Dave Kelly

Okay, so I've been sitting staring at this figure for about four weeks now. I know it's a lovely sculpt (so full marks to the esteemed Sandra Garrity) but I just keep looking at it and can't visualise a colour scheme or even a theme for the poor girl. Normally even if I'm not sure what colours to use, I have an idea of how I want it to turn out. Who was she? I felt there was a little of the Wonder Woman (aaah love those old telvision shows) with the garb she was wearing, minus the cloak, but resisted the urge to go mental in the style of Dominic 'poodle' Heutelbeck (no he's never going to live that VIC down ;) I'm sure that makes me sound like a crackpot but hey.

One thought that did occur to me was that she looks like either losing her balance on a patch of ice down the high street (you can almost hear the cry of 'oh shit!') or she's reeling backwards from the force of a spell being unleashed, which is probably closer to what was in mind when she was drawn up. I still like my first choice though ;)

I've used only GW paints on this figure. That's not through choice, I just haven't decided on the Vallejo paints I want yet so they're on a backburner until I work them all out. Could be a long haul though having looked at the scarily large colour range.

The whole figure was undercoated with "Chaos Black". Yup that's right, I've been converted to the cult of black primer (small nod in the direction of Joel 'tentacle' Patton, high priest of the Cult). It seems to give a more natural feel to the whole figure for me than a traditionally brighter undercoat of white. Especially on this figure, I hope. The big problem for me when undercoating with black is that I find it so hard to pick out the detail by eye while attempting to paint. As a result I found myself referring back to the VIC7 page on Dominic's site to play with colours in my head before going back to the figure.

The Skin & Face This is the area that I hate most on this figure. Great detail, tiny figure, painter whos is all thumbs! Basecoat of "Elf Flesh" washed over with "Flesh Wash" then a highlight of "Elf Flesh" with a little "Bleached Bone". There's going to be people who end up drawing intricate patterns on her eyelids but not me! For some reason me and skin just don't get on. I'm happy with the way I paint most other areas of a figure but I never seem to get skin right, so I keep trying in the vain hope that one day I'll get it right. Not today though ...

The Hair Originally I painted her hair in silver (I'm fully aware this makes me a sick and twisted bunny, but then again that's nothing new :) but a fit of pique took me at the last moment so it's ended up in shades of dirty blonde. Over the black undercoat, I used "Verminous Brown" as a basecoat then simply drybrushed "Golden Yellow" and "Sunburst Yellow" to pick up the strands.

The Cloak Starting with a basecoat of "Warlock Purple" over the black gave me a nice solid coat to work on. Over that I gave two thin coats of "Red Gore". I'm still learning to thin the paints down to a consistency where they don't pool into the recesses, but provide an even, if thin, coverage. Mixing a small dollop (what a quantifiable measure!) of "Scorched Brown" with twice the amount of "Red Gore" provided me with the main colour of the recesses in the cloak. Basically, I wanted to force the shadow to be deeper than it natually would be. Yes as you can tell I'm still learning.

Adding a bit more "Red Gore" to the mix, I went back and ran in two thin coats down to the halfway between where my top highlight will be and the darkest fold. Again, two thin coats to ensure I didn't leave happy streaky lines though it. Into the deepest folds, I gave two thin lines of "Chaos Black", basically just dragging the brush down in a thin line. After that I went back and using a slightly thinner coat of "Red Gore" I just applied that to the whole cloak to make the lines between the colours less noticable.

Highlights were comprised of a "Red Gore" and "Blood Red" mix applied as above just going toward the highest point on the cloak as opposed to the lowest. I hit a bit of a stumbling block because on the first attempt at the final highlight I added white to the mix ... now as anyone with half a clue will tell you, white and red make pink. Call me mister thickie! Cue an excellent five minute spell of creative cursing without repetition. I'd make my parents proud.

Two watered down washes of "Chestnut Ink" over the top brought the colours together and solved the problem I'd had of the colours looking a little flat. Phew, problem solved and a cloak I'm happy with.

The lovely decoration on the bottom of the robes (small note, I'm so glad this was sculpted on ;) was only touched once the red of the cloak itself was finished. I painted over it with "Shadow Grey" to give me as clean a colour to work on as possible. It's actually becoming one of my favourite paints simply because it's so damned versatile. Over the top of that, I applied "Bad Moon Yellow". A tiny amount of "Blazing Orange" was applied to the centre of the runes and then a second light coat of "Bad Moon Yellow" over the top stopped it looking too orange.

The small clasps on the robe (and on the right sleeve) were painted with "Scorched Brown" and the clasps were painted in "Bad Moon Yellow" to tie with the pattern on the robe. A small dink with "Skull White" to the centre of them whilst wet gave me a little highlight as I imagined they'd be a shiny feature but toward the top, not the edges.

