Miniature Monday – Dwarf Cleric UPDATED
Hi there! Ready for some grumpyness? See what our participants did with the Keldan the dwarf cleric!
As usual, Dirk & I didn’t have too much time to paint, but at least we managed base color and, in my case, one layer of ink. 😉
Dirk chose shadowy blue-grey and a lot of metal:
Dirk plans to use the mini as a forge priest, thus all the metal. Like Jim and Arjen he associates dwarves with blue, so he used a blueish grey for most of the mini. I like the overall light contrast, which is unusual with dwarves. Very nice composition! I’m looking forward to seeing this guy after some washes, as Dirk plans them to do!
Since I started the whole “dwarven santa” talk, I went through with it:
The colors work well with the idea, I used red, white and green, esp. much white in beard and trimming of the cloak. The armour is bright silver and boney white to give an overall light appearance, but still – with this santa you better be a good kid over the year 😀 To be honest, this was more of a joke than a serious paint job, but I still kind of like the result! If I manage to do the base one day I’ll add some snow, of course, and perhaps a candy cane 😉
Arjen also went with a lighter blue this time:
He said normally he would use dark green, brown or blue to paint dwarves but decided to go a different way here. I agree with him on the “icy” look, and I could also imagine this one as a kind of sea cleric, perhaps associated with storms. Did you have an idea how to use this mini, perhaps in an RPG?
Bonus: Arjen’s painted dragon is featured in the reapermini shop and gallery!
William chose a regal looking color scheme:
He said he used mostly the same colors as with the anti-paladin, red, gold and blue steel for the weapon. I does look sinister, but not too much, maybe because dwarves in my head often wear darker colors. Very nice work on the details! I also like the base a lot, you sculpted that yourself? Awesome! What kind of putty and which tool did you use?
Jim resisted the siren call of a red-and-green santa 😉
It seems many people think of dwarven colors as blue, so Jim painted his cleric also this way – he put it quite poetic: “The colors of mountains and stormy skies”. He also modified the backpack since he didn’t like the “projections”. I think the stubborn expression of the face came out quite well, especially the eyes -well done! Did you use a fine brush or a pen?
Here is an update, Kylie’s dwarf found his way to us!
Kylie also chose the regal combination of red and gold, I also like how she used the gold on hammer and back”ornament”, giving the paintjob a rounded finish. She wrote she wasn’t really “feeling” the mini, and I can relate to that – it seems that, despite all trying, I’m still no “dwarf person”. But still, I think it’s a solid paintjob and a nice mini to use for gaming if you’re in need of a gruffy fellow 😀
this week’s gallery:
Coming next:
04/24/17 Tick Queen, Core Set
–> Attention: The submission date for photos is about three days before publishing date, to give us a bit of time to actually write about your pictures 
You can of course send in pics later, but to take out a bit of the stress (most pics arrive here rather last minute) please consider the three day deadline. Later pics will show up in an update and won’t get as much spotlight, I suppose 
05/08/17 Sqoug Warriors (Swamp Invasion Part I) Core Set
05/22/17 Imrijka, Iconic Inquisitor (Female Orc Inquisitor) Core Set
06/05/17 Kelpies (Sea “Elves”) Core Set
06/19/17 Female Centaur and/or Male Centaur (both Core Set)
07/03/17 Arran Rabin (Female Thief) Core Set
07/17/17 Mystic Theurge, Core Set
07/31/17 Gauntfield (Grim Reaper Scarecrow), Core Set
08/14/17 Olivia, Female Cleric, Core Set
After that… Bones III? Tell us what you think!
Caffeineforge 
Nice dwarves, everyone! I really like the blue scheme that Dirk, Arjen and Jim adopted. And the metal on Antonia’s came out especially well.
As for the base I used a mix of super sculpey and super sculpey firm. It’s an oven-bake polymer clay, similar to fimo. I rolled out a flat disk about 1 inch in diameter. Then I carved the design in using a standard set of wax carvers – my favourite one is shaped like a knife on one end and a spoon on the other. I just followed a reference picture I liked online, and copied it to the best of my ability. I used the tip of the knife to carve some runes around the outside. Then the paintjob is just a plain stone grey, but with some edge highlights to showcase the detail a bit more. I’m glad you liked it!
Thanks for the info! So if it’s oven-bake clay, do you form & bake it before glueing it on a standart base or is the whole base made from it? I’d guess that a normal base couldn’t stand the heat, would it?
Antonia
The regular base might survive the oven, but I would rather not risk it! Even if it didn’t melt, it would probably let off some nasty fumes. I always bake the clay separately from the plastic base and the mini. Then I paint them separately, and glue them together at the end. Sometimes, as in this case, I don’t even use a plastic base and just glue the mini to the sculpey base which goes straight onto the table.
I love the base, too! Thanks for the info; I haven’t done a lot of sculpting, but this inspires me to try.
I guess the blues have it! I think any colors would work on this mini, if well done. I even like the Santa version, but truthfully, everyone made good color choices. Even though most of us choose some sort of blue, the reds look equally nice. William’s red & gold is really striking.
I really like this mini, especially the head and that huge hammer! This time around I did the eyes with a brush (I think). In any case, I’m happy with both the mini and my painting. My only complaint would be that some of the robe highlights look really “unblended” in the pic but not so much in real life.
Everyone did a great job! I like all the variations – even if they are more subtle than usual!
I did send a picture in but it was late – sent on Monday (here in Australia). I am not too worried though. I wasnt too happy with mine.
Hi Kylie, thanks for the comment 🙂 I sent you an email because the picture didn’t arrive (I guess the mail gremlins ate it :p ) Maybe check your SPAM folder for a conspicous german email 😀
Yours, Antonia
I really like the very determined facial expression of Jim’s cleric. I also like in this mini that you can alter his expression with small painting changes. Mine is looking slightly bemused, as I did not paint the eyebrows knitted. I really did not realize it made such a difference until I saw the other versions.