Ann's Immaterium

Mostly physical culture but also writing, gaming, and other dark procrastinations

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First Painting Challenge Dwarf Done!

Finished the first of four Etsy dwarves for my painting challenge a few days ago.  He is pictured here with my newest star of the moment lurking the ever-blurry background — the dreaded rust turtle from my last post.  The last day of the challenge is April 3rd so while I’ll be cutting it close getting my other three dwarves finished, I think I’ll make it.

I’d watch out if I were that dwarf.

I want all four of my dwarves to have different colored hair.  This guy got the same color as Roboute Guilliman, so my husband’s favorite primarch is in good company.  A pretty easy recipe and I liked how it turned out, compared to my dreadful and mercifully uncatalogued attempts some years ago with Averland Sunset.  I primed white, based with Zandri Dust, applied a Seraphim Sepia wash, and highlighted with Ushabti Bone.

The gold beard cap is an old five-step gold recipe.  Base with Balthasar Gold, layer with Gehenna’s Gold and then Auric Armor Gold.  Step four is Agrax Earthshade and finally a drybrush of Golden Griffon.

Is Turtle getting closer?  I can’t tell.

One thing I learned was that I like the Games Workshop contrast paints for edging and defining grooves.  I used Basilicanum Grey Contrast to pick out the design on his axe and line the inside edges on his shoulder pads, and Skeletal Horde Contrast in the grooves on his leather armbands.*  The armband effect is kind of subtle but I like how it looks in person.

I might try something similar but different and maybe fancier on the next dwarf, the ginger-haired one, who has the same type of armbands.  Maybe he’ll get magical, fire armbands or something.

“Wot’s that behind me?”

The base was just a simple dark gray and then wash with Nuln Oil, making sure I got the wash into the gaps in the stone pattern.  I put couple of smidgens of Astrogranite Debris onto the base, mainly because I have a pot of it kicking around, and then drybrushed with various lighter shades of gray with a little off-white at the end.

Wizard’s Familiar Cat hates Turtle getting all of the attention!

So much for painting challenge dwarves.  Sir John, if you happen to see this and are having your morning or high tea and crumpets, biscuits, cookies, etc. I’m giving you a Minor Class W (for work-in-progress) Nurgle Alert to put your cup down before proceeding further.

Nurgle Blood Bowl Icon 125

I have made a little progress on WIP Poxwalker #18 while I was putting the finishing touches on our dwarf friend.  I had completely forgotten, but about a year ago I dropped my poxwalker on the floor and broke off the tip of its largest dorsal tentacle.  I noticed (and hence remembered) last night when I was messing around with some contrast paints.

I rooted around in my Chaos bin until I found a likely looking pointy bit at the end of a plastic chain from a Chaos Biker sprue.  After a bit of cutting, filing, squinting, fighting with my bottle of Model Master Liquid Cement for Plastic Models, etc. I ended up with the result you see here.  Will be a mighty weapon to go along with the mechanical arm and its various diseases both offensive and defensive as well as those of an informative nature.**

Just hope I don’t drop the stupid thing again.

Time is flying by and I plan on getting my second dwarf completed soon.  He’s about 80% done so this shouldn’t be too hard.  That will leave only two of the little rotters and my painting challenge dwarves will be complete.  If all goes spectacularly well, I might even finish my poxwalker too.

The poxwalker gives me an (obvious) idea for an April painting challenge:  “Finish Something April.”  As the title suggests, finish up a model or group of models that you started work on but remains incomplete.  It can be something you just bought or a neglected model that has been gathering dust for untold centuries while the stars die and galaxies laugh.

Perhaps I could finally realize my dark dream of completing all 20 of my poxwalkers?

Dwarf Hammer Clip Art

* That Skeletal Horde paint will end up becoming distractingly ubiquitous in my painting efforts if I’m not careful.  I was going to try and make a joke that was a Skeletal Horde-based variation on the old saw about how if all you got is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail, but I couldn’t think of a good one.  Any suggestions?

** The poxwalkers will need the added tentacle-based weaponry because I’ve been told you need to pay points to bring your poxwalkers over their starting numbers now with the latest disturbances from the FAQ Warp.

I know we peers of Chaos Undivided are supposed to “embrace change” (yes, even when painting Nurgle stuff!) and venerate that ethereally tentacled technosorceror from olden days, Heraclitus of Ephesus, son of Bloson, etc. etc., but I would much rather it be change that benefits me and bonus flux points for it hurting my enemies in the bargain!   Iä! Iä! Thultzeentch fhtagn! Ph’nglui mglw’nfah Thultzeentch R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn!

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12 responses to “First Painting Challenge Dwarf Done!”

  1. Thanks, Faust. I wanted to keep their shields fairly simple as well as similar enough so they look like a group of adventurers though not a military unit necessarily.

    I haven’t been trying to use the Contrast paint lining thing as a replacement for the standard base, wash, repaint method, but more to accentuate the recesses as a final step. I find that the Contrast paint is good for that because it doesn’t run all over the place like the washes do. One thing I’ve found you do have to watch out for with the Contrast paints is where you end a paint stroke. Sometimes it’ll leave a funny mark where you finish a stroke if you aren’t careful. For the shield, I used a little Contrast Basilicanum Grey around the bottom of the shield where the gray and black parts meet to do a subtle shadow (I didn’t do the top part.)

    I have had some luck using Contrast paint with medium to make some glazes. (I got the idea from Daniel, who painted those Dark Angel terminators in the challenge announcement post and he got the idea from his friend, Joe.) I found that the Contrast glazes, like regular ones, worked well at damping down some of the starkness of the highlights I made on the dwarves’ faces and skin.

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  2. Looking good at this point (I’m still catching up). I like that dark shield, so hopefully that will have a mention in one of your other posts.

    I think I see here, what you’re saying about lining with Contrast paints. Would this technique possibly replace the Paint base color, wash, and repaint base color method? i.e the Contrast Paint serves as a targeted wash applied to just the recesses? Hope that makes sense.

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  6. Well done on getting that first dwarf done – looks really good, some subtle shading and highlighting I think! And Rust Turtle seems to have displaced Toad as your favourite familiar! Thanks for the Nurgle warning – that poxwalker looks neat with his mechanical arm! Was hoping to get a post done with my entry to your March challenge, but WordPress seems to be currently conspiring against me and won’t let me save drafts, but I’ll get there. I think I’ll sign up for the April challenge, ’cause it’ll give me a much needed push to keep going with painting. Hope you’re all safe!

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    • Thanks, John. I’m pretty happy overall with the first dwarf and I think it is a learning experience too what with the robes and trying to paint faces on somewhat normal looking people, not being able to just cover up my mistakes with Typhus Corrosion or some other vile substance, etc. Well, you know how it is … fame is fleeting and Rust Turtle is indeed the star of the moment, though I am still rather fond of Toad and hope to use the miniature in a D&D game or something. At the very least there is always a career as ancillary Nurgle bling, so Toad will never starve.

      Fortunately the Challenge does go through April 3rd, so there is quite a bit of time yet. I say “fortunate” because I suspect I’m going to need until then myself to get all of my dwarves done. I did see your post of your Italian ships and thank you for the mention as well. They are looking good and I particularly liked the Driade.

      I’m glad that the painting challenge will give you a push. I’m not sure yet but I think April is when I finally finish my 20 poxwalkers. Only been working on them since 2017, lol.

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