Grand Mother is finished and how grand she is! I loved painting this miniature, it was quite a challenge for sure. My first idea was to put her on some sort of marble or stone floor and I managed to get a decent stone floor with steps while playing tetris of sorts with hurst arts wall tiles I mounted them on a 2 inch block/plinth and got nice even sides with the help of our newly acquired belt sander. Jason was nice enough to volunteer his fingers for that job as my hands are not going near that machine of flesh sanding death. I had wanted to put a pillar on the back end of the base but that with her wing span would have made it too busy. The other detail I wanted that i did work into this piece was the blood gore trailing from the face of horror between her legs (which you can see in the detail pics at the bottom of this post). I wanted to give the impression of her walking away from a fresh kill. You can read her back story here for that reasoning.
I know most of you have been searching for a good technique for blood. I'm not sure if mine is the way to do it but or how long it will last. I'm sure it wouldn't travel well that is for sure. But I used fabri-tac glue and mixed Tamia clear red and bit of black wash into the glue and applied the glue with a tooth pick to create the strands flowing from the horror to the floor. After it dried fully I added some more fresh red to the glue by lightly painting it on to make sure it had the color I wanted.
After spray sealing her I went back with a paint on gloss sealer and painted over the blood to give it a nice wet sheen.
For the Black wings and her black hair I added a bit of purple to the mix to give it a different hue than the black fur and scarf on her outfit. The light grey tips of the wings also have a bit of turquoise in it to give it depth. The effect I wanted didn't come out as clean as i hoped on the wings but it's a learning experience. This is the first time i've painted feathered wings with out dry brushing and I have shunned dry brushing for a few years now. I save it for stones and tiles.
Speaking of which the stones on her base were 'dry brushed' of sorts. it was more like wet brushed than anything else as the brush was never 'dry' as I hate that chalky look that a true dry brushing gives a mini.
Overall I think I spent about 40 hours on this miniature. I could probably spend more making small adjustments but I have to stop at some point.
Now I just need to figure out what to work on next. I have a box full of awesome miniatures to paint.
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