Today I shall talk about my first real commission piece, the Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures. It is a weird coincidence that my first two dragons from Descent 2.0 were also named Shadow Dragons…

Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures

Being a fantasy fiction fan herself, my dear wife kindly asked for a dragon. So we browsed the Reaper website and she decided that she wanted this model. Also, she liked one of the paint schemes so much that she literally asked me to paint exactly like that example (here).

My best piece as of yet

This was equally good and bad in a sense. It was good that I did not have to choose a complementary and satisfactory color scheme, it was already chosen for me. In my time as a fledgling painter one of the lessons I have learnt is that the quality of a “good” paint job is deeply related with the colors that are chosen. Complementary and aesthetically compatible colors leave the observer much more satisfied and pleased. Contrasting colors, dark and light colors, hue, saturation, and how the light itself is perceived in the brain.. all of these factors play a role in our appreciation of visual arts such as miniature painting. So I spent some time reading about the Color Theory and I strongly suggest you do the same if any of you out there is interested in painting regardless of the method and the medium. This website urged me to look deeper into the subject, so I suggest you take a look as well.

However it was “bad” in the sense that the expectation was quite high since this was a professional paint job that I had to match. Yet it gave me a chance to deploy my best and supersede my skill.

Before being affixed to a base...

I shall not go into much detail about the painting process itself but in this piece I believe I finally understood how layering actually works. Furthermore I started to appreciate why there is a type of paint called “inks” J When I bought my first paint bottles, due to the purely unfortunate fact that my local hobby store was out of normal black paint I had bought Vallejo Black Ink from Game Color range. When I had tried using it as a normal paint I was very much disappointed and frustrated by this ridiculously “dilute” paint J

With the stone base

However after watching hours upon hours of master painters like Doctor Faust or AGP Productions work I came to understand what inks actually do that washes cannot. Basically the difference is that washes settle in the crevices and provide a shade effect, whereas the inks cover everywhere they touch and therefore provide a more transparent layer of color on top of your base color. So, after this piece I went ahead and bought all the Game Color inks that my local hobby store had in store J

The base was my wife’s choice.. it actually came from my father-in-law’s garden.. and honestly it fit rather well.. I had something different in mind but I really liked the outcome. Furthermore my customer’s (wife’s) preference was more important and therefore I successfully concluded my first commission piece J. 

So I began with The Roc Warrior. A "Roc (from Persian رخ Rokh or Rukh) is an enormous legendary bird of prey." The huge eagle like birds that come to the rescue of Gandalf in numerous occasions.. However it is also interesting to note that (from Wikipedia):

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, this word perhaps influenced the word Rook chess piece, though that term mainly stems from the Persian رخ rukh or Sanskrit रत rath, both meaning chariot (thus corresponding to the Asian chess variants).

In Turkish, "Rok" is the name of the special move known as "castling", where the King and the Rook change places by literally "jumping over one another".. So maybe the name "Rok" was inspired by this legendary bird's ability to carry huge things like elephants :)

The Roc Warrior

So, this is a huge and lovely bird with a rider on top of it. It was a magnificently detailed mini therefore it was lovely to paint.

Never a good sight if you are an Uthuk (forces of Chaos) player..

For the wings and feathers, once again I used the familiar technique of dry-brushing white over the brown base coat. Then I painted the tips black. The rest were lightly dry-brushed to bring the feathered texture of the bird come out.

Majestic wings..

Finally I decided to do a matte varnish rather than my designated satin (neither matte nor glossy) varnish and it looked much better then the semi shiny look.. 

Did I say majestic??

Since our heroes received one devastating loss after another, they collectively admitted defeat and our first campaign of Descent 2.0 was therefore finished. So did my interest in Descent miniatures.

Thus I moved onto Battlelore 2. Battlelore, again a game from Fantasy Flight Games, is a tactical war game on squad level. It is actually a “medieval fantasy” variant of Battle Cry, an American Civil War game based on “Commands & Colors” System. You can find more information about it here. And here is the Fantasy Flight Games link to Battlelore 2.

There are a total of 92 figures in this hefty box. So I had to “speed-paint”, which means that I had to skip some details, use washes and dry-brushing instead of layering and/or feathering etc..

The scout.

So, in order to start the process I painted a single “River Watch Rider” and it took me 4-5 days on its own.. However I sped up as time passed and I finished the other riders in a few weeks..

River Watch Riders

"Chaaarge!!!"

Then I painted, the “Flesh Ripper Brutes” even faster since they lacked minute details and they were suitable for washing and dry-brushing.

