Last Christmas, I got a boxed set of Mirkwood Rangers (i.e. Wood Elves) from GW's Hobbit range. I was feeling a little OD'd on Warmachine, so I decided to knock these guys out this past week.
First of all, I know GW's Middle-earth range is in a smaller, more lifelike-proportioned "28mm" than their normal stuff...but these Elves seemed very small to me. Regardless, the sculpts were great, and the box of 10 figures contained no duplicates. Those two facts alone erased any misgivings I had about scale.
Here are five of the figures assembled and based. Each figure was composed of two pieces...and the poses are very dynamic.
Some of the figures primed white.
Here, all the figures are primed, and each has been given a dark wash to pre-shade and pop out details to aid in the painting process.
Painting went backwards for me this time. I usually start with skin and work my way out on each figure. However, I wanted an overall green scheme on these Elves, and green...light green in particular...can be hard to brush paint. So I wanted to airbrush on the initial base coat. So...I masked off the faces, hair and hands with ticky-tac putty.
And then sprayed on a couple of shades of light green. I then removed the putty, which left the faces and hands ready for a good skin coat later in the process.
Before getting to the skin and hair (which I did last), I painted in the green cloth highlights, leather armor and some of the metal bits.
Finally, bows, arrows, knives, hands, faces and hair were completed...bases were finished off and the project was done.
'Til next time!
So simple yet a stunning result! Nice technique and thanks for sharing. May I ask: the shading coat (Brown) looks like it will work with green glazes over the top at that point rather than airbrushing over, what do you think? A related question is also: how do you prevent the airbrush coat hiding the brown shade? Thanks Kevin!
ReplyDeleteRuss,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments. The dark was coat would probably work fine with green glazes over top...but you still have to hand brush them, which would take some time. One the related question, when you airbrush with thin paint, and do light passes, you don't obscure the shade coat underneath. Good luck.
Ahh I thought that might be the case. I'll have to trial the thin coats over the shaded base. Very cool thanks!
ReplyDeleteKevin - Great work again!
ReplyDeleteWhat did you use for the first dark shade?
Sexy Elves.
ReplyDeleteHey David,
ReplyDeleteThe dark wash is future floor wax mixed with a little paint and some matte medium.