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. 

Ax Faction Jotnar's Bane [WIP - Troll Head]

Work on my Ax Faction project begins with the completion of the Jotnar's Bane base which is a dead Troll's head. With the general folklore stating that trolls turn into stone either when dead or when exposed to sunlight, it was a no-brainer to paint the troll head to mimic a rocky/stone formation. For me, the moss on the head is more of an indication that this is a forest troll rather than to suggest the troll has been dead for a long time. I took this approach as I wanted to depict a troll that had just died.

Troll's head that serves as the base for Jotnar's Bane (Ax Faction)

Green moss is an indication that this is a forest troll

Troll head (side view, left)

Portraying a troll that has just been killed by a hunter allowed me to add some variety to the troll head's colour scheme. If you look closely, you will notice that the troll's eyes, teeth and tongue have been painted with muted colours to show as if they are in the process of turning into stone. For the troll's eyes, I added a further dimension by painting them (or trying to anyway) to look cloudy ... kind of like how eyes would look on a dead zombie i.e. accelerated decomposition prior to petrification.

Troll head (side view, right)

Muted colours of eyes, teeth and tongue depict troll is in the midst of turning to stone

Top view of the troll's head

Completion of the base leaves me with just the troll hunter herself to paint. Hopefully I can get most of the job done before the week is over and post up some pictures by the next post.

Jotnar's bane aka the Troll Hunter ... primed and ready for paint

As always, thanks for reading. Till the next update, may you be well and happy. 

First look at Ax Faction miniatures

Way cool was the thought that immediately entered my head when I first laid eyes on an Ax Faction miniature featured at The Jolly Bodgers blog. That miniature was the Forsaken Princess aka Witch Hunter and I knew there and then I had to try painting her. Details on the Witch Hunter were simply mind boggling and the paint job by Avicenna was truly amazing.

Simple but effective packaging for Ax Faction miniatures

To start off my journey with Ax Faction miniatures, I will be working on Raen of Rannoch (Giant Hunter) and Jotnar's Bane (Troll Hunter). Both of these miniatures seem easier to assemble and paint. Later, I will be working on other Ax Faction miniatures including my favourite - the Witch Hunter.

Unboxing of the Giant Hunter and Troll Hunter

Both Raen and the Troll Hunter came with a double sided art card measuring approximately 15cm by 21cm (A5). One side contained art work while the other side had a brief description of the miniature.

Front (left) and back (right) of the Art Card supplied with Jotnar's Bane

Front (left) and back (right) of the Art Card supplied with Raen of Rannoch

Upon unboxing, my very first impression of Ax Faction was that they reminded me a lot of the Kingdom Death miniatures. Details on the Ax Faction resin miniatures were very impressive and assembly range from easy to intermediate difficulty in view some parts being fairly small.

Jotnar's Bane aka Troll Hunter and her resin parts

Raen of Rannoch aka Giant Hunter and her resin parts

So far, all I have managed to do is assemble both miniatures (combination of super glue and dry fitting). During assembly I couldn't help noticing the amount of details on the miniatures. Mould lines were minimal. While I detected some tiny bubble imperfections (none of which damaged the details), it was nothing some green stuff can't fix. I am so looking forward to painting Raen and Jotnar's Bane.

After assembly - Raen of Rannoch (front view)

After assembly - Raen of Rannoch (back view)

After assembly - Raen of Rannoch (base - giant footprint)

While I was washing the Troll Hunter and preparing her for assembly, I accidentally broke the tip of the small bird's wing. It was an utter noob mistake that resulted from me washing it too hard with a brush. Duh ... face palm. But as they say, a silver lining in every cloud and all that jazz. Because of my error, I had the opportunity to try and glue a very small part (less than 2 mm) back to the wing of the bird ... and I succeeded against all odds. It helped that the small broken piece was still attached to the sprue so that made things a whole lot easier. Certainly a hobby confidence booster! 

After assembly - Jotnar's Bane (front view)

After assembly - Jotnar's Bane (back view)

After assembly - Jotnar's Bane (side views)

After assembly - Jotnar's Bane (base - troll's head)

Actual size-wise, the Ax Faction miniatures are fairly similar to W40K minis although scale-wise the former is bigger at 32 mm versus 28 mm for W40K. That is why Raen's height is similar to that of the Ultramarine. Hypothetically, if both were at the same scale, the space marine would tower over Raen.

Raen shown here next to the very first miniature I ever painted

This concludes my initial look at the Ax Faction miniatures. Thanks for reading and stay safe.