Ax Faction Victorian Darling [Completed]

Having taken forever to paint the Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, I made one final push to complete work on the Ax Faction 32-mm miniature. So with her hat, bustle, pistol and lamp painted and her white vest repainted in teal/turquoise colours - the Victorian Darling is presented below in all her glory, warts and all. She was a challenging piece but one well worth the effort.

Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter

Vest was repainted in teal/turquoise to complement her boots

Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, side view (left)

Originally based on an anime character called Squid Girl, the Victorian Darling's colour scheme underwent metamorphosis from a simple white-sky blue combination into something almost unrecognisable that you see before you.  It was based on a wedding theme I saw online (see photo below) that incorporated a orange-teal/turquoise-white-blue-brown colour scheme.

Although changing the Victorian Darling's vest from white to teal/turquoise reduces the contrast between her hair and clothes, I went ahead and did it anyway because the alternative was a badly painted white vest. I couldn't get a decent result for the white vest so its colour had to be changed.

Her long and flowy bustle was well sculpted

Victorian Darling's pistol is kept in a light-orange holster

Red tentacles on the base as well as yellow hat provide some warmth to contrast the clothes' cool colours 

For comparison, I shot a photo of the Victorian Darling without her bustle on. A 360 degree view of her with and without her bustle can be seen in the YouTube video towards the end of this blog post.

Victorian Darling's bustle which was painted greyish-blue

Victorian Darling feeling drafty without her bustle

360 view of Ax Faction's Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter
For a 360 degree view of the Ax Faction Victorian Darling 32-mm scale miniature, please check out the YouTube video below. For other videos, please visit my YouTube channel FourEyedMonster Miniatures. Also be sure to choose the high definition (HD) option when viewing the videos.

So yet another fun piece is done and dusted which means one less work-in-progress (WIP) miniature on my paint table. But knowing me and my bad habits, it will likely be replaced by even more new miniatures to paint thus adding to my already overflowing project pipeline. Like the Borg collective, miniatures on my to-do list continue to grow exponentially and resistance is sadly futile. All Star Trek geekery aside, I wish you a pleasant week ahead, or what's left of it anyway.     

Ax Faction Victorian Darling [WIP - Hair plus preliminary work on clothes and weapon]

After a fair bit of contemplation on how I was going paint my chosen colour scheme on the 32-mm Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, I realised I had to make some modifications or risk having the miniature look extremely dull. Her well detailed corset and skirt cried out to be painted any colour but white so I went with a greyish blue scheme instead. To stay partially true to my initial intentions, I painted her vest white and even then I face temptation to repaint it in teal. So instead of being predominantly white as per the original colour scheme, her clothes will now mainly be in blue.

Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, work-in-progress on her hair, weapon and clothes

Meanwhile, I had very nearly chickened out and reverted to type when painting the Victorian Darling's hair. But my sense of adventure prevailed and I ditched natural hair colours for a very nontraditional bright sky blue. This means I am still staying partly true to anime character Squid Girl (protagonist in Shinryaku! Ika Musume) in terms of her overall colour scheme (especially her hair).

Pastel orange trimmings were added to heighten contrast in a predominantly blue colour scheme

Leaning towards a teal/turquoise-blue combo for the Victorian Darling's boots

To 'heighten' the blues in the Kraken Hunter's clothes, I added orange trimmings. This isn't rocket science but just a simple use of complementary colours. Also to add contrast, I painted the weapon shaft a very dark neutral brown. Not shown here is her holstered pistol which has yet to be painted.

Victorian Darling's hair was painted a very nontraditional sky blue

Currently, the Victorian Darling's vest in painted white and will remain so unless I have a change of heart and paint it teal or turquoise, which incidentally are the colours I plan to paint her boots. Certain parts of her corset (upper chest area) were painted as sheer fabric to make her more risque.

Her vest remains white ... for now

Weapon shaft was painted dark brown to set it apart from the largely pastel-coloured clothes

The more I work on the Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter, the more impressed I am by the amount of details sculpted into this Ax Faction miniature. Other than looking good, such details also provide added impetus for me to improve my painting skills. That surely can only be a good thing.     

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!     

Ax Faction Victorian Darling [WIP - Base & Colour Scheme] aka Kraken Hunter

Whilst looking for inspiration on what colour scheme to use for the 32-mm Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter resin miniature, I had consciously limited my search to a limited-palette of colours that also renders the miniature slightly more cartoon-like. To that effect, I realised that my previous anime character reference (i.e. Squid Girl, the protagonist in Shinryaku! Ika Musume) suited my purpose perfectly. Some tweaks to this simple palette that takes into consideration the more detailed sculpting on this Ax Faction miniature should make the colour scheme work. Hmmm, working with bright anime colours seems to have raised my optimism to a ridiculously high level. 

