Jaheda: Armor

Today I worked on smoothing some spots on her pants, put back more of the mid tone on the gold piping, and started shading the brown armor. Mostly small changes, but I think they made a difference.

Jaheda: Still the Uniform

So, I worked on the highlights some. In particular, I broadened the ones on the front of her uniform, trying to make them less shiny. I think it's an improvement. I also did the hold buttons and piping.

Jaheda: More Uniform

Highlighted the blue and base coated the brown parts.

I'm trying to decide if the blue looks too shiny/satiny now. I'm liking the color scheme, though. There's going to be a gold border on her her cape and hood. Might be helpful to put that in before going too much further.

Jaheda: Shading Her Uniform

Spent most of today working on some commission stuff, but I did get some time in on Jaheda. I worked on shading her uniform.

These dark, saturated blues are a weakness of mine. They're hard to work with and I'm not good with them, but I can't resist them either. The shading here is Clear Purple followed by Nightshade Purple. It looks black in the deepest shadows, but isn't really. I haven't found a way to shade this color that I like.

Jaheda: Face, Uniform

Finished Jaheda's eyes and touched up her mouth a bit. I'm happy with the left eye. The right...well, it's not so bad when you're not looking at it in a close up.

I've also decided she's going to get a blue and khaki color scheme, with some silver and gold. Things like the piping around the edge of her cloak will probably be gold, while some of the armor bits will be silver.

The blue paint I used is a P3 paint. It's a little glossier than I'd like. Hopefully the topcoat will help with that. In the meantime, I'm a little concerned about how the shading and highlighting will go on over the glossier surface.

Jaheda: Face, Trista: Silver Base Coat

So, I started with priming Jaheda today, and found the primer beading right up, even after she'd been washed. So, the resin which yesterday was so well behaved...today, I am less fond of it. So, I decided to try out some airbrush primer I bought a while ago. That went on without beading, but has two other problems: the surface it's created is a little rough, and it's rubbing off very easily. I think the rub off issue isn't the primer, it's the resin. Next time I do one of these minis I might really have to scrub them rather than giving them a good swishing in soapy water.

Anyway, I have decided to proceed. If it works out, great. If not, I'll just be down a competition piece, which will not be the end of the world. I've started on her face. Need to fix the shape of her mouth and finish the eyes and eyebrows. Then figure out what the heck I'm going to do for a color scheme on her.

I didn't forget Trista, though I didn't do a lot with her today. I've put down a base coat where I expect to paint her armor and sword silver. She'll be a little funny looking until I get the metalics on there.

Trista: Hair, Jaheda, Stump

So, I've started working on Jaheda. She's what I plan to use for competition at Adepticon now. She's resin, but a nicely behaved resin. Not a lot of flash to clean off, and the surface is fairly smooth.  There were a few bubbles and a couple rough spots that I pulled the green stuff out for. She's also not at all fragile, but that's as much due to the sculpt as anything. I'll prime her tomorrow after the putty has had plenty of time to harden. I haven't figured out how to base her.

Also did Trista's hair.

And, with the putty I had left, I made a stump. No plans for it.

Trista: Face

So, turns out that they are wrapping up the painting contest at Adepticon on Sunday. I'm going to be on a plane on Sunday, which will be a bit of a problem for picking up my entries. A friend has offered to get them for me and ship them home, but I don't want to make him have to deal with Himiko the Delicate and the diorama with the hunter, which will end up being very heavy and difficult to ship.So, I'm rethinking what I'm going to use for contest entries. I expect to make a decision this weekend.

In the meantime, remember Trista? I've finished her face. Hair and eyebrows will be next, though I might also need to touch up her eyes a bit. Looks like I lost the whites of her eyes in the corners.

Himiko & Hunter: Flesh Base Coats

So, here we go on the competition pieces. I still have concerns with both of them, but for now I'm going to push forward.

Here's the hunter for the diorama with a base coat on his skin. I'm going to put a lighter color on the palms of his hands and maybe his chest, like a lizard. The spots on his skin will be a rusty red.

And Himiko. The skin tone is a bit darker than I was originally picturing because I want to put white makeup on her face and I want to make sure there's going to be enough contrast. The surface of her face and bosom was very rough. I went over it with a couple more layers of brush on sealer. It helped some. I don't dare use more because the detail on her face is quite shallow.

I may yet go back through my unpainted figures and see if I can find something which will be a little more straightforward than these two. We'll see.

1!

Finished Freya's base today. She has flaws - more than a few - but I'm pretty happy with the result even so. Or maybe just being done with her.

Still Prepping

While I didn't do much in the way of updates this week, it doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything(this time). I've been continuing prep work on various projects, which has been going slow and leaving things in a not terribly interesting state. I think I'm mostly through that stage now, so perhaps tomorrow there will be a better post.

In the meantime, I've put some of Himoko's separate bits on her. The ones that aren't attached yet are her hands and swords, which will definitely be in the way of painting the rest, so they will go on after everything is done. This is her with some green stuff I used to smooth out a couple of lines, voids, and spots where I broke the resin. Next, she'll need primer.

The plinth for Freya is ready:

So today I started working on the basing. I used some Sandy Paste with a bit of brown paint mixed in as the 'mortar' for my brick. Then I put in the tiny bricks with some scattered clumps of grass between them to try to make it look like an old path that's in disrepair. I'm not sure if it's effective or not. Also, totally should have looked up brick patterns before starting.

I'll probably paint the sides along side the brick path a bit darker and then cover it with grass and wild flowers. I might paint the brick some, too. Probably should have tried breaking a couple of them up. Anyway, hopefully it'll get finished up in the next day or two.

More Next Projects

So, here's my other project for Adepticon. He's going to be part of a diorama. It's a large figure - close to 54mm scale, so a large monster by normal scale. I'm going to put him in a swamp with a guy behind him handing him a scrap of cloth, maybe, like he'd be hunting by scent.

Since I spent most of my hobby time today patching and gluing this guy and Himiko, I didn't get much actual painting done. I did start my next Bones table top figure, Trista. I expect progress on her to go slow, as I'll be doing it as filler between other things. Such as, tomorrow I'll prime the hunter there, and then need to let him sit for a while...so, while waiting, I'll work on Trista.

Next Projects

With Kyra finished, I'm going to start working on a competition piece for Adepticon.  I had two pieces in mind. The first was going to be this one, Himoko, from Studio McVey.

Today I cleaned her up. I also remembered that I don't much like working with resin. It's delicate under good conditions, and this figure isn't good conditions. It's very fragile, with all those thin strips. In cleaning it up, I broke three spots that I will have to try to fix. I may end up breaking more. I also couldn't get it a smooth as I'd like because of the various folds and sashes. I still like the figure, though, and my plan for her as a competition piece is still stuck in my head. So, I will keep working on her, but have a backup plan in case it gets too frustrating or too broken or something.

So, here's the current backup plan:

Still resin, but nice and clean and not so fragile. This is Jaheda from Raging Heroes. I may or may not stick with this piece, but for the moment I'm going with it.

My other project I'll have pictures of tomorrow.