lol it seems it's all about the big picture. The mistake was mine for showing only part of the gryphon in the first picture, which looks a lot like parts 10-11 from the scorpion's tail. Very good dissection image of the scorpion, btw, it would be really helpful for anyone trying to make one. I wish I had seen that when I was making a scorp some time ago. . Thank you for the comment, btw, hopefully we won't lose too much detail from the feathers in the painting process. There are plenty of "small corners" created by the structure of the feathers and to a lesser extent the fur, which will make it imperative to pass a second or even third hand of black coating before any actual painting is done.
:blush: Thank you for the kind comment. Here are some images of the painted gryphon, as I expected, it took a few hands of priming before it was ready for painting, because of all the corners created by the feathers. There are still some spots to work on, but I think that at the moment it's time to work on the rider.
This is by far the best you've shown, at least in my opinion. The colors are spot on with the gryphon, did you actually make the feathers two shades for depth? I really dig the boots on the rider.
Thank you, I put quite some effort on this one. The feathers are actually two layered one above the wing and one below the wing. Apart from that, each line of feathers covers the top of the line below it, with feathers turned sightly upwards to give some depth. The painting was done thus: 1. Primed with black 2-3 times, the third with "washing" (ie paint dilluted in water) to cover white spots. 2. dry brushing with "havana brown" (in order not to cover the details of the feathers, I think I was only partly successful here). 3. the edges of the feathers were touched with white and some grey. The aim was not so much for depth as for a more "realistic" coloring of an actual eagle's wings. The riders was firstly given a full body chainmail suit, and then pieces of the armor were glued separately on the suit. The "boots" are greaves, made to look like feathers, but the detail was not too succesful, it seems. Here are some better views that focus entirely on the leg guard: And the other leg guard: There is some scale mail as thigh protection in both thighs, so the leg chain mail is mostly covered. I really liked the bronze color, so I opted for that, rather than copper. It's also got a hand of varnish which gives it a more smooth "metallic" look.
And here are some images of the finished miniature (which actually is 7.5 inches tall and 7 inches wide)
By the way, if people from the modding teams are reading this topic and are interested in parts of the armor (eg the shield) to use as textures for a mod, please let me know if a better photograph of specific equipment is needed.
You must be using awfully small brushes ... or you have a halfling in your cellar that does your detailing. Do I see runes on the axe blade?
Heh, in fact this detail is done with a piece of wire which I dip (lightly) in color. . If you are referring to the "feathers" it's all about "washing" (using somewhat watered paint, to ensure that it covers the carved surfaces) in black and "dry brushing" (using brush that was lightly dipped in color and then wiped on a paper towel to take away some of the excess paint, then lightly painting to ensure that only protruding surfaces get painted in that color). Yes sir, although not really runes per se it's "Griffones". Also, on the blade of the sword "Ordo Griffones cavalarii" (as well as the scabbard) but it doesn't show all that well, and thus tends to look like runes. Runic symbols are cool IMHO, and there is a good number of runes on various sites, but I haven't used any.
I've been rather lazy, and thus have only made one new mini (it was originally intended to be in another chess set, but it came out too big, so it was painted normally, ie not by using one single color after priming). It's a byzantine cataphract, around 500 AD. He wears chainmail, scale mail above that, and shoulder guards. He has a longsword (more like two handed ) and a long lance. The horse has barding of copper armor made from rectangular plates, which do not form tiles (in the fashion of scale mail). I guess it is more like splint mail.
I think the idea was to protect the steed from arrows. Very nice, your work never ceases to amaze me.
Thank you. If I recall correctly this was the only type of cavalry that was actually able to charge into (up to a point) enemy spear formations. First utilised by the Parthians, later used by the Romans (since they pretty much copied everything that worked) . Pen and paper dnd (to get the talk from the historic to the Dnd) does include horses, if I am not mistaken, but so far I haven't seen that in the computer dnd version, really. It would be fun to actually see that in the ToEE engine, I think. :yes: