The problem with redheads ( Anna Katanic )

I received a new color in the mail the other day and have put it to use on the next round of miniatures. I was having problems getting a good flesh tone and a decent red with the inks I had, so I ordered Vermilion Amsterdam ink. It seems to blend better than the flesh tone ink I have. It holds color better when blended with white or brown, and I was able to get a good auburn color after some experimentation.

There were female figures in some of the sets I've purchased and they bear some similarities with each other so I decided to paint them as red heads so I could use the same player character in different games and eras just for fun. 

I also painted a wizard, wraith, and Slayers from Blue Moon .

These are 2 from the Slayers set from Blue Moon, now Old Glory Miniatures. This is the first of the red head, Anna Katanic. This was the first Anna I painted and didn't quite have the auburn hair color down yet (seems a bit pinkish).While the crossbow and lantern make for any interesting figure, the casting of the face leaves a lot to be desired in regards to femininity. The Splintered Light minis that follow have finer facial features, but I also ran into a lot of setbacks when painting them.

These are from the Splintered Light wizard set. I painted them as Anna Katanic and still have one more on the shelf I am working on. The red hair was 2 pts vermilion, 1 part burnt umber and just a touch of naphthol red. I think it came out great, but created issues with the rest of the figure painting.

Red head should equal pale skin. I used a very light skin tone since she is a red head which took a bit of time to figure out a good color mix. It came out good, but I had major issues on shading the face, eyes. The standard sepia wash which works for medium and dark skin tones was too dark. I tried various shades of light brown, light sepia, dark orange and even though I knew it wouldn't work - black. Before I blocked it out it looked like she was wearing sunglasses!

The closest success I got was on the mini holding the crystal ball. The mix darkened the eyes but not too much of the face. The mini with the staff's face was redone four or five times and still couldn't get a result. I went ahead and sealed it, but I will experiment some more and try to go back and finish the last little touch it needs. 

Reverse.

I think the vermilion is a helpful color, and the Slayer overcoat and the Anna's cloaks and dresses utilized the Naples yellow, and were much easier to blend and recreate greens and linens, compared to using a lightened brown, yellow mix. 

A wizard and wraith from Splintered lights. Yes, I know, another gray wizard. The next one will be brown.. I promise. That makes 26 figures painted in July so far. I have 3 others in various stages so I should be able to accomplish the 30 minis in 30 days. 

Another vintage Heritage mini done.

This guy has been primered for awhile, so I thought I would make it a Heritage weekend.

This is from the Heritage Good Wizard set. It's 1301b and I purchased it online a few months back.

I think I liked the pose because I could try an OSL on it. I have a few figures with lanterns that I have acquired which will work out better, so Mr. Good Wizard gets a regular paint job. 

I used Amsterdam ink Brilliant blue for the robe color and variations of whites, browns, yellows and grays for the remainder. A little difficulty with the eyes as the right eye kind of melds into an eyebrow(?). The older castings are just not as crisp as newer stuff, but there is no sense in fretting about it. I paint the parts as well as I can and sometimes its tough to win. 

I have a few more wizards on the shelf. They are from a partial box set of Grenadier Wizards and they need to be primered and base coated. I'm always indecisive about the colors for wizard minis. So far I have done the basics - black, gray, blue. Maybe the next one should be red. 

UPDATE:

I found the picture I took of this mini when I first got it before I stripped and primered it. It had your standard late '70's glossy enamel paint job.

Vintage D&D minis

I've hit some stumbling blocks on my desert game and the 15mm wargaming in general. I seem to be lacking some creativity these last few weeks, so I'm getting back to basics to see if that will generate some ideas. I decided I would just paint some figures.

These are all Heritage figs from Der Kriegspielers Fantastiques (which have some of the best names for miniatures ever!)

Starting from the left -

Evil Hideous Skeleton Men 1155b

In The Darkness Before The Dawn Avoid The Bad Hairy Nude Things 1158

Wood Trolls of Mirk 1016

The first two are from the 1100 series and the troll is from the 1000 series of the Fantastiques. Both the skeleton and the BHNT have base dates of 1977 and although undated I'm pretty sure the troll would be from the same year. While these lack a lot of the sharp detailing of modern minis they have decent detail and definitely invoke an old school feel. 

All of these were hand brush primered with vallejo white primer, then washed with diluted vallejo black.

I lined in the crevices with vallejo black (undiluted), then highlited with vallejo white.

I then painted with Amsterdam inks and varnish coat to finish. I like to mix colors but flesh is tough so I did buy a flesh colored ink. The color is good but it doesn't cover as well as the other inks so theres more bleed thru than I would like. Multiple coats would help. 

I have a few more minis from Der Kreigspieler - a Tasmanian devil that has been primed and a Krot that is still in his original Humbrol covering that I painted back in 1978. 

New 15mm figures painted

I received an order of Splintered Light miniatures from the Dungeon crawl and RPG series. Some nice undead figures I've been lacking - ghosts, wights, some decent vampires, and also some 15mm player character figs - MU's, thieves, ranger types and some pretty good fighting men.
After primering I did a black line shading then a white highlight both with vallejo airbrush paints (They work great with a regular brush).
Then I did the coloring with the amsterdam inks. I'm thinking this method works better on the 15mm figs than trying to shade with just inks. The subtlety of ink shading is just not noticeable on that small of a figure, at least to my eyes.

Probably use these for a Ranger type character.

Witch hunter and a vampire.

I like this figure for a main antagonist so much I already named him (Fell Helm). Definitely has that "Final Boss" look to him. It measures out at 21mm but is well proportioned and will work great for an evil Superhero or Necromancer. So far the mini has been primered, shaded with black, and block highlited with white. I want to do a dark grey for the main cloak color but I'm unsure if that will wipe out the shading. May have to do a dark red.

Fell Helm

Fell Helm back

Come at me, Bro!

Another wizard finished

This is a Grenadier 2001 (d) from the Masters of Sorcery small box set.  There were a few of these wizards that were included with the hireling set I picked up online.
I primered this with a Vallejo white primer (first time using it), then painted with a combination of Amsterdam acrylic inks and liquitex acrylics, then sealed with a matte medium.
I usually use rattle can primers, but the Vallejo seems to work quite well and it can be used in doors. I have an airbrush but I just used a soft bristle brush and applied it with deliberate strokes to avoid bubbling. It dries slower than spray primer, but it coats better than the white spray primer from the hardware store. 
I only had black and white for the inks so I used regular acrylics for color and then darkened or lightened them with the inks as needed. I've never used inks, but they were really fun to work with so I picked up the 3 primary colors and a burnt sienna today and I'm starting a figure tonite just using inks.

Pics are the best I can do with the limited lighting back in the hobby room. Always tough to get a good shot of something black. Its either no detail or too much glare.