I wanted to block in colors for this set of miniatures, and decided to go with green for goblin skin and raptors in order to use color efficiently. I first mixed up some green wash using the Loew-Cornelle acrylic and a bit too much water. I still forget just how little paint is really needed for these size figure. I did get a bulb dropper to add water in smaller amounts, but I still overdid it. The green wash was too thin and had trouble coating the primer adequately, while pooling up in the details. I think S1 dipped his brush before I diluted the green, so he got a thicker, darker coat. I blocked in the entire raptor with green, along with the hands, feet, and head of the goblin. I found that as my wash dried I could move it around and improve the coating. Predictably though the pigment settled out in rings on the flat base. That's okay - I can add another coat later, but it does highlight the consequences of using too thin of a wash (also related to using cheap paints, but really my fault for dilution).
S1 and I agreed that we wanted brown for goblin armors, but couldn't agree on the color that would look best. I put a drop of Vallejo brown (chocolate?) into one paint well. My son didn't like it, and wanted the "orange" from my Loew-Cornelle set. I thought it looked hideous in the tube - sort of a creamy-orange-brown that would be impossible to describe further without reference to bodily excretions. It looked surprisingly good on the palette though, sort of a fantasy-leather color. I still thought it was too light, so I combined the two in a third palette well and went to work on my goblin. The pants and shirt were painted with the mixed brown while the bandolier and kilt were painted with the orange. After the first coat dried, I decided that the contrast between the two browns was too weak and repainted the shirt and paints with the Vallejo brown. When it dried, the color was darker than I expected, so maybe I should have left it alone. I'm not happy with the dirt-like base, so I'll have to think about improving it.
![Picture](/uploads/1/1/2/6/11261556/1335139760.jpg)
To dry-brush, I added a tiny amount of paint to my brush, and then wiped it on my paper towel. Then I rubbed my brush on the paper towel and whisked it across the figure without applying pressure. The effect is to leave a little paint pigment, but almost no liquid, on the raised surfaces. Once I had a feel for it, I could whisk as if the brush were a feather-duster. This is hard on your brush, and the lack of liquid causes it to splay out; I would not use a first-tier brush for this purpose. I wanted the back to look pebbled, blending into orange and then red, with a red face. The orange blended okay, but I was hasty with the red and obscured most of the orange. I could redo the coloration, but I may just buy another and try again. I need to practice with patience.
S1 liked how my raptor turned out, so he asked me to drybrush some red onto his for blood marks. Then he added some stripes of orange on his raptor's flanks and more red around the snout. I think his looks pretty cool as something that developed organically. His goblin archer has decent detail considering his attention span, but I know that D1 added some touches to it and I'm not sure which parts are whose ideas. D1's figure is blood red all over, with some brown for shoes and shield. She said he was a very violent guy.
- Apparently, I am terrible at picking colors (but we knew that already). S1's designs spurred me to make some better choices
- S1 feels that we need some metallic gold and silver for fancy effects. Don't really want to pay for it, considering how little it would get used, but probably would add some flair to military effects. Also, see point #1.
- One single drop of paint really is enough. BUT, you need to use it quickly. The heat was so bad that the paint solvent would evaporate and the acrylic would become gummy. It even happened on my brush, when I stopped to talk for a moment, and this gob of paint on the tip solidified in a couple minutes. Once the gummy-point is reached, adding more water does not help. Although, it does peel off the paint well nicely.
- I originally wanted to mount the figures somehow while I painted, so that I could get at all sides easily. Holding it in your fingers by the base seems to accomplish this task. My hands may not be steady enough to do this during detail work, but then the detail work itself would be shaky.
- I actually had to take off my eyeglasses to look at these figures up close while painting. <sigh>