Flesh Ripper Brutes

The hunt is on...

The “Obscenes” were a joy to paint! Again I painted them speedily but carefully and it took me a week or so to finish the whole set. I especially had fun painting their tattoos on their enormous bellies.

The Obsecenes

The “Rune Golems” were like a “Dry-Brushing case study” J The runes on their heads were a little challenging since I don’t have much experience painting gems, however it was a chance to use my new Magic Blue paint.

The Rune Golems

Once they were painted I was ready for the crown jewels of this box, the “Roc Warrior” and the “Chaos Lord”.

One figure that I painted deserves special attention and that is the Cardinal (actually it is sold as Brother Louis IV) from Reaper Miniatures. This mini not only happens to be the first metal mini that I have painted, but also is my first attempt at painting a “display quality” piece. So I gave it my all, and I really tried hard to focus all my accumulated knowledge and skill into this single piece.

Cardinal Koth (a.k.a Brother Louis IV from Reaper)

This piece is an NPC (Non-playable character) figure that appears in a module of Descent 2.0. Our heroes try to rescue a Holy Cardinal from the clutches of darkness. In the original game, The Cardinal Koth is represented by a cardboard token. In order to give life and substance to this Holy-Man-in-Distress, I ordered (from USA) and purchased this mini (along with many others) from Reaper Miniatures. You can see the item here.

After some light research, I found out that the formal attire of a Cardinal is red or white or black. Purely from a visual point of view, I decided once again to work with RED.. By this point I had already developed a love-hate relationship with this color. I actually like the color red very much, it is one of my favorite colors actually.. It represents life, power, action.. and of course it is the color of the “vitae”  .. and I believe it is one of the strongest colors in the spectrum..

However, as I had stated previously it is a very troublesome color.. If you add white (in order to highlight it, as with other colors) it becomes pink immediately. If you add yellow, it becomes orange.. If you add black for shadows it becomes brown!! So proper shading and highlighting is almost impossible and try as you might you might not achieve an acceptable result…

So, the trick is, apparently, to use different bottles of Red color (Red, Flat Red, Vermillon, Gore Red, and the list goes on..) and for shadows mix in some green. For highlighting trace amounts of orange can also be added.. And it takes many many trials… Also the color you think you have can be quite different when the paint dries.. So it is tedious process at best.. But the result always “feels” good, so it is worth the effort.

One another challenge was painting Gold. At that time I did not realize how difficult that color can be. After a few tries I discovered that gold looks much better when painted over a dark under paint. Unfortunately I had primed this mini white due to the fact that the garments beneath the vest would be white.. but I discovered rather swiftly that gold over white is a very bad idea.. So I painted them German Grey (which is a nice dark grey I use with other metallic) and then painted gold.

The book was another pain (and joy) to paint. Due to the wonderfully detailed miniature the page texture was actually there. So I thought just some washing would be enough to make it appear “book-like”. It wasn’t. It took me many hours and re-starts to get the bookish effect that I wanted (sort of)… Well, in the end it wasn’t 100% but there is a moment in trial&error approach that after a certain number of cycles the next iteration actually becomes worse and the next even worse… so, part of “experience” is to know when to leave it at that..

To further the previous thought, sometimes there really is no way to improve your current standing without changing some other parameter. For example I have been able to paint much finer details after I acquired my Windsor & Newton Series 7 Sable brush. I could not paint red with just one bottle of red. I almost went crazy when my paints dried before my eyes, until I discovered the magic of a wet-palette. Etc etc..

Cardinal Koth, surrounded by Zombies

So, “did the heroes manage to rescue the good Cardinal?” you might be wondering.. Alas, no. Due to bad planning and worse execution the poor man could not be saved in time and the minions of the Dark Overlord left the scene with gleeful laughter and a priceless artifact..

The moment of triumph for the Overlord.

I quote from the chronicles of the session (written also by me):

“Meanwhile Grisban and Avric had nearly killed the massive dragon when it engulfed them in flames one more time. The heat inside the small corridor suddenly reached insufferable levels and weakened by their wounds Girsban and Avric passed out.
Leoric was the only one left standing when the Flesh Moulders hit him one too many times and he too had to hit the ground.

Before the heroes came to, the Zombies made quick work of the helpless Cardinal and they heard the Library door open with a click. Beyond it Lord Merick stood triumphantly over the corpse of Cardinal Koth and said “I’ll take that”. With a hand gesture the Staff of Light flew from the lifeless hands of the Cardinal to Lord Merick. Instantly the staff’s light went out, replaced by a nimbus of shadow.

