When I introduced my participation in a new D&D campaign, I withheld one tiny bit of information. The game we're playing does occasionally use miniatures. Why would I withhold this information? Well, because I had a secret plan in the works, but wanted to make sure I could pull it off that's why!
And pull if off I did!
Ya see that? That's a custom 35mm figure, all painted and ready to game with! Although it's no picture-perfect warforged scout, I think it's a pretty decent stand-in, and includes my character's choice in weapons, good 'ol sword and board! The rest of this post is dedicated to the process, where I sculpted my first cape, then painted the little bugger. I'm no pro painter, but I think it'll do fine for something that you see from a few feet away on a tabletop. I'll give what tips I can under each pic.
If you have trouble with broken image links, please refresh the page. Imgur has been fussy today.
It all starts here. The miniature is originally from the Warmachine line, with a shield torn from some other Cyriss guy, not sure which to be honest.
Next up, the green stuff. A wonderful two-part sculpting putty.
I generally try not to mix up too much at once. Here we can clearly see that I have selected an amount that might provide enough for a loincloth, but not the flowing cape I had imagined.
After adding to the batch and rolling it out, things are looking a lot better. Now I have enough to work with.
I have no idea what I'm doing, but I've cut it to length and made some shoulder straps to wrap around.
With the leftovers I've rolled out some extra and made a hood piece just in case I want it.
I let it cure for about 30 minutes before trying to put it on. This was just a matter of mushing it into about the right shape to provide a little action to the match the pose.
I also smushed the two shoulder straps together to make a clasp around the neck.
With a needle tool, I've pressed in some fold lines. For anyone who has never worked with green stuff, it's basically the same as sculpting day old pre-chewed gum. A little mineral oil on your tools keeps it from sticking though.
Creative measures were taken to help it finish curing in the right pose.
Another detail shot of the shoulders and back, to show the newly sculpted folds.
A few hours later, and it's all cured and ready to be primed.
A nice flat grey can work wonders to bringing it all together and figuring out where and how you want to apply color.
I like to try to "dress" my models when I paint. Starting with the lowest surfaces means that mistakes generally tend to be on a higher level, where they can be covered later. Some light brown to give it a wooden under skeleton kinda feel.
You wanted a small drop of green to see how it would look on the cape? How about half the bottle, to show you how poorly you mixed it?
Not about to waste expensive model paints more than I had to, my decision had been made for me. I did my best to keep some of the swirls of color in to make it a bit of a camo look.
However this meant putting the paint on THICK. There's no going back now. I've got to make this work.
It looks like slime, but I kinda like it.
A bit has happened here. I've started to pick out some blue highlights, and I gave the cloak a nice black wash to give it some shadow and take that eye-piercing green down a notch. I've also glued on the shield now and added a wash to the wooden joints for shadow.
The back of the cloak, you're no longer in danger of losing your retinas to it!
As I go, I pick out fewer and fewer details. Here I've focused on some gold highlights.
The back of the shield gets a splash of brown, silver, and gold.
And there we have it! Good enough really. Far from my best work, but I think it'll work fine for a casual group!
Wish me luck joining my new campaign!
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Flipping nice man! I am 100% sure that @shadowthrone will appreciate this as well.
OOOH i like the look of their account! My kinda people!
grins He is good stuff man.
What a fun project.
Thanks! It's been a nice change of pace for me so far!
You did an amazing job on that man! I remember using that green stuff when I used to make Warhammer miniatures, it's not nearly as easy as you make it look. Good luck on your campaign and I can't wait to see what else you post in the future!
Thanks man! Maybe I just played with my gum too much when I was young? Stuff is way harder to work with than it looks lol.