GG 2026 High Elf Mage

This thread is part of the Golden Goblin painting competition 2026. Please see the entry thread for full details.
ManicMan

ManicMan

Lord
Okay, for what should be my Golden Gobbo 2026, I picked up Jes Goodwins 1992 High Elf Mage Teclis in a joblot. The staff was a bit damaged but I could tell that, and it's thick enough to pin, While I do have some high elves, They aren't an army I'm collecting up but I do kinda like this guy so I wanted to paint him up. Well, this'll give a reason.

I am awful at working out a colour scheme and stuff. So first thought, Lets see what the masters did. I kinda ended up with two and I'm gonna go for the most obverse one. The one I didn't pick is a bit weird. The Geoff Taylor cover shot from the 1992 4ed High Elves Army book features, for some reason, Teclis riding a Dragon. Okay, that would be fun but no.. I'm not doing a heavy mod here. On this cover, Teclis is pretty much decked out in gold. It's a pretty nice image but I decided NOT to go with that scheme. I'm going with one of my favourite painters. Is he the best? probably not, but come-on, I haven't made anyone with even one speck of taste who doesn't love Mike McVey!

While it might not be the most imagination in the world, I decided to really have a decent look through the High Elf Army book (my father has/had a small High Elf army. Not many that got painted up but still some and the army book) and.. Oh, not only is there some pictures of Mike's paint work on him, but a short article. Nice. He talks about some of the paints he used and why. It's a short buy fun 2 page spread and a nice way to try to improve my painting skills.

I'm not 100% sure I want to copy some of how he did this figure.. he aid in a change from normal, he decided to paint areas individual before moving to the next. Some of the old paint guides used this style too.. I'm sorry, but I can't base, shade, highlight one area, then move to the next and NOT have the odd bit of oversplash. I prefer to base all, shade all, and THEN doing the touchups and highlighting.

There is NO WAY I'm gonna get this fantastic to his grade. I also might decide to change some bits as I do (I tried some of the cape trimming.... hang on, he painted up that cloak the same way he did the AHQ wizard... interesting, and it's just too small and fine for me..) but I'm gonna try and see how things go. And I was kinda surprised the one he painted appear to be the final model and not a prototype. This is a model with alot of detail but not overly cluttered. I think the best approach to a sculpt is when you can have a fair level of detail but it's not soo overly cluttered that it's just a chore. With the right balance, its kinda up to the painter how much of the detail they bring out. With some sculpts, if you don't bring out alot of detail, it just looks like you are really bad.

First step, Cleaning up the figure and repairing that Staff damage.
DSCF3260.JPG
 
yeah. While It would be hard for me to make a list, and I don't think I would really rush out to buy some, there are a number of figures which just look good and a chance to pick one up and paint it is always nice. Kinda 'Figure I wanted, even if I didn't quite know it or have a point for it' thing.
 
Givin’ drink to poor damned souls,
An’ I’ll get a swig in hell from Gunga Din!
Yes, Din! Din! Din!
You Lazarushian-leather Gunga Din!
Though I’ve belted you and flayed you,
By the livin’ Gawd that made you,
You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din!
Click to expand...
 
ManicMan said:
I think the best approach to a sculpt is when you can have a fair level of detail but it's not soo overly cluttered that it's just a chore. With the right balance, its kinda up to the painter how much of the detail they bring out.
Click to expand...
It's nice just to be able to bring out the details with shading/highlighting. I am not very good at colouring within the lines & always get a bit of paint on something I didn't mean to. You could probably paint that guy with a relatively limited palette & rely on the sculpt & silhouette to do a lot of the work.

In any case, looking forward to what you do with it.
 
Okay.. I don't have a photo (not really too much to show) but drilled and pinned the staff, along with a tiny bit of bending has gotten that looking nice and angled pretty much right. There was very little that needed cleaning, mould lines weren't really noticeable, not really and excess metal either. Did clean up a tiny bit though. I then primed with my normal german yellow Primer... erm.. does have some name beginning with a d I think but... It's a german yellow.. very much a browny sand colour. I like using it as a primer cause, while I still have a bit of problem with it rubbing but that's just something you can't 100% stop anyway.. maybe I should do a couple more thin coats of the primer.. don't know, but that's fine as it is.

