Miniature Mondays: Quintuplets
Worst Yahtzee roll ever?
No, just our weekly theme. This week in our Miniature Mondays column, our content comes in fives: five projects that need mentioning and the final miniature in our five week challenge. I’m not saying that this week’s new projects fumbled a critical roll or anything…
Let’s just say that none of the miniature project’s covered below were able to convince me to give them money.
Before we get to the new side projects, a quick note: Darklands is coming to an end, and based on their stretch goals might be worth another look for some of you (as they are now much cheaper on a per figure basis.)
- Hard DayZ: Survival – This is a zombie board/miniature game that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere fast. It includes miniatures, but not particularly good ones. What this project is though, is a good example of miniatures being added to other projects in the hopes of boosting their appeal.
- ZAS 15mm Mercs – This project is a good example of smething else: a company trying to sell on Kickstarter what they would have sold anyway, and calling it “funding.” Miniatures that are this well, miniature aren’t really my thing. If you are into the 15mm scale though, feel free to take a look.
- Fall of Fae Miniatures Wargame – This one gets points for chutzpah if not much else. This project is seeking to fund development of its miniature war game’s world book and rule set, with miniatures to follow… eventually. Not that the author of this one see’s “no foreseeable risks as of now” and that if you decide to skip the $1 reward (a thank you,) you can instead opt for the $5 reward (a BIG thanks.)
- 2000AD Rogue Trooper Miniatures Game – This project is probably the best mini project to launch in the last week. It contains real content, and even waited till it finished fulfilling it’s previous project before launching this one. I’m not backing it, but for purely stylistic reasons that another potential backer might not necessarily have with it.
- Table Top Terrain – This decidedly confused project is technically in the miniatures category even if most of the rewards are anything but. I Think that this creator has access to a 3D printer, and wants to print terrain for people (based on the rewards,) but the only picture shows something a bit more traditional. All this aside, it looks like it’s going to fund despite itself.
For the last month, my friend Clint and I have been painting nearly identical miniatures in a friendly compitetion to motivate our practice. Sadly this week we have painted our fifth and last miniture in the set. Going forward, the plan is still to paint a miniature a week, though those miniatures will no longer be twins (at least until Reaper delivers it’s bounty in March.
This week we painted an ork. I was pretty happy with how mine (top) turned out, though I think the rust looks much better in person. This was also my first time using static grass ever; I was pleased with the result. Clint used a much more vivid color scheme, trying out some new techniques. I think he did an especially good job on the blade, mouth, and musculature.
Also this week, we have our first submission from a reader, another friend of mine: Justin. He is painting up a Menoth army, and sent me a picture of his recently finished Crusader.
If anyone else wants to join in the weekly cause, and get into the habit of painting practice, feel free to send me an email at caffeineforge@gmail.com
Caffeineforge 
Dear Clint: that face and base are totally radical. Winner.
I want to paint and email you a mini, but my paints are in Ridgecrest, and I’m in Quebec. So I went sledding today, instead.
Nice Crusader, Justin! Welcome to the show. 🙂
PS: D, yours also looks great–sorry. Just got caught up with the fact that Clint’s face looks super-rad.
That’s fine. For the record, I would rather be sledding. 🙂
But really. How do you do that to the face of a mini? It’s a wash with ink, right? I mean, there isn’t a reasonable way for a human being with fingers the size of fingers to manipulate a brush to paint a dark green in a nostril of an orc that is even tinier than the greenskins from my own nostrils. I am amazed and perplexed by these things.
That’s how I used to do do things, yes. And it does work. But lately, I’ve done it via layering. So, for the orks I’ve done lately, I started with base layer of Orkhide Shade over every bit of skin. Water it down to the consistency of milk with “magic water” (which is water with Jet Dry or Future Floor Wax mixed in, about 10:1) to ensure it gets into all the nooks and crannies, like nostrils. Then, progressively layer lighter and lighter shades of green in smaller and smaller areas(Gretchin Green, then Elysian Green, Then Elysian + Badmoon Yellow.) These subsequent layers are thinned even more, past milk, until they are barely translucent. Bear in mind your light source, and put each layer on while the previous is still wet. Sometimes I use a second brush loaded with water to help blend the edges.
Then, when I think I’m done, I move to step two. I apply a very thin wash of color to tie all the shades together. On orks, I actually use a blue ink for this. First, I thin the ink 1:1 with magic water and hit all the shadowed areas. And lips. Lips, eyelids, five o’clock shadows, around fingernails, anywhere I want darker. Then I water it down further, probably 6 or even 8:1 and just go over all the skin, as a wash, to even out the layering.
Step three is optional, where I re-apply highlights with Elysian Green, if needed. Usually is. Eyebrows, ear tips, cheekbones, chin, knuckles, palms and underside of forearms are where I typically hit, as well as anywhere I think the light would be bouncing off of. Lately, I try to think about reflected light, so armor or blades or jewelry might get a touch of “highlight” green, watered down. Still not confident enough to do a lot of this, however.
Ok, I should note this is how I’ve done orks for the last few months. Except for the picture above. This week, I actually started with a dark blue base, instead of Orkhide Shade, and layered up the green from there. I think it worked nicely and will probably do future orks like that.
What do you guys think of how I do ork eyes? They are just dots of black with even smaller dots of yellow on them.