Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon [Completed]

Le Petit Chaperon is definitely the toughest challenge I have faced as a miniature painter in my relatively short (soon-to-be) three year journey in this hobby. This 80-mm resin figure from Nocturna Models was not only the largest miniature I have attempted to paint, it was also the most realistically sculpted which meant the margin for error was greatly reduced. There is a finer line between what looks right and wrong because we all have our own preconceived notions on how a fair skinned girl should look like. Painting made-up fictional characters like say an Ork gives one more leeway to err.

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon, a closeup view

As mentioned in a previous blog, Le Petit Chaperon was painted in the colours of the French flag as a visual tribute to the historical origins of the Red Riding Hood fairy tale. Vive La France indeed. Incidentally, Le Petit's blonde hair gave her an overall colour scheme that is found in many other national flags so she actually can be what (and all that) you want her to be ... how cool is that.

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon [Completed]

Down boy ... the dog that is

More work was done on Le Petit Chaperon's skin tone, mainly the addition of some blush to her face to accentuate her cheek bones as well as increase the greens of the veins on her arms. Contrast on her skin remained low ... after all many billions of dollars are rightly or wrongly spent on makeup to look fairer so you could say she is the advertising poster girl for the cosmetics industry. 

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon (Side view from the left)

A Marilyn Monroe moment

No thanks to my clumsiness, I broke the handle of the basket not once but twice in separate locations no less. It was all down to a lack of concentration as I accidentally had my hand on the basket while I was doing something else and put too much pressure thus breaking the handles. Once was bad but twice was unforgivable. Luckily I have grown adept at using the 'super glue-pure baking soda' combo to fix things back to how they were. An alternative fix would have been to sculpt 'green stuff' putty over the damaged part, which in fact is what I did to extend the length of the puppy's leash. I did this to position the leash at a slightly different angle from what was shown on the official artwork. 

Cosmetics can't hide cellulite so tough luck Le Petit

A closeup of the puppy painted as a Siberian Husky

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon (Side view from the right)

My approach to miniature painting has been a fairly minimalist one so that partly explains why I didn't go ahead with two ideas on my mind for Le Petit Chaperon. One was to paint a tattoo of the Chinese character for the word wolf on her right shoulder while the other was to paint a series of freehand designs on both her white stockings. But in the end I felt she looked better with neither.

Painting sheer fabric was made doubly hard due to it being white

To slightly reposition the puppy's leash, I had to use 'green stuff'  to extend its length

360 view of Le Petit Chaperon
For a 360 degree view of the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon, please check out the YouTube video below. For Le Petit, I used a lower ISO setting when taking the video to avoid a 'washed-out' look that sometimes affected miniatures that had a bright/light colour scheme. For videos of other selected miniatures I have painted, please visit my YouTube channel FourEyedMonster Miniatures. Please choose high definition (HD) for the best video viewing option.

Finishing Freya and Le Petit Chaperon has given me greater confidence to tackle other Nocturna Models stuff regardless of their size. I hope to start on the Akelarre Enchantment figure soon and maybe paint the Battle Chick too. In fact, I am so pumped up by the experience of painting Le Petit Chaperon that I am tempted to do both at the same time. Anyway, thanks for following the progress of Red Riding Hood that has taken a rather long time to complete. Hope she was worth the wait.

Le Petit Chaperon [WIP - Hair, eyes, lips and corset]

Taking it slow just about sums up my approach to painting Le Petit Chaperon. I have lost count of the actual hours put into the 80-mm Nocturna Models resin miniature but if I had to guess, I believe at least 60 hours have been spent working on Le Petit so far. Latest work done on her includes giving her blonde hair, green eyes, pinkish lips and a blue corset. At first glance she seems to be in the colours of the French flag ... she is, and there is a reason why I chose to give her a French theme.  

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon, work-in-progress

In its original telling, Little Red Riding Hood is a gruesome tale where both granny and her sweet grandchild end up in the tummy of the big bad wolf. It is in France that the earliest printed version of this fairly tale is known to exist. Back in the 17th century, this tale was known as Le Petit Chaperon Rogue. So as an acknowledgement of her origins, I decided to drape her in the colours of France.

Painted in the colours of France as befitting Le Petit Chaperon's fairy tale origin

As I see it, blonde hair was the best option to go with in view of the red, white and blue clothing Le Petit Chaperon was wearing. Historically, Red Riding Hood has been portrayed in black, auburn and blonde locks so it was just a matter of choosing one I felt best suited to the colour scheme at hand. 

