Final D&D Commission Minis

Prior to the NOVA Open, I delivered the last two minis in my D&D Party commission. These last two couldn’t be more opposite characters, and they were both a joy to paint for very different reasons.

First, there’s the flighty, easily distracted, icy sorceress, Kava. The mini is by Guild of Harmony, and it’s a gorgeous piece.

Kava was to be painted in blues, whites and silver (and in fact, has a silvery sheen over her skin due to her silver draconic heritage). I decided to use most of the same palette I use on the icy parts of my Aquablight. I started with P3 Coal Black, and went through P3 Meredius Blue, P3 Arcane Blue and finally P3 Frostbite as the final highlight. Each of these was run through the airbrush, but the final Frostbite was added by hand.

Her skin was described as “tawny”, so after some research, I found that P3 Khardic Flesh was the best primary fleshtone. I then highlighted up with P3 Midlund Flesh and some P3 Ryn Flesh on her face, and P3 Idrian Flesh for shadows. This was all then glazed with a very thin layer of VMC Silver.

With hair that was supposed to be such a dark brown that it was almost black, that’s essentially what I used to paint it. I started with my darkest brown, P3 Umbral Umber, and then washed with GW Nuln Oil. Nuln Oil is great because not only is it a fairly strong black wash, it’s also incredibly flat, and kills any shine from the usually satin finish of P3 paints. I then highlighted the hair with more Umbral Umber, and some P3 Battlefield Brown (which is a bit warmer than Umbral Umber), and added a second layer of Nuln Oil in some of the darkest recesses.

Overall, this was a blast to paint. I don’t often get to paint things with so many folds of cloth, and so much skin, so it was great practice at keeping blends smooth (mostly achieved through glazing).

The other mini I worked on was a half-orc warrior, named Myrawhl. She’s a very focused fighter, and cares little for flashy things. Besides a weapon and shield swap from the standard Reaper model (#60171), the client also wanted her to have a certain hair style (and there was even a reference photo!). So, I hacked off what little hair the stock model had, and sculpted a new ‘do. It took two tries to get it how I wanted, but I think it came out very well.

The client wanted her to have ash-grey skin, so I mixed a few custom colors to paint the face. I highlighted with mixtures with more green and less grey, and shaded with mixtures heavier in grey. Her hair is highlighted in greys and white, replicating the natural sheen of hair. This also helped me “draw” the hair, and help the sculpting work portray the look the client wanted.

The only other colors the client mentioned were red and yellow. Since the brass armor conveys lots of yellow, I used primarily red, using it on the cloth and shield. The only nod to yellow are the bolts. Since Myrawhl is described as a very practical person, I reasoned that her crossbow bolts might be brightly colored, so she could easily spot them and retrieve them for re-use.

So, that’s the last two models in this party, but it’s not the end of the job. The client has one more model on deck, and let’s just say that he’s not nearly as heroic as these other six. In fact, he’s rather villainous…