“Thanks for the help” said the dark Lord, followed by a mock reverence to the heroes. With a smirk he rapped the butt of his new staff against the stone floor and vanished in a flash of shadow.”

"... as they descended the irregular steps of the dank and cold cave, a feeling of dread came over our heroes.. 

"-This is not going to end well," muttered Leoric while nervously gripping his newly acquired magical wand.

"-Naah, this is nothing, it's as good as any cave I tell you", said Grisban, appearing easily at home inside this dark and drippy cave.

"-As can be expected of a dw..." Syandrael was about to say, when her speech was interrupted by a low and menacing growl that emanated from the depths, that was followed by a nauseating smell of sulfur and brimstone... 

"-May you bless us with your faith that shall bestow strength and..." As Avric began a familiar incantation the interior of the cave suddenly lit up with a hellish red light whose source seemed to be actually in the throat of a huge red beast... Then with a deafening roar the Dragon opened its jaws and a huge rolling ball of inferno was unleashed towards our heroes...."

These dragons were the largest miniatures I had painted so far. Also being my first dragons they deserved special attention and love. I applied feathering, dry-brushing, layering and all the tricks I had learnt up to this point..   

The Minion Dragon

Minion dragon, being green looked more reptile like and the top-side vs belly transition felt and looked more natural.

The Master Dragon

I guess the colors could have been chosen better and as usual painting red has been a huge challenge.

Also I wish the minis had been textured with scales or at least w,th a rough texture rather than being perfectly smooth.

Underside of the wings were also not totally satisfactory but I wanted to get them ready for our next game so I decided that they had to do... 

The merriods are large beasts that live in rivers and lakes and have long tentacles that paralyze their victims...

The Merriods

So, in order to give the appearance of "came from the depths of the sea" I gloss varnished them to get this glossy finish.. Also I wanted to make them appear as if they were "coming" out of the water so I made water onto the bases.. However lacking "real water" materials I used silicone instead.. Well, the result was not upto my standards but it had to do for " table-top quality".

Next were the flesh moulders.. They are weird magical creatures that can heal themselves or others around them and fire magical bolts from a range...

The Flesh Muoulders

First up were the Goblin Archers. These were tiny little buggers, and a “pain to pain’t “.. However due to the fact that they lacked minute details, the painting went swifter then I had hoped.

Splig and his goblin archer army

The fat goblin in the middle is Splig, the first mini boss that our adventurers had to face.. 

Splig, the self-proclaimed king of all goblins

As a side note, all the monsters in Descent 2.0 have a weaker “minion” version and a stronger and tougher “Master” version. In order to differentiate between the two I introduced color differences in the paint scheme..  In the case of Goblins, minions have steel helmets, whereas the master has a gold one, minions' sashes and arm wrappings are beige, while master's clothing are all red etc.. Also in order to further differentiate the minions from masters I decided to paint their bases' rims red since during game play it would be hard to pick out details between masters and minions..

Secondly I moved on to something bigger. The Ettins were up next. An Ettin, as defined in Wikipedia is “a two headed giant (Dungeons & Dragons)... Ettins are filthy… are nocturnal…  live in caves … wield giant spiked clubs…”

Mighty Ettins, two headed giants with an appetite. 

Ettins in Descent 2.0 are quite stereotypical and reflect the D&D description rather well. I applied sepia wash after the base-coat and achieved the “filthy” look rather easily.. In order to differentiate the master from the minion I gave one bronze spikes and a bronze helmet, where I gave the other steel. I applied rust effects on both metals, since a filthy Ettin is highly unlikely to wear and wield shiny weapons and armor.

Ettins, 

As another side (geek) note, for an armor to “shine” it took a hefty amount of daily rubbing and polishing. Since stainless steel was yet to be invented the steel that was worn and wielded would corrode very swiftly and in order to prevent rust daily maintenance was mandatory. Since an anointed Knight of the realm would have more important things to do then polish armor, the profession of “squire” was born. The squire would also tend to the horses, (which required daily maintenance as well), wash, mend, cook etc.. and basically baby sit the Knight, for whom daily toils of the common man were highly beneath him.. Also if not for the squire a Knight would not be able to don his plate mail armor, which had straps and attachments in places almost impossible to reach.

The fleece (at least I think it is fleece) effect was given by dry-brushing in bone white and washed again in Sepia to give the effect of dirt.

Finally I introduced some foliage to the base of the miniatures. I even made a fallen tree, broken by the giant Ettin’s stride J Rock pieces were made from cork pieces as usual and fine sand was used for earth effect.