Le Petit Chaperon seems to be staring wistfully into the distance

For a miniature this large - Le Petit Chaperon is roughly 9 cm in height from head to toe - her eyes were large enough to work on without having to use any form of magnification. Although I am sure it would have helped me paint better eyes if I had used a magnifying lamp, I decided to do without. Moreover, her fairly large sized eyes meant I could attempt to paint eyes as how they would look in a traditional 2D painting. Normally miniatures are too small for such an attempt. 

One way to paint eyes on larger scale miniatures e.g. 80-mm

Having blonde hair and fair skin meant her eyes should also be of a lighter shade. Four colours came to mind namely blue, green, grey and hazel. In the end, green was chosen purely because I always had a soft spot for green eyes. It also meant I got to introduce a new colour to the existing scheme.   

Spaces between the joints should be covered up by the cloak which will be added later on

Addition of the cloak should also hide all the imperfections on her back

Vive la France!

Painting Le Petit in the colours of the French flag also put me in the mood for some French music to paint by. Admittedly (and shamefully ignorant I might add) I didn't know of any French singers until roughly 15 years ago when I heard a tune being belted out from an old gramophone in the movie Saving Private Ryan. Later on, I found out that the tune was Tu Es Partout by Edith Piaf. Being an old soul when it comes to music, I loved that tune instantly. It led me to arguably her most famous song La Vie en Rose which in my humble opinion is the most romantic song I have ever heard.

Édith Piaf, a great French singer of old

So it was under the music of old France that my latest progress on the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon was made ... interspersed with some Foo Fighters and my current favourite album i.e. Guardians of Galaxy Awesome Mix Volume One ... good music is good music regardless of the time period involved. Thanks for following my updates on Red Riding Hood so far. She is close to completion now so I might need to take a step back and paint some other miniature for awhile. I find that this helps me spot mistakes I would have otherwise missed if I had continued on without a break. Speaking of breaks, the weekend is upon us yet again so have a good one doing something you love!  

Le Petit Chaperon [WIP - Skin tone and sheer fabric]

Painting skin is hard but doubly so when you are going for a very light skin tone. I find creating contrast at very light shades to be hard but my task was made easier this time by the excellent Vallejo Model Color acrylic paints. On top of that, I also tried to (again) incorporate the greens and blues inherent in light skin due to the existence of veins under the skin ... the whole works if you will ... because the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon 80-mm miniature is worth it, nay demands it. 

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon, work-in-progress on skin tone and sheer fabric

For a long time now, I have hesitated to make much progress on Le Petit Chaperon, which is a fantastic miniature with very well sculpted details. But I finally feel confident enough as well as believe I have the correct acrylic paints needed to tackle this beautiful Nocturna Models figurine.

Le Petit Chaperon's fair skin is tempered somewhat by the sheer white fabric

With the skin tone in place, the reds of her hood and shoes look a bit darker than intended

At this point, I would peg the level of completion for Le Petit Chaperon's skin tone at around 90%. She still needs red glazes to bring her cheeks to life and perhaps some final touch ups towards the final stages of the paint job. Moreover, her lips, eyebrows and eyes have yet to be painted.

Panty and stockings were painted in beige-like colours

Le Petit seems to be suffering from cellulite on her right buttock

If you look closely, you might be able to spot some veins showing through the skin and hopefully see enough contrast in Le Petit Chaperon's really fair skin. In fact, she even suffers from cellulite on her right buttock. Cynics might say it's sloppy prep work but hey, when life give you lemons ...

Huge hole on her back is where the cloak will attach

Le Petit Chaperon's corset will likely have greyish blue hues

I also painted some sheer fabric on Le Petit Chaperon's clothing, mainly on her blouse which looks more like a nighty as well as on her panty and stockings. The former is predominantly white while the latter two are in light beige which is one of the many colours synonymous with sexy lingerie.

Sheer fabric treatment for what to me looks like a nightie

I am fairly pleased with how Le Petit Chaperon is turning out so far. Keeping in mind further touch ups will be needed as more progress is made painting her, I feel I am headed in the right direction. Being such a well sculpted figure kinda adds pressure on me to paint her well and I sincerely hope I can build on the early progress made and do justice to her. Do stay tuned for more updates later.

