Hi everyone :) This fellow is Golan, Hill Giant - sculpted by Jason Wiebe and produced by Reaper Bones. I found him a really fun miniature to paint, although the size of the club makes him a really difficult mini to take a photo of which is in focus! Given that it accounts for about 90% of this mini, I think it makes sense to focus on the skin tones here. To create the variety of tones you see here I used Barbarian Flesh and Pale Flesh (both from MSP), as well as Reikland Fleshshade from GW. There are a few other paints I used for specific details, but I'll point them out below as I come to them. There is some really pronounced musculature on this guy (or, to put it another way, he's absolutely stacked!) so it's a great chance to really build up the contrast in the skin. Given that the giant doesn't appear to favour wearing clothes, and I can't imagine he's much for sun screen, I decided that a fairly deep red colour was appropriate for the deepest level of colour. To get that colour, I first applied Barbarian Flesh all over the skin areas, then applied a fairly heavy coat of Reikland Fleshshade. I've mentioned in an earlier post that I think that Reikland Fleshshade can give a slightly sunburned look, but that definitely wasn't going to be a problem for this miniature! Having achieved that deep base colour I wanted to build the lighter layers on top to really give the impression of living skin. The first stage of this was to go back in with Barbarian Flesh, coating all of the skin which I didn't feel would be in shadow. Following this, I wanted to apply a still lighter layer to areas which were raised and I wanted to highlight. Normally here I would mix a little white into the paint that I'm using, but I have found in the past that this can throw off the balance and look of the paint slightly when painting skin. To maintain the skin tones, I instead lightened the Barbarian Flesh using Pale Flesh which, as the name suggests is a lighter skin tone, and is from the same paint range. I found the wet palette really helpful here, as it allowed me to take my time and really find the skin tone I was looking for. I did apply a very small amount of Pale Flesh directly on to the miniature (that is, without mixing it with the darker tone), but you want to be really careful here because there is a big jump between the two tones, and you don't want huge differences in the colours. Pale Flesh is what I would normally use for humans who look like they have spent most of their time indoors, so I definitely didn't want much here! Just a little in the small areas I wanted to really highlight. To finish the overall skin tone, my last stage was to apply another layer of Reikland Fleshshade, much lighter this time, to really bring together the colours and reduce any hard edges between tones. Once I'd finished the overall skin tone, I wanted to do a final few touches to really bring the miniature to life. As you can see in the picture above, the Hill Giant has hairy forearms. I have to say, I really love this feature of the sculpt because I think it gives the miniature real character, so I wanted to bring it out. A simple drybrush of GW's Squig Orange gave the hair a good look which really complements the head and facial hair. The Giant is also covered in scars and spots/zits. For the scars I simply applied Pale Flesh to them, then gave them a brighter red ink wash (Carroburg Crimson from GW) to have them really show up like a real scar. Although the spots are very small, I really wanted them to have a lifelike feel, so I started them off with quite a deep red, before painting most of their area with a brighter red (Mephiston Red, followed by Evil Sunz Scarlet, both GW), then finally a touch of Vallejo's Bone White to really give the gross, pussy look :) I hope that's been an interesting post, and that it has helped to shed some light on the thought process I have while painting skin, as well as the techniques used.
Goblin Squire :) This post originally appeared on my Patreon 04/2019
0 Comments
Hi everyone :) If you've come here via twitter you probably won't have been able to miss the excitement amongst a number of mini painters about a kickstarter which is going on at the moment - the 5th kickstarter from Reaper Miniatures to expand their bones range. A lot of people have strong feelings about these kickstarters and either backed immediately or have no intention of backing. I'm hoping that this post might help some people who are on the fence make up their mind. I'm going to look at the quality, the value for money, and some of the practicalities of the kickstarter. QualityA lot has been said in the past about the quality of bones miniatures, and it's fair to say that not all of it has been positive. Bones miniatures have historically suffered from a lack of clear detail, particularly with the smaller miniatures and in the faces. The nature of the plastic used in the early bones minis made for some...problematic miniatures. I have, though, noticed a definite improvement in the quality of the minis as time has gone on. It's difficult to get good photos of unpainted miniatures, but hopefully you can see the crisper detail on the newer miniature. The face particularly has taken a step forward. There are also fewer problematic mould lines, although it is possible that is due to the moulds being newer at time of production. It's fair to say that the quality and detail is not on a level with some of the high quality metal and resin miniatures which are out there, but in my opinion the miniatures are definitely of good enough standard for tabletop play. There are undoubtedly higher quality and more detailed pieces out there, but I think these hold up really well for the price point they're at. Which brings us nicely on to value for money.
Whether or not that's the right thing for you, though, is another matter. If you're potentially interested, head over here and have a look. Keep an eye on it for the rest of the month because more miniatures will be revealed and released for the next 25 days.
I'll be posting a couple more things about this and other kickstarters in the coming days, so look out for that as well! Hi everyone!
Welcome to my new website! I'm the Goblin Squire and I paint miniatures; create D&D content and generally enjoy the geeky life :) Through the website I'll be giving some tips and hints on this blog, which will hopefully help and inspire people in their mini painting. There is also a gallery and store where you can see some of my work, and even buy pieces you're interested in. I'll be adding more miniatures throughout the week so keep an eye out for that! You can also head to this page if you'd like to commission me to paint something for you. Lastly for now, if you are interested in supporting my work you can head here to find out how to do that. I'm a struggling artist who is always appreciative of support, but my main goals are to inspire and help, so please don't worry if you can't support my work. I'm actually launching today because it's my birthday, and I want to share the love :) For the next week all miniatures in the gallery/store will be 10% off, and I'll even knock 10% off my commission price! (ends 8th October). |
Details
Categories
All
|