Monday, April 16, 2018

Elven Blacksmith: Bones 3 Figure

    This past week I returned to working on the Townsfolk set from Bones 3, and painted the Elven Blacksmith.
      I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.    I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue.   And, when the glue was dry,  I put it in my Citadel painting grip.
     I began by painting her skin with Apple Barrel "Flesh",  When it was dry, I gave it a wash with some Citadel "Reikland Fleshshade" wash.  When that was dry, I painted her leggings with Americana "Zinc", and her skirt with Crafter's Acrylic "Storm Cloud Grey".  I then painted her top, and the borders on the skirt, with Crafter's Acrylic "Navy Blue".
    Next, I painted her apron, and her eye wrap, with Folk Art "Platinum Grey", and her gloves with Crafter's Edition "Taupe".  I then painted the handle of her hammer with Ceramcoat "Territorial Beige", and her hair with Accent "Golden Harvest". After that, I painted the bark of the tree trunk with Americana "Charcoal Grey", and the interior of the trunk with Reaper MSP "Ginger Cookie".
     I let everything dry for a while, and then gave the tree trunk, her hair, the gloves, and the hammer handle, a wash with Citadel "Agrax Earthsahde" wash.  When the wash was dry, I then gave her leggings, skirt, apron, and top all a wash with Citadel "Nuln Oil" wash.  When that was dry, I worked on highlighting her hair, drybrushing it first with Americana "Moon Yellow", and then Apple Barrel "Lemon Chiffon".  I then touched it with a few Americana "White" highlights.
     Next, I painted in her eye and mouth, and then highlighted her skin with the base "Flesh" and the "Flesh" mixed with a little Americana "White".  I then highlighted her leggings with the "Storm Cloud Grey", and highlighted her skirt with a mix of the base "Storm Cloud Grey and some of the "Platinum Grey".  After that, I highlighted her apron, and her eye wrap, with a mix of the "Platinum Grey" and the "White".    I then highlighted the border on her skirt with Americana "True Blue", and afterwards, used the "True Blue" to paint the decorations on her apron. When I was finished, I went back and highlighted those decorations with some of the "True Blue" mixed with a little Crafter's Edition "Tropical Blue".
    Next, I painted her boots with Americana "Black".  I then drybrushed the tree trunk with, first, "Americana "Neutral Grey", and then with Folk Art Barn Wood".   After that, I painted the anvil and the head of the hammer with Reaper MSP "Scorched Metal", and I painted the sword with Accent "Princely Pewter.   I followed that with painting the vine on the trunk with Reaper MSP "Christmas Wreath".
     After the new colors had time to dry,I gave the hammer head, anvil, and sword all a wash with the "Nuln Oil".  I then drybrushed the anvil and hammer head with Folk Art Brushed Metal "Brushed Bronze", and then painted the scrolling on them with Ceramcoat "Wedding Gold".  After that, I worked on making the sword look like it was still a little molten by layering on Reaper MSP Bones "Cinnamon Red", Reaper MSP "Holly Berry", Reaper MSP "Hearth Fire", and Reaper MSP Golden Glow"  I had to keep doing it several times and in different thinnesses until I got a look I was happy with.
     When I was happy with the sword, I moved on to the vine.  I thought I'd try something a little different, so I first tried doing the  highlights with Folk Art Color Shift "Green Flash", but I felt it was too drastic of a color difference from the base "Christmas Wreath". So I went back and tempered it with Crafter's Acrylic "Wild Green".
      When I was done painting the figure, I used some white glue to glue some fine brown sand to the base.  When the sand was dry, I painted it with a coat of Americana "Raw Umber". When this was dry, I drybrushed the sand with the "Territorial Beige", and then with some Folk Art "Butter Pecan"; lastly I drybrushed it with a little Crafter's Acrylic "Light Antique White".
      I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.  When dry, I glued on some bits of grass tufts.   Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".

     I'm really happy how she turned out!     Particularly the sword and the anvil.  I messed up her face a little on her left cheek; but given her missing eye, I figure she is a retired warrior, so a scar on her cheek looks fine to me.

4 comments:

  1. Yet another figure that has a feature that I never knew was there before you showed it off, in this case the missing eye.

    That hair turned out nicely, which is good, given how much of the figure it is.

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    1. Thanks!
      I wasn't sure about the eye myself: whether it was supposed to be more hair, or an eye patch of some sort, so went to double check it with the painted examples in the Reaper catalogue. And I agree about the abundance of hair; the amount flowing down her back borders on the ridiculous. Maybe she always kept it cut short during her adventuring life, so now she is enjoying letting it grow luxuriously long. :)

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  2. Lovely work. I wouldn't want to be hitting hot metal with a hammer if I had no depth perception though.

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    1. Thanks, misterc!
      Yes, I had the same thought; she should have chosen a better career. But then again, maybe she has special Elven abilities that allow her to perceive things mere Humans can't. :)
      Those bare arms, and half-bare chest didn't seem like good ideas either, if sparks are going to be flying...

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