NextLevel Miniatures - Aberrant Magus

 

After our next ShadowDark game at Emerald Tavern I picked up two new AK Interactive Playmarkers - a Medium Blue and Sky Blue. Purple is still my favorite and this model from NextLevel Miniatures was pretty simple - Purple! 

There were a few other colors involved - it's best when using these paints to work inside out - so first was the face, arms, and hands with Zombie Skin - I see this guy as working his way towards being a lich but he's not quite there yet. Next, the shoulder dressing (there's probably a proper name for it) looks very ancient Egyptian like and therefore I tested using the new Medium Blue on that - I do like the blue - will need to use more of that on another model. Then lots of Purple. Finally, I used the Gold for everything that I thought should pop - including some trim pieces - I think I was pushing the limit as to the level of detail I could get with a big fat brush marker.

The base I stayed with the Playmarkers using Black, Dark Grey, and Light Grey. For the greys I used the side of the marker's "brush" and tried to lightly tap to do my best drybrushing look without actually drybrushing. It helps here to use a paper towel and wipe off any excess paint off the brush tip - can always wet the tip and prime the paint later.

Having fun with Google Gemini A/I gives me some interesting results. The first conversion into artwork generates a pretty good image but the A/I engine really wants to convert the face to a skull and remove the hood from the model's eyes...

So I began the quest of telling the A/I engine to provide a face and not a skull and to put the hood back over the eyes. Many variations, most of them bad - I ended up using this one which puts a face back on the model but without the hood covering the eyes and the engine wanted to change the crown for some reason.

It also leaves the plastic's kink in the staff so I asked the A/I engine various forms of instruction to straighten out the staff. The best I received back was to hold the staff vertically - fair enough... 

Finally I gave the command to enhance the artwork - the result was a modified base, enhanced highlighting on the staff, and a bit of a glow to the staff topper to give it a magical look - what's also interesting is with each derivative the background moves from white to off-white - not sure why, but it really like to move away from pure white...

Here's my ShadowDark Monster Index Card...