The Zoidyssey - Adventures with Warriors of Athena

The theme for this month’s PaintComp here in the OTT Forums is “Olympian”.  As I can’t paint the North Star gods yet, (ordered but not released until the end of the month) I’ll have to go with what I’ve already got.  I have an Avatar of Artemis miniature by Crocodile Games.  A brilliant sculpt from Chris Fitzpatrick who some might know from his GW days (he did a famous range of Dark Elves in the early 2000s amongst others).  This miniature is in the 36/40mm range and North Star say their gods are 36mm so it should be a good match.

Inspiration.

I wanted a nice bright look for her drape emulating the look of silk in the sunshine.  She is the goddess of hunting so I’m going for green as her main colour.  For her bow I’m going for a yew longbow look.  A yew bow is made from two types of yew wood, the springy outer wood which is very pale and the strong and resilient dark orange of the heartwood for the back of the bow.  Looking closely at the model there is a clever bit of sculpting to cover the awkward space in the crook of the right elbow.  This might have a hollow in it that would be difficult to cast correctly.  Therefore, Chris has put a couple of feathers in there, either attached to the top of the quiver or her wrist cuff.  I’ve looked at pictures of hunting birds and have selected a hawk feather as the most obvious pattern to paint.

Process

I started with a zenital highlighted undercoat using rattle can spray, white over black for the maximum in contrast.  Skintones next.  Crusader Skin Speedpaint folowed by so boosting of the tone with Darkoath Flesh and Guilliman Flesh Contrast paints.  Then in with a solid acrylic, Beige Red which was blended with the three speedpaints on the palette to strengthen the tone further in key areas.  Finally highlights added with these mixes and Bonewhite acrylic added to brighten the tone.  Thin washes over and between applications to complete the blending.

Clothing was next, Shamrock Green which is described as vivid green and certainly doesn’t disappoint.  Then bow, quiver and metallics followed – all using a blend of paint types and tones, carefully overlaid.

Hair and face followed.  Thinned Dark Wood Speedpaint, extra blending and highlights.  Eyes are filled white and then a thin black line is added.

Basing
Krautcover Soil of Sparta is being used with all of the models, as a one and done finish for most.  For the gods and characters I’ll add some extra tufts and flower tufts from the stack, mostly from Tajima1 or Mininatur.