Super Dungeon Explorer: Princess Ruby WIP and Final

Next on the shelf is a SDE Princess Ruby.  Packaging:

This is a one piece metal model, looks a lot like Princess Peach from Super Mario.  I put a Secret Weapon Miniatures Base on her.

Starting with the painting:

Primed with Reaper Master Series brush-on white.  Skin tone is a build-up layer with the Fair Skin Triad.  I did a build-up from Fair Shadow to Fair Skin to Fair Highlight.  I wanted a "rosy" look to her cheeks so I thinned up RMS Pale Violet Red, and stumbled through an application/removal process with a wet-brush.  I think I might have accidentally did some real wet-blending out of that.  Also used the RMS Pale Violet Red (pure) to paint a tongue in her mouth, but your can't see that because of the shadow cast from my lamp.

The eyes were based in RMS pure white.  Painted in the entire Iris with RMS Marine Teal.  Then used P3 Thamar Black to outline the iris, put a pupil in, then used the Pure White again to add the reflection dot.  I'm quite happy with the outcome on the eyes, but thinking thinner paint on the skin would've smoothed it up a bit more.  To give a little more pop to the eyes, I thinned Vallejo Game Ink Black with Glaze medium that gave the transition line between skin and eye...now that I could improve upon.

Now with some base-coating finished, with a little depth/highlighting on her dress.  Her hair is base coated with RMS Tanned leather, its the "shade" part of the Amber Gold and Golden Blonde triad.  The dress, I used old Reaper Pro Paints satins/metallics.  (That accounts for most of the gloss look of her dress.)  Base coated in RPP Coral and then shaded with RPP Rose Petal.

A little more work with the dress.  I ended up putting a wash of Citadel Baal Red on there to deepen the shadows and was quite pleased.  The shadows are a bit exaggerated with the natural shadows as a result of my poor lighting.  I think I'll put some silver on the filigree of her dress to make that design pop a little more.  Her hair, since I felt the Baal Red wash result was favorable, ended up getting a wash only in the recesses of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia.  Turned out nice, I think, and I pulled the highlights up with the RMS Golden Blonde.  I'm seeing where I'm improving with my skills.  I'm not at the level I desire to be, but I'm moving along.

I essentially lost motivation on her and slowed down a bit on completing new things.  I painted the ball thingies in her hair with RMS sparkling amethyst to keep going with the metallic theme, but have no idea how to give it any depth.  So I washed them with Leviathan Purple and called them done.  Her golden crown was painted with Citadel Shining Gold and washed with Citadel Devlan Mud.  The base was painted up with the two RMS gray samples I received from Reaper with some orders, washed with Secret Weapon Miniature's Cool Gray, then washed again with Citadel Badab Black.  I did one flagstone with P3's Hammerfall Khaki, washed with Devlan Mud.  I still need to work on thinning my paints more to get a smoother application onto the model, but overall I can tell my skill is improving…it's becoming easier to put what's in my head down on the model.  More and more practice and then pushing myself with technique will get me set.  Final pictures and moving onto the next model:

Knight Models: Batman-Arkham City 28mm Batman WIP and complete.

This one is for me.  I'm more of the Batman fan than my co-worker and friend.  So, if he has Superman on his desk, I'm going to have Batman. 


First up packaging:

All the pieces pre-assembly and post assembly.  In a small step to improve my basing, I picked up Wyrd Miniatures 30 mm Sewer Base inserts, which I thought were pretty cool.

 I primed with RMS brush-on Black Primer.  (This is one of those times where I wish I would've painted first, assembled later…there's a lot of tiny crevices that'll be tough to paint without touching somewhere else.)

Beginnings of base coating:

The face is RMS Rosy Shadow, washed with Vallejo Game Color Ink:  Sepia Shade.  Touched up with the Rosy Shadow, then bit of highlighting with RMS Rosy Flesh.  The gray is a nameless color sample of RMS paints I received.  A pic of the bottle is in my Man of Steel WIP.  The base coat of the cloak is RMS Midnight Blue.

