Ax Faction Victorian Darling [WIP - Skin tones & Face]

This little beauty from the Ax Faction miniature line is by far the hardest challenge I have faced in painting eyes to date. Partly due to its small size and mainly due to Murphy's Law, I had to repaint the eyes about five times and everything that could go wrong did. To make matters worse, every time I got the facial skin tones right, I messed up by the eyes and vice versa. Why is this a problem you wonder ... well there were instances when my hand slipped and the paint for the face ended up on the eyes and vice versa. Soon I had spent a hair-pulling three (or more) hours straight on her eyes alone.

Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter [WIP on skin tones and face]

Desperate times called for desperate measures and this was such a moment. For the first time ever, I had to use a Kolinsky sable brush to paint the eyes. In addition, it was also the smallest brush I had ever used or a size 6/0 to be exact. It was actually too small because the paint dried up most of the time before reaching the eyes. But it was the only one that could hold a small enough point for me to paint the pupil in the Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter's eye. The art supply shop I buy from only has 2/0 in stock and those were in bad condition so I will have to make do with the 6/0 for now.

Victorian Darling's white stockings were largely painted as sheer fabric

Unless an idea for a stocking design hits me, her stockings will remain plain white

In yet another first for me, I finally used a Vallejo Model Color acrylic paint when painting a miniature. If memory serves me correctly, I think it was Anne Foerster of Reaper Miniatures who said that to know how good a paint range is, you have to try its white paint. So if my experience with Vallejo Model Colour white is anything to go by, I am going to enjoy using this acrylic paint brand. For the Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, I used the Vallejo White to get a smooth finish to her white stockings as well as mixed it with flesh colours to hint at sheer fabric.

Vallejo Model Colour - White

Still unsure if I will use the Victorian Darling's bustle to cover her hiney

Back view of the WIP Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter

There is a bustle (not shown in the photos) that covers the Victorian Darling's back so as to dial down the sexiness of the figurine. I guess it's a matter of personal taste as to whether her back should be covered up. I am fine with either option and plan to take photos of her with and without the bustle.

It kinda seems wasteful to cover up her nicely sculpted back

Still pondering whether to make the upper portion of her blouse into sheer fabric

While a large part of the Ax Faction Victorian Darling's skin tone has been completed, I will still do some touch ups after I have painted the rest of her. Other than further smoothening of the skin tone at her cleavage, I might need to tweak the highlights/shadows of her skin in response to final colours of the clothing. Past experience has shown that how the skin tones look now will change as the rest of the miniature is painted up because how warm/cool or light/dark a colour seems to one's eye is all relative depending on the colour next to it. So the focus now shifts to her clothes ... do stay tuned!