The Lost and The Damned › MINIATURES! › Fantasy Painting and Modeling

Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

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So in the spirit of actually posting some things, here's 2 seemingly random miniatures I painted recently - a Dwarf warrior and a female Fire Elemental.

The Dwarf was painted for my 9 year-old nephew to be used as his first character as we introduce him to tables-top RPGs, he named the character 'Barney Axeswinger' (of clan Axeswinger!). The miniature is of course a plastic Mantic Dwarf, a nice solid robust figure for a young gamer to handle. No special work done on this figure, it almost seems not worth mentioning that I added a spare shield-boss from an old Citadel Dwarf set to the model's shield.
The paint job too is nothing worth writing home about - blue/grey and green cloth atop bronze coloured armour will probably become clan Axeswinger's colours as the background is fleshed out during role-play.

The female Fire Elemental is a re-based and re-painted Horror Clix miniature that I got in a big bag of Horror Clix bits that Madam M purchased for my Birthday last year. The figure is in fact called a 'Skeletal Maiden' and I believe she is supposed to be some kind Banshee type ghost, but she was cast in orange and yellow plastic which made me think “Fire Elemental!” when I first saw the figure in the bag (There turned out to be 2 of the Skeletal Maiden figures in the bag, so I might paint the 2nd one up in a ghostly colour scheme to see how it comes out). I clipped away the dial-base, mounted the figure on a 30mm Warmachine style base and used green stuff to extend some flame-like detail onto the base. I also used some plastic wood filler to fill in 2 odd perfectly round holes that went though the lower part of the figure (part of the original casting

).

Painting was done in exactly the same way as my Ral Partha Fire Elemental - I feel some-what reassured by the fact that although I know most people who look at the pictures of my miniatures I post here will skip reading the long rambling text I write about how the figures are painted, that text still serves as a reference point for me when I want to paint a new figure to match an older one

I suppose I should end with a bonus picture or 2 …

Here's the Fire Elemental and the Dwarf in action during my nephew's first game, the adventure I ran was based on the Dragon Strike adventure 'The Sunstone' which is in fact the adventure being played in the DragonStrike video - enjoy the pictures

^The evil Wizard Teraptus summons the Fire Elemental, rather stupidly close to the Sunstone (which is made of ice)

^Dwarfs exploring (and looting) the guard tower of Teraptus's ruined castle

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MarkRG

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

Nicely done as always. M

-- Mark RG (Game on)

Sjeng

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

I like the paintjobs, as always, but I do have a point of critique :P

Fire is supposed to be painted from light to dark, not the other way around. A flame is brightest at the core, and turns darker on the outside.

Some examples:

It kinda goed contrary to everything else you can paint, so many people do it the "wrong" way, even though it's still good looking ;)

Eager HeroQuest newbie since july 2011 :D
Check my Custom EU format card sets!
Ye Olde Inn | HeroQuest blog with lots of usefull stuff

MarkRG

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Nice painting tips. How do you do it from the start. M

-- Mark RG (Game on)

messyart

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Fire looks like fire to me.

Good job on each.

Mankinds first mistake; Questioning why those around him, are dying.

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

This post was updated on .

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Sjeng wrote

Fire is supposed to be painted from light to dark, not the other way around. A flame is brightest at the core, and turns darker on the outside.

I'm glad some one has brought this myth up on my forum, because now I get to do ...

You see I do not paint fire the wrong way, I paint fire based on observation ...

Fire is not brightest “at it's core” it's brightest along the tongues of the flame - lets google up some pictures of fire and look …

You'll notice that bright parts of the flame form in narrow lines, which are represented by the thin raised areas of the sculpt - while the darker parts of the flame are the much wider rounded areas between and around the tongues, which are represented by the lower flat areas of the sculpt - thus the raised areas of the sculpt should be painted lightest

Don't agree? Lets put things side by side …

I think what people are trying to do when they paint with what I call the 'Inverse Fire Technique'; is paint the glow around the flame, which is of course impossible to represent in a 3 dimensional opaque medium because flames produce light and are not opaque in nature, the lighter part of flames shine though the darker patches - but by painting the raised areas of sculpted fire darker you are merely obscuring the 'glow' and creating odd inverted looking flames.

and that is why I paint fire the way I do

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Sjeng

Re: Dwarf warrior and Fire Elemental

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

hahaha, well put there Mort!

Still it's not entirely correct. After studying some pictures myself, I think we can say that fire is brightest where it's "thickest". (which is usually at the core) and redder where it's thinner.

It's really hard to capture thast on a mini, I agree, and like I said, yours looks good either way.
Personally, I stick with the Reaper fire elementals examples. The bodies are thick, so bright, and the tips are thinner, so darker.

Eager HeroQuest newbie since july 2011 :D
Check my Custom EU format card sets!
Ye Olde Inn | HeroQuest blog with lots of usefull stuff

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