A couple more coats of RMS Midnight Blue alternating with washes of Secret Weapon's Blue Black.  I also washed the gray down with Blue-Black.  I wanted that gray a bit darker, but not with a pure black wash.  Boots, gloves, chest emblem, and the batarang all painted with RMS Adamantium Black with a wash of P3's armor wash.  Now, I know that I could touch up some points on the armor with a brighter metallic, but at this time I feel that Citadel's Mithril Silver is "too much."  Also, it's the only brighter metallic I have…I can't do NMM (yet), and it's one of those things where at this point I'd mess it up and I'm quite happy with the results right now.  All of that yielded me this:

Note:  I did my first attempt at real green stuffing the gap at his waist, and smoothing it over with some LGS.  Semi-fail.  No gap, but not smooth around the crotchal region.  I'm also working on my motivation at really being comfortable with the filing, and green stuffing during prep phase.  I just don't like doing it, so I haven't pushed myself to do it well.

Starting on the base, I painted the metal RMS rust Brown, then stippled Reaper Pro Paint Pewter.  Gave it a wash of Citadel Gryphonne Sepia, Leviathan Purple, Thraka Green, then VGC Game Ink Black.

See these?

Included in this selection of Secret Weapon Miniatures Products includes Rust Orange, Rust Red, Rust Brown, and Pigment Fixer.  Yeah, didn't have the guts to use them after I touched some up parts of the base with paint.  So I left the rust look as paint without SWM's awesome pigments…maybe next time.

I finished up the base with some "toxic goo."  This is a simple VGC Scorpion Green, washed with Citadel Thraka Green, highlighted up with Scorpion Green, and a light dry brush of VGC Livery Green.  All that's left is to put a couple of coats of Gloss Varnish on the goo to keep it looking wet and slimy, and a brush on of RMS Sealer/Varnish.

Finished product, thanks for looking.

Knight Models: Man of Steel WIP & Completion

I have a friend who is quite the Superman fan.  I ordered this model, well, because it was cool; and decided to paint it up for him to put in his office.  I mean, who doesn't want a 28mm Superman protecting your office from evil?

Packaging:

Essentially, I superglued it together.  Didn't pin it.  Probably should have, but we'll find out the hard way if I needed to.  I used GW's Liquid Green Stuff to fill in the cracks.  (Note:  My LGS is was bought when that junk hit the market and guess what?  It's mainly dried unusable plastic.  I was able to get enough to do what I needed done, and tossed the pot.  I think I'll just get some real Green Stuff next time I'm out shopping.)  The base is the one that came with the model.  A basic round lipped base and I stuck it on top of a larger basic round-lipped base to give it a pseudo-plinth feel.  After other pre-painting prep:  filing/cutting off flash and mold lines, I brushed on Reaper Master Series Sealant to fill in the one or two air-bubbles on the cloak.  (A Reaper demo-painter hinted up to do so, but I think I'm supposed to do it after the primer…just take a bit of the clear coat on a toothpick and fill that pit, then brush a thin layer on and you get a super smooth base to lay paint down upon.)  

Next, I primed ole Supes with Reaper Master Series Brush on primer, black.

Base coated his skin with RMS Rosy flesh, thinned a little with water.  I then used RMS Rosy Shade to darken shade.  Not dark enough so I pulled out the Vallejo Game Ink Flesh Wash.  Put two drops of that with the two drops of Rosy Shade added two drops of Vallejo Glaze Medium and voila!  I made an orangey mess of the skin.  Not happy with that Flesh Wash.  I then pulled out the Vallejo Sepia Wash and slapped that on there quite haphazardly.  Now I have this:

A few things to note:  1) I know it's not in focus and I'm not bothering retaking a clearer picture of this orangish brownish mess; 2)  What skill I deluded myself into having is now 3) 2+ years out since using a brush.  I'm trying not to have to strip so I think I'll start with Rosy Shade instead of the mid tone of this triad, drop a meticulously placed wash of Vallejo Sepia Wash, then build up some subtle highlights.

Obviously, my knowledge far surpasses my actual skill.  I took approximately 10 hours over a week's period and did various coats with RMS Rosy Shadow, maybe with a drop or two of Vallejo Glaze medium, then added a drop or two or four of Vallejo Sepia Shade wash.  Didn't like it so wash with the old school "almost never go wrong" Citadel Devlin Mud wash.  Too dark.  Back to Rosy Shadow +glaze to thin, light layer of Devlin Mud, rosy shadow, highlighted with Rosy skin, mix a little devlin mud with the sepia shade…and so forth until I get the result in the below pic.