Unpainted Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter (sans lamp, gun and bustle) atop the painted base

Using the protagonist in Shinryaku! Ika Musume as a colour scheme reference

With the exception of my work on the Knight Models Zombie Girl, I rarely pay much attention to a miniature's base. One of the main reasons for this particular failing of mine is that I tend to paint the base last and by that stage I am already bereft of any inspiration and enthusiasm for the miniature I am working on. So for my past few projects, I have tried changing the order in which I work so as to paint the base first while I am still highly pumped with positive energy. My reasoning is to work on parts that least interest me when my enthusiasm is at its highest in the hope it will all even out. 

Back view of the Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter's highly detailed base

Front view of the Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter's base

After failing miserably in my previous attempts to paint realistic wood, I made another go of it with the Victorian Darling's base. My primary goal when painting the wooden planks on the base was to carefully maintain the wood grain effect as well as have each plank show small variations in colour. On both counts, I kinda succeeded ... barely, that or my high level of optimism is clouding my judgement. I tried to increase the highlights on the planks to get better contrast but I didn't pull it off so I decided to leave things alone and be happy with what I managed to achieve in this attempt.

Placing the Victorian Darling/Kraken Hunter base on a test piece water diorama

Ax Faction's Victorian Darling/Kraken Hunter base as seen from another angle

Placing the Victorian Darling's base on top of a test-piece water diorama made it abundantly clear to me that for the whole thing to work, a more dynamic water diorama comprising rough waves will have to be sculpted and painted. Such a diorama would require less usage of realistic water. Instead, more water effects and clay sculpture of waves will be needed. For now, I will worry about painting the miniature itself first as it's pointless to have a a dynamic water diorama without a well-painted centerpiece miniature to tie it all together. Less cart before the horse stuff and all that jazz!

Experimenting with Water Effects and Realistic Water

At the back of my mind is this nagging itch to create and build a diorama that has lots of water. There is something about realistic looking water in miniature scale just seems so cool to me. Previously I had tried using epoxy resin to create a mini water diorama. This time around, I tried using a more user-friendly (and noob-proof) product to create a very quick and simple sea-themed base for yet another miniature I am working on, the Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter.

Creating a quick and simple sea-themed base Woodland Scenics products

Woodland Scenics Realistic Water (left) and Water Effects (right)

Step 1: A square piece was cut out from an IKEA cork pot stand for use as the base. I did toy with the idea of applying some plaster rolls on one side to prevent leakage of the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water through the cork. Instead, curiosity got the better of me and I went ahead without applying any plaster rolls on the cork's surface just to see if any leakage would occur.

It all starts with a cork base

Step 2: A basecoat of Citadel Ceramite White acrylic paint was applied on the cork base.

Basecoated in Ceramite White

Step 3: This was followed by a 50:50 mid-tone mix of Citadel Regal Blue and Mordian Blue paints.

Mid-tone was a 50:50 mix of Regal Blue and Mordian Blue

Step 4: Highlights was painted using different combinations of Citadel Regal Blue, Mordian Blue, Hawk Turquoise, Shadow Grey and Russ Grey. My aim was to create the colours of the sea.

Using blue, turquoise and grey to recreate the colours of the sea

Step 5: Using super glue, a 'fence' was build around the painted cork base in order to contain the Woodland Scenics Realistic Water when it is poured onto the surface of the painted cork base.

Creating a super glue fence to contain the realistic water

Step 6: Very minimal leakage occurred when the Realistic Water was poured into the 'fenced-in' area. However, enough of the Realistic Water had seeped into the porous cork (despite having a few layers of acrylic paint on it) that I had to pour an additional layer of the Woodland Scenics product onto the cork base, that is after allowing the initial layer to cure for 24 hours. The need for a second layer of Realistic Water could also have been required due to shrinkage of the initial layer.

Woodland Scenics Realistic Water was poured into the 'fenced-in' area

Close up of the realistic water effects after two layers, each curing for 24 hours

Step 7: After the two separate layers of Realistic Water had had time to properly cure (a total of 48 hours), I gently squeezed out some thin lines of the Woodland Scenics Water Effects onto the dried layers of Realistic Water. I then used a toothpick to rough up the lines somewhat to look like white caps on an ocean. The Water Effects were allowed to dry for 24 hours, after which it became clear.

Woodland Scenics Water Effects were added to the cured Realistic Water

Water Effects became clear after drying overnight

Step 8: Citadel Skull White was then painted onto the clear (and dry) Water Effects to make them look like white caps on an ocean. The overall effect could have been better if I had made the 'fenced-in' area deeper. But because this was a test piece, I had earlier decided to leave it shallow. 

Step 9: I placed the Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter's base on top to see how the whole thing would look like. It's painfully obvious that the whole thing will look better if I do not use the round plastic base. It's either that or paint the black round plastic base in ocean colours.

Losing the round plastic base will make things more realistic

Pieces of the Ax Faction Victorian Darling aka Kraken Hunter

Ax Faction's Victorian Darling has fantastic details and is already looking like a fun piece to work on. At this stage, I still have no idea what colours she or the kraken tentacles are going to be. For sure it will have to be something that goes with the greenish blue of the ocean. Decisions, decisions!