I recently finished a commission for a 75mm historical model of a Celtic Warrior made by Art Girona. When I agreed to do this job, I knew it would be challenging. Little did I know when I started this project.
Let’s start off with the clean up – amazingly, this model had less flashing and mold lines than I expected. Despite this, the present mold lines existed in regions that removal of them presented potential problems. After some very careful work, I dealt with the more prominent ones. From there, I hand primed the separate parts with Vallejo grey primer.
The Plaid Pants
After priming, I began what turned out to be the hardest part of the model in my estimation. The Celtic tarn pants – aka plaid. In my head initially, it seemed fairly straight forward. Oh for the love of gawd, this turned out to be so untrue, especially since the box art photo blew my mind in so many ways.
First and second attempt at the pants consisted on me fundamentally trying to overlay lines to lay out the pattern on the model. Each time the pattern looked off. In some part to big and in others to small. In a nutshell my brain attempted to place a 2D idea on a 3D object.
After painting over my second attempt at the plaid design, I stepped away from the mini for a few days. At the end of the third day, it hit me like a truck – the method in which to paint the plaid paints. This method allowed me to paint and view the object on more a 3D way. Sounds simple enough and I mentally face palmed once I figured it out. Instead of painting lines to frame the squares, I just started to paint thicker lines on one color and began to fill in the squares at even intervals with the opposing color.
This by no means meant the process was easy. This method took longer than expected – mainly in working with the model topography and trying to maintain the square sizes. The pants alone, with its entire process, consumed nearly nearly four hours.
Towards the end of the painting process I returned to the pants. After sealing the pants with a Matte varnish, a heavy application of Vallejo pigments to the lower legs occurred. Afterwards, Isopropyl alcohol was applied to the regions of pigment to help seal/set them in.
Skin and Hair
Skin was next after the pants, and as expected took longer than on a 28mm model because the layers needed to be larger and far more subtle, especially in the facial region where the eye is drawn. To me, some places screamed a quick transition (I’m looking at you back region). Overall, the skin turned out well and after applying mud/dirt to the model, these spots appeared way less obvious.
The hair was, to me, the easiest part of the model. I started out with a dark brown and began a wet blend with a dark tan color. This allowed the roots to appear dark and then progressively applied brighter yellows to the tips to get the limed hair look.
For the decapitated head, I used the same skin tones as the Celtic Warrior. However, I kept the hair dark and lightened it with progressively lighter brown tones. For the stubble, I made a glaze with Necromancer Grey and applied it to the appropriate regions.
Tattoos
The next step in the process meant working on the tattoos. The clients wanted them as close as possible to the box art. Luckily, they provided some additional angles the studio provided on their website. The not-so-great-news was lots of glare on the model, making it difficult to clearly make out the tattoo designs. So I went with the next best thing – looking at renditions of classic Celtic tattoos.
Following the design on the model as close as possible, I began in Army painter Viking Blue. Now, there was one point when it all looked wrong in the left shoulder region. I had to start over with the skin due to it. This added time to the job, but it would have looked off otherwise. Once the tattoos looked good, I applied a glaze of the skin tones over them to tie them into the flesh. This is done to make it not appear as a war paint or a brand new tattoo.
I applied edges of darker blue to simulate the tattoo borders and a few spots of pure Viking Blue at highlighted regions. I then stepped back for a bit and looked at the tattoos with a fresh eye. From there I made more adjustments to them until it felt right.
Sword and Blood
The sword in the Celtic Warrior’s hand remains an important part of the overall look of the model, and also was the tool used by him to get the Roman Legionnaire’s head. I started with the crossguard and pommel. Starting with True Copper, I worked my way up to a light brass for the highlights. For the blade, I applied a dark steel color at the base and a lighter steel color towards the point. Then I wet blended the two roughly to get a nice transition. After that dried, I applied a silver to the upper edges and some scratches to the blade in this color as well.
After that all dried, I used a lightly loaded brush to smear GW’s Blood For the Blood God paint to simulate a blade used to remove a head from a body. Using the same paint, I applied a minor wound to the left bicep region and ran it down the arm. Then using a splatter method applied multiple droplets to the right side of the body, right arm, and right face.
Base of the Model
After all the painting on the Celtic Warrior finished, I moved unto the base. The model included a rock (cast in metal) with it. The box art’s base looked uber realistic with a bush and undergrowth. I began the search for the company that produced the highly realistic shrub. Then I realized it looked real because it was a preserved micro-plant.
I began a search for the plant on various sites. Unfortunately, none could be found. I spoke with the client and decided on a forest themed base. In the interim, I located several leaf shaped hole punches and ordered them. Once received, I began the long process making leaves, gluing them to the base and painting them up. Adding a few fallen branches, a small log, ferns, and grass tufts pulled it all together. A muddy foot print on the rock and a few blood drops later, I finished the model’s look.
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