Miniotaur

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.”