Pathfinder RPG commission (Part 1)

One of the genuinely awesome parts of my job is the variety. On Sunday I was painting some of my Dwarfs, Monday, a pair of titan legs, Tuesday, oriental zombies and today... Pathfinder RPG miniatures.

Both of the models I am featuring today are from Reaper Miniatures' excellent Pathfinder range. The briefs for the entire project just came down to a "feel" and a basic colour pallete so I had fairly free rein! This chap is representing a half-elf fighter. The ears were already pretty much the right shape and I emphasised this with the highlighting. "Well used" has been the brief for most of the models in the project so I made sure that the armour had a slightly more weather-beaten look than usual. A quick tip is that using Agrax Earthshade as a wash over steel gives it that ever-so-slightly rusty look.

Annoyingly shadows have muddied the waist detail on this one although if you zoom in you can still see what's going on! This chap was a ranger and as such, plenty of warm leather and forest-y greens. The hilt of the sword is worth a look, I decided there wasn't quite enough detail in that area and so freehanded on a spiraling pattern on the handle:

There's a simple formula to attempting to fool the eye into thinking there is sculpted detail where there is none. First, deliniate the pattern with the base colour plus a little black for shading. Then apply highlights predominantly to the "upper" surfaces (the top of each band in this case) but also a very thin strip to the bottom of the strip too, helps the 3d look. I've also left a bit at the base of the hilt near the quillions to make it look like a thin skim of leather over the metal that is wearing away.

The backpack on this guy also confirms something I've often said, solve a painting problem on one model and you'll find a use for it on the next one too. In this case it was figuring out a recipie for the light tan suede-y leather on the Dwarf's apron that I was then able to use to break up the unrelenting dark brown and green on this model. It's why, even before I blogged, I used to keep a painting journal with useful colour combinations or mixes in. These days the journal is electronic and called a blog! I regularly pull old posts up as refererence for previous jobs or ideas. Anyhow, hopefully, there should be some Nuln Oil in stock tommorrow (otherwise it's the weekend before I can get into town proper) and the titan can recommence! Until next time.

TTFN