Putting the red in Red Riding Hood

Of all the colours on the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon miniature, red is to me the most important. Henceforth, every other colour I put on her will need to complement the shade of red I have painted on the hooded cloak. Targeting a hue between an intense bright red bordering on orange and an earthy brown red, I sought a middle ground that hopefully sees the red 'pop' without being too overpowering. I will only know for sure if I have achieved this after painting the rest of her.   

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon gets a splash of red

To prevent an overdose of red I am limited the painting of this colour to only her hooded cloak, shoes and sock garters. Personally, I think painting too much red would overwhelm this miniature and make it look too one dimensional and flat. Moreover, she is Red Riding Hood not the Lady in Red.  

Other than her iconic hooded cloak, Le Petit Chaperon has red shoes and sock garters

Two sides of the red cloak worn by Le Petit Chaperon

Previous blending and layering practice with red colours definitely helps as every new attempt sees smoother transitions from the shadows all the way to the highlights. It's not perfect yet but I'm getting there one layer (or is it blend) at a time. Red is a lovely colour to work with but hard to perfect.

Front view of the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon, work-in-progress

A dynamic sculpture of Red Riding Hood's hooded cloak made painting it a real pleasure

To enhance the reds, I used blue shadows instead of black. I was fortunate enough to get hold of a really old White Dwarf magazine (WD362 February 2010) which back then had the excellent Ask 'Eavy Metal articles, and this issue touched on the use of alternate colours as shadows for reds.

Blue shadows were used to give the reds some 'pop'

Highlights looked yellowish hence were limited lest they reduce the hooded cloak's overall redness

Best view of the blue shadows on Le Petit Chaperon's hood

Le Petit Chaperon's blouse is screaming out for a sheer fabric treatment, tastefully done of course

Meanwhile, her highlights were purposely limited to as few areas as I could get away with. I noticed that if I went crazy with the highlights, the cloak started to look more orange than red. At one stage I had to tone down the highlights with some mid-tone glaze. But that being said, there is a case to be argued for more highlights on her hood (not cloak) especially at the top most part. 

It doesn't matter if it's Prada or Bata, red shoes are always hot

Top view of Le Petit Chaperon's hooded cloak

Also when painting the reds in Le Petit Chaperon, I changed my song playlist from its default blues setting to one with a variety of genres but still dealing with sadness and melancholy. Well it started super sad with one of my favourite country songs Stay by Sugarland but ended in an upbeat song that was released when I was still in my mid-20's (deary me I feel old) i.e. Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer. Both songs and the many in between set up a nice little mood progression for my painting session, transitioning from sad to happy. It never hurts to have good music to paint to! 

Jennifer Nettles and Leigh Nash both offer contrasting skin/hair colour options as well as music accompaniment

Incidentally, the lead singers of the respective music groups I mentioned namely Jennifer Nettles and Leigh Nash also offer an interesting contrast in skin and hair colours, one of which I may yet adopt for Le Petit Chaperon. I leave you with this lovely line from a Sugarland hit ... 'I need a little less hard time, I need a little more bliss'; I hope you have less of one and more of the other in your life.  

A skin tone experiment using Vallejo Model Colors on a Wood Elf Goddess; in prepration for Le Petit Chaperon

Time apart from my Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon project is giving me some valuable insight on how to proceed with painting her colour scheme. For one, I experimented with a more earthy red hue when painting a hooded cloak (on the Super Dungeon Explore Ember Mage) to see if it suited Le Petit's purposes. Well it doesn't, as I feel Le Petit needs a brighter red to bring her Red Riding Hood persona to life. I have also fought off the temptation to quickly start painting Le Petit's skin because I first want to experiment with two skin tone recipes using Vallejo Model Color (VMC) acrylic paints.

Not one but two Dark Sword Wood Elf Goddesses in avatar form

Guinea pigs were needed for this VMC skin tone experiment and none, I feel, were more suitable than Dark Sword Miniatures's Wood Elf Goddesses in avatar form. In fact, I loved how well this metal figurine was sculpted (by Jeff Grace) that I had gotten two of her for this little experiment. One is for painting a light and rosy Caucasian-like skin tone while the other is for a more dark skin tone ala Fanny Neguesha, the wife-to-be of a particularly famous Italian footballer. It's the World Cup 2014 after all and I just had to have a footballing theme to my miniature project somehow. Don't hate!

