Kingdom Death Pinup Savior [sans cloak]

Excluding the Pinup Savior's peacock feathered cloak, painting on my second Kingdom Death miniature is essentially complete. It was a joy to paint the Pinup Savior's hair because it was wonderfully sculpted to the extent that individual strands were visible. I went with a dirty blond hair look as I felt it was better suited to the overall colour scheme of the miniature. Additionally, her sword scabbard was painted up to match her vest while the staff had a very simple object source lighting (OSL) effect from the lamp attached to it. Other work comprised her "scarf" and necklace.     

Kingdom Death Pinup Savior sans cloak

OSL effect of the lamp on her staff was kept to an absolute minimum

Sword scabbard was painted in a similar colour to the Pinup Savior's clothes

Staff was painted grey as I felt it was a better fit to the overall colour scheme

Where possible, I painted each individual strand of the Pinup Savior's hair

Hair on the Pinup Savior was beautifully sculpted, in my opinion

From the side, you can see she is leaning slightly backwards, likely due to the absent cloak's weight

A nice angle that accentuates the Pinup Savior's curves

Painting the two Kingdom Death miniatures has given me the confidence to tackle more miniatures of a similar nature. While I am generally pleased with the Pinup Savior's final paint job, there is definitely room for improvement especially on the skin tone transition from shadows to highlights as well as on the eyes. With more minis in the pipeline, there will be ample opportunities to practise.

And then there were two - Pinup White Speaker (left), Pinup Savior (right)

One reason for not painting the Pinup Savior's cloak was the time and effort that it would have required. With the amount of detail in the cloak (see below), it would have taken me a very long time to finish painting. When my brush control improves to a higher level, I might consider painting the cloak. But for now I am happy with the Pinup Savior without her cloak.

Very detailed cloak showing peacock feathers

Originally, the Kingdom Death Pinup Savior was depicted as a redhead in brown-red garments. Although I do like the original colour scheme, I decided to mix it up a little by going blonde/blue.

Pinup Savior in her original brown-red colour scheme; notice her peacock feathered cloak on her back

Without a doubt, I need loads more practice before I can paint better skin tones and eyes. One thing I could try is to strike better balance between thinning a paint versus the resulting chalkiness that arises from being diluted with too much water. Some added flow improver/enhancer could be the solution. Certainly wouldn't hurt for me to try it out in my next miniature. Till the next post, thanks for reading!

Kingdom Death Pinup Savior [WIP - Clothes and Shoes]

For the Kingdom Death Pinup Savior's clothes, I decided to paint a blueish-grey colour scheme with a checkered pattern for her skirt. Initially, I wanted to go with a red colour scheme but after painting so many Word Bearers, I felt I needed to mix it up a little. It was a toss up between green and the colours you see below. I did, however, manage to incorporate some green into the checkered design.

Checkered skirt design for the Pinup Savior was actually inspired by Scottish kilt designs

Natural flare of the skirt helps accentuate the skirt's design

For the checkered skirt design, the vertical lines were not as pronounced as the horizontal lines

Bird eye's view of the front of the Pinup Savior's skirt

Bird eye's view of the back of the Pinup Savior's skirt

Some concept work prior to actual painting of the Pinup Savior's clothes

Final results of the checkered skirt were not as detailed as I initially envisioned. Painting the design was more difficult than I had anticipated which meant less lines were painted on the Pinup Savior's skirt. Ideally, the final results should have mimicked my concept art (see above) but I decided to quit while I was ahead before the whole skirt became a jumbled mess of paint splatter. But with every miniature that I attempt to paint comes a better grasp of what is needed to improve for future minis.   

Can you spot her big toe sticking out of a leather shoe?

Meanwhile, the Pinup Savior's boots were given brownish-ochre colours to stimulate treated leather. Having her big toe pushing out of one of the leather shoes was a nice sculpting touch. I tried my best to do justice to that little bit of detail. Below are some other shots of the work-in-progress Pinup Savior. Her sword (not shown in the photos), staff, hair and base remains unpainted.

Normal front view of the work-in-progress Kingdom Death Pinp Savior

Existing clothes colour scheme is screaming for a blonde hairdo

Metallic designs on her belt hints at a gothic attire

Her unpainted hair reminds me of the silver hair of Daenerys, a Game of Thrones character

Next up for the Kingdom Death Pinup Savior will be her hair. I am currently leaning towards her having a blonde look as gold/yellow goes well with blue. More progress pictures soon ... hopefully!

Kingdom Death Pinup Savior [WIP - Skin Tone]

Long neglected, the Kingdom Death Pinup Savior finally got the attention she deserved as I started work on the miniature by painting her face, skin and stockings. Thus far, she has been a pleasure to paint as the sculpture is fairly detailed which makes a painter's job that much easier.

Kingdom Death Pinup Savior with completed flesh colours

To paint her skin, I used a paint recipe developed by a painter whose work I admire, Jen Haley. It involved the use of Reaper Master Series Paints comprising colours such as Fair Skin, Golden Skin, Tanned Skin, Ashen Brown, Fair Skin Highlight. For her eyes, I used Citadel colours such as Skull White and Chaos Black as well as the Reaper Brown Liner, which I also used to paint her garters. I plan to do a more in depth review of the Reaper Master Series Paints at a later date. 

