Earlier in February, a previous client contacted me about a new commission. They wanted me to paint their custom Hero Forge Dragonborn Bounty Hunter original character (OC). I began the process with a lot of questions. I mean a lot of them.
After that, I worked out the paints needed for the job. One small hitch: the color of the coat. I sent photos to the client to narrow down the hue they wanted. Ultimately, the main part of the coat would be Reaper’s Buckskin with Kobold Skin for the trims. Colors, minus the Kobold Skin, shown below.
Materials
- Metallic Paints
- Army Painter
- Rough Iron
- Gun Metal
- Weapon Bronze
- Army Painter
- Washes
- Citadel
- Beil-Tan Green
- Athonian Camoshade
- Seraphim Sepia
- Nuln Oil
- Agrax Earthshade
- Citadel
- Additional Paints
- Reaper Paints
- Buckskin (no longer sold)
- Blood Black (no longer sold)
- Maggot White
- Army Painter
- Oak Brown
- Angel Green
- Kobold Skin
- Leather Brown
- Monster Brown
- Skeleton Bone
- Matte Black
- Matte White
- Necromancer Grey
- Citadel
- Blood for the Blood God
- Reaper Paints
Process
After determining the coat color, the remaining color choices flowed easily. The largest areas consisted of two spots – the sword and the coat. I started the base coats for the overcoat. After that, I used Necromancer Grey on the exposed skin/scales and for the sword blade. I also used this color on the face of the model and the arm greaves plus the boot accouterments.
From there, I painted the exposed abdomen/scales with Angel Green from Army Painters. Preparing for bronze metallics, I coated the sword guard and knee pads with Oak Brown. I used this color to provide a base coat for the multiple belts present on the model. After that, I applied Leather Brown to the gloves, pants, and boots. To the “hair”, I applied Reaper Paints Maggot White.
From there, I worked on the spikes on the knee pads, the left hand greave and the front of the boots using Skeleton Bone. After that, I tackled the first set of washes on the buckskin part of the overcoat. Then I applied Agrax Earthshade all over and Athonian Cameoshade to select areas towards the bottom, followed by a shade of Seraphim Sepia over the Kobold skin portions of the overcoat. Then I applied Nuln oil to the areas painted with Necromancer Grey, Oak Brown and Angel Green. To the areas painted with Leather Brown and Skeleton Bone, I applied Agrax Earthshade to shade them, then I applied Beil-Tan Green to the “hair” region.
Once all the shades dried, I moved on to the reapplication of base colors while leaving the shade in the deep recesses. The exception to this was the overcoat. For this, I applied the base coat to the raised regions only. After that, I reapplied another coat of Agrax Earthshade once the Buckskin layer had dried. Then I began the highlighting process.
I started working on the scale/skin regions. I applied a slightly lightened Necromancer Grey to the raised areas of the face to make them stand out more. As to the chest region, I applied random streaks of the Angel Green and Matte Black to provide a more scaled look. After that, I painted the mouth with the Reaper Red Black and applied Skeleton Bone to the jutting teeth in the mouth. I lightened the Reaper Maggot White with Army Painter Matte White and began to lighten the tentacles on the back of the head. I did this several times slowly increasing the amount of Matte White to the mixture.
From there I started with the trim of the cloak. I mixed the Kobold skin with a small amount of Matte White to provide the highlights. After that, I began to work on the metallic regions of the model. For the sword I mixed Necromancer Grey and Rough Iron to give it more of a rough iron look. To the greaves and the metal portions of the boots I mixed Necromancer Grey and Gun Metal. After applying those layers, I mixed Matte White and Necromancer Grey to lighten the dark grey. I added the Gun Metal and provided more highlights to the greaves and boots.
Happy with the iron/steel metallic areas, I moved on to the bronze regions of the sword and belt buckles. The hilt and pommel then received an additional wash of Seraphim Sepia after the paint dried. To the sword I added streaks of pure Gun Metal to blade to show scraps and damage to the weapon itself, as well as applying the same paint to the upper sword edge.
After that, I worked on the belts by applying Oak Brown again as the primary highlight. I then started to mix in small amounts of leather brown to provide additional highlights. To the leather leg armor and the leather straps of the boots I reapplied Leather brown to the raised regions and then provided more high lights by mixing Leather Brown with increasing amounts Monster Brown until I achieved my desired effect. I also decided to paint the hilt of the sword with Leather Brown. After it dried, I shaded it with Agrax Earthshade. Using the same colors for the boots straps I highlighted the hilt as well.
The bone spikes needed more “work”, so I started by applying a bit of a mixture of Oak Brown and Leather brown to the tips. I did another application of Agrax Earthshade to darken them a bit more. To the teeth I applied Serpham Sepia wash and a new layer of Skeleton Bone. I mixed Skeleton Bone and White Matte in a 1:1 mixture to provide an additional highlight. Using Skeleton Bone I marked out the eyes, After that dried I applied a very light wash of Cassandora Yellow (not mentioned above). Using Matte Black I marked in the pupils, and painted the base of each horn on top of the head for more contrast. To the tendrils I did semi-random marks in Dark Angel Green. I then added some minor blood effects using Blood For The Blood God from Citadel.
I spoke with the client on what type of base they wanted – they elected for a forest base. After basing the model, I then sent photos for approval.
Overall the client loved the way the miniature looked. However, they wanted a wee bit more blood effects on the model. Like more splatter as if the character had just been in a fight. So I got back to work. Took some pics and sent them in for approval. The new look was just what the client wanted. Here is a pic of the finished model from the side with the most blood effects after adjustments.
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