Dallas Wortham

Vicky had reached her goal at last. Seven long years in the quest to find a spell tome of the ancient Wizard Lords of Kei. One from before the sundering. She could only hope this one would have the knowledge she sought. It sat upon an ancient gargoyle shaped pedestal. The stone was a blood red color, and sooted with age. The base was made of a deep black stone, that light seemed unable to penetrate, while the top was made of a black petrified wood. The tome itself sat open ready to be read. The pages were badly stained and brown with age. As she approached she searched the page, book, and pedestal closely looking for any runes of warding that the former owner may have left. Being confident that all was well she began to roll the cuffs of the sleaves up getting them out of the way to begin a divination incantation. The moment she felt her staff accidentally touch the edge of the pedestal she new she'd regret not being more diligent. In less then a second the book, began to smolder and she saw first one scaled green and then another as the imp clawed through the burning hole developing in the center of the book. Vicky new that the tome was lost, but that imp had to have been the old Wizards familiar, and that it's last given mission must have been to protect his master's secrets. A task it was about to complete ever so well and once the book was destroyed the little creature would escape to it's natural plane. But it would be privy to some of those same secrets. She only had seconds to bind the imp and salvage something from the incident.

I had just bought a Reaper treasures pack from the store, thinking it would make great gameing pieces when I came home to discover my VIC mini. When I saw the figure in the middle of casting and the expression on the face this image of a sorceress standing at a pedestal and the imp coming out of the book just popped into my head. How could I not do it? You'd think with this much inspiration to begin with I'd have no problem meeting the deadline right? Yeah right. I'd had surgery on my eyes and was still unable to focus for painting in April when the cross atlantic move to Germany came. I was able to get the conversion/cobblestone work done before the move but I didn't start painting until the very end of April. Then after such a long break and new eyes (I hadn't painted since before christmas) I had to relearn some of my technique. Then I had to find someway to get pics. Anyway here she is, with the usual caveat of "looks better IRL". I wish the pics were better, but I'm lucky to get them at all.

Special thanks to Mick for the conversion critique and to Ken who's last minute going away gift of a medical clamp for holding minis proved absolutely fantastic.

Dallas Wortham

Comments submitted on the original site:

Geert writes...

The base is absolutely great. It explains the pose very nicely.
And your painting skills are fine. I find I feel the yellow is a
little too bright with Vicky on her own, but with everything
together it seems to work. Nice work!

Sven writes...

Cool idea to explain her pose. And the pics are not that bad. But
I hope I could see her IRL sometimes you are here in Germany.

Dave Kelly writes...

Well if she looks better in real life then I'm disgusted. Nice
build up text for the scene, always a pleasure to see someone
conjure up a little image in their head and put it into action.

Colour choices work well and it's painted just fine. Full marks,
especially considering you're still getting used to those new
bionic eyes ;)

Glyn Evans writes...

Hi Dallas. Looks pretty cool. The pics of the girl are a bit
small in particular but overall, it makes a nice little diorama!
The "Woah"! thing came out very nice with that little nasty
peeking out! Great stuff :)

Craig Stocks writes...

what a great way to use the figures off balance look! she looks
surprised to see the bugger coming from the book. I love it.
James Brown said it best "Jump back! Touch yourself!! OW!!"
or something like that. :D Nice and clean looking paintjob.
Now, after looking at this piece, I'm going to have to open up
that treasure pack that has been sitting around waiting to be
used. Inspiration from another piece. thats praise in itself.
Thanks!

Serge writes...

Nice work, Dallas.
The color scheme is good, the base is very good...
Hey, you never tell me that you have bionic eyes...:-)

Ramon writes...

Hi Dallas,

Great mini. The blue/yellow works for me, though some more color
in highlighting and shading would perhaps do some more for it.
The way you used the pose of the mini for this diorama is
amazing. Great concept and great execution. Really lovely piece!
Ramon

Deane P. Goodwin writes...

Obviously the surgery worked well. Great piece in both concept
and execution. Glad to see you back to full speed at last!

Tom writes...

I really liked the story to introduce the miniature -- and the
use of the pedestal to make the stock pose convincing! The blue
and yellow look really well, almost like Wizard School Graduation
colors... It appears to be a scene straight from Hogwart's.
Great job!

Jason writes...

Difficut to critique this one because the pictures are somewhat
distant. I would first suggest putting some kind of background
behind your minis for photographs. I just use a piece of
patterned paper that I bought for ten cents at Michaels. The
blue and yellow look great together, and both look very well
done. I'm not sure I'm a fan of her hair though, and I feel that
silver trim would have looked better than the gold.

Dick Vandegrift writes...

Outstanding presentation. Where have I seen that blue and yellow
combination before? Must be that I like those colors. Great job.

Dick

Bethany Gecina writes...

I really like the use of the yellow with the blue--they work
nicely. The pics are a little small, but the paint job looks
first class from here.

Jarrett Lee writes...

Dallas,

Very solid paint job but the base is the star here - one of the
few that I feel rises above the rest of the competition. GREAT
use of the original pose.

Paolo "DragonPaint" Guion writes...

Hi Dallas,

you have captured the right feeling of this miniature and built a
story around it, this is great and the paintjob is really well
executed too.
Paolo

David writes...

Nicely done. You've used the off balance pose to your advantage
and I love the base. The strong blue and yellow scheme works
really well. The only thing I can suggest for improvement would
be a little stronger highlights for the inside of the coat. It's
looks a little flat but that could be just the photos.

Dallas writes...

Thank you everyone for the comments, they are quite humbleing.

When I was painting her I had a very tough time highlighting the
yellow without it turning pasty on me. Hence the yellows came
out a little less vibrant than I wanted. Still they do look
better in person.
As to the pictures well my choices were quite limited. I'm in
the middle of a big move across the Atlantic Ocean, and my PC etc
is still in shipment somewhere. The pictures were taken with a
borrowed camera. One of the older Mavicas. The one with a
floppy disk for storage. Not the best but it is what was
available. Also my lighting isn't the best in the office (cheap
low wattage overhead flourescent) Anyway when I can get better
pics, I will place them on the list.
Again thank you everyone for the comments.

xavier writes...

Great paint job. I have always thought the combination of
yellow and blue look great. Thoose colors look live.

The base is also great.

I really like the concept, the short story also help carry the
concept great entry.

Xavier

Dirk Stiller writes...

You did a pretty nice job with this little scene.
And it's a nice little story you have written down.
Good work on both the base and the mini.
The blue/yellow scheme is a bit bright on such a miniature, for
my taste, but looks quite ok. Well done, Dallas.
I hope you brought her to Germany so I can have a look at her
sooner or later in person.
Until then
Cheers
Dirk

Irven Keppen writes...

Dallas,

I really like what you've done with the VIC! Great job, you found
a great way to make the pose work without having to do a major
conversion. You color choices are great too! I hope you've posted
bigger/clearer pictures of this somewhere!

Joe Wiedeman writes...

Very nice little diorama here!

I like that you've made the extra effort to come up with a story
for this one...show's you really enjoy her maybe?
The colors (other than the yellow) all seem muted (maybe because
of the yellow?).
Just looking at this one I KNOW it must look lots better IRL.

One suggestion would be to work on here hair some, seems pretty
lifeless (thoug that could be the pics). Very nice work,
congrats!
Peace.