Holes in her stockings was a nice touch to the resin sculpture

Painting the Pinup Savior's eyes was a tough challenge for me because I wanted to try painting in the light reflections on her pupils. While the overall result was not all that I wanted it to be, I hope to improve over the coming months as I have a lot of miniatures in the project pipeline that will require the painting of eyes as well as flesh/skin tones. This is one skill I am determined to master.   

On her left thigh is a small hole which is meant for the assembly of her sword

For the Pinup Savior's stockings, I wanted to achieve a see-through white nylon stocking effect. I was happy with the final result, and the sculpted holes in her stockings helped provide some depth and contrast to the overall paint job. Kudos to the sculptor for adding the stocking holes.   

Garters make the stockings stand out even more

Initially, I had used the Reaper Brown Liner on her garters as a means to block out the area before painting a more dark and opaque colour. However, I really liked the translucent effect the Brown Liner had on the flesh, not unlike what you would see on some real-life stockings, so I left it as it is.

Small of her back had been damaged slightly from a previous incident

Although the paint job on the small of her back was quite rough, I had expected this because of a certain incident with this miniature. This particular area had the worse of it when I tried to remove the initial primer with a hobby knife, resulting in her back being damaged by knife marks.

Long legged beauty

Even looking at her sideways, you can tell that the miniature has been wonderfully sculpted

From this angle, the shading on her abs is more visible

Well, I can't wait to continue painting the Kingdom Death Pinup Savior. Currently finding a suitable checkered design for her skirt. I am also trying to decide between painting her as a blond, red/auburn or black haired beauty. It will have to match the colour of her skirt which will be predominantly blue. Stay tuned for further progress reports on the Pinup Savior! 

Testing the Waters (Part 2/2) - Using epoxy resin to make water in a diorama

In the first part of my initial attempt at creating realistic water in a miniature diorama, I had outlined the steps involved in constructing the "vessel" to contain the body of water as well as painting a colour scheme for water found in still ponds or hot springs. To "make" the water, I used the Tamiya Clear Epoxy Resin, which just happened to be the most convenient product available at the time. In the future, I might try the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water but it's the Tamiya one for this project.  

Tamiya Clear Epoxy Resin was used to "make" water

Add resin and hardener in a 2:1 mixture and stir

Detailed instructions were included in the box and they specifically called for the use of a weighing scale to measure out the 2:1 ratio needed the mixture of resin to hardener. As I did not have a scale with a display of 1 gram increments I had to improvise by measuring the ratio using volume instead of weight. Please note this is not the proper way to do it because both the resin and hardener would have different densities. The mixture was stirred well before it was poured into the shallow hole.

Resin and hardener mixture was poured into the shallow hole

Tamiya recommends using its enamel paints to colour the resin mixture. But I decided to try using Citadel acrylic paints instead and they seemed to work well enough though only time will tell for sure if there are any side effects to using acrylic paint on the Tamiya epoxy resin. In this project, I used a clear epoxy resin for the water and not the coloured epoxy resin as I was unsure of the side effects.

Before adding paint (left); after adding paint (right)

With temperatures reaching as high as 35 degrees Celsius where I'm at, the epoxy resin hardened enough to be removed from the "mould" within six hours of mixing the resin and hardener. But it is best to leave it for about 24 hours to ensure proper hardening. There is a possibility I may have added too much hardener because the final epoxy resin product looked a tad cloudy (a known side effect).

Hardened clear epoxy resin

Hardened epoxy resin with Citadel acrylic paint added to it (or is it Kryptonite?)

Final results were a mixed bag of nuts (see pictures below). It was fairly realistic for still or even very slow moving water. However, it did lack the "wow" factor of say ripples or small waves to depict at least some movement of water. Other than that, I was fairly happy with the outcome.    

After epoxy resin had hardened: Realistic looking still water

Front and back views of the pond / hotspring

 
I had attempted to sculpt some waves on the epoxy while it was in the process of drying - done at hourly intervals to determine at which stage the epoxy was the most pliable. Unfortunately, I was unsuccessful as the epoxy resin always resumed its original shape after I had tried sculpting it.

A quick search online shows that there are in fact better alternatives:
(a) Make a mould of sea waves out of silicone for the epoxy resin to set in. But needless to say, my skill level is way too low to try this technique.
(b) Use another chemical product such as the Woodland Scenics Water Effects which can be applied on top of the hardened epoxy resin. This is one option I am considering for future projects.

Thanks for reading and until the next post, stay happy and well. 

Testing the Waters (Part 1/2) - Laying the groundwork for making water in a diorama

One vivid childhood memory I have was of me walking into a small hobby shop and being awe struck by the many World War II dioramas on display. One particular diorama grabbed my attention and just wouldn't let go because the modeller had constructed realistic looking water as part of the scene. To a little kid with no knowledge whatsoever of the hobby, the thought that something like that could be done was simply mind blowing. Now three decades later, I am having a go at simulating a still water scene for a mini diorama which might be used for some miniature projects in the future.