Inside of the cloak I had a bit of a problem. I'd already used red on the outside but wanted a colour that contrasted with that, and with the skin tones I'd chosen. The final caveat was that it had to tie into whatever colours I used on the detail work on the front armour too. Basically I required a neutral colour that would work with anything. Avoiding magnolia (hey we've all had a magnolia room at some point in our house) I felt that grey was the best alternative. It provided a lovely colour contrast to the red of the cloak while not pulling focus away from the detail work on the front of the mini. The inside was painted purely with "Fortress Grey" as a starting point and then "Codex Grey" into the folds and the sides of the folds. As with the cloak, I ran the brush with "Chaos Black" into the deepest recesses. Highlights between the top and bottom were built up by using my highest or lowest colour and adding increasing amounts of "Space Wolves Grey" into the mix until I had a mid-point. There must be about four or five layers here which is damned rare for me. Normally, anything more than a layer is just showing off :) However to my disappointment, when taking the preliminary pictures with the camera it hardly looks like there's any colour difference. I might revisit this at some point and try to make the colour change from low to high points more obvious. Clearly I'm being too subtle when adding paint to my initial mix, but I found by giving the whole inside of the cloak a really really thin wash of "Midnight Blue" it seemed to work quite well, it acts as an excellent shadow colour for the grey range I used so I'll have to try it again at some point..

The Boots I wanted the rear of the figure and the front to tie in together without being overpowering. So I chose to do the boots in the same colour scheme as the cloak. In the absence of a handbag/boot combo, I went for a cloak/boot combo ... from medieval times she may be, but that doesn't stop her being a fashionable chick! It was even simpler because I didn't feel I had enough space to sneak in all the different colours so it was two layers (of "Red Gore" then "Blood Red") and two washes (of "Chestnut Ink") followed by doing the filigree work in "Bad Moon Yellow" with a tiny amount of "Blazing Orange" into the shadow areas.

The Staff You can tell this is one of the last areas I painted as my interest was rapidly waning by this point. I've gone for "Scorched Brown" over the whole staff, with "Snakebite Leather" over as a drybrush, followed by a wash of really thin "Chaos Black". That's as exciting as it got! It took me nearly the whole weekend to see that the item on top of the staff is a dragon skull of some variety. I drybrushed with "Warlock Purple", "Golden Yellow" and "Blazing Orange" in different places to give it the glowing look.

The Breastplate By this point I'm up to quite a number of colours on this figure and I really don't like using that many when painting any given figure, so I wanted to do the breastplate in existing colours that would tie with the rest of the figure but not make the entire piece look 'samey'. I went for painting the armour itself in "Bad Moon Yellow" then shaded in the deepest recesses with "Snakebite Leather". The filigree work was picked out with "Red Gore" to provide a contrast to the very bright breastplate. I'm sure there'll be several people doing the VIC who end up shading the filigree work and I shall stoop low in a bow of respect for them, because damned if I could do it.

Finished Now I know that there are going to be flaws I've completely overlooked, add into that my lack of understanding for my new digital camera (Coolpix 995 and you'll see I have a problem with glossed areas, oops!). It's not the greatest paintjob on this figure you're likely to see in this gallery but damn I've actually enjoyed it! It's just a shame my interest was beginning to flag toward the end, but thankfully I have a spare to desecrate at a later date. For some reason, working toward a deadline appears to be about the only way I ever get figures finished to a half-decent standard. I've also noticed I appear to be developing a VIC obsession with writing a stack concerning the cloak of the figure then only a couple of paragraphs for the remainder of the figure. I'm hoping the next VIC is a beast composed entirely of flowing fabric ;)

Well despite my initial reservations about spoiling this figure, I'm actually quite happy with the way it turned out in a Santa Claus meets Wonder Woman crossover kind of way. Having spent several weeks looking forlornly at her, it only took me a weekend to paint once my motivation returned from its annual holidays. My only real disappointments are the skin and the face ... I just could see just enough of the poor lass' face to put any real detail on her, let alone draw a pupil! My real work is going to be in flesh tones, I've either got to work out how the hell to paint them or paint every figure in alien skin.

I was particularly annoyed by the photos I took. While they themselves are okay, it makes the figure look so big and simplistically painted. I have no complaints of the usual "it looks better in real life", because it doesn't. The camera has given a very good picture in terms of the paintjob itself, however looking at the figure now it's done there's still so much that I could have done. Maybe an investment in an Optivisor is next in line as I don't feel my eyes are up to the job of detail work and highlighting the tiny areas.

