Newbie help with a Kingdom Death mini

[Stranger83]

So I've only really just started to pay attention to painting in the past month or so and I've been trying a few different techniques to get a feel for them. Finally ready to try put it together in a full mini and I love the Kingdom death stuff so I went for a pinup forsaker.

It's in the early stages at the moment, really only done the flesh and put a basecoat down for the boots just to give it an idea of contrast. I've really come to respect this site for the quality of information and minis produced so I'd love to have some input on what I have done so far and how to take it forward.

The biggest thing I'm having trouble with is how to paint her face mask

 

[asoshnev]

If you are planning to go with the color scheme you currently have, I'd suggest the following:
- make boots/armor darker - a couple layers of liche purple should do the trick. Then wash with leviathan purple, highlight with a mix of liche purple + warlock purple, then final highlight with tentacle pink at the very edges.
- mask - depends on the hair color, i guess? Could make it metal (boltgun washed with badab black) or brass (brass scorpion, washed with very dilute mix of hawk torquiose + scull white, then highlight with gold - very simple and looks great!). The horns, probably, base dheneb stone, then commando khaki, wash devlan mud and highlight bleached bone. You can also make a nice effect on her eyes - make them glow green
- hair may be an issue. If you go brass for the mask, then make heir either green or red?
- sword - wow, probably brass? Or bone? Yes, I think I like the bone (washed with devlan mud and highlighted with a mix of skull white/bleached bone) will work great.

It will make a hell of a difference if you put a pin in her feet and stick it into the wine cork, too - makes it so much easier to handle the mini.

Good luck

 

[Bailey03]

You can also find cork at a number of arts and crafts store. Cork from wine works too... but if you have to chug a whole bottle of wine just for the cork you might find you have trouble painting within the lines. But Asoshnev has a good point, finding something to hold your mini will make things a lot easier on you. For larger figures I use a jewelers vice. For small ones like this a cork works just fine.

By the way, you can find a jeweler's vice on amazon or a number of places online. They should be around $20. Cork from an art store is a few bucks or less.
View attachment 17545

When it comes to highlighting and shading, try to paint as if there is a light coming from directly above the mini. People often talk about the stop sign rule. This is helpful for figuring out what to shade each portion of the figure. Think of the basic shape of a stop sign (and excuse my crude text version)

_ lightest
\ light
| medium
_ / dark
darkest

The more up a surface is angled, the lighter the shade you should use. The more down it's angled, the darker. You can set your range ahead of time (lightest to darkest) and then mix your intermediate stages from there. Only a few surfaces (top of the shoulders, and head) are really getting that full light. But, based on how each surface is angled, it should have a different tone in your light to dark range. For example, the top of the left leg (well, thigh) is angled up so it will get quite a bit more light than the bottom of the left leg/thigh. There's a lot of small details (like fingers) where it can be difficult to follow this rule exactly at first. But it can be easier to start with this on large sections like arms, legs, etc.

Smooth blending is important... but that adds another layer of complexity. I'd say get the right colors and shades in the right places first, then you can worry about smooth transitions. If you're just starting to paint seriously, my advice is don't try to get everything right the first time. Just set small goals and try to improve each time. And most importantly keep having fun!

 

[TrystanGST]

Bailey makes a lot of good points. Don't try to get too fancy at first - work on getting the basics down. KD minis can be kind of unforgiving, what with their small size and lots of fine detail. But if you can make them look good, then you should be able to make anything look good. My advice at this point is to get all your colors blocked in, then start working on shading. The spillover of the flesh tones onto other parts is distracting to me.

 

[Stranger83]

If you are planning to go with the color scheme you currently have, I'd suggest the following:
- make boots/armor darker - a couple layers of liche purple should do the trick. Then wash with leviathan purple, highlight with a mix of liche purple + warlock purple, then final highlight with tentacle pink at the very edges.
- mask - depends on the hair color, i guess? Could make it metal (boltgun washed with badab black) or brass (brass scorpion, washed with very dilute mix of hawk torquiose + scull white, then highlight with gold - very simple and looks great!). The horns, probably, base dheneb stone, then commando khaki, wash devlan mud and highlight bleached bone. You can also make a nice effect on her eyes - make them glow green
- hair may be an issue. If you go brass for the mask, then make heir either green or red?
- sword - wow, probably brass? Or bone? Yes, I think I like the bone (washed with devlan mud and highlighted with a mix of skull white/bleached bone) will work great.

