A Few Fantasy Miniatures

Though my other projects are still moving along, I must admit that my focus has shifted a bit into the realm of fantasy.  Many of those lonely primed miniatures that have been sitting in the queue for ages are finally getting some attention.  This week, despite Christmas and the craziness that goes along with the holidays, I managed to put the finishing touches on two such fantasy figures.

Both miniatures are from Reaper.  On the left is Klaus Copperthumb (03099) and on the right stands Alidee the bandit (03106).  I'm very much addicted to the hobby within the hobby of collecting miniatures, which very much explains the huge pile of lead I have that most likely will never be completed.  It's safe to say that I do have a problem in that I cannot control myself and buy mini after mini knowing that I'll never get around to painting them.  Despite my addiction to lead "crack", I do not buy indiscriminately.  Each figure in my collection was purchased for a specific reason and the two above are no exception.  I bought Klaus simply because the sculpt was atypical for a dwarf.  I liked the fact that unlike most dwarven miniatures, he was not armored to the teeth nor is there a battle axe in sight.  Alidee was purchased for a former project in which I was attempting to find and paint a miniature to represent the core group of adventurers in my Lord of the Rings Online Kinship.  She represents Myriade Hawkes of Dale, one of my long time roleplaying companions on the Landroval server.

Klaus will be the next miniature for my Legends of the Fall project.  I'm not sure what it is about him that suggests a high level character but I have chosen him to fill the thief slot nevertheless.

 

Werner Klocke has done a wonderful job with this sculpture.  I think it would be difficult to envision a short stocky subject like a dwarf in such a fluid graceful pose, but that's exactly what he has done with this miniature.  Klaus seems almost cat-like in his movement and looks as if he is about to pounce upon his prey.

Being a thief, and supposedly a skilled one at that, I needed to paint him in somewhat stealthy colors.  But he is still a dwarf and needed that quintessential dwarf look as well.  So to go along with the gray and greens, I mixed up an "ox blood" red for the leathers and added a bit of red pigment to the browns to give a more earthy tone to the tunic.  I wanted to do a bit of freehand and add runes to his bracers or his cloak but I decided against doing so at the last minute.  After all, a good thief does not draw unnecessary attention to himself.

As mentioned above, Alidee was part of another project and the only mini to be completed thus far.  Since I really no longer play LotRO, I doubt I will paint any more members of the Kinship.  For now, Alidee will make her way into a display case until she is needed for some game in the distant future.

Instead of a display case, she should actually go into a miniature Hall of Fame for the number of times repainted.  I must have started over at least six or seven times over a six month period.  The LotRO character that inspired this mini wears all black.  Black tunic, black britches, and a black cloak.  When I started the project I thought that an all black miniature would be super easy....kinda like painting a Nazgul.  Nope!  I was most definitely mistaken.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not get the blacks to work together.  I tried varying tones of highlights but despite my best efforts, the miniature looked bland and "plastic-y".  So I decided on a different color scheme altogether.

Though I did not know it at the time, the color scheme I chose was very appropriate for the character.  When I finally finished the figure, I sent a photo to the girl that played Myriade Hawkes in-game with a note explaining that I was unable to fully replicate her character due to my lack of ability to paint the color black.  I received a reply along with a photo of the new garb she had been wearing in the game.  The match was fairly close.  Wish I would have known earlier so that I could have avoided my loosing battle with the black clothing.

While I'm on the subject, do any of you have tips on painting mostly black subjects?  I'm running into the problem again as I paint up a few men of the Night's Watch and would be most interested in sound advice.