I had a friend staying for a few days last week so we each painted a Rackham figure from my collection. I chose the Mystic of the Behemoth, a fantastically detailed wiry old orc shaman. I took a few WIP shots of the miniature but I don't plan on doing a step by step for him. If you have any questions though I'll be happy to answer them in the comments!
While I'm not doing a step by step for the miniature I would like to
walk through the base, I've not tried a snow base before so it was
new ground.
Once I had a basic plan for 'snowy rock' I grabbed some bark
(scavenged from nearby woodland) and some bits of slate (I got mine
from Element Games but you could find these around as well). Super
glued them onto the included game base to make an outcropping.
It's a good start but there is more to do, I used some Vallejo Oxide
paste to help hide the 'corkiness' of the cork and fill some of the
gaps, it will also be a nice base for the dirt and snow.
PVA glue and some dirt out of the garden were then added on top to
mix up the texture of the paste.
Primed with my usual zenithal technique. I then went back in with
some watered down black paint and made sure every nook and cranny was
filled.
I hit all the areas that I wanted to be dirt with some tank brown.
Then dry brushed with tank brown mixed with off white.
I added some pigments to the dirt as well, browns and a bit of brown
and black mixed in the darker areas. For the rock areas I again
drybrushed with GW Fenrisian Grey and then an almost white Fenrisian
Grey/White mix. While drybrushing is great for rocks it can leave a
bit of an odd appearance in place so I went back in with some watered
down fenrisian grey/white mix and helped blend some of the highlights
so they were less stark.
Here is the figure pinned to the base. I could have stopped here,
maybe added some foliage but I wanted to experiment with snow and see
what I could achieve.
I mixed up a paste in a plastic pot I had spare, the mix was PVA
glue, Bicarbonate of Soda and a little white paint. Depending on what
ratios you add the glue in depends on what kind of snow effect you
get at the end. I wanted quite a settled thick layer so I went pretty
heavy with the bicarbonate of soda. I applied the snow to the
miniature with an old brush and a tooth pick in some places where I
needed more precision. Around the miniatures feet it didn't bother me
if I got some on the robes and boots, he's been travelling through
the snow after all! After this was done I then sprinkled some more
bicarbonate of soda on top afterwards to get a powdery look.
Leave it to dry and then lightly brush off the excess bicarbonate of
soda. Again at this point you could stop but I wanted to push it
further! Roman Lappat from Massive Voodoo did a fantastic article on
snow back in January (http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/tutorial-visualizing-winter.html). I've been strongly influenced by both the
article and some of the recent works he's done . He talks a lot about
temperature of snow shadows and how they're not just white. I used
some turquoise mixed with white, heavily diluted to add some colour
to the shadows of the base. This was....difficult. I know Roman uses
an airbrush but I only have brushes and it was hard to do this over
the texture of the bicarbonate base. I ended up with quite a subtle
effect but I think it adds a lot to the final appearance. Another way
to do this in the future might be to paint the effect on the base
underneath and then use a thinner layer of the snow paste so the
colours still show through.
Another tip I got from Roman is making icicles! He uses clear plastic
tubes melted with a lighter. I didn't have any tubes so I cut up an
old tic tac box I had on my desk into plastic shards. I melted them
slightly to create the icicle drop effect and then carefully
superglued them to the base in areas where I felt melting snow might
cause them to form. I used gloss varnish on the icicles and some
areas of the rock near the snow (to give that slight icy appearance
that you see on frozen rocks sometimes) I also put more detail into
the snow on his robes, boots and staff. Using PVA and sprinkling
Bicarbonate over it. I envision that he used his staff as a walking
stick and perhaps probing areas of the snow to test the ground!
I also used some crushed glass, you can buy this from a number of
manufacturers but I didn’t have any so I made some myself out of
some spare glass and a pestle and mortar. If you do try this be
careful, wear safety glasses, thick gloves and a face mask. You don't
want to inhale crushed glass trust me!
I mixed the crushed glass with some satin varnish and a little
bicarbonate of soda to make a paste. I then carefully brushed this
onto areas where I wanted the light to hit the snow the most (mostly
the right areas of the model and a little bit on his cloaks. This was
quite fiddly and the effect isn't as good as I hoped it would be, it
still adds that little sparkle when you move the model that you get
from snow though. Final step was to paint the original gaming base black.
Looking back through this I realise that a lot of the effort painting
the rocks was...well wasted because they're now covered in snow!
Sometimes though you just run with something and even if these end up
hidden it helps you reach the final look you want.
So that's how I created my snow base! Share any questions or
experiences you have with basing snow below in the comments. Check
out the other article (http://noobsandtheirpaintbrush.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/showcase-mystic-of-behemoth.html) for some better showcase shots of the
final piece.
