Painted Gloomhaven Miniatures #2 (Angry Face, Sun, Circles, Eclipse, Bear face)

 Six more Gloomhaven Adventurers...

In part one of this three part series I posted the "starting" six characters which are unlocked as you start your Gloomhaven adventure. As a new mercenary, you can choose any of these to begin your career. Each player receives a "personal quest". Once that is achieved, your character retires and you unlock a new character and their mini in a box (you actually have more options than that, but that is the gist of it!).

In this part I look at six more characters, with some basic info on techniques. A key difference from the starting six was that I tried new techniques on the bases for four of them. This was to keep things fresh and interesting. 

To keep things unspoiled for those who haven't unlocked them yet, I'll post their codenames below (used on different sites to keep their class names anonymous), and then under the spoiler banner will use their actual names.

Characters shown in this post:

• Angry face
• Sun
• Concentric Circles/ Circles
• Eclipse
• Bear Face 1/ Bear Face 2/ (Two minis)

WARNING: Below the spoiler line I'll use their real class names!

Image by: Amiramin695 on wikimedia commons (CCby SA4.0)

Image by: Amiramin695 on wikimedia commons (CCby SA4.0)

NOTE:

When I mention the paints I will say something like:

"(Part of Model) > basecoat colour name > wash name> highlight/ drybrush paint name" 

However when actually painting I would do ALL the basecoats first, then ALL the washes, and finally ALL the highlights/ drybrushes etc. :-)

Angry Face (Doomstalker)

After a Wraithbone undercoat:

• Hair: Contrast Aethermatic Blue
• Skin: Contrast Magos Purple, Tallarn Flesh (highlight) then Tallarn Flesh/ Elf Flesh (50/50 mix as final highlight.)
• Cape: Contrast Ork Flesh
• Loincloth/ sash: Contrast Blood Angels Red
• Leather belt/ quiver/ shoulder straps: Mournfang Brown, Agrax Earthshade (wash), Vermin Brown (highlight). For a final lighter highlight, use Vermin Brown/ Corax White 50/50 mix.
• Buckles: Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil (wash), Runefang Steel (highlight)
• Arrow fletchings: Contrast Spacewolf Grey
• Spaulders (shoulder armour): Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil (wash), Runefang Steel (highlight)
• Feathers (?) Contrast Talassar Blue/ Contrast Iyanden Yellow
• Leg wraps: Contrast Snakebite Leather
• Knife blade: Leadbelcher, then Nuln Oil (wash), then Runefang Steel (highlight)
• Knife guard/ pommel: Dwarf Bronze, Nuln Oil (wash),  Auric Armour Gold (highlight)
• Bow: Vermin Brown, then Agrax Earthshade (wash) then Vermin Brown (highlight). Bow fittings use Contrast Talassar Blue.
• Leather cuffs: Contrast Snakebite Leather
• Eyes: Corax White, Abaddon Black
• Base: To make the floor boards effect.
• Use craft knife to score lines across the base.
• Use different browns for different boards. e.g. Vermin Brown, Mournfang Brown.
• Wash with Agrax Earthshade, making sure grooves/ lines have shade so they will appear dark later.
• Being careful to leave dark areas in grooves, highlight with the same browns used earlier.
• "Victory lap" of Abaddon Black around rim to finish

Sun (Sunkeeper)

Gotta say, this is one of my favourite models. The base worked out well (IMHO), which was a relief as I tried to branch out a bit in style while matching the very light sand colour used on some of the map tiles in the game. Also the gold highlights on the armour added some bling!

After a Wraithbone undercoat:

• Hair: Contrast Spacewolves Grey
• Skin: Contrast Guilliman Flesh, then Tallarn Flesh Highlights, finally Tallarn Flesh/ Elf Flesh 50/50 mix highlight
• Eyes: Abaddon Black, Corax White
• Cape: Contrast Blood Angels Red OR Contrast Fleshtearer Red, followed by a Wild Rider Red (highlights of cape edges only)
• Shield: 
• Wood: Contrast Cygor Brown.
• Rim: Auric Armour Gold highlights.
• Armour: Lots of gold and steel here...
• Gold: Mournfang Brown basecoat, then Auric Armour Gold, Agrax Earthshade (wash), then Auric Armour Gold highlights or drybrush.
• Steel: Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil (wash), Runefang Steel (highlight)
• Warhammer: Use same colours as armour, but use a light brown (Vermin Brown) for handle.
• Base: I tried to model this on sandstone flagstones.
• "Grass": Before painting main colours, add the "Grass". Dab a few spots of watered down wood glue, then dip the whole base into modelling sand and remove. Leave to dry for a few minutes then blow/ tap off the sand that hasn't set in the glue. After drying completely, paint Contrast Cygor Brown on the sand. Once dry, drybrush with a green (Moot Green etc.)  
• Flagstones: Paint the rest of the base with a dark brown (e.g. Mournfang Brown). Then, paint in the flagstones using an off-white (e.g. Wraithbone) being careful to leave thin lines of brown between them. Finally, use a lighter shade of off-white on each side of all the brown lines (e.g. Dheneb Stone)
• "Victory lap" of Abaddon Black around rim to finish.

Concentric Circles/ Aesther Summoner

If you are OK with keeping things simple, the Summoner is definitely one of the easiest models to paint. This is lucky, as the game artwork shows the character to be almost translucent, or ghost-like. To keep the model interesting to the eye I decided to again do something a little bit different with the base by including a stone circle made of small pebbles. This was then further customised by adding some simple mystical symbols. Easy to do, but it made the model "my own".

