Ann's Immaterium

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

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Second Dwarf Done!

My second dwarf turned out to be a bit stubborn, which I shouldn’t be surprised about considering he’s a dwarf after all and they are kind of known for that.  He’s done for now so all’s well that ends well.

It is going to be a close shave indeed finishing my other two dwarves by midnight, April 3rd for the March Might & Magic challenge, but I’m going to give it the old community college try.  I worked a bit on them last night and tomorrow is Friday, so I’m prepared to burn the pre-midnight oil to make it happen!

Styling with our friend, Toad.

I used Duncan’s tutorial off of Warhammer TV for the dwarf’s ginger beard.  Primed white, based with Jokaero Orange, then washed with Agrax Earthshade and a final highlight with Fire Dragon Bright.  It was pretty easy and I like how it came out.

His bracer started out looking exactly like the first dwarf’s.  After a bunch of fiddling with various colors and mucking about with Spiritstone Red I ended up with what you see here.  It isn’t obvious in the picture but there is a bit of a flame undertone going on with the red part that was an accident I ended up liking.  Perhaps he has some sort of magical Flame Bracer?*

Don’t think his beard is quite so bright in person.

Finally, I propped him up like he was walking up an incline or something to get a better look at his shield.

For the shield boss I originally used the crusty remains of an old bottle of Tin Bitz and some Agrax, but changed my mind and based again with Balthasar Gold.  (I followed Duncan’s Bronze Armor video.)  Washed with Druchii Violet, reapplied the gold, making sure not to obscure the violet around the edges too much.  Then a highlight of Sycorax Bronze and Stormhost Silver.

I tried to do the highlights so it looks like the light is hitting the top of his boss since he is holding his shield at an angle, which is evident in the first picture where he isn’t propped up.

I forget what colors I used for the wooden part exactly, but I followed some of the ideas from a Heroes & Bosses video.  The general idea is to base in a wood color and then paint variously colored stripes along with the grain.  Then wash to blend it all together.

So next up is the dwarf with the musket.  If I remain on a schedule that will give me any kind of a prayer at all of meeting the April 3rd deadline then I’ll finish him tonight.  Until then, take care everyone!

Dwarf Hammer Clip Art

* I realized about twelve hours after I finished the miniature that I subconsciously made a bracer much like the one from a friend’s cosplay “warrior princess” costume that she used to wear to con’s until she had a couple of kids and couldn’t fit into it anymore, alas.  (It all worked out though because eventually she got back into shape but unfortunately she had sold the costume.)  Anyway, her bracer had a glossy, lacquered stripe in the middle except instead of red the one she had was purple and instead of a fire thing it had sort of a black knotwork design.

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26 responses to “Second Dwarf Done!”

  2. Turned out great, love the coloring on the beard, and not just because I’m a ginger (well, not so much anymore, but it’s always in my blood)!

    The bracer looks good and I really like the wood effect you got on the shield. The boss too, I can definitely see the light reflection in there.

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    • Thank you, Faust. I think of the hair the ginger color is the one I like the best. I used to be a ginger as well, though back in those days it was a Ginger out of a Bottle, lol. Not so much anymore here either. Oddly, as I got older, besides going gray, I also seemed to go brunette. I wonder how that happened!?

      Thanks, I like how the wood came out too. That Heroes & Bosses video was quite helpful. Although I didn’t pay too much attention to light (some people do amazing things in this area, I think) for the miniatures in general, I did think that maybe it might be nice to do that with the final silver highlight on the boss, given the angle the dwarf was holding the shield at. (I had to prop him up in the front with a bit of plastic to get a proper, front-on picture of the thing.)

      I think the bracer was mostly a happy accident. I was going for a fire look and kind of messed it up, so I started just doing stuff trying to salvage the situation and the final product is what resulted.

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      • Yep, my hair used to be super bright when I was a kid. Then it got much darker over time, then the grey came, and as the little one loves to exclaim to everyone “My Daddy is going bald!”. Can’t win. ;P

        Oh yea, oddly my hair would be super dark when it was wet. Not sure if blond hair is the same, but someone mentioned it one day and I hadn’t even thought about it.

        Well, I think the bracer was nicely salvaged. I like happy accidents like that. Much better than those horrible accidents!

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    • Many thanks, Pete. I suffered for my art a little in that my shaking hands kept reaching, as if they had a mind of their own, for the Nurgle’s Rot and Typhus Corrosion. It got so bad I had to put Poxwalker #18 back in the queue, while I was painting my dwarves, in order to sooth my nerves.

