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MamaGeek Minis > Hobby > River Troll WIP

GAMES WORKSHOP RIVER TROLL

I painted this figure for the Golden Demon Painting Competition at Games Day Baltimore 2010.  The steps below represent about 50 hours of painting time.

I started by blocking out the major color areas, and beginning the shading.  There's not much to see so far, but you can get a rough idea of what I'm aiming for.

I'm using a yellow/green for the base color, shading with purple and violet, and highlighting with a sunflower yellow and white/yellow.   I've got the coloring pretty well done in the details, but I want to create more of a transition from light to dark over the major areas of the figure.   I'm going to have to do some thinking about how I'll accomplish that.

 BASING



Step 1 of the custom base:  I cut out half of the surface of the base, glued a piece of cardstock to the bottom, and filled in under the uncut portion with green stuff.  Then I sculpted the "land" from more greenstuff, adding sand to the dirt part.  The rocks in the river are pebbles from my yard.  I made the cattails from short lengths of broom straw.  I put a dab of glue on the end and dipped it in some old paprika.  The grass is doll hair, and the water is elmer's glue.



This is the nearly-finished base: painting and building the base.  The leaves are birch tree seeds, mailed to me by a friend (dargrin) on the Reaper Miniatures message boards.  I later replaced the "glue water" with real hobby water effects.



I spent some time darkening the green on the lower half of the troll's body, this time adding some orange to the mix. Then I added brighter highlights to his upper body, to create more contrast between light and dark overall. Next, I started on the "skin" parts, using white mixed with red/orange for the base, then shading with red/orange and teal.




I put in some more work on the face, highlighting with pure white, and working on smoothing out the blends. You can see the belly/chest in the second set of photos. I also just started the hair, so it looks really sloppy right now. That's the next area I'm working on, so expect improvements with the next installment.




I tried to further push the contrast between the upper and lower halves of the troll.  I also pushed the contrast on the skin, and worked on the hair some more.  I've just started adding some color to the teeth, nails, and back spines.  I also took advice from someone on the Reaper Minis message boards, who suggested I add some red to his lower lip area, between his teeth.  I'll probably work on that some more to smooth it out and make it more prominent.




Well, this time I can show you a little more noticeable of a change than the last post. Unfortunately, the latest painting and photos really highlight the one terrible glaring fault in the prep job. One of the fish bones hanging from his hair (under his chin) broke off shortly after I took him out of the blister. There is very little metal attaching them to the troll, and I've seen posted images of this figure without the fish in many places. I tried to pin it back on, but it was just too small. I got it back on by sticking it into a big glob of green stuff that I was hoping would look similar enough to the rock on the other side to not stand out too much. I don't think it turned out very well, and the fish's head is completely covered. That alone should keep me from winning anything in the contest, but I'm still so psyched at how this is going that I'll do my best, regardless.



I'm almost done! The troll is completely painted, but I will probably go over him with a critical eye, and maybe make a few touchups before I varnish him.  Then I'll go back to the base, add some real water effects (that I still need to buy), and think some more about how the base colors work with the troll colors before I glue him onto it.

Take a look at the completed troll, on his base, in my gallery!