WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 9

Previously on... WIP: Ellyrian Reavers

Now that the paintwork on the Reavers is finished, it's time to put them on their bases. Normally I have them already done before I put the miniatures on to save time, because we don't have to bother painting areas which are not going to be visible. In this specific case, I didn't have a clear idea of how the bases were going to be. My take from the very beginning was to do the Reavers riding in the closest waters of a shore, following the general coastal idea of the whole army.

The objective would be to create tiny waves over a base of calm water and finally add water splashes and foam., all using resins to make artificial water, snow and paint.

Following this plan, the first is to create some calm waters. Therefore, I begin with a thin layer of putty on the bases, to make a plain ground to start with. The idea is not to texture the base, on the contrary, hide the grain from the plastic gaming bases and fill in the gap between base and miniature.

Once the putty is dry, I paint it with a very generic brown. This will be the ground that is underneath the water in the shore.

At this point I apply a couple of layers of artificial water resin to simulate the acuatic base. I will be using Vallejo Water Effects which is a thick paste that becomes transparent when it dries. If the layer is too thick, it is possible that the result may not be transparent, but rather misty. For this reason, it is better to apply thinner layers letting them dry in between. Water Effects resin can be applied with a modelling tool and shaped if necessary; when dried it becomes hard and keeps the shape.

After applying a layer and letting it dry, I saw that it was too brown, so I painted that already hard resin soil with touches of turquoise blue (greener than the one used in the elves) and then I put another layer of Water Effects on top.

This process can be repeated many times until you are happy with the thickness of the water layer and the colour of the floor. Using different colours in each layer will leave a realistic colour effect under the water, where light constantly refracts in different ways because of the sea movement and produces many colours (as well as shines and reflections, already in place thanks to the natural gloss of the hardened resin).

After this is prepared it is the moment of working on the splashes. For this, I took many scrap pieces of hardened water resin tainted in turquoise that I kept from when I did the water base for the High Elf Dragonlord.

The scrap pieces can be cut in different shapes with some clippers, to create small resin triangles that will be used to simulate water splashes.

The splash bits are very small (we are dealing with ~28mm miniatures) so we will use pincers to work comfortably.

After this we will locate the place of the base where there will be a splash, in our case, where the horse shoes have just hit the water.

Carefully, we put the resin piece and use glue to put it in place. It will be useful to have a glue pot with large dropper, or use some tool to let us reach the are with enough precision to avoid any damages to the paint of the horses.

We continue doing the same thing with the rest of the splashes, we pick pieces of resin, cut them in shape and glue them in place.

We will try to simulate in the best way possible the splash of water. It will not be very convincing at this point, but for now it will be enough to achieve an approximated basic shape of the water splash.

Once all the splashes are in place, we apply another layer of Water Effects over all the base, especially in the base of the splashes, to fill in the gaps and join them with the rest of the water.

In the areas in which, because of the movement of the horse when galloping, the shoes of the horse are just leaving the water, we have to take into consideration that there will be a water spray behind. We will apply Watter Effects in that area but modelling it in such a way that we simulate the movement of the water.

With all the resin pieces glued in place and the Water Effects applied to fill in the gaps, we create the foam from the waves and splashes.

Very easily, it is just a matter of stippling with different shades of white in the areas were there is foam. We will try that the dots are not painted homogeneously and that there is more white in the areas where the foam is more intense.

Just by doing this we will have a quite convincing foam effect.

To make it more realistic we will use texture. We can put talcum powder or artificial snow in the places where the foam is more intense. It will be an additional touch of colour variety and grain that will be very appropriate to make it look like real water.

And with this we get to the end. Now we just need to take final photos to see how they look like...

Very soon!

WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 8

Previously on... WIP: Ellyrian Reavers

Let's work now on the golden parts. This time, I'm going to use Scale75 golden metallic paints, starting off from a basecoat of a dark brown, like Chocolate Brown or similar. This will be great for recesses and shadows because it will look like gold but matte.

On top of that matte brown, I will paint the darkest golden metal of the set. As you can see, I'm painting all the golden parts at the same time.