Also I painted gems for a challenge. These are the gems in their crowns, one emerald, and the other a huge ruby.. 

These two monster groups were required for the first module/adventure of Descent 2.0. So once all of these were ready, we could finally start our campaign…

Next I moved to the Barghests.. A Barghest is “… a legendary monstrous black dog with huge teeth and claws”.. Even though Descent version is not black they are monstrous never the less..  and have somewhat ghoulish, zombieish quality to them.. They are simple huge undead dogs with decayed flesh with visible bones and skulls…

The Barghests.. huge undead-like dogs from nightmares..

So, I painted the fur and the mane with dry-brushing, and washing thanks to the textured surface. For the bones and ripped off flesh parts I used gloss medium to give the appearance of bloody,  fresh flesh (fresh flesh.. ) .. Then I gloss varnished these sections to strengthen the effect. If I had painted them today, I would go for a more purple-red-ish look, to reflect the rotting decayed state of the creature..

Then I introduced some more foliage in the form of grass, bushes, rocks and fallen trees.

Next came up spiders, black base coat with dry-brushing.. Almost too easy.. but the eyes were a challenge.. it took me several hours to get them all right.

Spiders, master on the left, minion on the right.

At last, but not least, the zombies joined the foray with fresh dirt still clinging to their tattered clothes..

The walking dead..

Again mostly washes and dry-brushing was used. Ribs that were visible very a little difficult to paint but all in all they were simpler to paint then the others. 

Next, more baddies join the party.. Merriods, flesh moulders and Dragons!!! 

And so, here I find myself after almost a year of inactivity.. This state of not being active is however only true for my blog and not for my miniature painting.

In these 12 months I’ve painted  8 heroes, 2 shadow dragons, 2 ettins, 2 Merriods, 6 goblin archers, 5 barghests, 5 flesh moulders,  5 spiders, 5 Zombies, 3 villians, 1 Cardinal, 1, skeleton warrior, 4 treasure hordes, 4 treasure chests, all for the table top board game Descent 2.0. from Fantasy Flight Games.

Then I moved onto Battlelore 2 Ed. From Fantasy Flight Games and painted 9 Cavalrymen, 9 Flesh Ripper Brutes, 6 Obscenes, 6 Stone Golems and 1 Roc Warrior.

And in between games I finished and submitted –to my wife- my first commission piece, a Shadow Dragon from Reaper Miniatures.. All of these mini’s I will be presenting here with some details about the mini and the painting process, along with some lessons learnt (and sometimes forgotten :)).

For the blog, there are other drastic changes as well.. I switched to English for starters.. mainly due to the fact that the “art” of miniature painting is almost non-existent in Turkey, so in order to be heard across the globe, this is a natural choice.. secondly I am more comfortable writing in English for various reasons..

So, as I keep planning a new lay out for my blog I shall introduce the first few hero figures I painted for Descent 2.0. You can find more info about Descent here.

The Heroes, from left to right, Leoric, Syndrael, Grisban, Avric

Avric (the Priest, far right) is the first figure I painted and thus I could not gather the courage to paint his eyes. I tried some shading and some highlighting but all in all it was indeed a rookie job :)

Then, these figures followed in succession. In each piece I tried something new, starting with the eyes for Grisban, (the Dwarf, second right) which turned out surprisingly well, even though it took me 20-25 trials and errors in all.

Syndrael (the Elf, second left) was a trial of painting armor.. and golden armor at that.. Painting gold is hard.. very hard as I had learnt.. also the cloak was an area for experimentation however all my attempts at layering failed miserably :)

Then I moved onto other heroines and finally to Leoric (the mage, -or the Necromancer as my friend decided to follow that path-, top left, below).

 

On Leoric I tried OSL (Object Source Lighting), where the light source is either on the miniature or some other place, but not the sun. In his case I imagined that the rune he is holding would be glowing.. However I had chosen a rather unfortunate color, that is red. Red, as I have learnt painfully is a VERY difficult color.. When you try to shade it, it turns to brown.. when you try to highlight it, it turns to orange… Thus I learnt the value of different colors that are sold. Now I have 6 reds, 3 oranges, 3 yellows.. etc.. all have their place..

The skeleton warrior is from Reaper Miniatures and is the reanimate of our Necromancer, Leoric. I painted it in an hour or so by drybrushing. I painted the shield bronze and put on some verdigris oxidation to make it look old and rusty..

And so.. our party of adventurers for a game of Descent was ready..

Next I will introduce the denizens of the Dark Overlord that our heroes set off to defeat in search of fame and fortune and everything that goes with it!