Tir-Na-Bor Dwarf with Crossbow

[arogers907]

Hey gang,

Here is the second addition to my Tir-Na-Bor based Mordhiem band.

As I mention in the comments on the page, this guy was fun to paint but hell to prep. I\'m proud of the repair work I did on the head. Also, I\'m happy with the sculpting work on the base.

Mostly though, I\'m pleased with two things. First is the freehand work on the wood grain. I\'m really happy with the way that turned out. I\'ve tried before and never been too terribly satisfied with the result. This time I think I got it. The second thing is the coloring and double highlights in the eyes. It\'s a little more anime-esk that I\'ve done before but I\'m very pleased with it.

I played around with some unfamiliar colors on this guy. Please let me know what you think. =)


Like to voting page...



Two down. Nine to go! =)

 

[jahminis]

looks good for a gamin\' mini...
i feel ya on the repair work some of the old rackham minis need...i have some of the undead centaurs, and just lookin\' at \'em makes my hands hurt...loads of random metal to carve off...

what\'s next on the agenda??? any characters???

cheers
jah

 

[arogers907]

Heya, Jah! =)

Yah. I\'m thinking I\'ll do a character next. The warband will only be between 9-12 models so I\'m doing mostly interesting character models anyway. Which is cool. I will have a couple more crossbow guys and I modded up some axe dwarfs to have swords instead. I have an experiment in mind for the sword guys.

Below is a shot of the two I have done so far. I\'ll probably start a WIP thread to keep track while I add to the warband. I\'m terrible about getting set up to do pics but I\'ll try and keep up with it.

Here\'s the lonesome duo, so far:



Feel free to vote if you want. =)

 

[freakinacage]

i really dont like the mini but you have done a good job - they\'re little fellas aint they?

 

[arogers907]

Hey thanks. =)

Yah. They\'re dwarfs so they\'re a little small. Mostly just short, though. They\'re plenty blocky. Next to other Rackham minis or Privateer Press stuff, they seem a little small. However, after working on GW dwarfs they\'re really not too bad.

The proportionally large heads are fun. Gives lots of skin to play with. ;-)

I don\'t really think it comes out too well in these pictures, but I was playing with much lighter colors for this guy\'s skin tone. I wanted a real pale red head. I was a little worried that it\'d come out looking chalky or pasty but I\'m pretty pleased with it.

What do you guys think?

 

[mattsterbenz]

Cool stuff! I like the base a lot.

Edit: Forgot to mention my thoughts on the skintone. It looks good for what you were aiming for. I\'d put a lighter highlight on a few spots, and a touch of darker shading here and there to give it some more contrast (mainly around the strap on his left wrist). It shouldn\'t change the skintone but rather make it look less flat.

I know what you mean about rough castings. I have a set of the steam powered dwarves, and there\'s some nasty globs and pits all over them. Only way to deal with it is spending a couple hours with a file.

-Matt

 

[Manus]

they are looking good mate - love mordheim and looking forward to see the whole warband

 

[automaton]

Nice work for sure, espcially for a gaming mini. Very neat and precise, good depth with the shading. And yeah the woodgrain looks excellent, well done

I do have one suggestion - just something to think about. From my personal perspective, I think that perhaps the colours are a little confused on the mini. Maybe you are trying too much - a few too many different colours, meaning that things become a little distracting.

I think it might help if you made a decision about 2 or 3 balanced colours, and then jsut stuck within the range of those tones for pretty much the whole miniature. It may sound like you would be restricting yourself, but in my opinion that is not the case at all. I do this for nearly all of my miniatures.

So for example, on your mini there is quite a lot of red, blue and yellow type colours - if you focussed on jsut using these colours in varying amoutns of saturation over the mini, and got rid of the orange and greenish parts (including on the base), the end result might look more unified and \'readable\' to the eye.

I\'m not suggesting you paint the whole mini with bright red yellow and blue - but I am saying that these three colours should form the foundation of all the colours you use. If you want to paint something brown, you could use a red brown...instead of white, you could use a sort of off-white with yellowish undertones...and instead of straight grey, you could introduce some blue into it. Flesh might have different tones of red and blue in certain parts, shadows etc.. You can use this kind of logic for all the colours of a mini.

And then you can use some glazes to create \'echoes\' of these colours throughout the mini, further unifying the scheme.


Anyway...I know that maybe this is going into a bit too much detail for jsut a gaming mini, but it\'s jsut something to think about for future miniatures perhaps. The key point is to put some planning into a coherent, balanced colour scheme for a mini.

 

[Theomar Pius]

If only you had a super sweet custom Mordheim table to play on....

For whatever reason, the elbow stands out as particularly well done.

Nice work there, keep them coming.

 

[arogers907]

Thanks guys! =)

I really, really appreciate the comments, critiques, and (of course) the compliments.

Matt, I can totally see what you\'re saying about his wrist. It\'s such an easy fix, I probably hit it with a bit of shading while I\'m finishing the swordsman I\'m working on now. Thanks for the tip. I don\'t think I\'ll ever be \"done\" learning how to better paint skin.

Mordhiem is a blast and I\'m really looking forward to our campaign this winter. The gaming board is actually in the works (sorry Theomar) and building it is slowing down my warband progress a bit. Even still, I should have the next little guy done this weekend. I\'ll post it once I can get pics taken!

Originally posted by automaton
Anyway...I know that maybe this is going into a bit too much detail for jsut a gaming mini, but it\'s jsut something to think about for future miniatures perhaps. The key point is to put some planning into a coherent, balanced colour scheme for a mini.

Not too much detail at all, Sebastian. In fact, I very truly appreciate the fact that you obviously considered the mini and critiqued it accordingly. Thank you.

I\'ve actually been working on using fewer and more complimentary colors. I love the homogenous look that most of the best painted minis have. I want my work to have those qualities and there is so much color theory to learn and practice. Obviously I\'m not there yet and it\'s great to have something specific to work on in terms of overall composition for my next mini. =)

Thanks again and more too come!