Female Mage on Stairs - Dark Sword Miniatures [Completed]; a proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon

My absolute worst fear came true while putting the finishing touches to the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs figurine. I messed up so bad that I had, in my infinite impatience, gouged out a small hole in her right eye dislodging even the primer coat. I was trying to correct some mistakes and ended up making things much worse. If you think I'm exaggerating, take a look at the third last photo in this blog to see how bad she looked prior to my desperate attempts to fix the mess. What you see below is the best I could do to patch things up. Here then are photos of a completed Myrcella.

Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs [Completed]

Female Mage on Stairs was painted as a proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon

Colour scheme sought to convey this Game of Thrones character's sweet demeanour

Because her eyes gave me so much trouble, I subsequently lost all appetite for my initial ambitious plans for her eyes. I had intended to paint in some greens as well as highlights on her eyes to make them 'pop'. Although my miniature painting skills were a bit rusty after a rather long period of not working on 'organic subjects', it didn't excuse the horrendous hack job I did on Myrcella's left eye. I suppose I had best leave the painting of colours and highlights of eyes in larger scale miniatures such as 54 mm, 70 mm or even 80 mm figurines until I have more experience under my belt.  

Myrcella's clothes are a combination of sweet pastel colours like peach, pink, light orange, and mint green 

Myrcella's blonde hair has a yellower hue compared to the sandy stone base

If you haven't been following the frequent work-in-progress posts on Myrcella, the latest bits that got painted were her wrist band (on her left wrist), hair and eyes. I also had to retouch the skin tone in and around her right eye socket due to the paint chipping from the said area.

Back view of the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs

Minty greens aren't visible here, and shows how an alternate colour scheme would've looked like

Her hair colour was a bit to close in hue to the sand stone base with the former being yellower. In fact, if I wasn't trying to paint her as Princess Myrcella Baratheon I would most likely have painted the base in a light greyish colour for greater contrast. But based on the Game of Thrones books/series Myrcella was residing in Dorne hence the sandy colours for the stony steps architecture.

Side view (left) of the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs

'She had all of her mother's beauty, and none of her nature.' - Tyrion Lannister

360 view of the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs
For a 360 degree view of the Female Mage on Stairs, please check out the YouTube video below. For videos of other miniatures I have painted, kindly visit my YouTube channel at FourEyedMonster Miniatures. Please choose high definition (HD) for the best video viewing option.

Bittersweet literally sums up how I feel about the paint job I've done for Princess Myrcella. Bitter on how I let impatience get the better of me and result in a hair pulling experience trying to correct a very bad rookie error. And sweet in that I loved how she turned out, especially the way the colour scheme manages to convey a sense of sweet innocence that is Myrcella's demeanour.    

This was how Myrcella looked like prior to the damage limitation I performed on her right eye

While the 28-mm heroic scale Dark Sword Miniatures figurine is pretty small, it is well sculpted. The Female Mage on Stairs ticks off almost every item in a fantasy miniature painter's wishlist: gorgeous hair, prominent facial features, beautiful clothing, well proportioned figure, simple yet effective base, no assembly required apart from putting the figure onto the base, etc. It's no wonder Patrick Keith is one of my favourite miniature sculptors. This figurines is an example of his sculpting skills. 

Female Mage on Stairs compared to a 32-mm paperclip

Female Mage on Stairs compared to a five sens coin

One of the reasons why the characters in George RR Martin's fantasy universe inspire so much of my miniature painting is the colour diversity involved. It's a nice counterbalance to projects from the Star Wars universe - the Galactic Empire can be monotonous with its black, grey, white and occasional browns and reds. Speaking of which I will likely start working on a short Star Wars project while I carefully plan the colour scheme for my next Game of Thrones character. I also want to draw again after a year of 'graphite-deprivation'. The usual case of so much to do but so little time - our most precious commodity. Oops, there goes another second! Thanks for spending it checking out my blog.

Female Mage on Stairs [WIP - Skin Tone]; used as proxy for Princess Myrcella of House Baratheon

Personally, painting skin is the most enjoyable part of working on a miniature. To me at least, the skin tone is one of the key things that determines whether a miniature looks 'alive' or not. That and the eyes which ironically is my least favourite part of painting a miniature, which is why Princess Myrcella's eyes remain unpainted and put off until the very last. Here she is then with one of the two main ingredients of what would eventually make her into a Victor Frankenstein she's alive moment.   

Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs: latest work-in-progress on her skin tone

The Female Mage on Stairs is being used as proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon

In terms of the skin tone colour scheme - I decided on a fair skin with a hint of tan starting to show. After all Myrcella has been soaking up the sun in Dorne for a while now. It was a case of using a lighter hand on the highlights as opposed to adding any particular 'tanned hue' into the mix.

