Lava Elemental

[keeper]

I've been inspired by a couple of great paintjobs that others have done on this mini, so I was motivated to crank this chap out pretty quickly (for me!) .  I hope to use him first as an End-of-Level bad guy for a fantasy-hack type adventure I hope to run.  He is the Colossos miniature from Heresy.

He's not a masterwork, but I'm really pleased with the way he has come out - even the satin varnish has given him a tiny bit of sparkle on the darker, cool rock, which I'm pleased with!

Your comments however, are most welcome.

 

[The Black Rider]

I love that model...i really want to get one for myself but I have no reason to use it

[Westfalia Chris]

Very nice. I particularly like the way you made the ground where he stepped dark and scorched.

[keeper]

Thanks chaps   I think I'm going to get myself another one and make a stone elemental next.  He was really quite fun to paint!

[fastolfrus]

Alasdair thinks he'll be ideal for Dr Who too.

[keeper]

If I remember right, the figure was a winner of a Heresy sculpting comp, and the model was "inspired by" a certain Roman Dr Who episode

[Argonor]

I love it!

Especially the way that the lava in the cracks seem to glow and cast a reddish light on the stone edges. Great! 

[keeper]

Thanks Argonor

It was suprisingly easy to do.  I did a write up for someone on a different forum at the end of last week, so I might as well share, in case anyone else is thinking of painting something that needs a similar effect:

* Primed white - because we'll be using light colours in the deepest parts of the model.
* Paint the whole model yellow (in this case, GW Sunburst Yellow) - left a little bit in the deepest recesses of the eyes and mouth white.
* Highlight with orange (in my case and 50:50 mix of GW Sunburst Yellow and GW Blood Red) - leave yellow showing in the deepest recesses
* Highlight with red (GW Blood Red)
* Highlight red/brown (a 2:1 mix of GW Scorched Brown and GW Blood Red)
* Highlight dark brown (a 2:1 mix of GW Scorched Brown and GW Chaos Black)
* Final highlight was just GW Chaos Black.

At each stage, leave a little bit of the previous colour showing - prehaps a bit more than you would do usually, as the light-source on this model is supposed to be internal, not external, so the normal shading/highlighting considerations can be ignored.

Also, as you get "higher and darker" remember to start leaving some extra cracks that don't have yellow at the bottom, but are orange or red or red/brown at the bottom - just because this is what lava looks like.

Final top tip is the use of a Satin finish varnish. This is what gives the slightly metallic sheen to the black/brown without needing to use metallic paint, as cooled lava doesn't (usually) have large enough pieces of cooled metal or quartz to see individually - its more the general reflection effect of the microscopic bits of metal and quartx embedded in the cooling rock that gives it is shine.

Burnt bits on the base are just black highlighted with an increasingly light black/white mix.