Kristianna, Bones 2 Figure

      This past week I decided to continue to work on the Bones 2 Heroes I set, and I painted the Kristianna figure.
     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 had recently seem someone post online some figures they had done with the clear weapons  from Bones 3 weapon sprues; where they had painted parts of the clear piece, and left others see-through,  and I had decided I wanted to try something similar.    Since I'm not a fan of dual-wield figures, I thought it might be neat to remove her lefthand sword, and replace it with a clear shield.  So I looked through the selection of shields, and landed on the one with the hooded head on it with the wing-like surround from the Armory of Virtue clear Add-on set. I was struck by the symbolic similarity between the hood on the shield and the head piece the figure had on, and decided that perhaps the figure was a cleric or paladin, and the face on the shield was an image of her goddess or a saint.  She wore the headpiece as part of her official garb, in representation of the hood worn by the deity.

  My next step was to see if the shield actually fit.  I first carefully cut away the sword, and immediately found that the shield was a little big for the space between the overhang of her headpiece, and the flowing  ribbon like pieces (a clerical stole?) flowing from behind her arm and curving upward.  So I set about trimming off a bit of the underside of the headpiece, and the top curve of the ribbon until I could wedge the shield in there.  I thought it looked pretty good. I decided it would probably be best to paint them separately, and then glue them together at the end; especially since you'd actually be able to see part of her outfit through the clear parts of the shield. 
     So, I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then placed the figure in my painting grip.

      I began by giving the figure a wash with Reaper MSP "Grey Liner" to help see the detail; and when that was dry I painted her face and hands with Reaper MSP "Tanned Shadow". When the "Tanned Shadow" was dry, I gave it  a wash with Citadel "Reikland Fleshshade".  When it was dry, I painted her pants, blouse, and sleeves, with Americana "Grey Sky", and her corset and tabard with Crafter's Acrylic "Tutti Frutti"

     I then painted all the stuff flowing down her back (coat? cape? clerical stole?), as well as her headpiece, and the decorations on her corset and sleeves, with Americana "Cranberry Wine".  While painting the decor on the sleeves, I decided that it looked more like she was wearing gloves than having bear hands, so I used the "Cranberry Wine" to paint the gloves as well.  I then painted her armor, and the sword blade with Americana "Zinc", and her hair, tiara, and sword hilt with Accent "Golden Harvest".

     After giving everything a few hours to get good and dry, I gave the areas I had painted with the "Sky Grey", "Tutti Frutti", and "Zinc" all a wash with Citadel "Nuln Oil" wash.  When that was dry, I gave the areas of "Cranberry Wine" all  a wash with slightly diluted Iron Wind Metals "Purple" ink.

     When the washes were  dry, I painted her eyes and lips and then highlighted her face with Reaper MSP "Tanned Skin" and Reaper MSP "Tanned Highlight".  For the very highest points I mixed in a little Crafter's Acrylic "Flesh" into the "Tanned Highlight".  Next, I did her hair, highlighting it first with Americana "Moon Yellow", and then lighter highlights with Apple Barrel "Lemon Chiffon".   After that, I  did the highlighting on her pants, blouse and sleeves, using first the base "Grey Sky" mixed with a little Ceramcoat "Snow White", and then the plain "Snow White" itself. "

I then highlighted her corset and tabard with Crafter's Acrylic "Cherry Blossom Pink", and then highlighted the flowing stuff on her back, the headpiece, gloves, and the decorations on her corset and sleeves, all with Americana "Burgundy Wine" mixed with a little of the "Tutti Frutti".  I also went back and hit the pearls around the top of her headpiece with the "Snow White"
     Next, I went back and went over the sword and armor with Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey", and then highlighted it all with Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver".   After that, I painted the sword hilt, tiara, and necklace, with Ceramcoat "Bronze", and highlighted them with Ceramcoat "Wedding Gold".
       Lastly, I painted the figure's integral base with the "Bittersweet Chocolate".
     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.
     While I was waiting for the figure to dry and get it's varnish coat, I began to work on the shield.  I began by painting the face with Americana "Shading Flesh", and then I painted the hood and the bow underneath with the "Cranberry Wine"  I also painted the back of the shield, where the head was, with the "Cranberry Wine" so the entire head area would be opaque from front and back.

     Next, I painted the little bit of hair seen under the hood with some Daffodil Yellow", then when the shield was dry, I gave the face and hood a wash with the "Reikland Fleshshade".  When it was dry, I highlighted the face with the "Flesh",  and the hood I did the same as on the main figure; with the "Burgundy  Wine and the "Tutti Frutti".  I then painted the rim around the shield, both front and back, with Ceramcoat "Black", and when it was dry went over it with the "Gunmetal Grey", front and back.
     Now was the moment of truth... Once again I carefully squeezed the shield into he spot between the underside of the headpiece and the upwards curl of the ribbon-like hanging.  However, this time I noticed that, while the shield fit in the area, when I looked around back behind the shield I realized her arm didn't actually come into contact with the back of the shield; there was about 2mm of space between them at the widest point!  In my rush to get started I hadn't actually checked about contact with the arm.  And the shield did not sit close enough to the body that I could just fudge it.
      This meant I'd have to do some after-painting trimming, which I was not looking forward to.    In the end, I game to the realization that the whole lower curve of the ribbon was just going to have to go; so I cut that off and trimmed it back until the ends of it sat more flush with the line of the arm.  I also had to go in and trim more of the headpiece's overhang.  Finally, I got it where the shield would actually sit up against her arm, without doing too much damage to the paint job.  Phew!

     My next step then was to superglue the shield in place to the arm.  I felt there were enough areas I had trimmed, and enough unpainted surface on the back of the shield that I would have a couple of good contact points. 
     Once the glue was good and dry, I gave the shield a coat of the "Duraclear "Matte" varnish. Then, when  the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to flock the base.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote".

    Well, I'm really happy with how this turned out.  I think it ended up looking very cool, and now I want to try more things like this!    As I was painting, I came up with a whole backstory of how the shield is made from some sort of holy crystal slab which, legend tells, was formed from the tears-turned-to-stone of the goddess herself. Imbued with all sorts of magic protective powers. :)