Reaper Miniatures Aeris, Female Elf Ranger - 77405

 

This was an interesting experiment or I should say continued experiment with Vallejo's Game Wash Dipping Formula.  My first go with the product was the Wizkids Bone Naga and then the second go was the Reaper Giant Wererat whereby I tweaked the application with the idea of watering it down, using a brush, being more specific and controlled in the wash.  I wanted to go back to the idea of dipping a model into the product as the product has "Dipping" in the name and I had a thought that this might work better with a "normal" sized miniature which has been block painted.  

By block painting I mean no highlights nor shadows - just painting sections or blocks of the miniature with a single color - face is pale, hair is yellow, cloak is green, leather is brown, pants are purple, and bow is yellow/brown.  This miniature was one painted by my wife at the beginning of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and therefore was the perfect test bed.  No fancy highlights, shadows, blending, glazing, drybrushing or anything else - this is a simple as it gets - open a pot of paint and use that to color block each feature of the mini (almost like a coloring book and a box of crayons).  

Done with care, it can look quite good on the tabletop and it's easy for beginners.  I love teaching the art of miniature painting and my players love painting their character at the start of a campaign.  And that works on the tabletop.  So here's the test - can it look better with almost no effort other than dip in a can of wash?  So that's what I did - I dipped the model upside down in the wash - shook/tapped off as much of the wash as possible over the pot - then stood the model upright and let dry with no additional touches by me.  

The result - not bad!  The dip provided the concept of blacklining by residing in the areas between blocks of features (example the face from the hair and the face from the cloak).  It provided depth and dimension in the hair, fur on the cloak, and the leather armor and boots as well as facial features such as eyes, nose and mouth.  By standing the model upright to dry the remaining wash naturally went to the downwards side of the model and thereby produced the shadows one would expect.  The bad... it's a bit sloppy and the maybe I could have used a paintbrush with some water to take away the wash off the bow for better results.  Additionally it dries with a super high sheen which can be overcome with a can of matte finish and that will protect the model through all the game day abuse.  

Overall, it's a great way to provide quick depth to a model for the game table with practically no effort.  I have to paint about a 50 unit army of Germans for the beer and pretzel tabletop game Bolt Action - a very simple WWII game that's lots of fun to play with friends, a few beers and snacks.  I think a simple paint job on each model and a dip in the game wash pond is going to be the ticket for success - look forward to future blog posts on that!

This came out of the pile of bones Kickstarter minis...

Kickstarter paint total: 152 + 1 Elf Ranger = 153