Not overly happy with the skin, but I'm going to leave it alone for a bit, and per the pic, you can see I moved on.  (Still need to do the eyes and may had a little something to the rosy skin to give the lips a little color…but knowing me I'll have him looking like he's wearing Lois' lip stick.

So formula for yellow:  I started with RMS Marigold yellow, and it crackled when dried.  I thinned down VGC Moon Yellow with the Glaze Medium and covered the Marigold Yellow.  (Hid the crackle, yes!)  Dropped a thinned down Sepia Wash on the yellow to draw the "hard line" between the yellow and the "S".  Brought the color back up with VGC Moon Yellow and the gave it a couple of washes with Secret Weapon Miniatures Yellow Snow wash.  (loving SWM stuff, need more colors though.)  Now onto the red, also shown in the above photo.

I started with the "S" and moved to the boots.  I wanted to attempt to get the formula ball parked if not down pat prior to doing the cape.  I based them with RMS Blood Red, Citadel Baal Red wash, Devlin Mud wash, then a wash of them mixed.  I started bringing the red back to bright with a couple of layers of RMS blood red again, thinned with medium.  Added a drop of RMS Fire Red.  Then fire red thinned.  Another Baal Red wash.  Lastly, a very pointed and purposeful application of Devlin mud to outline the soles of his boots and this little lip thingy where the boots meet the suit.  

I started on the blue of his suit.

This photo is too dark, but all I've done is base paint the blue with RMS Breonne Blue and lay down a wash of Citadel Asurmen Blue.  I like this plain Jane effect and may just do another wash of Asurmen Blue and be done with it.  Another thing I've noticed though is how "one-dimensional" his "S" is and want to fix it.  Problem with that is my mediocrity of painting often ruins what I've already done.  I might attempt to pull out my TAP "Insane Detail" brush and pick out some more depth with a pointed wash, and then try to layer on another highlight.  Maybe, maybe not.

Oh the horror of his eyes.  I place these pics on here "x-large" so  I can see what I've really done, but holding him a little further away there's a bit of depth on the "S" and I did one more highlight glaze in the middle of it.  I've done more layering on the blue and my steps go a little something like this after the initial base of RMS Breonne Blue:  Citadel Asurmen Blue x2, layer of Secret Weapon Miniatures Blue-black to get more depth (too dark now!), Breonne/glaze medium, layer of RMS Templar blue with 3 drops of medium (too thin! almost did a reverse shading where the recesses were lighter than the highlighted areas1), hit with a thinned Asurmen blue, then layered up starting with 1:1:1 ratio of Breonne, Templar, and Medium, then 1:1 templar and medium.  While not a Golden demon winner, I'm actually pleased with the results.  I can do better with practice, but now I think I'll leave the blue alone.

I'm actually more than well pleased at how the cape turned out.  (You can see the blue a bit better in these pics too.)  Built up about 5-6 thin layers of RMS Blood Red, then hit with two Citadel Baal Red washes.  I didn't feel the need to go with the Devlan Mud wash the time.  Then picked up some of the highlights with the Blood Red in a 1:1 ratio with Medium, added a drop of RMS Fire Red for more highlights, then another drop of RMS Fire Red, and left the cape alone.

Black isn't really in my skill set, but his hair was based with P3 Thamar black, dry brushed with a Reaper Sample given to me out of one order (the one on the far left of the picture below).  Then washed with SWM Blue Black.  Not awesome, but there's some depth not captured with my pics.  

The grey of rock base was made from two different shades of grey from samples given from RMS when I placed some orders.  Based with the darkest, dry brushed with the mid-tone, and a lighter dry brush with the RMS ghost white.  I included pics to show the make shift triad.

I flocked the base with basic flock.  Took some Elmer's clear glue, mixed it in water, brushed it on the base, and dipped it in the tupperware of flock.  (I'm not a big/huge creative basing guy…I'll come around eventually.  Lastly, final pics:

Oh, and I hit it with Reapers Brush on sealer.  It gave it a slight shine and normally I'd bust it down with a spray on matte varnish, but I'm out and it's not crazy shiny under normal lighting conditions.  Thanks for looking.