Jagannath's Glossgrave - First Adventurer! 22/12/18

[Jagannath]

Afternoon all,

Yes - I have tooooooooo many projects!

Some of you may have caught my sci-fi, glossy toy soldier style thread:

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=112224.msg1403499#msg1403499

Having finished two squads for I started thinking about basing, and a colour/style that would be complimentary. And I got stuck.

So, I painted up a spare Pulp figure I had as a test mini, then I had a moment of inspiration and tried a snow base (roughly) and it all clicked!





So now, this toy soldier idea is being ported to a frozen fantasy setting!

I've got a couple of adventurers in my leadpile, so I'm starting with those. I've also had some Playmobil rocky hills for ages waiting for a use, so those will get a couple of even coats of lovely white!

I'll base those two sci-fi squads in snow too, for some science-fantasy crossover.

Right, time to stock up on white paint!

[Hobgoblin]

Very interested to watch this develop!

That pulp figure 'reads' very well - the highlights created by the gloss varnish would be sublime brushwork if they were painted.

I like the colour scheme for that one too: a touch of Hergé?

[Jagannath]

Haha yeah exactly that - real Tin-Tin vibes.

This whole project really does revolve around 'read' (which is why it seems to work with chunky pulp figures) - so I'm hopeful that moving to a snow setting (what's better for 'read' than sharp white bases) and choosing the right minis will look good.

[Jagannath]

Here's the first adventurer for the frozen wastes - a slightly tweaked Oathmark figure.

Pretty pleased - something a bit weird happened with the varnish on his face, but it's fine I think.



When I'm confident I've done enough layers on the base that it's true white I'll gloss the edges and matte the surface for contrast.

[Hobgoblin]

He looks grand!

Are you working from a black undercoat here? If so, do you have to use a lot of layers to get such solid colours? And what's the time taken compared with a conventionally painted miniature?

Also, are you planning on adding some monsters in this style? I could imagine the gnolls looking great with sharply defined muzzles and crests.

[Jagannath]

Thanks matey.

Yeah - up from black. I experimented with other methods (particularly airbrushing the 'main' colour) and I found 'repairing' the black-lining much more time consuming (especially as I always miss a line or two and have to go back in).

I've got a whole grouping of paints on my painting deck that give 1-2 coats solid coverage (because I'm a lazy painter). His coat (Vallejo panzer aces german something or other) is an incredible paint. So nothing massive problematic here in that sense - skin was two coats then a third thin 'glaze' to even some tones out. Without faffing around with the varnish etc, he probably took 30 minutes across a couple of sessions (when I was doing other stuff). 4 coats of gloss take a while though - quick job but I like to leave at least 4 hours between coats.

Basically it's the perfect 'extra' project - quick jobs that then need a good gap between them (base is the same, to get it 'very' white).

[Dr DeAth]

Are you doing any shading on the figures, or are they single block colours?

[Jagannath]

No just totally flat colours and very gloss on these. Inspired by this type of stuff:



(image pinched from here: https://pierschristian.co.uk/products/acw02-acw-berdans-sharpshooters-in-action-from-regal-toy-soldiers)

[Hobgoblin]

It occurs to me, looking at those, that you could give the Glossgrave adventurers a very wintry feel by painting their noses in the colour used for the soldiers' cheeks!

[Jagannath]

Oh haha that's a great idea! This guy's went a bit wrong actually, and I think for this toy style the skin tone should be a bit pinker too.