Now that we are finished with the deatils on the model, it is time to paint her back piece the same was as we did the armor. You could do any extra parts at the same time as you pain the rest of the model, but I wait till I am about to attach it before I paint it so the paint job doesn't get damaged while it is sitting around or getting moved. In the vents on the back, drop in some "Snot Green" paint and let it dry. Once it dries highlight it with "Scorpion Green." This will give the vents a green glow.
Do the same to the vents on her back.
I also used this effect with "Blazing Orange" and "Golden Yellow" and well as the greens for the details on her waist. Paint the tip of the spear "Shining Gold" and apply a wash of "Devland Mud" after the paint dries. You can then drybrush or highlight the gold back up to it's shine and the model is complete! But not done. Now is also the time to apply any details to the base of the mini. Do all your gluing down of rocks, painting, snow effects, etc before moving onto the next step.
Now that you are finished your paint job it is important to protect your time investment. The worse thing is having paint wear off from touching it while playing the game, chipping during transport or dropping the model. If you used just one color in an area this is alright, you can just repaint the area that chipped again with the same color. But if you are using the steps I have outlined, it will be very difficult to match the shading or colors of an area if it chips in one little spot, not to mention it may not turn out the same as you did it the last time if you were to repaint the whole area that chipped.
It is important to seal up the paint job on a mini with some sort of spray varnish. Just like the primiers I use, only use a varnish that is intended for models. Spray varnishes for canvass that you would find in the art store for sealing paintings, or even the stuff you would find at a harware store in the paint department I'm sure would work, but I fear they could come out too thick and get into the recesses or fill in tiny details on the model. If you have some old broken models, or extra bits lying around you could quickly slap some paint on them and test these sealers out. You may find one that works for you and is cheap.
Sealers from the GW stores in Canada costs $21 dollars. This is obviously a ridiculous price to pay for sealer so don't buy it. $12-$15 dollars a can is unreasonable no matter where you live in the world so do not pay more than 10 dollars per can unless it is huge. Even at the hardware and art store they want $10 dollars or more per can, so just laugh and walk away if you have other options. The most cost effective way I have found to seal my miniatures is with "Testors: Lacquer," "Testors: Dull Coat," "Model Master: Flat" enamel paint sealer (same thing as Dullcoat just one dollar more expensive. If my hobby shop is out of Testors varnish I will get Model Master) and "Ardcoat" gloss varnish you can buy in a paint pot from GW.
Varnishes come in three types to my knowledge. Gloss/Crystal, Satin and Matte/Flat/Dull. Gloss will make your models shine. "Ardcoat" is the equivalent from GW. If you are painting model cars, airplanes, tanks or even aliens, you may like the wet shinny look that a gloss coat will give you. If so that is fine, spray two coats. Satin is a mix between gloss and matte. It won't be as shiny as gloss or as dull as matte. Matte or Flat coats will bring down any shine on a model, so if you are going to use this on a model that has metallic paint on it, it will stop these paints from shining like they did before you sprayed it on. So if you are going to use this then you will need to buy the brush on "Ardcoat" from GW or any other model company that offers it.
I Spray my miniatures with a gloss varnish first. I use the "Testors Lacquer" on my minis because it is designed to coat the model in a very thin, hard shell. This gives model cars or airplanes that waxed, shiny appearance, but works to really protect the paint jobs of miniatures without using very much. It costs $5 dollars a can here and it's a lot smaller than a can from GW, but it goes a long way. You can spray 20-50 minis per can depending on the size of the minis. I then dust the model with a second layer of "Testors Dullcoat" or "Model Master Flat" spray to bring down the shine of the lacquer. It is also $5 dollars. Like I said, this will bring down the shine of Matellic paints, so once the matte layer of varnish has dried, I use the brush on varnish from GW to go back over all the metal highlight areas I painted on the mini. This will restore their shine back to 75% of it's original shine. Locals can find this stuff at Maritime Hobbies.
If you wanted to go back in and do a quick highlight on any of the areas that were metal before painting on the ardcoat varnish, you can do that. If you just dust the model with the matte varnigh though, you should be able to bring the shine back. Also be careful not to use too much matte varnish because it will dull down paint brightness as well. I painted some goblins who's faces had a bright green highlight, but after applying too much matte varnish, you could barely notice I painted anything but one color on the models skin. So please be careful not to apply too much.
You may have noticed that Deneghra is suddenly standing on a base. Well I'm going to be going over that in the next tutorial, but now that she is painted and sealed it is time to glue her down to a scenic base rather than gluing her directly down to the base provided. For this you will need your wire cutters, a paperclip and some super glue.
Carefully cut the metal tab off of the bottom of her feet and look for a suitable place to start drilling in on the underside or bottom of the model. Drill in where you can and attach a pin like I showed in the pinning tutorial.
Put some super glue onto the pin and slide it into the material you used on the base. I used cork, so I can easily slide the pin into place but if you are using something harder like real rocks, plasticard, floor tiles, etc,you can can drill into it if possible and slide the pin in or don't pin the model at all and just glue the bottoms of her feet down.
Next up, making cork bases and attaching your models to it.
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