Time for the finishing steps and final touch-ups.
The biggest thing left to do is painting the base. To finish off the base I will use pigments and I will also use the same pigments as the last weathering step on the miniature. Using the same pigments (or washes/colors) on the base as well as the miniature ties everything together and creates an harmonic overall impression.
I also want to emphasize this again:
... we are at a stage where my own painting is extremely chaotic and in something like a finishing frenzy. In other words I only managed to order them for this paint-along. Usually I just jump all over the miniature adding effects as I see fit and as inspiration strikes me. So close to the finish I also spent a lot of time just looking at the miniature ( @p? I know, I know, ...). If you look at the pictures of the next steps you might see very small changes in other areas as well. Things like redrawing a panel line or a panel line there, working on a shadow, touching up a highlight, ... things like this just happen (while looking at the miniature or as spur-of-the-moment decisions). Just trust your feelings and if you think the panel line has to be darker, but Gunji hasn't written anything about it, forget what I have written and just do it ;)
There really is no method to this madness. Just follow your intuition and everything will fall into place for you.
Step 20:Painting the base is a messy affair ... Using greens, browns and blues I wetblend the colors on the base to create an interesting ground effect. Well, wetblending is really stretching it ... the first step is just to slop on the diluted paint and let the paints mix on the base.
As you can see, there is a small pool on the base. This is where I concentrated the blue paints, because I wanted to add a water effect there.
Next I painted the rocks and stones in a neutral grey.
After the paint had mostly dried I intensified the blue in the pool by putting down dots of paint and feathering the edges. I also started to gently drybrush the base with beige and off-white colors.
With the base mostly painted it was time to add the water effect. Since this is just a small pool, more of a puddle really, a complicated and sophisticated two-component water effect is certainly overkill. There are easier ways, for example:
- gloss varnish: good to create a wet effect, but since we have a shallow pool, we also have to build up some volume
- wood glue: dries transparent, but is dull. With some gloss or ink on top a good solution
- water effects like Vallejo Still Water: easy to use, but shrinks a lot. Many layers are needed
I started with Vallejo Still Water (with a bit of blue ink added). The image shows the base after pouring in the still water for the first time.
The next image shows the pool after maybe 3 or 4 applications of still water. Between applications I often paint the surface of the dried layer with transparent paints such as inks to tint the 'water' and to create a bigger variety in shades and sheen. Greens, blues and browns come in handy here.
Still not enough volume though and you can clearly see how the still water literally wraps around the small rocks after shrinking.
At this point I also applied some tufts of grass to the base. Tufts are very easy to use, just fix them in place with a drop of superglue or wood glue. They also come in a variety of colors and lengths. That being said, I usually don't like how static grass or tufts look out-of-the-box. I always try to integrate them into the base and add some variety with just a few simple steps.
The first step, shown in the next picture, is to give the tufts a wash with a color (or a similar color) used on the base. just thin down a drop of paint a lot and put a brushload on the tuft. Just make sure whatever glue you used is dry before applying the wash. If anything spills on the base, just soak it up with a damp brush or gently feather it. After the wash is dry ...
... just drybrush the tufts with one or two white/off-white/light-(green/blue/red) colors. Very easy to do and in my opinion well worth the effort. The picture doesn't show this very well, but most tufts now have strands in different colors. Similar, but still different enough to add interest.
You might also notice the milky hue of the pool. I got tired of slowly building up the effect using layer after layer of still water and just put down a few drops of wood glue. Wood glue dries transparent, so no worries. After the glue was dry I added one final layer of still water on top to get the wet look back.
Step 21:Almost there, only one (optional) step left: Pigments. To further enhace the base I stippled on different green, brown and blue pigments to get a dusty finish and to add an even greater variety of colors. I also stippled some pigments on the lower legs of the Mjolnir. Less is more in this case, but the nice thing about pigments is that you can always erase what you have done with a damp brush.
To learn more about pigments, their various applications and how to fix them (for gaming minis) I recommend
Psycho's article on CSO.
And I almost forgot the very last (mandatory) step: paint the border of the base solid black. In my opinion one of the worst things you can do is leave the border of the base a sloppy mess. The miniature is like a picture and needs a nice frame.
To come full circle I'd like to finish with a few thoughts about varnishing miniatures. If you are going to game with your miniatures and as a result they get handled a lot, varnish is essential to prevent paint from rubbing off and protect your minis. However if your miniatures are just sitting in your display cabinet (like mine usually do), don't varnish them. It is an unnecessary step which can in the worst case destroy your work and in the best case still alters the perception of what you have painted. I never varnish pure display miniatures or competition entries.
Here is the link to the final milestones collage, giving you all major steps in one huge image.Since the Mjolnir hasn't been published on CSO yet (hopefully sometime next week) this is one of the rare occasions a mini premiers elsewhere ... here is a preview of the final pictures of the Mjolnir for CSO and my personal webpage:
(sorry for the blueish tint, but I am still trying to figure out how to get good pictures with a black background :-\ )
All right, I hope some of you are still hanging in there. I'd really like to see your next batch of pictures :) Even though the Mjolnir is finished now, this thread isn't and I am not going anywhere ... in fact I have two tasks/requests for you:
1. Finish your minis and continue posting pictures :)
2. I would be grateful for any kind of feedback on the paint-along format and this paint-along in particular. What is good? What can be improved? Any additional questions/requests/comments?
Doing this has been, and still is, a lot of fun! Thanks for your time!
