Thanks for the compliments everyone! I also bought a box of warriors and finished the first of them. I'm continuing the colour scheme and ultimately decided to use spears — hopefully clubs don't become meta in the next year.
Warrior number 2! Definitely a slow process, but I'm really enjoying all the little details. My favourite part is definitely designing the bases for each one. I'm thinking next I'll work on either the musician or the standard bearer, I'm not quite sure which though.
Thank you! My design idea was to make everything "magic" made out of jade. I felt the shields would be too bland just being gold, and the fact they get a +1 save on objectives and in home deployment made me think that perhaps it's got some magical reason for it.
And here is my standard bearer! I really enjoyed the basing on this one and painting up the standard itself. I think I'll take some in-progress photos for the next warrior that I do and perhaps do a bit of a step by step process.
I was lucky enough to just put my coffee cup down before opening this blog... But I totally agree with you. The Jade looks soo natural, great, great job And I am still amazed by the skin colors. It would be nice to look at a completed unit of these Grrr, !mrahil
All done the next warrior! As promised, here's a short tutorial on how I painted the angry lizard. Here's the base all glued together before I primed it. The temple ruins piece is something I 3D printed, I could go find the STL if anyone is interested. I'd comment how I achieved the look, but Vince Venturella did a far better job in his Forest Basing tutorial on youtube, so go check that out. Here's the base once I've finished priming and painting it. Quick tip: your common italian or summer savoury herbs from your kitchen make excellent forest foliage, as do tea leaves. After removing mold lines and gluing the mini together, I pin the warrior to a cork so that I can paint it freely without worrying about damaging the base. I also kept the shield off so I can adequately paint it and the shield arm. I've used Macragge Blue with a Drakenhof Nightshade wash over the scales to accent the recesses. The gold is basecoated with a 1:1 mix of Vallejo Metal Color Gold and Dryad Bark so that I get a more matte, ancient gold look to it. I used Zhandri Dust for the ropes holding the gold plated, and the spear shaft is basecoated with Dryad Bark. Teeth and mouth are Dheneb Stone which is a very old Citadel Paint, any ivory should do though. Here I've layered Fenrisian Grey and then a 2:1 mix of Fenrisian Grey and Pallid Wych Flesh on the scales. The gold and the ropes have an Agrax Earthshade wash applied to them. The spear shaft I painted random lines of various lighter shades of browns and beiges, then washed with Seraphim Sepia. Finished warrior! The orange spots are Troll Slayer Orange with an edge highlight of 1:1 Fire Dragon Bright and Pallid Wych Flesh, while the scales have an underbelly and edge highlight of 3:1 Pallid Wych Flesh and Fenrisian Grey. The gold is edge highlighted with a 2:1 mix of Vallejo Metal Color Gold and Mithral Silver. The mouth has a Riekland Fleshshade wash with an edge highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh. The spear tip is Abaddon Black with white streaks applied to it for an obsidian effect. The shield inlay is the same recipe I use for my standard bearer. Basecoat of 1:1 Caliban Green and Abaddon Black, then random lines of Warpstone Glow. I then mix 1:1 Warpstone Glow with Gauss Blaster Green and paint thinner lines, and then pure Gauss Blaster for the lightest parts. I finish it all up with a gloss varnish applied to the jade inlay and the obsidian speartip. As always, any questions or comments are welcome!
I can't stress enough how realistic you have painted the textures of the wooden shaft and the jade inlay. The Old Gold is a very good choice with the rest of the colors. This looks so good as a whole. Grrr, !mrahil
Finally, with this last fella, the squad is now half done! I'm really quite pleased with how the pool of water turned out, especially compared to my very first attempt as a saurus warrior and water effects nearly nine years ago: Really goes to show how your skills can improve with time, patience, and pushing your limits when you can. Plus, now I have access to UV resin Here's a little something different that I printed and painted up year or two ago for my dnd party that you guys might also enjoy — a beholder made of flesh and bone!
Thanks! They weren't super difficult to do actually. I used a dark navy blue base and then painted some star shapes with two increasingly lighter blues. Then I drew the pupils and added gloss varnish. No blending or glazing!
The patterning is amazing and I have concern for your hands in regards to cramps. The astrolith bearer is inspiring. How did you do the stone coloring? At the holder is a sight to.. well.... behold. The eyes man!
Thank you! And I actually don't get hand cramps, but my back isn't in great shape after hunching over for extended periods. By the stone colouring, do you mean the jade parts or the actual stone that the mini is standing on?
For the jade parts that I use for my standards and shield inlays, I use a basecoat of 1:1 Dark Angels Green and Abaddon Black, then random lines of Warpstone Glow. I then mix 1:1 Warpstone Glow with Gauss Blaster Green and paint thinner lines, and then pure Gauss Blaster for the lightest parts. I finish it all up with a gloss varnish.