Wood Elf Goddess primed (left) and straight out of the box (right)

Back view of Wood Elf Goddess that is primed (left) and in its original metal state (right)

Paints I plan to use for this experiment comprise almost entirely of those from the VMC line as some Reaper Master Series acrylic paints were also used on the darker skin. Adapted slightly from the two skin tone recipes created by one of my favourite miniature painters - Marike Reimer on her own how-to-paint DVD - the paints I will use are Basic Skin Tone, Beige Red, Mahogany Brown, German Camouflage Pale Brown, Pale Sand, Green Ochre and Oxford Blue (and also some Reaper Master Series Clear Brights which were not shown in the photo below). Some will be used solely for light skin, some solely for dark skin and some for both. Of both skin types, I have yet to get the correct paint mixture/ratio for the dark skin so I guess that leaves me with painting the light skin first.

A mixture of Vallejo Model Colors for a light and dark skin tone experiment

Finishing the light skin tone experiment will at least give me some idea on whether I would want to proceed painting Le Petit's skin using VMC paints. Since I won't be able to work on Le Petit's skin tone for now, I will most likely paint up the red portions in the figurine since I have made a final decision on the type of red I want to see on her. Getting the reds right will be crucial for Le Petit.

Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon all set for a splash of red paints

That's it for this simple little update on what I have been up to in this insanely hot and dry weather. Thanks for checking up on my hobby shenanigans and do have yourself a good weekend!    

Le Petit Chaperon [WIP - 2 B's and a colour scheme]

Shifting between two projects of hugely contrasting scales - Kingdom Death White Speaker's 35-mm versus Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon's 80-mm - has become less disorientating for me as I get used to the idiosyncrasies of the differently sized miniatures. More importantly, both miniatures regardless of their scale, have been extremely fun to work on so far.     

Using Amanda Seyfried's Red Riding Hood as an inspiration for Le Petit Chaperon

For Le Petit's colour scheme, I sought inspiration from the 2011 film Red Riding Hood starring Amanda Seyfried, which was loosely based on the original French folktale. Three predominant colours in this scheme are red, white and greyish blue. With Nocturna Model's version of Red Riding Hood being sexier than the movie version, the greyish blue bodice covering Amanda is now a corset on Le Petit and Amanda's white blouse looks more like a sheer lingerie on Le Petit. The only red on Le Petit will be her hooded cloak, shoes and maybe red ribbons on sheer white stockings. As for her hair, it will likely be bleached or golden blond, which should go well with either fair or rosy skin.

Likely colour scheme for my version of Le Petit Chaperon

While I may not have the luxury of painting Le Petit Chaperon with an air brush, I am nonethelss relishing the challenge of painting smooth layers for such a huge model by using just nylon brushes with perhaps a little help from a Kolinsky sable brush for fine detail work. In hindsight, the 6/0 brush I have may be too small and its use is likely limited to just her eyes. As the Nocturna Model figure is the most ambitious work I have attempted to date, I could yet be tempted to invest in a larger-sized Kolinsky sable brush for (less fine) detail work such as possible freehand designs on her stockings.

Base and basket (2 B's) of Le Petit Chaperon
Le Petit's base turned out to be a prime candidate for drybrushing as it smartly sculpted with many edges that easily caught highlights from a brush loaded with paint straight from the pot. I wasn't too sure what the 'long wavy parts' of the base were, so I just assumed they were grass and drybrushed accordingly using green hues. Painted earlier, the puppy was added to show relative size. 

Base of the Nocturna Models Le Petit Chaperon

Overhead view of the base showcasing the ground and what I presumed to be sculpted grass

Additionally, I managed to complete a quick paint job on Le Petit's basket of goodies. So in essence, I have completed all of the 'outer parts' of the miniature except for the dog leash. However, the next step will likely be Le Petit herself starting with the challenge of painting her skin showing through sheer fabric. At this point in time I have no idea if I can pull it off but I plan to try regardless.

Le Petit Chaperon's picnic basket - I wonder what goodies are insid

Le Petit Chaperon is one miniature that I want to really take my time on so as to do the best job I can with my current skill level. With that goal in mind, I plan to work on a few miniatures concurrently in order to alleviate the tedium that can somtimes arise from looking at the same miniature for too long. It's the old cliche of too many miniatures too little time but definitely a good problem to have.