Rocketgirl and friends

Hi folks, I'm back and I brought shinies!

These are a quartet of Inq28 operatives - probably not related in the client's own backstory but mashed together to prevent endless one-model-painted-posts (if people would prefer more regular but limited or sometimes repetitive posts let me know in the comments). The gang is a pair of - I think - Toughest Girls in the Galaxy, a kitbashed crusader from GW components and a nautical chap the origin of which I have no idea! an Aether Pirate from Miniatures of the North. As usual assembly all client, only colours are mine.

still struggling with colour fidelity, imagine this more crimson.

First up - as she looks most "in charge" of these four is the model I was thinking of as The Exorcist all through painting. The brief was for crimson robes, OSL staff and some sort of banishment scroll. So that is what we went with! I decided that I would pair the crimson with deep gold and mid brown leather. The colours worked nicely but needed some black lining to push the boundaries as there wasn't enough contrast in the scheme. Black lining is something we need to bring back more, especially those of us who like naturalistic schemes. The internet's obsession with "pushing contrast" makes great photographs but leaves us with that very cartoony, unrealistic look. I understand why studios do it. Trouble is, as photo sharing online is the way our community primarily interacts on painting it has become an unwelcome truism that high contrast is the only way as we're not judging the painting, we're judging the photos of the painting. A thin black-brown line is enough to break up the areas of detail and give us clean delineation of detail without that high contrast push. It may be old school, but it ain't useless.

There are bonus points available for anyone who recognises the banishment sigil on the scroll ;)

The crusader had an even simpler brief, red and white with lots of leather. I decided on a darker, more threatening red on this one with the white used very sparingly on the sleeve slashes. Initially, thinking of the lots of leather brief, I had the trousers in leather, but they were so clearly sculpted as fabric that it just looked wrong. I wound up deciding that the red was a uniform and the balance of the whole piece was improved. Speaking of which, the little spot colours of brass also help the balance. Before the helmet was brass with steel details it looked a bit plain and there was a weird stripe of brass across the midriff of the model with the sword hilt, belt and pouch aquillae all brass. Picking out the inner helmet in brass shifted the contrast colour back to the head and also had the side effect of making the helmet look much, much fancier.

For the Rocketgirl and her ageing retainer the brief was French Napoleonic voltigeurs. This means a rich blue with black leather, white trousers and white piping along with a yellow collar detail and red cuffs if available. Given that I was basically painting the Rocketeer I couldn't resist copper and brass as the mask and wing details. The blue flashes on the wings were another of those balancing considerations. It's hard to explain sometimes what I mean when I talk balance as I rarely photograph the times where it doesn't work. Might work up something tutorial flavoured at some point.

I'll level with you, I found this model to be quite crudely sculpted, the piping is massive and the epaulettes are chunky and irregular in size. I've clearly been spoiled rotten by the quality of modern miniatures. The ageing retainer was handled in the same way as the rocketgirl. The exception is the coat which I chose to paint the same grey as the voltigeurs of old. Initially I had it blue as well, but it just looked wrong. The grey works much nicer and also gave me the "industrial" colour of the middle of the wing on rocketgirl. My usual "add light grey instead of bone" method for the final highlights on the skin gave the aged look to the ageing retainer and all was good.

That's all for today folks, I know it's been a while between posts but these things happen right? Should have more shinies very soon.

TTFN