Friday, July 29, 2011

Finished Xenos Inquisitor


So my first competition level figure is finally complete. "Complete" being a bit of a relative term, mind you. There are still quite a few freehand elements I'd love to put into this miniature. However, I also know that I need practice free-handing details on a fig, so rather than mar the finished figure with practice, I'm leaving it be so that it doesn't potentially hurt the overall figure if I do the freehand poorly.

The roller coaster ride of painting this figure took 4 days in total.


Painting Day 3 - 4 hours


Ugh. Getting started painting at 10 pm is never the best way to start out the night, let me tell you. What I accomplished this night was the final highlight on the reds, the face and hood, as well as the gloves, boots and staff.

I ended up glazing the boots with a little thinned Devlan Mud because the blending and highlights came off a little too bright.

The gems on the staff were a bit of a challenge. I think I pulled them off, but I also think they could be better. Believe it or not, the quickest part of the night was the face and eyes. I also used a thinned Devlan Mud here to tint and shade the face, and the eyes only took me two tries!

Painting Day 4 - 8 hours


The Cloak and Base, the last two parts to finish on this.

With the cloak, I painted the interior with it off of him, then once I had the blending to where I wanted it, I glued it on. The red and fur and final highlight on the interior were all painted with the cloak on him. The cloak itself took maybe 2-3 hours. Once I had that done, I figured I'd get to bed earlier than I thought since the base shouldn't take too long.. right? RIGHT?

Nope. The base took from 10 til 3am. Ah well. Total time spent painting him was approximately 22 hours.

As I finished writing this last Wednesday night/Thursday morning, it was 4am, and the pictures were just taken. While removing the figure from it's temporary base, I cut myself, and bled on the staff, which then had to be touched up. So yes, I can honestly say that I bled for this figure.

Painting one single figure for competition has taught me quite a bit. Especially how I'd change painting certain parts, with what kind of painting process, etc. However one thing I can say for sure is that I'm pleased I finished it, and no matter how well or poorly it does, I'm happy with the figure. Would I change something on it even now? Sure I would. But I'm happy with it.

I'll plan a more in-depth post about preparing a figure for competition for the near future.

- Tim

3 comments:

  1. There's a lot of really great stuff going on with this fig. The pose is a bit static, but I think you did a good job invoking movement with the cloak and the servo-skulls. I love the base, and I really think it's the best part of the miniature.

    As you mentioned, for Golden Demon free-hand is practically a necessity to get to the next level. Your technical skills are pretty honed, so I think it's well within your abilities with some practice. My only real complaint with the finished piece is some of your color choices. It could simply be the photography and/or lighting, but the colors are all very cool, and I think the overall effect is to wash the whole piece out a bit. There's nothing that really pops or draws the interest of the viewer.

    Nonetheless, 4 days for a competition-level miniature is pretty damn intense. Good luck!

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  2. Wow, just found your blog through FTW.

    Gorgeous stuff man, this Inquisitor is awesome.

    And the templars are fresh.

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  3. Looks Great Tim! Thanks for the email and letting me know about your blog!

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