Painting Hera

Thought I'd post a bit about how I go about painting these minis.  I paint by a style I call block and wash.  Basically, I block in the main colors, wash with dirty paint water (about consistency of ink), and the highlight.  If I really put some effort into a fig I will strive for more accurate block painting, use a variety of washes (slightly darker than main areas being washed -- rather than just black) and the highlight stage I might add a twinkle to lights, shine to metal, tatoos, or patterns on fabric.

So I'm going to paint Hera. 

First step is to prime.  Unlike previous figs, I used a spray primer.  Nothing to note here normally, but I hand unfortunate reaction with my wash.  Unlike most, I will do a full black wash on the primer.  This way I can SEE the detail.  Must of done this too early as the primer might have been wet.  The effect muddled a bit.  So instead of striking detail, and get some mushy greys over the fig.  This won't impact the process much -- the fig will be painted all over.  But it will make seeing the detail more difficult.  Since this is the middle of the day and the only fig I"m painting, I don't expect this to be an issue.

The following shots are me blocking int the green, white, grey (armor and helmet), and orange

Truth be told, the previous pictures took a while.  There was a lot of paint some white, over paint on to green, repaint the bit of green, over paint some grey.  So on and so on.  The trick here is to be patient and persistent.  Also be mindful of how much paint you are putting on a fig -- it will start to get globby and chunky and you lose detail.  So in those corner where you think you may have a battle -- keep the coats thin.

So now we need to begin the wash.  I'm going to do 3 washes; black for her armor, helmet, gloves and gun.  I'm going to do a green with attempt to bring out her face.  And an orange to try and get some texture out of her pants.  This picture below is me trying to mix up an orange wash.  Important note -- just a brush of a black easily over powers a cap full of orange.  Take a look at the finished product -- I think I'm a bit thin and the depth doesn't really come out.  But thinness of my orange paint allows some of the wash I did on the prime to come through so I kept it.  The black is pretty good on the hands and tech.

I've been highlighting a bit as I washed and even before I starting washing.  Basically I wanted to make sure I didn't lose any detail.  But once the washing was done know I can put the tatoos on her ears.  This part can be a bit nerve wracking because all the time you put in up to this point can go down the drain.  But here ear's are very easy to repaint  -- they don't have a lot of detail so I'm not afraid of gunking them up with excess pain.  So I get agressive.  Honestly, I don't really like it.  Will probably repaint it tomorrow.  But it makes a good enough pic.

Hera's all finished up.  Primed, blocked, washed, and highlighted.  Easy.