WIP Critique Brom Hard Bark

[Bailey]

After working on several historical figures recently, I felt the need to do another fantasy subject. I was looking around at 1/35 scale kits and settled on Brom Hard Bark from Enigma Miniatures. The figure is a dwarf, so though he's 1/35, the figure is only 40mm from the ground to the top of his head.

There sculpt has a lot of character to it (not surprising since it comes from Latorre). He's got a random assortment of equipment and looks to be in rather dire straits. That's provided a lot of inspiration for the overall scene, but we'll get to that in a later post. I made a few minor modifications to the kit. I placed a pin in his thigh and another in his wooden shoulder armor which will be arrows. The one in his thigh is short, I figure he would have broken it off after getting hit. But the one in his armor will be a full arrow. After painting the piece, I'll attach some clipped sections of feathers for the fletching.

For the painting, so far I've focused on the head. I tried to bring out the character with the coloring. I mixed in purple with the skin tone for the areas under his eyes. And I applied some glazes of red on the nose and cheeks. For the hair, I used Reaper's Ruddy Leather, Secret Weapon's Orange Rust, Reaper's Burnt Orange and then Fair Skin Highlight for the brightest spots. I tried to focus the highlights in areas where you'd get some shine off the hair. On the beard the highlights are at the top, based on the overall shape, but it also helps to direct the focus up towards the face. For the blood stain on the cloth, I used a mix of Reaper's Carnage Red and Walnut Brown. I wanted a darker red in the deeper sections (so more brown in the mix) and went to pure red as I moved towards the outer regions. I applied this as a glaze rather than straight acrylic. While I normally make glazes from inks using a cup or well palette, in this case I mixed the acrylic colors with matte medium and a bit of water right on my wet palette. Using the matte medium holds it together and prevents it from flowing all over, while still giving you a lot of transparency. It also makes it easier to mix glazes of different shades.

And here's the full figure (minus the hands and weapon)

 

[custer760]

Excellent....Bravo
Regards
Pete

 

[clrsgt]

Excellent paintwork so far. He certainly is a right nasty looking little fellow.

 

[KenBoyle]

A fantastic job on the face and beard. Highlighting is superb!

Well done,
Ken

 

[Oda]

Beautiful work so far!

Oda.

 

[Gellso]

Cracking work on this and superb explanation of how you achieved it. Would be great for other great painters to share some knowledge.

 

[Joe55]

That's some top work going on there! I especially like how you handled the hair and beard!

Joe

 

[Blind Pew]

Excellent painting, great use of colour

 

[phil_h]

Fantastic!

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, everyone! A bit more progress to show on the dwarf. I'm taking this guy one part at a time. Most recent work was on his pauldrons. The sculpt has a random mix of equipment cobbled together from various sources. So I envision it all as pretty beat up. So I'm giving the metal a pretty heavy dose of weathering. I'm working with the Secret Weapon weathering acrylics (their rust and verdigris shades) to create the effect. Started by laying down some undertones of the rust shades (red/oranges for the iron, greens for the bronze) and then applied the metallic paints over it. Finally I went back with the rust/verdigris colors applied them liberally over the metal. Plenty of stippling to create a mottled pattern and then some streaks here and there.

Undertones

Metallics

Second application of weathering colors

 

[fermatgom]

Love it! I've never seen this approach to metals before! If I may ask, how d you apply metallic colors over the base? Stippling?Glazes? Thank you!!!

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, fermatgom. The metallic was done mostly through stippling, which can let some of the undercoat colors show through. I tend to mix matte colors into my metals to create the darker tones. That way the shadow regions don't react as much to the light and stay dark. But, as I work towards the light sections, I work up to pure metallic paint.

 

[fermatgom]

I tend to mix matte colors into my metals to create the darker tones. That way the shadow regions don't react as much to the light and stay dark. But, as I work towards the light sections, I work up to pure metallic paint.

Thank you!! That is very interesting!

 

[Bailey]

A bit more work on the dwarf over the weekend. I started on the clothing and got the bulk of the body down, minus some small details. The clothing is a mix of brown and green (mostly brown with just some hints of green).

Now that the details on the front of his waist are done, it's almost time to attach the hands and weapon. Did a quick peak at what that will look like...

 

[Bootneck]

Excellent work. So many textures and finishes to look at. Love the detail such as the thick gore dripping from the club. Subtle and not over stated. Thanks for sharing.
Peter.