Skin tone highlights on Myrcella's left arm focussed on the upper arm and elbow

Myrcella's hair remains undone and will be the next part to be painted

Skin tone has more shadow hues towards the back of the arms

In a way, the addition of skin tone hues has brought all the colours even closer together in harmony. Seeing colours in isolation can give an erroneous view of how the final scheme will eventually turn out. This is something I continue to struggle with as the urge to tinker with a hue without first seeing how it will look next to another colour is always there, like an itch you can't scratch. Sometimes the only way around this is to trust in your original vision. If all else fails, you can always adjust the errant hues accordingly. But your original vision still has to be there as a target to aim for. 

Side view (right) of the Female Mage on Stairs work-in-progress

Addition of skin colours has, in my opinion, further improved the overall colour scheme

Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints were the only paints I used in painting Myrcella's skin tone. It's based on a Marike Reimer recipe, I used colours like Oxford Blue, Pale Violet Brown, Beige Red, Basic Skin Tone and Pale Sand but in differing ratios than stated in the original recipe. I've found this mix of colours to be very versatile and they are one of my favourite go-to skin colour recipes.

Princess Myrcella holding on to a book, coloured here in the orange hues of Dorne

So that's it for my progress update on the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs which I'm using as a proxy for my Game of Thrones miniature painting project. While not entirely costume-accurate, the mini does have potential as a Princess Myrcella proxy especially if the colours conform to what one would expect of the character when she was in Dorne. I must admit this mini is turning out better than I expected. Mind you that doesn't mean I believe I did a brilliant job with her but it does give a sense of satisfaction that I'm not as bad as I think. That I'll gladly take ... for now.

Female Mage on Stairs [WIP - Boot, Pants and Base]

There was only so much black I could take. As fun as the Bandai Darth Vader model kit is, I had to take a temporary step back from all the gloomy hues in order to work on my Game of Thrones project. I'm using a Dark Sword Miniatures figurine namely the Female Mage on Stairs from their Elmore Masterworks line as a proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon. The miniature's clothing colour scheme was inspired by the various dresses Princess Myrcella wore while she was in Dorne and betrothed to Trystane Martell. It comprises pastel-like hues of green, orange, peach and pink. 

Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs, work-in-progress proxy for Princess Myrcella Baratheon

Crack on the base was actually quite difficult to bring out through a combination of paint and wash

Using minty green hues on Myrcella's pants and boots was a bit of a risk on my part as I wasn't sure if it would work. To be honest, I'm still not sure. Part of me loves the resulting contrast and part of me feels that maybe I went too far. A clearer picture should surface once her hair and skin is painted.

Oops ... the primer coat is starting to come off her hair

Back view of the Dark Sword Miniatures Female Mage on Stairs, work-in-progress

Her hair and skin tones has yet to be painted

As befitting Dornish architecture, the base was painted in sandy desert-like colours. Some 'grass' was added to the front of the base to help liven up rather dull colours of the base. At this stage, the overall colour scheme is fairly muted. Hopefully this will make what comes next 'pop' even more.

Side view showing the contrast between the pink/peach/orange hues versus the minty greens

Some grass was added to the base for to 'liven' things up

What's next are Princess Myrcella's hair, skin tone and facial features. These next bits will make or break her. All I have done so far will be for nought if I don't get them right. 

Game of Thrones Princess Myrcella Baratheon, work-in-progress 

As for Vader, never fear for he should be completed by the next post. I plan to finish him first before resuming work on Princess Myrcella. I had desperately needed this infusion of bright pastel colours. All that black was starting to get to me. Fully invigorated, I'm now ready to complete Vader. And start working on other new stuff as well. But first Vader then more of Myrcella. Till then, it's bye for now.

Female Mage on Stairs [WIP - Dress]

Despite an initial reluctance to start work on Dark Sword's Female Mage on Stairs largely due to a less than adequate primer coat applied during my early days in the hobby, in the end I couldn't resist giving it a go anyway. Other than some lost details (such as buttons) on the upper portion of her dress and potential roughness showing up on her skin, I believe I can still make it work ... somehow.

Dark Sword Miniatures' Female Mage on Stairs, work-in-progress on her dress

Dress colour scheme is a mixture of pastel pink, peach and orange

A semi-botched primer coat means it'll be an uphill battle all the way when painting the mage

Early progress on the Female Mage on Stairs centred on achieving suitable contrast as well as smooth transitions on her dress's light pastel colour scheme. I would like to believe that my understanding of colours and acrylic paint techniques have improved up to a point where I could do both. But credit is also largely due to the well sculpted dress which made the overall process easier.

