Friday, July 21, 2017

Grenadier Fire Elemental


Today I have an oldy for you, and proof I haven't forgotten about the project that inspired this blog, painting my old school D&D figures.




This is a Grenadier Fire Elemental from the Wizzards and Lizzards W32 Elementals blister pack, from before 1977.

It one languished for four years or more unfinished close beside the vampire and Nurgle herald shown recently. The reason is I did something stupid priming it, and under-primed it dark gray before lightly priming it white. In order to make flame successful like this it has to be white, white white all the way through. I knew this, and had plenty of experience painting flames. I must have been thinking I wouldn't do the more contemporary and convincing way to paint flames shown here, with the lightest on the inside and the darkest reds at the tips of the flames, but I would do it old school. But when I went to paint it I decided to do it this way after all, and by the time I realized I needed to have primed it white with several more coats I was already well into it. It cost me literally hours of frustration to go back and try to get the crevices white enough after the midtones were already done. I eventually solved it with thick modeling paste made of marble dust and binder, which is super opaque white. But had I just primed it white it probably wouldn't have taken more than two or three hours total. D&D figures were supposed to be the free and easy ones I painted to relax with!


Painting flames is really satisfying in the end, and fun during too if I make sure to prime fully white. Flames can be a crowd-pleaser too.

One thing I really like about this figure are the tiny little flames I made from green stuff (actually, brown stuff) that blend the figure into the environment. That was time well-spent at least.

For those interested in my D&D figures, an update here that I am in this enormous years-spanning project where I focus on one task like basing, mold lines, assembly, etc, for weeks at a time, and I over the past few years I've primed several hundred D&D figures waiting to be painted, and there are several hundred more in earlier prep stages. Meanwhile, though, on the assembly line these days is mostly Oldhammer and historical figures. It's hard to even find the time to post just the finished ones, but I might start posting some of my workbench stuff to help motivate myself, maybe more on a Twitter feed than here. Does anyone here have a twitter feed they use for posting miniatures, especially WIP shots?

10 comments:

  1. Very nicely done despite your priming challenges. :)

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  2. I can feel the warmth coming off it! I don't use twitter so can't advise you on posting wip shots. Like you, I go through cycles of prepping, undercoating and painting. I'm currently on a painting phase following nearly three years of prep. I'm still undecided as to whether to include wip shots - it's a time issue, I barely have time to post finished shots. I think that posting wip shots on your blog wouldn't be beyond the pale.

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    1. Yeah, sounds like we are similar in having cycles of tasks! Also similar in trying to find time to post just the finished shots. On the question of WIPs, I have a friend that makes good points about being "accountable" in some sense helps drive projects along, and its working really well for him, so even though I'm pressed for time seems like if I can get the workflow down pat I could make it work. That's why I was thinking of twitter rather than blogger, that the overhead of posting would be less and the pictures would do the talking. I can post directly from Lightroom. I'll see if I can make it work.

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  3. Nice work. I did grey on that (Westwind?) Fire Elemental I did a couple of years ago. I used green stuff to hide the seams and extend the fire into the base, waiting till it was a little plastic and pulling it with a sculpting tool. Figure prep can be very zen, I think setting yourself tasks like removing all mold lines or whatever is better than, I'm trying to finish unit X.

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    1. Thanks! Google helped me find yours (it's here for anyone happening to read these comments: http://seanswgcorner.blogspot.com/2015/02/hot-round-submission.html). Very cool, nice and bright! I have the West Wind earth elemental but not the others. Base looks great. You say in the post you primed over white though, hah!

      I agree there can be a zen aspect with the figure prep doing it this way that makes it go much more smoothly for me, especially when I have a good, long audiobook. On the other hand I have a friend who plows though projects to finish unit X and he always seems to be finishing projects with new things to put out on the table! Maybe I can find a good balance...

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    2. You can't expect me to remember my own posts. ;) I also have been posting to twitter and instagram now that I'm doing that Miniature a week thing. I also got on instagram to keep up with Tyler. I just do those straight from the phone.

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  4. Great work 👍👍👍

    I was thinking about twitter or instagram for WIP shots but I barely get time to hobby enough as it is without adding another task into the mix!

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    1. I hear you, in order for me to do it it's got to be fast. I can post to twitter and instagram (and facebook and google plus, and blogger for that matter) through lightroom which can save time for quick posts. Or, thinking about posting from my phone. Also thinking of daisy-chaining at least twitter and instagram using ifttt.

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  5. Very Nice...most people mess up flames...

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