Thank you so much for the advise - brass was something that never occured to me, but now you mention it I can see how it would work. Bone is something I always had real problem with in the past, but I'll do some experiments based on what you suggest and see what comes out, if I can make it look right I'll give it a go. As for the hair, I had been thinking a pale blue to offset the purple/blue of the clothing, or do you think that would be too close? I do have plans to work on the armour more - I just put a flat coat of colour down to give me (and you guys) a quick indication of how it would look. I should probably have said that my "main" colour range is Vallejo model colour - having fallen out with Citadel during the twist tops that dried out as soon as you opened them - but I'm sure I can find equivalent paints to use.

It will make a hell of a difference if you put a pin in her feet and stick it into the wine cork, too - makes it so much easier to handle the mini.

Good luck

Whilst paining I actually have her in a kind of clamp like devise, but I had to take her out for the photos as no matter what angle I put the light/camera at I kept getting a massive glare reflection that I couldn't understand - I'll look into the cork however and I have found the clamps to be a little fiddlely.

When it comes to highlighting and shading, try to paint as if there is a light coming from directly above the mini. People often talk about the stop sign rule. This is helpful for figuring out what to shade each portion of the figure. Think of the basic shape of a stop sign (and excuse my crude text version)

_ lightest
\ light
| medium
_ / dark
darkest

The more up a surface is angled, the lighter the shade you should use. The more down it's angled, the darker. You can set your range ahead of time (lightest to darkest) and then mix your intermediate stages from there. Only a few surfaces (top of the shoulders, and head) are really getting that full light. But, based on how each surface is angled, it should have a different tone in your light to dark range. For example, the top of the left leg (well, thigh) is angled up so it will get quite a bit more light than the bottom of the left leg/thigh. There's a lot of small details (like fingers) where it can be difficult to follow this rule exactly at first. But it can be easier to start with this on large sections like arms, legs, etc.

Smooth blending is important... but that adds another layer of complexity. I'd say get the right colors and shades in the right places first, then you can worry about smooth transitions. If you're just starting to paint seriously, my advice is don't try to get everything right the first time. Just set small goals and try to improve each time. And most importantly keep having fun!

Useful info, and I shall try to keep it in mind in future, though as you said baby steps first and I just was trying not to make a massive mess of the blending on my first attempt! I could always do a little more highlighting on the areas you suggest, or do you think that would be too much?

Bailey makes a lot of good points. Don't try to get too fancy at first - work on getting the basics down. KD minis can be kind of unforgiving, what with their small size and lots of fine detail. But if you can make them look good, then you should be able to make anything look good. My advice at this point is to get all your colors blocked in, then start working on shading. The spillover of the flesh tones onto other parts is distracting to me.

Yes, I know that KD might be a little "Out of my league" at the moment, but I love this one and figured I'd dive in at the deep end and see what came out, I can always use it as a reference point in the future to see if I'm improving.

I did start with the blocking in with the purple/blue armour, but then couldn;t decide on the colour of the rest - now that I've got some ideas in this area I'll do that tonight and post an updated pic.



Thanks again to every for the advise so far, It is very much appreciated. I'll take it on board and try to post an update tonight.

 

[Bailey03]

I'm not sure if you're already aware of this, but I'd recommend taking a look at the Kingdom Death contest over at wamp ( http://www.wampforum.com/VB4/showthread.php?t=14354 ). The deadline for entry is Dec 23rd, so as long as you finish before then you should enter this figure. It doesn't matter how well you do, just for entering you get a credit for the Kingdom Death online store. I'm hoping to finish up my entry for the contest this weekend.

 

[Stranger83]

Oh thanks, I’ve seen the WAMP site before as another place for useful info but somehow missed that. I should have this finished by then since I’ve set this week aside for it and there is nothing else on my painting table at the moment. I doubt I’ll come anywhere close to winning, but it’ll be good to throw my hat into the ring and see how I do against the big guns. Free minis always help too.

Well, as suggested I've put some base coats down on everything (well everything but the chains) I think I will go Brass on the mask but for now have just done it on a light brown. Sword I have done the best I can on - still not very pleased with it but I suppose it is better than any bone I've done before.

The hair I made red in the end, I tried a blue but it didn't work very well and the chains I'll do a copper colour as that is one of the few colours I can get right and like. I'm also not sure what colour to do the "horn" should I do it bone too?

Again any input would be much appreciated.