I sat down to work after a few days of rest, after all, I am on leave. Then, it was time to work. Which actually means the Wife ™ said I could vanish downstairs for a few hours.
Don’t judge me.
Here we have the base coated miniatures. I use old wine and bottle corks to hold the miniatures. Unfortunately the miniatures made by Wyrd are really good about proportion, which means the feet and lower legs, instead of the trunk-sized appendages of a Games Workshop miniature (not knocking, I just don’t play), they are relatively narrow. Which makes them nigh impossible to drill and pin, and makes the temporary basing a bit….precarious.
Moving on.
I decided to paint Perdita, Nino and Santiago first. They are all dressed relatively similarly. I started with the deepest part of the clothing, the pants. Perdita and her brothers (los hermanos) are Neverborn hunters.
Think demonslayers with six-guns.
As such I figured a degree of practicality would be warranted. So, denim was a good idea.
This is my standard formula for denim:
In case my photography sucks, that’s Lothern Blue Layer, Guilliman Blue Glaze, and Skink Blue Dry, all from Citadel.
Because the Lothern Blue is Layer paint, a degree of the undercoate will show through. In some cases this means you might have to make more than one pass to achieve a satisfactory color, showing here:
It wasn’t until a bit later that I realized Perdita’s chaps covered her calves, so a bit more painting was in order.
Next came the Guillliman (Girlyman?) Blue:
The shade does its job remarkably well. The depth of the color is heightened, and the coverage become much more distinct. After letting it dry, and pondering my ever growing backlog of models, I proceeded to my next step: Drybrushing.
For this, the Skink Blue is perfect to create that worn denim feeling.
Next, I decided to paint the skin tones. They’re not elves (stupid elfses), so a medium skin tone was chosen.
I made a point of only painting the exposed skin of the hands, neck/chest and wrists. Their faces will be painted separately.
This was then given a light wash of Reikland Fleshshade for depth.
Perdita Ortega is the leader of the Latigo Posse, so I decided to start with her first for color blocking. I blocked in her jacket, and chaps with Citadel Celestra Grey.
After blocking in the Celestra Grey on Perdita, I went for a design.
Now, please, keep in mind, I do not freehand. My hands shake worse than the back deck of a tank at sixty MPH, while firing driving down the interstate. So please…..be gentle.
I picked out the trim on her Chaps with Vallejo Carmine Red, an old favorite of mine. I then painted an embroidered edge design on her jacket in the same colors.
The grey and red areas were then given a light wash with Citadel Nuln Oil.
Placing her aside to dry, I then went to work on Santiago.
I painted his vest the same color red as I used on Perdita, and then used Citadel White-Scar to paint his undershirt. His neckerchief I painted with Citadel Celestra Grey, and then painted over it with Citadel White-Scar.
Using more White-Scar I painted the cuffs of his jacket, and then painted a free-hand design on it. It’s basically a series of s-curves following the edge of the jacket, and flowing into a design on the corner. I did the same thing on the collar, and then painted a spade in the center of the half-cloak. I went on and painted a spade in a medallion design on the right side of the coat bottom panel, after giving his vest a thin wash of Citadel Nuln Oil, and then highighting it with the original shade of Carmine Red.
Here’s a look at the work so far, with medallion, and some cleaning up with Vallejo Black.
The highlighting on the coat is a seriously thin coat of Citadel Dark Reaper, and an even thinner touch of Citadel White-scar. I’m not entirely happy with it, but it’s something that I’m still working on.
The next step was the faces. This is by far the most difficult, and frustrating part of my entire painting experience. I dislike it immensely.
Anyway. I painted Perdita and Santiago’s faces with vallejo white primer.
While doing that, I cleaned up a few accidental paint smears on Santiago’s head with Vallejo Black.
I then painted Perdita’s hat with the same shade of grey I used when I blocked in her leathers.
This was then given a light wash of Citadel Nuln Oil around the crown of the hat. I then used Vallejo Carmine Red to block in her sash. I then washed it with Nuln Oil, and highlighted it with the same base color.
While I was waiting for the Nuln Oil to dry, I used Citadel White Scar to detail embroidery around the collar, or yoke (according to The Wife ™), and waited.
I utilized a micron pen to draw on her face. With this miniature her face is largely obscured by her hat, and her hair, and with the pose, it will not be plainly visible on the tabletop. I drew a skull mouth, and a web pattern extending from her eyes.
Picking up Santiago, I painted his eyes with Vallejo Magic Blue, and did a small pattern on his chin. This was then blacked in using Vallejo Black, and the blue touched up. I then, with some difficulty used Vallejo White Primer to paint in the whites of his eyes. I also painted a small blue design on his forehead, which I then cleaned up. His lower lip was painted black, and his tongue painted with a gore-red color.
So from there, I let him dry, and went to work on Perdita, to finish up.
I used Citadel Skink Blue Drybrush to detail her hair, and then did the same to Santiago’s mutton chops and his hair.
The final details were done with Vallejo Earth Brown, and then highlighted with Vallejo Terracotta. The belt buckles, and bullets were painted with Vallejo Antique Gold. The guns were painted with Vallejo Gunmetal Silver and then given a wash with Nuln Oil.
Here is the more or less finished product.
I’m fairly pleased with the finished product, and will begin the basing process next. I plan on basing them on relatively plain cobblestone bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures. These minis are a bit more colorful than I am used to painting, and I want to accentuate the colors.
I don’t have much more to say…..so….
*Cue the music*
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