One thing I did feel made a difference (unfortunately too little too late) was that I bought a water filter and have started thinning my paints with filtered water instead of straight from the tap. Big big difference, in particular when applying a wash (inside of the cloak was done with it).

Big thanks to Dominic and Deane for the collation and shipping of the figures to everyone, it must have been horrid looking at thousands of little arms and packing them in jiffy bags; so that's real commitment to the cause, and to Reaper for being good enough to humour a clearly insane group of painters, and to Sandra Garrity for sculpting such a great little figure. It's my first Reaper miniature (this is one the reasons I love doing a VIC as it's stuff I wouldn't normally think about) but based on the genuine fun I had painting this, it certainly won't be my last.

And as always thanks to you (whomever you may be) for reading through my inane drivel!

Dave Kelly

Comments submitted on the original site:

Geert writes...

The shiny areas do indeed let down the fig but the other areas
show you already have great skill. I love the way the hair looks
on this one. Very natural. Strange isn't it, how this hobby can
be so frustrating and enjoyable at the same time? Loved reading
your narrative, btw.

Dallas writes...

I understand the camera issue Dave,

I had to use an old camera from the office that I'm not really
familiar with. I found the whole thing frustrating considering I
do know something about photography, but I digress....
The hair does indeed look good and all the lines look clean.
Please if you ever do figure out that camera post more pics.
Dallas

Craig Stocks writes...

Wow a mini and a novel to boot ;-) bummer your camera is
misbehaving. (hint gloss coat, pull lamps as far back as possible
to cut the reflection) I like the hair, but the gloss reflection
is distracting the rest of the paint job.

Ramon writes...

Hi Dave,

A daring color choice :-) I would like to see it with better
shots though, because now the shinyness and color distortion
could make me say unjust things. The colors do look pretty well
blended though...
Ramon

Deane P. Goodwin writes...

Nice work. I think the hair could benefit form one more random
highlight, and do wish that gloss would go away. Nice strong
piece of work here.

Tom writes...

Did you get paid by the word for this project? ;)

Biggest comment is about the shine -- some Testor's dull cote or
some brush-on flat finish would really do wonders... it makes
everything look really, really thick. Kill the shine, and I
think you'll be much happier with your photos. Favorite part is the natural-looking hair: good job!

Dick Vandegrift writes...

I liked your narrative giving the colors you used and
how you used them. The robe and hair was real good.
Join the club of trying to do skin.

Jason writes...

Nice hair color on this one, and the blue on the inside of the
cloak is one of my favorite shades (and well done too). It seems
you've mistaken the back of her tabard for part of her coat, but
I suspect that this has been pointed out already. The
photography makes it difficult to really determine colors, but
from what I can see, I like your selections. Huh, looking at it
again I see that you've missed painting one of her cuffs yellow
too. Dude! You have to spend more time looking at the miniature
before you start painting it (grin).

Bethany Gecina writes...

Not crazy about the shine either, but her hair looks great. Nice
job!

Jarrett Lee writes...

Dave,

Welcome to the COBP! Im a member myself, priming 99.5% of my
mini's in black. Once you go black you never.....never mind.
Nice job! But could you please do a decent write-up next time? I
need more detail.

;)




I like the paint job, but what kind of finish did you use? (note:
I didnt read the other commentary yet). The glossiness detracts
from your paint job.
- Jarrett

David writes...

Glossy! Enough said, I'm sure you get the message by now. :o)

She looks pretty good. Most of the issues I have are to do with
the colour combination. The blond hair, brownish flesh and
yellows are all pretty close to each other. I think that even
with the nice darklining a bit more contrast would have worked
better. I'm also not a fan of the pinkish red it seems to clash a
little with the bluey grey. Just two small things: the figure is
lacking in character, she really needs some eyes! ;o) Also the
base would look heaps better with some paint on it. Maybe also
use a little sand to vary the base surface a little. Having such
uniform sized pebbles looks a little unnatural.
I do actually like her, despite all that stuff. I think she just
needs a little bit more work to bring her to life. Liked the
right-up and I sympathise with the flagging interest towards the
end.

Paolo "DragonPaint" Guion writes...

Hi Dave,

hard to point out something about the figure because the finish
is a bit gloss.. only one tip, try to put a piece of translucent
paper in front of your lights or your flash when you shoot the
pictures, it will diffuse a bit the light and you get less
sparkles. The colors seems really well blended and the description is
really good.. you can print a book about your ViC ;o)
Paolo

Irven Keppen writes...

Hi Dave,

I really like her hair the most! Great job, I'm still trying to
master blondes (haha aren't we all). I really like the tabard and
skin, but I think a different color for the cloak might have
worked better. I'd really like to see what the gloss coat is
masking from view! It looks like there are some hidden blending
details on her! Nice paint job!