Hightlights on the golden parts are done with some lighter golden metallic paint.

This is how the golden parts look from another angle.

Final highligths are done with the lightest golden paint of the set. Some light spots can be painted with just Metallic Medium, or White Alchemy if you are using Scale75.

Same golds from other angles. Metallic areas are difficult to show in photographs.

Time for some darker areas, I use dark browns and also brown inks to gain intensity. It's important to be careful not to use too much ink or it will destroy the matte effect in the shadows. It should stay a little satin, but not too much.

View from the front.

That should be all on the metallic parts. Let's move on to the skin of the elves.

Here's how the skin looks without any paint on. It's funny to notice how the rest is painted, but the face and hands aren't. A lot of people like to start painting skin the first thing, I left it for last this time!

Base skin overall. Important to see how the eye wasn't completely covered. I left the recess with the grey of the priming coat so that it would serve to outline it.

First highlights with the next skintone, slightly paler.

Instead of highlighting more now, I will paint first shadows and then go back to the next lights. The order is not that important, and will help me control the contrast.

Painting the eyes makes a big difference. They are subtle but extremely important.

Some stronger and slightly red skin tones in shadow parts make the face alive, as well as the paint in the lips.

One part I haven't painted yet is the feathered helmet of the captain, which is heavily inspired by the Polish Hussars (just inspired, as the Polish had two lines of feathers).

I wasn't sure about the colour, but I tried the slightly violet red that I've been using for these elves in other occasions, and I think it looks good so I will just add some depth to it. First, a wash of violet ink, to get an intense violet tone in all the recesses.

Now I start hightlighting parts of the feathers with a slightly lighter red (mixed with Space Wolves Grey so it turns out to be a little pink, desaturated red).

I insist on the lighting, with even more Spave Wolves Grey.

Some final lights with a lot of Space Wolves Grey (still some red in it too).

I finally recover the colour by going over some of the lightest tones with the initial pink.

All that is missing is that metallic part that holds all the feathers over the helmet.

Seems like we are really close to the end, let's see a quick pic of all the Reavers together!

Continue to WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 9

WIP: Ellyrian Reavers Part 7

Previously on... WIP: Ellyrian Reavers

Moving on to the higher parts of the minis, here we have the blue parts around the torso and face. They will be painted in the same way as all the turquoise-blue parts of the elves.

I am going to try a different way of blending, just for fun. First I mark the colour areas very roughly (Space Wolves Grey on top, Dark Sea Blue on the bottom).

In between the areas, I introduce middle tones (basically 50%-50% mixes of Space Wolves and Turquoise for the upper transition and 50%-50% mixes of Dark Sea Blue and Turquioise for the lower transition). Then I glaze over to blend it.

The result stands out when you outline properly. Heavy definition with Dark Sea Blue mixed with blue and green inks.

The stripes that come from the helmet will also follow the colour scheme. I will go from dark to light, so I start over a coat of Dark Sea Blue.

The upper triangles will be white.

The lower ones will be turquoise.

Outlining according to zenithal lighting will do the trick.

I will use the turquoise and blue colours on my palette to paint the feathers on the helmets. Again, a basecoat of Dark Sea Blue.

I will place the light on the middle of the feathers, so my brushstroke will go from the outside to the inside, leaving the final drop of paint where I want the lightspot to be. With this tecnique, I apply careful layers of Turquoise to progressively light them up. The trick here is to control the brushstroke properly and the thickness of the layer. Watch and control the dillution of paint (with water) and the quantity of the mix on the brush.

If you do it correctly, it should work with one single brushstroke. It's cleaner and faster. If the layer is too transparent, then wait for it to dry and then go over it again with the same colour, like I do in this case.

Final highlights with Space Wolves Grey, again, with single brushstrokes, very important to ensure a clean and smooth blending.

Something really similar will be done on the horsetails. This is how it looks before any painting on top (just the priming work still untouched).

And this is how it looks once finished.

There's very little paint work left! Stay tuned!