This week, I are mostly been printing... A Tortle!!
Epics N Stuff Tortle Sorceror - MyMiniFactory - 109539
This week saw us return to The Rivenlands D&D Campaign at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club. My clubmate and fellow founder Paul needed a mini to represent his Tortle Sorceror so he commissioned me to print and paint a supplied STL.
He's a chunky boy and basically pyramidal in shape. The mini came both pre-supported and unsupported, as is common these days. However, he also came as a pair of pre-hollowed out variants for those wishing to not waste resin or just wanting a slightly lighter mini.
This is the first time I've seen this done on a 35mm single piece character mini, so I printed a hollow one for shits and giggles. The only issue I had is that the wall thickness just wasn't thick enough to prevent the odd hole appearing when I removed the supports.
Painting
The customary zenithal priming was done and mounted to my base of choice (a two pence piece). I said he was chunky and barely any base was visible under his girthy feet.
Paul supplied me with a photo of a make by Empire of Minis so I didn't even have to make any colour choice decisions.
Base colours were a mix of Vallejo Acrylics, with midtones dry brushed on before picking out the highlights.
Serious Skin Problems
I really struggled with the skin on this model, in fact it was practically the last thing that got painted. The sculpt had no texture and yet he is supposed to be a tortoise like humanoid. Last time I looked they had pretty scaly lizard like skin and his was as smooth as a baby's bottom. I have a small collection of greens and they were covering really horribly over the zenithal, particularly where areas of shadow were converned.
I persevered though and resorted to mixing in a bit of some Crafter's Choice acrylic that I found in a Wallington "Arkwrights" shop.
G.. G.. G.. Granville! Fetch me that tube of G... G.. G... Green Paint! |
This stuff is so random it doesn't even have a paint name, just a number (PNTA-134) but it's made by Royal & Langnickel and it did the job where my specialist miniature paints could not.
I also often use different paints off the craft store rack. Was doing some work on some octopus men, and I wanted the bases to resemble the iridescent quality some aquarium materials have, like the multi-colored rocks and things you can get for your fishies' environment, so I found some of this shimmery stuff that went on clear over top of whatever color the bases of the miniatures were, and it created an effect just like I needed. You're absolutely correct in not dismissing the cheap stuff!
ReplyDeleteAquarium supplies what a great tip and thanks for commenting
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