Monday, March 10, 2014

Grave Wraith: Figure 70 of 265

This week, as I revealed in last Monday's post, I painted the green translucent Grave Wraith from the Haunts set.  Unfortunately,  one of the worst head colds I have ever had set in last week, and kept me from going to Cold Wars; as I was just too sick.  I was, however, able to finish painting the Grave Wraith.
     As usual, I began by washing the figure in a bowl of water with a little dish soap added.  I then rinse it and let it dry.  Afterwards, I glued it to a black-primed 1.5 inch fender washer using white tacky glue, and then I glued the washer to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of plain white glue.
  I began by giving the whole figure a wash with very thinned Iron Wind Metals "Dark Green Ink".  I then painted the "face" as well as the sword and hand, and gravestone and base, with black paint.
Next I drybrushed the gravestone with Folk Art "Medium Gray", and painted the blade of the sword with Folk At "Metallic Emerald Green".  I ended up giving the blade three coats of the green to make it really brilliant. You can see the difference in the blade in the photo below with one coat, and the photo that follows it with the three coats.
 My next step was to do a lighter drybrush on the gravestone with Americana "Dove Grey" , and then I painted the hilt of the sword with Ceramcoat "Bronze". This was followed with doing light highlights on the fingers of the sword hand with GW "Shadow Grey"
I finished up by going over the hilt of the sword and adding heavy highlights with Ceramcoat "14K Gold". I then painted the rune details on the sword with GW "Golden Yellow", then I went over them again and added a bit of "Apple Barrel "Yellow" in the center of each rune. Lastly, I painted the skull by the gravestone with Americana "Buttermilk", followed by heavy highlighting with plain white.
     When everything was dry, I gave the figure a coat of Ceramcoat "Matt Varnish".   When this was dry, I flocked the base.  Lastly, I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcoat.
As usual, photographing these translucents is a bugger. However, I am pleased with how this one came out, and in general I think the photo gives you the idea of what I was going for.  Also, as you can see, the blade on this figure was miscast, missing a section at the top.  That didn't bother me too much, as being the weapon of a dead warrior, I can easily imagine that it was broken in battle.

Figure 70 of 265: Complete

13 comments:

  1. Very striking work. I like the black on the hand and face, I wouldn't have thought of doing that.

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    1. Thank you. I'm glad you like the black. I went back and forth with the hand, over leaving it translucent green or painting it black; and ended up going with the black.

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  2. Nice job, like the way the sword turned out. Nice to see another hobbyist who isn't afraid to use Apple Barrel, Americana or other craft paints. I myself have caught some grief for that over the years from more than one elitist.

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    1. Thanks! I've used craft paints for decades and been very pleased with the results. It's how I started painting figures as back in the late 70's and early 80's as I didn't have easy access to miniatures specific paints. I've always been pleased with the results. Sorry to hear the elitists have given you grief.

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    2. I started using craft paints as I didn't have access to a good variety of GW or Ral Partha paints when I started in the 80's. As for the criticism, water of off a duck, but I do find it amusing how quick some folks are to criticize a product they've never used.

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  3. Nice one.

    By the way, I did not realized it was miscasted before you mentionned it. The sword is perfect IMO.

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    1. Thanks. And, yes, I agree about the sword. On the figure it works, but I think on a standard fighter type the missing section would have been more noticeable

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  4. What do you use to thin your craft paints? Just water, or something esoteric?

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    1. Just plain old water straight from the faucet. I'm fact, usually it's the same water I use to stick my brushes in for cleaning while I'm painting.

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  5. Just wanted to mention that it isn't a miscast. You can see it here: http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/77097

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    1. Interesting! Thanks for pointing that out. I stand corrected. I went back and looked at the metal one too, http://www.reapermini.com/FigureFinder#detail/03274
      ...and it has the same missing piece. It still looks odd to me, and more like a miscast than an intentionally sculpted broken blade.

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    2. I thought it was supposed to be more of a scimitar, especially with the curved blade.

      Excellent work!

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    3. Thanks! Perhaps a scimitar, though not what I think of as a traditional looking one.

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