After a Wraithbone undercoat:

• Skin/ hair: Contrast Apothecary White
• Bracelets: Mournfang brown, Dwarf Bronze, Auric Armour Gold (highlight)
• Staff:
• Body: Contrast Spacewolves Grey
• Head: Contrast Talassar Blue, into Contrast Aethermatic Blue.
• Everything else: (cloak, robes, leggings etc.) Contrast Magos Purple
• Base:
1. Stone circle. Do this first. Select a few stones with interesting colours and shapes. To make a pile of stones glue two or three together vertically. Paint on mystic symbols of your choice. Finally use superglue to glue pebbles onto the base in a circular design.
2. Sand/ earth: Watered down wood glue, dipped into modelling sand, then Contrast Cygor Brown (when dry!)
3. "Grass": Dab on a few areas of watered-down white glue/ wood glue, and sprinkle green modeling flock. 
4. "Victory lap" of Abaddon Black around rim to finish. 

Eclipse/ Nightshroud

You might think that the Nightshroud would be the simplest to paint - after all the character is basically black, inky darkness! However this makes it a bit harder to make the model interesting, and although it needs fewer colours than many of the other characters, I found it difficult to makes things stand out. To combat this I tried a simple Object Source Lighting (OSL) effect, and had another go at making a cobblestone base (not entirely successfully!).

This tutorial at lightminiatures gives a really good overview of OSL. For the sake of time I didn't use this depth of technique, but it helped me understand light and light sources better so I could then try a glow coming from the Nightshroud's raised hand and reflected in his face.

After a Wraithbone undercoat:

• Boots, gloves, hood, face, scabbard: Abaddon Black
• Tabard: Abaddon Black, then very light drybrush of Adeptus Mechanicus Grey (or other dark grey) to pick out cross-hatch pattern. Finally a dark blue (Mordian Blue) drybrush on the fringe of the tabard.
• Leggings, shirt, knee pads: Contrast Black Templar
• On knee pads then do a dark blue (Mordian Blue) drybrush.
• Knee pads: Mordian blue
• Scabbard (waist): 
• Scabbard body: Abaddon black.
• Chape (reinforced scabbard tip) and Locket (reinforced top of scabbard): Mournfang Brown, then Dwarf Bronze (highlight), then Auric Armour Gold (final highlight).
• Baldrick: Mournfang brown, then Agrax Earthshade wash, then Mournfang highlights.
• Sword and scabbard (back):
• Scabbard Body: Mournfang brown, then Agrax Earth wash. Locket:  Dwarf Bronze.
• Sword grip: Mordian blue.
• Sword pommel: Dwarf Bronze, then Auric Shining Armour (highlight)
• Drawn Sword:
• Sword cross-guard and pommel: Dwarf Bronze, then Auric Shining Armour (highlight)
• Blade: Leadbelcher, then Nuln Oil wash, finally Runefang Steel
• Cobbled base*: 
• For cobbles: Draw in using Mechanicus Standard Grey, leaving black lines between cobbles (or add black lines later). Then add some lighter layers of grey: 50/50 mix Mechanicus Grey/ Russ Grey. Finally lighter edge lines of light grey.
• Finally, add Middenland Tuft grass to taste. 
• "Victory lap" of Abaddon Black around rim to finish.

* For an excellent video on how to paint cobblestones please visit Terrainosaur's YouTube video here.

Bear Face (Two minis)/ Beast Tyrant

I loved doing the Vermling Beast Tyrant for two reasons. 

ONE: To do the Beast Tyrant himself I could follow the same approach as the Vermling Mindthief (with a couple of small additions.) 

TWO: The tyrant's bear is perfect for Contrast paints, which would make him very fast to do. I imagined them as old friends, and that the bear would be a companion and survivor of many battles - perhaps older than the Tyrant himself. This is why he is grey, not brown.

Beast Tyrant:

• Painted basically as with the Vermling Mindthief, in the first part of this series.
• Changed lower robe to Contrast Ork Flesh.
• Bracelets: Mournfang Brown, then Dwarf Bronze (highlight), OPTIONAL: Auric Shining Armour (highlight)
• Staff: Contrast Cygor Brown
• Tip: Contrast Blood Angels Red, with Wild Rider Red edge highlights.

Bear:

• Fur: Contrast Spacewolves Grey
• Wooden Armour: 
• Eyes: Moot Green
• Nose: Abaddon Black
• Mouth: Reikland Fleshshade (wash), teeth picked out with Wraithbone
• Wood panels (haunches, face, neck): Contrast Gore Grunta Fur
• Side panels: Contrast Gore Grunta fur (lower), Contrast Snakebite Leather (upper).
• Spikes: Leadbelcher, Nuln Oil wash, Runefang Steel (highlight)
• Saddle: Ushabti Bone, then Gryphonne Sepia or Seraphim Sepia (wash). Fringe is Contrast Ork Flesh
• Base: Watered down wood glue, dipped into modelling sand, then Contrast Cygor Brown (when dry!).  Middenland Tuft grass. "Victory lap" of Abaddon Black around rim to finish.

I hope you like the models. In the next and final post I'll add Three Spears, Music Note, Triangles, Lightning Bolt, Saw, and Cthulu.

Cheers!