Night Horrors medusa - looking for advice

[Magos Explorator]

Hi all,

Looking for some advice and suggestions here! To paint something different as a break between finishing off my High Elves, I recently painted a medusa from the Night Horrors line (http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lost ... ht_Horrors). I wanted to try a few things different from normal – use a white undercoat (I mainly use black); use a more pastel palette in line with Realm of Chaos-era styles; and try something different for the bases, inspired by Don Hans’ excellent models (http://realmofcitadel.blogspot.com/2013 ... bases.html). My hope is then to use some of these techniques when I eventually get around to painting more Mordheim/Chaos stuff, so this is a test model of sorts.

Here are three pictures of what I’ve come up with; apologies the photos aren’t great. Colours are reasonably true to life although the light source for the photo means the shadows look harsher than they are.







The cast was a bit rough: there was a mould line along the top of her sleeves which was hard to get off, and her palms were damaged, so I filed and painted it to look like she’s holding chunks of warpstone or something (not so visible in these photos). I don’t feel too bad about the paintjob but something feels not quite right to me, so I thought I’d ask here for suggestions. It’s not varnished yet so I can go back and make additions...

It's not to obvious but there's a red trim on the bottom of robes and sleeves. On the sleeves in particular it kind of blends into the folds of the robe so perhaps I should take it off.

The base feels to me like it needs, somehow, something more. I think it needs another tone in there somehow (the shadows look deeper in these photos than in real life and I think there isn’t quite enough contrast). The base was done in flesh washed with orange, highlighted with pale browns. It has spots of the new Citadel oxide paint for some contrasting colour, and ‘dead grass’. I want it to feel like she’s wandering through the Chaos Wastes (or the heart of Mordheim).

I’m also not sure about the eyes; the sculpt’s eyes are too big and strangely-shaped to paint like human eyes, but without some sort of pupil I think they look a bit odd.

Any thoughts on those, or any other aspect of it?

 

[mbh]

I like everything but the base color. it blends in too much with the bottom ofthe robe.

 

[ardyer]

If you're painting over white (which I highly recommend!), you need to be softer with your washes. Either thin more, use a lower-contrast tone, or skip them all together. The latter is actually pretty easy because you can thin your paints a lot more, so you don't need a wash.

 

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks, guys. ardyer, the contrast is not so stark in real life but still starker than I wanted. So you're probably right about softer washes.

mbh, I'd tried to 'dirty' the bottom of the robe to make it look more distinct from the base. I tried using browns but that didn't help so it has some green mixed in here now.

Any suggestion for how to make the base blend in less? I worried less orange/more cream would have the opposite effect.

 

[axiom]

I think the eyes look great. I agree that the bottom of the robe gets lost in the base - what about adding some sort of blue/grey shadow immediately beneath the robe to try and improve the delineation between the two?

 

[Magos Explorator]

Good idea, axiom. Thanks. I've decided to redo the yellow and go softer on the wash, so will post pictures of 'version 2' whenever it's finished!

 

[Magos Explorator]

I made some updates: the yellow was re-undercoated and repainted, with the shading less harsh (this time, the shadows in the photo make it look deeper than it is in parts of the shots), and a paler brown dirtying around the lower hem. I left off the red decorations I tried last time. I also washed a thin blue-grey tone around the figure on the base, to act as a shadow.

I still need to re-edge the base, but am happier about it now. Here are some more pictures; again, not great, but natural light this time at least:




Still, I am not sure if I am ready to call it ‘done’ so will sleep on it. Any other suggestions? If this was your mini and you’d painted this scheme, what would you do to it next?

 

[axiom]

Much better delineation between base and robe - they don't bleed into each other visually now. Looks great to me

 

[Magos Explorator]

Thanks, I appreciate the comment - a lot of talented painters on this board and I am keen to try to take my painting up a notch on these classic minis which deserve it.