The Mike McVey 'article' doesn't really go into too much detail on his painting, which is to be expected. It's 2 pages giving some information on painting of two miniatures, so It's not like a guide to follow, but I will be referring it for various bits as well as the photo (which if course, only shows the front... eh, there isn't too much detail on the back you can't make out. It's pretty much the SAME cloak he painted on the HQ Wizard, and I've painted that... I did say AHQ wizard above but that was my mistake ^_^ I don't think I finished painting that which I was doing a little while back.. might have though.. My HQ (and AHQ) isn't in the house right now cause.. well, it was safe storing it where I play and much easier then moving it back and forth each time ^_^. I'll check on Thursday when I'm in next (long story).

Anyway, it's the same Cape. Blue night scape with stars and gradient, with a black and white thin cheque pattern and low red trim. Not a bad way to do a fancy mage cape though.

While he said this time, he decided to paint the figure in sections, as I said before, I don't run like that. So I looked at the figure and the photo and worked out the base block colours. There aren't really many. The main part of the figure is his Cape, and his robes, with everything else more just being details (Shoulder pads, hat, staff, sword etc).

Mike said he used an Elf Grey for the robes and then lighten up to a bright white. I normally darken down, which I find its much easier (not just for laying of colours as it's easier to darken a lighter colour, but I use washes. It's not that easy to wash UP to a lighter colour as it sits more in the grooves.. which would give... an interesting look). But I'll try it. So I picked a light grey which is as close to Elf grey as I had, and blocked the robe.
For the Cloak, he used a moody blue, then used 15 steps to make the gradient. now.. I can see the bottom, which is the lightest is NOT moody blue.. nor is the darkest bits at the top. So I would say he did about 7 steps to go from moody blue down to black, and 7 to go up.. but that doesn't appear quite right.. either way, I don't think I'll be doing 15 steps. Picking a blue which is close enough to Moody Blue, I blocked painted in the cape (and part of the hat which is the same colour) and his sleeves which... I'm not quite sure why he did them as blue.. they are more part of the robes then the cape, yet more painted to go with the cape.. but I'm not moaning at the choice. It looks good enough. I will probably do a couple of steps down and a couple up and try to blend and wash them smoother.

studying the admittedly not great photo (wonder If I can find a few better close ups), some of the colour choices are interesting. He has a bit of cloth around near the top of his staff.. from the front, you can see the top is a kinda flat blue.. the bottom is a flat white.. but it's the same piece of material so unless there is a straight line, all the gradient must be taking place around the back. That's kinda interesting.

One final thing of note right now is the Dagger. Well, as you can see, he wears a dagger round his.. erm waist is probably about right. As can be expected, due to how it would need to be for casting, there is a block of metal between it and the body. I had two thoughts on this. The first was to ignore it and paint it as black or something to disguise it. The other was to cut it out, to give the 'intended' sculpt for the Dagger.

Well.. I decided (after some thinking) to leave it. It looks too tricky to cut out right with my skill level. I would have tried drilling it a bit and maybe using my dremel to help, then trying to sand/file it but doing that, and recreating the ripples in the robes ... it has more chance of going really badly then just leaving it as is. So I left it.

While it's not gonna be needed right now, I have started to think about the base. It's currently being held in a mini-vice I picked up some ago and works really well.. but of course, only really for one figure at a time (I could expand it with some wood or something to hold a strip of minis, but it's find and easy enough to move around to get a good grip and let me paint the figure so it's fine) So I don't use it ALOT, but it also helps. Anyway, the base is one of the last things I normally do on a miniature. Technically, This should really be on a 20mm square base.. and that is what I normally do my fantasy battle game figures but... I'm debating putting this on a more modern 30mm lipped base, which I normally use for Skirmish. but I have some time to debate that.
 
Your "normal german yellow Primer beginning with d" would be Dunkelgelb I guess?
Great choice of miniature, a classic! I remember it being entered several times in every Golden Demon for several years, haha! Looking forward to seeing what you do with him!
 
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