Hobbit with OSL (WIP)

[bailey03]

I've been working on this hobbit figure from Andrea Miniatures (Olfo Fastfeet). It's 54mm scale, though as a hobbit that still means only about 30mm tall. One of the things that drew me to this figure was the lamp he's carrying. It's a great opportunity to work with Object Source Lighting (OSL). This is my first serious attempt at painting lighting effects. Last year I tried to do a glowing plasma pistol, but that's the extent of my experience. This figure really centers around the lamp as the primary light source.

You can see the progression of this figure below. I began with the face, painting the highlights from below and shadows above. As I worked on each section of the figure I used the location of the lantern to determine the direction of my highlights and shadows. I also increased the intensity of the highlights the closer I got to the lantern. The toughest parts were the face and the NMM dagger. My first attempt on the face was a disaster. I went from the dark shadow tones to the highlights without using those reddish midtones. It did not look good. So I stripped the figure and began again. For the dagger I wanted to do NMM, something I've very little experience with. When my first attempt went awry I couldn't strip him so instead I carefully sanded off the paint on the dagger and started that section over.

If you want any details on how I've been painting this figure or my paint mixes just ask, or you can check my painting blog: [URL="http://powellminipainting.blogspot.com/"]http://powellminipainting.blogspot.com/[/URL]

[bailey03]

I've been working on Olfo's back. For the unlit areas I wanted to do more of a monochromatic paint scheme instead of just dark colors. My thinking was I could push the contrast more if I did it that way but still give the impression is was dark (or moonlit). Sort of like the day for night film technique where they'd just use a blue filter to make it look like nighttime.

For the colors I used the Scale75 NMM steel paint set. I'd used some of those colors for the dagger (the neutral grey mixes) but the set also had some nice blue-greys. I obviously did not use the brightest color in the set, just stuck with the darker shades. I may still make some small adjustments but he's just about finished. Now it's to work on the base. I decided to go with a dark forest theme. I'm about 2/3rds of the way with the construction. Once I get some primer on there I'll post some photos.

[Gatlag Stonetooth]

Wow man, really amazing!

[tankbusta]

That is fantastic work!

[bailey03]

Thanks, Gatlag and Tankbusta. I finished building the base so here is a sneak peak at the scene. No paint on the base yet, just primed black. Carrying the OSL over into the base is going to be a bit of a pain.

I placed the trees to create a mostly solid background for the figure, that should help with the lighting effect. I also used their height to stretch the scene and make the figure look even smaller by comparison.

[Gatlag Stonetooth]

Very nice! I like that you've used real branches. Where's the "mud clump base" made from?

[bailey03]

Thanks! The main base is cork. It's part of an Ikea trivet (pack of 3 was about $3, so pretty cheap to work with and also much thicker than regular cork board). I tear the cork instead of cutting it so you get some nice textures. I used one large piece for the main platform and then attached smaller pieces above and below.

After that I attached the sticks to create the tree trunks. I put a small pin in each tree so I could try out different arrangement before gluing. And with the cork base it's easy to just push them in wherever I want. Once they were glued down I took some green stuff and created roots for the trees. Not too easy to see in the photo, but you can make out one of them on the far right.

To create a more interesting texture I used an old brush to apply white glue over the cork and then sprinkled sand over the base. At this scale is gives it a nice rocky dirt texture. The last step was to add some fake leaves and forest litter. I got mine from Secret Weapon but a lot of companies carry that sort of stuff. Normally I'd add those after painting, but with the OSL I had to change my approach a bit.

[Gatlag Stonetooth]

Cork? Cool, I didn't recognized it. Looking very convincing thus!
I'll be following with great interest, keep up the goods!

[Brother Sutek]

Beautiful work. Take this comment in the spirit of my impressed paintbrush, I kinda hate you. Guess all that hard work and effort pays off in the end. Thanks for the inspiration!

[bailey03]

Thanks, Brother Sutek. One of the guys I used to paint with back when I lived in Baltimore told me that same thing on a regular basis. =)

Gatlag, yeah, using the sand on top of the cork really adds to the texture. Oddly enough if you want to actually create a miniature sand texture a good solution is baking soda. Same idea, spread on some white glue and then sprinkle it on the mini. You can also use the brush to help push it into cracks and between gaps in whatever else you've got on the base.

I took a first pass at painting the base last night. I opted to try out the airbrush. I'm still very much a novice with it, but I've got to start using it if I'm ever going to learn. Since the base is mostly dark I figured I couldn't screw up too much. I gave it some layers of the blue-grey to get rid of that nasty satin black primer and create some basic highlights. Then I switched over to the lamplight color (polished bone and lemon yellow) to create the lit areas. Now I'll switch back to the regular brush to clean up the OSL and add some more color to the lit areas.