IKEA Heat - Pot stands made from cork, which form an ideal base for the mini diorama

Firstly, I cut out a section from IKEA's cork pot stand for use as the base for my mini water diorama. Using a pencil, I then outlined the fringes of what will be a small pool of water (more of a pond or hot spring) before carving out a shallow hole with a hobby knife, up to a depth of about 5 mm.  

A section of the cork was cut off and then a shallow hole was outlined before being dug out using a hobby knife

Following this, I added some bits and pieces of scenery comprising smooth pebbles into the floor of the pond/hot spring while laying more jagged edge rocks on the edges. I also used pieces of the cork to create two rock bases on either side of the pond/hot spring as well as add sand on the flat areas.

With all the pieces glued on, it was ready for paint

For the basecoat, I used a mixture of Chaos Black:Adeptus Battlegrey on the rocks and surrounding land area while Skull White was applied on the pond/hot spring. Both the rocks and land area were then given two coats of drybrush i.e. Codex Grey followed by Fortress Grey. Meanwhile, an additional step consisting of a Devlan Mud wash was applied to the land area.

Aiming for a huge contrast in the basecoat application

A combination of drybrushing and washing techniques

Next up was the colour scheme for the water. There was a lot of experimenting done before I finally decided to opt for greenish looking water to stimulate either a still pond or hot spring with algae. To achieve this effect, I mainly used three Citadel colours namely Dark Angel Green, Hawk Turquoise and Scorpion Green. A couple of layers comprising a mixture of Hawk Turquoise with a little bit of Scorpion Green was then applied on top of the Skull White in the water section.

Possible acrylic paint colours for depicting water in a miniature diorama

Basecoat for water

What I was trying to achieve was a hot spring water effect in which geothermally warmed water was seeping out from the deeper end on the right side, and flowing towards the shallower end on the left side. Hence, I painted a transition of darker to lighter colours from right to left. Hawk Turquoise was the main colour with Scorpion Green added to stimulate the shallow end while Dark Angle Green was added to stimulate the deeper end.

Paint job completed and mini diorama is ready for the next step - epoxy resin

In hindsight, I should have added more green to the overall colour scheme. Definitely something to consider for future attempts at painting realistic water. With the paint job completed, the next step involves the use of chemicals to stimulate the actual body of water. That will be covered in Part 2.

Click on this link to go to Part 2.

Seeking inspiration from Hollywood and Mother Nature's palette

After spending months working my Black Legion / Word Bearers army (with not much progress to boot), I am literally running on empty and have been left hankering for more variety in my miniature painting projects. Having always fancied a go at painting fantasy-based miniatures, I decided the time was right for me to start painting my diorama involving the Lord of the Rings Dragon and the Kingdom Death Pinup Saviour miniatures - that has a working title of "A Marilyn Monroe Moment".

Marilyn in the iconic white dress from the film 'Seven Year Itch', 1955

An iconic Hollywood image - re-envisioned in a fantasy setting

Work on the Kingdom Death Pinup Saviour is still in the very early stages and all I have done is to begin work on the skin tone. Painting on the miniature has gotten off to a rough start because priming it with Skull White spray caused a powdery (as opposed to a smooth) layer to adhere to the mini. I will need to shop for a Tamiya Gray Primer as it should be better for minis with more flesh showing.

Very early stages on the skin tone

Work on the Dragon is even further back in the progress timeline with its basecoat yet to be finished. While it might seem silly to seek a different challenge in my projects and still paint red - more so when I have just finished painting some Word Bearers - the reds for the dragon will eventually be much brighter and warmer than the dull-red of Lorgar's warriors.   

Work on the dragon's basecoat is ongoing

While trying to find the best possible colour scheme for the red dragon, I decided to see what Mother Nature had to offer. In particular, two animals caught my eye namely the Scleropages legendrei (red arowana fish) and the naja pallida (red spitting cobra). Both their red scales looked very beautiful and will be the inspirational foundation from which to paint the dragon.

Scleropages legendrei

Naja pallida

Meanwhile, I decided to also continue working on the Word Bearers without neglecting the creative diversity that I sought. That meant resuming work on Cyrene Valantion which is actually a Kingdom Death White Speaker Pinup miniature. One of the reasons I stopped was because I unhappy with way the mini was turning out. But I decided to suck it up and proceeded to repaint the skin and fix my earlier mistakes. While it still needs more shadows and highlights, the skin tone is now looking much better than my earlier attempt. Other parts of this mini is still at the basecoat stage.

WIP - Kingdom Death White Speaker Pinup, my proxy for Cyrene

My approach to both the Pinup Saviour and Dragon will be to start with the mid-tones first and then work towards shadows and highlights from there. It is a bit different than the usual base-to-midtones-then-to-highlights approach that is usually recommended by Games Workshop for beginners. Starting with the mid-tone actually lets me have more control over the application of shadows and highlights. Thanks for checking out my progress on the diorama and I hope to post more updates soon, especially pictures of a completed Cyrene Valantion.