Elvirith here, as we mentioned in my little introduction I've never really ventured beyond the range of miniatures available in Games Workshop. When I went to Salute earlier this year my eyes were opened to just how much is actually out there! One of the first things I fell in love with were the gorgeous Tooth and Sword range of Chibi anthropomorphic adventurers by Meridian Miniatures. I bought a few of the characters including the cutest little Pug fighter! I decided that I'd like to practice on a few more Chibi style miniatures and build up to these cute little guys. Nyx suggested that I get involved with a Super Dungeon Explore campaign with her and some of the other members of the Doom Room. This is due to start later this month and each of us has been set the challenge of painting an individual hero to use in the campaign. I chose to paint the Tabbybrook Mage, a little magic user with kitty ears and a tail! What's not to love?
It was clear that this mini was unlike anything I had painted before. Unlike most Games Workshop Miniatures that have stark recesses and textured surfaces that allow you to get great results with very simplistic techniques. Such as, the use of washes, dry brushing and a little layering. This mini has lots of sweeping curves and flat surfaces. My usual painting style just wasn't going to cut it. I decided that I would teach myself to blend. I started by looking at a few Painting Buddha videos on how to blend flesh and glaze blending in general (the links are available at the bottom of this post). First step was to make myself a wet palette. I used an old GW tufts tub a couple of dish cloths to line the bottom and a Daler Rowney Stay-Wet palette set. I lined the tub with cloths and filled it with water before pouring out the excess. Cut the reservoir paper to size and laid this over the cloths and did the same with the membrane paper. If I were to do it again I would swap the cloths for a thin sponge to retain more water but it worked well enough.
I started by priming Tabbybrook in GW Chaos Black primer and then dusted her with GW Skull White at an angle to help me keep track of where the light source would be shown on the model.
I then did my best to follow the Painting Buddha tutorial on how to blend skin. I used GW Kislev Flesh as a base with a little Abbadon Black in the shadowed areas which I then glazed back up to Kislev Flesh. On the very high points of the face I used a mix of Kislev and Elfic Flesh from Vallejo's Game Color range. This was then glazed back in with darker mixes of the two so that the contrast was not too stark. I used the same technique on the orb in Tabby's staff using a mix of Caledor Sky, Lothern Blue and White Scar. I then picked out two squares of light in the GW edge paint - Blue Horror. The hair and any remaining fur (her ears and tail) were base coated in Emperor's Children and blended with the Fulgrim Pink edge paint and White Scar.
Once I'd gotten this far, I was confident enough to lay down the rest of the base coats. The cloak was base coated in Kantor Blue and her dress was base coated in Lothern Blue.
After I had base coated the cloak in Kantor Blue I mixed it with a little black and painted thin layers into the deep folds of the cloak. I also mixed Kantor Blue with Teclis Blue to create a vibrant blue which was painted onto the very top edges of cloak. I added Kantor Blue to the bright mix and blended it down into the lower edges of the cloak. I also added more Kantor to the darker mix and brought the dark recesses up to meet the main panels of the dress. This was all done with very, very thin layers to make the transitions as seamless as possible.
After base coating the dress in Lothern Blue I followed a very similar process to what I had done on the cloak. I created a mix of Lothern and Teclis blue for the dark folds of the dress and a bright mix of Lothern and white for the very top edges of the dress. I then added more and more Lothern Blue to the mix used in the recesses to blend them into the main body of the dress. I also added more Lothern Blue to the mix used on the very top edges to blend them into the main body of the dress. Once I had finished the dress I then painted white squares of light on the orb of the staff to resemble pixelated 8-bit light.
After I had finished blending the blues on the dress and cloak I blacked out the trim and picked out the little cat eye designs in Moot Green layered over Wapstone Glow. I base coated the staff in Dryad Bark and layered the high points in Gorthor Brown before blending between the two with a mix of Dryad Bark and Gorthor Brown. The eyes were re-based in black then I painted the majority of the eyes in Caliban green leaving a little black showing towards the top. I then made a mix of caliban green and warpstone glow which I used to cover the majority of the caliban. I added a little more warpstone and covered almost all of the coat of the previous layer. I continued this process until the eyes faded from mid green to black and then began to add Moot Green to Warpstone Glow until the eyes faded from bright green toward the bottom through to black.
The last step was to finish off the detailing on the elixir bottles strapped to her belt, her little golden bells and to draw in the cat eyes with a pigment pen. I also blended the eyes a little more with some Flash Gitz Yellow mixed with Moot Green. I painted a white stone base using Celestra Grey, Agrax Earthshade in the recesses and layered it up with Ulthuan Grey before edge highlighting the panels using White Scar and a final glaze of white scar to blend the highlight.
Overall I'm pretty happy with my first attempt at blending. There's definitely room for improvement but luckily I have the entire Dungeon Explore base set to keep practicing on. Once I've done a few more, who knows, I may even attempt a bust!
Links:
Here is the link to the meridian Tooth and Sword minis.
This is the Painting Buddha tutorial that I used to teach myself how to blend skin.
This Painting Buddha tutorial covers glaze blending in general.
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