Virago

Painting time: about 50 - 60 hours.

For those that may not know, this mini is called Virago, and she is from the now defunct Ilyad Games. The mini is resin, and is a little larger than traditional 28mm size - it's about 35mm I would say - but it certainly still belongs to that sort of small 30mm-ish category most common for minis in the fantasy world, like the GW and Rackham minis. She is a couple of millimetres taller than a regular Rackham mini, or a GW 40k marine terminator.

First, I must say that the sculpt by jacques-alexandre gillois is so beautiful, it was one of the most pleasurable miniatures I have painted. JAG is a real master, I hold him in very high esteem.

Trying to find some originality with my version of virago was tricky, because there are already so many fantastic versions around...furthermore, I did not want to try anything too risky with the colour scheme, because I was mainly painting this one for my own pleasure, and I wanted it to appeal mainly to my own preferences in terms of colours etc.. So rather than try anything too outlandish or risky for the sake of originality, I decided to stay with a pretty 'safe' sort of colour scheme. Safe in a fantasy way though of course, hehe ;) I did try to be a bit more adventurous with the flesh colours than usual though.

Starting with an explanation of the flesh colours, the main colours I used were GW fortress grey, GW electric blue (an old old paint, sort of like GW ice blue + a tiny bit of purple), GW kommando khaki, white, and two of my own colours I have mixed in pots - one is like GW terracotta + purple + white, the other is like GW scorched brown + purple + black. These colours were used in different mixes with each other to paint the basic skin tones. The logic I tried to follow when painting the flesh was to have the colour become warmer towards to upper areas of the body, like the chest and the face, by having more of the yellow/orange type colours in the mixes; but towards the lower areas of the body I wanted the colour to become a little colder, by introducing more blue and purple colours. Continuing this principle with the highlights, the lower, 'colder' areas were highlighted with pure greys, but the upper, 'warmer' areas of the body had a little kommando khaki and light orange/pink/red colours mixed in for a slightly warmer colouring.

Then there were many, many glazes of different colours: light blues, with very dilute glazes of pure electric blue; glazes of dark flesh and bestial brown for a warmer aspect in some areas, purple colours like GW liche purple and other mauve-type colours, and dark blue colours in the shadows, like GW regal blue + black, and VMC dark sea blue. Again, I tried to work with the colours while thinking about the 'cold' and 'warm' areas on the body, with a slight shift in colours between the upper and lower areas of the body.

For her face, I wanted her face paint across the eyes to be a red ochre colour, and then I thought that maybe she would have used the same paint to colour her hair as well. I chose red for a few reasons: I thought that the red would work on her face and hair, because it is balanced by the red blood on the sword on her lower left side, and the severed head on her lower right side - the three red areas balancing each other by forming a sort of triangle across the centre of the mini. Plus the red hair and face paint draws more attention to the face, creating a focal point.

Moving to the loincloth, the main colour around which the greenish colour was based was VMC olive grey (like GW catachan green). For the upper parts going towards her waist, in a similar way to the principle I used for the flesh, I wanted the colour to be slightly warmer, so I used mixes of warmer colours to highlight: olive grey mixed with VMC yellow green (the darker one, #112), VMC light sand, GW kommando khaki etc., and shaded by adding dark, warm browns like VMC burnt umber, or a little bestial brown, to the base colour, and also a very dark purple-brown colour for the deepest shadows.

For the lower parts of the loincloth going down towards the ground, I wanted the colour to have a slightly colder feeling, so instead of adding the warmer colours to the base colour for highlights, I added neutral greys such as VMC medium sea grey. The shadows were made by adding very dark brown, VMC German cam. black brown, and very dark blue, an old GW paint called 'deadly nightshade' - a bit like a mix of GW regal blue + black. Then towards the end of the painting, I used some more glazes of purplish colours over the cloak - and other parts of the mini - to bind the colour more with the colours of the flesh, and the rest of the model.

As for the base, I wanted to try something a bit different, so I opted for something larger than my standard base size to try to better 'set the scene'. from the start I had my heart set on a sort of autumn scene, with the fallen leaves strewn around. In the end, the colours on the mini make her stand out from the environment a little more than I was originally intending: for most of the painting, warm tones dominated the mini, red-browns, orange-browns etc., so it seemed like it would fit well that sort of base. Right near the end of the painting process though, I painted many many glazes of different colours over much of the mini, which changed the colour balance - especially on the skin, which became much colder than it was previously, and also the fur areas. The mini became much more colourful, and colder at the same time. So I was a bit caught out by that: I tried to bind the mini's colour scheme with the base a bit more by echoing the colours of the mini in the rocks on the base - and also, the lavender/purplish flowers were meant to provide a flash of brighter, colder colour on the base to try to tie in with the cold colours of the flesh, and address the unbalance a bit. But she still stands out quite a lot. From the people I have shown so far, I have had mixed comments about this: some people like it, and think it is good that she stands out from the scene, giving her a sort of ethereal quality and meaning that more attention is focussed on the mini; others have felt that the scene would be more effective if she blended in more with the environment.

One thing I will say is that it was a nightmare trying to get good photos of the mini once she was attached to the base haha, so sorry for the poor photos of the whole scene; also, I feel that she stands out from the base more in the photos than is the case in real life, where the colours don't seem to have quite as much contrast with each other. That's why I included the photos of the mini on it's own, which is a more accurate reflection of the real colours etc..

Well, I hope you enjoyed looking at the mini :)

Guild Artisan,
Sebastian.