skin tone and cloth, this makes it all the more important that they are painted well, a feat that I did not truly achieve. Shae is certainly one miniature I would not mind revisiting after a period of time spent further improving my painting techniques.   

Game of Thrones - Shae, side view (left)

Well, Shae has gotten my Game of Thrones miniature painting project off to a reasonable start. Although I am not entirely happy with what I have done with Shae, she did allow me to try out new things and achieve a few firsts like painting sheer fabric. With Shae done and dusted, it's time to look towards the next project ... Jotnar's Bane from Ax Faction. More on the Troll Hunter on the next post. Till then, I leave you with a photo of Nocturna Models Freya next to Dark Sword Miniature's Shae.  

Size comparison between Shae (Dark Sword's heroic scale) versus Freya, Nocturna Models 54 mm scale