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    • Thank you, Azazel. I found the sculpts a little unusual as well. I wasn’t sure I liked them at first but as I worked on them their cartoon vibe worked for me. I did find that one guy’s bald head a bit hard to paint. I ended up doing it three times until I ended up with something I could live with. I think, perhaps, that it could use some more highlights but at this point I don’t really want to do it a fourth time so (for now) I’m calling him done.

      Glad to see you back painting. There is something right and comforting in the world to see you turning out your well-painted creations in 8.3 seconds per miniature that I missed. 🙂 I saw what you wrote with getting burnt out with doing painting challenges and I can definitely see where that could easily happen. Especially if you are doing them every month. I think that while I’m having fun with them in early days, if I want to keep doing them I’m going to have to take some time off too so it doesn’t turn into a grind.

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      • Thanks Ann. I’m getting a bit of minis work done now, in between online gaming sessions, and what will be a new kind of working from home next week. That’s all going to be …interesting. Doing the challenges every month started off as fun, but eventually became another form of work to do, unfortunately. I was thinking earlier today after my last comment on your round-up post.. maybe a bunch of us should split the year into our own themed months? We’d sort it out a bit later, but Alex for example would do Fembruary, you and I would could choose a month (or a few) with certain themes, see who else is up for it, and away we go…
        Not yet though. I’m just starting to enjoy painting again! 😉

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        • If you don’t mind my asking, are you playing MMO’s or tabletop games like D&D but using Fantasy Ground, Roll 20, etc.? I ask because I’m toying with the idea of getting into the latter, since the game I was playing in and the game I was DMing are both shut down and probably will be for some time yet. The only thing that has prevented me so far from exploring the software is the effort of learning it. Instead I’ve been painting and working on some writing projects, but I’m really itching for some rping again.

          Yes, I could definitely see where the challenges would end up being fun but after awhile feeling like just another unpaid obligation. I was thinking about that when I started; I didn’t think I’d be doing them every month for long. I think your idea of splitting up the year where Alex does Fembruary, I would do X, you would do Y, and so on to where we had the whole year covered would be a great idea. I’m certainly on-board for such a scheme if we can get enough people together who are interested.

          I’m working on some stuff this weekend as well. I think I might get Poxwalker #18 done finally, and the weather here is good enough that I’m going to spray prime a few of my Etsy miniatures. I’m figuring that while I’ll probably never paint my way out of a my 40K mountain of plastic, my Fantasy backlog hasn’t had time to grow too enormous yet, so if I’m careful and diligent, there is just a slim chance I can actually keep from building Fantasy Island right next to Sci Fi Mountain in my office.

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    • Thank you. I was messing around, experimenting, not sure how it was going to turn out. Don’t know why I turned to the gem paint to finish it off. Probably, like I said in the footnote, I was sub-consciously thinking of my friend.

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    • Thank you. I’m pretty happy with the miniature though I am finding the faces and heads hard to highlight because of the lack of detail and the fact I haven’t done much flesh that isn’t green. Still, it is good to branch out and try new things.

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  9. I’m not sure why I have not been a follower of yours as we have been communicating with the other folk for some years ,Lets just put it down to me being an old shy guy ! ( no the daughter just said it down to me being techno simple ! ) Ahh bloody kids !

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    • Heh, I didn’t realize I wasn’t following you either. I am now. I had no idea, I thought I was following you, lol. I guess we were stealth followers since we were following some of the same people.

      As for your daughter, painting miniatures involves the use of technology and tools, does it not? (Even when you aren’t using an airbrush.) Given how nice your terrain and miniatures look, I’d say you’re not “techno simple” at all.

      I don’t know why but typing that last bit immediately brings to mind that scene from Patton where the soon-to-be general’s aide says, “If you defeat Rommel’s plan, you’ve defeated Rommel,” and then Patton gives him kind of a strange look and then smiles. 🙂

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    • Thanks, John. Doing that thing with the stripes for the wood was something that was new for me; I like the effect. At a distance on the tabletop, I do think it looks more like wood than what I had been doing in the past. As for the beard, I think between Azazel’s dwarves and my friend Dave’s Blood Bowl dwarves I had gotten to a point where I just HAD to try some orange hair. 🙂

      Yes and no, really, about Rust Turtle. I thought I’d give Toad some love because he won’t be appearing in the final pictures for my contribution to Might & Magic, because I finished him in February. Now, Turtle, on the other hand, will proudly take his place as the miniature that probably helped put me in this bind where I’m spending all day painting, except for right now because I’m taking a little break while I’m waiting for a glaze to dry on my two remaining dwarves’ cloaks. I probably should have finished the dwarves before starting my rust monster, but the Call of Rust was too strong!

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