Beautifully sculpted clothing complements the ...

... equally well sculpted hair

Her hair will be painted to either contrast the orange sash or complement the pink dress 

Going forward, I am tempted to go off at a tangent with regards to her overall colour scheme. To give you a hint about what I mean, the mage's hair will be painted to either complement the pink dress (status quo) or to contrast the orange sash (the tangent I am referring to). Both are appealing choices and for the moment I am at a lost as to which path I should take ... perhaps the road less travelled.  

The many folds in her dress made achieving contrast on a light pastel colour scheme that much easier

Achieving a contrast and smooth transitions for the mage's dress was a key priority at this stage

Going forward, there is a likelihood her overall colour scheme could go off at a tangent 

Coming in only two separate parts, the Female Mage on Stairs was easy to assemble and looks deceptively easy to paint. It's anything but. Painting 28-mm figures from the Dark Sword Miniatures line never fails to be a challenge and it's proving no different for the mage. While the bad primer coat isn't helping, it's the very simplicity of the miniature that makes it difficult to paint well and create a 'wow' factor if you will. But since I always find myself improving, however slightly, when working at such a small scale, it's a challenge worth taking. That I get to paint her in Asian skin tones is icing in the cake as I haven't had much opportunity to do so in my miniature projects. Best I get to it then.

Replenishing my project pipeline [2Q 2015]

It kinda crept up on me that the number of miniatures left to paint had been slowly dwindling since the fourth quarter [4Q] of last year. This has been due to a fairly busy period in terms of hours spent on the hobby, especially in the previous two quarters 4Q 2014 and 1Q 2015. For someone who paints miniatures one at a time as well as rotates among his projects while in mid-progress, this is about as busy as it gets. To add to my project pipeline, I assembled three more miniatures - one small, two big.

Two women and an evil bloke, new additions to my project pipeline

Beautiful doesn't even begin the describe the latest Nocturna Models 70-mm (1:28 scale) resin miniature. My self studies on figure drawing made me appreciate even more just how well this resin figurine was conceived and sculpted. It easily makes my Top Five all-time favourite miniatures, at least for the time being. She is prevented from topping the list because I don't really fancy the weapons that she is carrying on both hands. But both does naturally fit the dynamics of her pose. 

Nocturna Models Battle Chick, assembled and unprimed

It's great to see a female figure that doesn't have over-sized boobs for once

To my eyes, the Battle Chick has predominantly Asian features and will be painted as such

Assembling Loki from Knight Models (another figure at 1:28 scale) was more of a challenge that I had first anticipated. Due to some miscalculations on my part, Loki's left foot ended up dangling in mid-air after he was glued to his throne. This necessitated the use of Green Stuff which I sculpted to resemble his rocky throne so that his foot had something to rest on. So boys and girls, the lesson that needs to be re-learned here is the importance of dry fitting. Never underestimate it like I did in this case. I also used the extra putty left over to plug (or rather sculpted to resemble clothing) some gaps between Loki's arm joints. Most gluing contact points comprised the Super Glue-Pure Baking Soda combo to ensure strong bonds, especially on the plastic sprue behind Loki that was added to stabilise the miniature's centre of gravity. More on Loki's assembly issues were posted on my other blog.

Knight Models Loki, assembled and unprimed

Back view of Loki, with extra support from a piece of plastic sprue

Finally I dug up another Dark Sword miniature I had in storage - this one already primed, badly I might add as I was still new to the hobby - that is the Female Mage on Stairs sculpted by Patrick Keith. Together with the Battle Chick, the Female Mage will allow me to hone my skills on painting Asian skin tones as well as to try painting eyes to resemble slightly slanted almond-like shapes. Most if not all miniatures are sculpted with Caucasian features but both the Battle Chick and Female Mage have Asian-like features which I believe can, with some careful painting, made to look oriental. 

Dark Sword's Female Mage on Stairs, assembled and primed

Many folds of clothing would provided some practice on blending and layering

Female mage's features also has that Asian look

As much as I hate assembling miniatures, I never fail to get excited at the anticipation of putting colours on the freshly prepped figures. I guess it makes up for the hemming and hawing I go through before the first pieces are even glued together and the whole piece is eventually primed. Speaking of which, both Loki and the Battle Chick have yet to be primed. For once, this isn't due to my procrastination but rather constant rain which has ramped up humidity to very high levels. Priming will have to wait for more sunny days ... better safe than sorry, although the Tamiya Fine Surface Primer has worked before under humid conditions. After all, patience is always key in this hobby.