Jotnar's Bane - Troll Hunter [Completed]

Ax Faction's Troll Hunter was a simple yet delightful resin model kit which I had fun painting. Rather than do something drastically different from how she is depicted in the Ax Faction website, I decided to replicate the 'official' colour scheme because it allowed me to try painting a darker skin tone as well as attempt to paint voluminous black hair. Both characteristics were in keeping with my aim to, if possible, try something new in each and every miniature that I paint.

Ax Faction Jotnar's Bane aka Troll Hunter

Thankfully, I am slowly but surely getting the hang of painting the eyes of miniatures. With practice comes muscle memory and the experience in knowing how much pressure to apply when painting the whites of the eyes. This should stand me in good stead when I attempt to paint coloured irises and eye lens reflections on a more regular basis, something I consciously left out for this miniature.

The raven is barely hanging on to the troll hunter's shoulder

PAINTING TIP: When painting eyes, it also helps to mix the paint with a high ratio of flow enhancer / improver because this allows the paint to adhere to the eyes without applying too much pressure from the brush. In my experience, this is important because more often than not, using too much pressure when painting the miniature's eyes is the cause of most mistakes.

Side view (left) - Jotnar's Bane aka Troll Hunter

There was also much less chalkiness in the skin tone, courtesy of a higher ratio of flow improver / enhancer mixed into the paints. A minor drawback to this is the slight glossiness to the skin. Since the Troll Hunter is supposed to be a barbarian, a class that is synonymous with oiled skin, I guess that glossiness of her skin is not too out of place in the miniature's overall look. 

Being a female barbarian, the troll hunter likes to oil her skin prior to battle

For this dark skin tone, I kept it very simple and only used three colours - Bugman's Glow, Cadian Fleshtone and Bleached Bone - mixed to varying degrees. I had contemplated adding a very light green glaze to depict the green veins that you can spot naturally on lighter skin but decided against it at the last minute as I thought it would clash with the oiled skin look I had going for me.

Can you spot the red roses in her hair?

Something I didn't realise until now was the fact that I had never painted black hair before. So being faced with a black feathered raven and a black haired troll hunter meant I couldn't avoid the issue for this painting project. To add volume and depth to the black feathers and hair, I painted a myriad of grey shades against a black basecoat and topped out with a black wash.  

Volume to her hair and depth to the raven's feathers

Her loincloth was painted red to bring out her dark skin. While I did toy with the idea to give her yellow clothing, I guess it was always going to be red. After all, it does match the roses in her hair.

Side view (right) - Jotnar's Bane aka Troll Hunter

With more experience under my belt, I am very much looking forward to future painting projects. With the constant rain this past week, I haven't really dared to prime any miniatures for fear of having the humidity wreck havoc on my primer undercoat. The bad weather does, however, force me to spent more time on the preparation stage (prior to priming), something I always seem to rush through.

Troll head in the midst of petrification

To avoid jinxing it, I won't mention what mini I will be working on next. But it's something I have always wanted to work on, and I believe I have finally found the perfect miniature for it. Hopefully, I can get it assembled and primed by next week so stay tuned for some undead revelations.