Gladiator Part 4 and Vax

I spent some time last night working on the chain mail for the gladiator.  Not quite right, but it's getting there.  I'm sure I'll spend a while messing with it to see if I can get to a stage where I'm happier.  I'm fairly pleased with the back.  I think the lights bring out the shape.  The front is a bit flatter, so I feel like the effect isn't that interesting.  I'd like to try and do a bit more with the shine.  And of course I still have the mail on both of his shoulders to deal with.

In other news, I've started on another project, the 28mm Vax figure from Steamforged Games.  This is a character from a web show, Critical Role, and was released during Gencon as a limited edition figure.  Luckily for me, it was also available online up until the convention, so I was able to get a copy as well.  This is still in the early stages and so far I've just focused on the face.  It really makes me miss doing 54mm and larger faces.  Those 28's are tough!  A good reminder why I like working on the larger scales. =)  I got the impression that a lot of people who follow the show have bought either this mini or their kickstarter set.  From comments I've seen on Facebook and elsewhere, it sounded like there were a decent number of first time painters too, so I decided to write a very thorough tutorial on this figure.  It's already up in the tutorials section of this site.  I'm adding sections to it as I go.  My goal is to provide enough information so that a beginner could work through the piece, so expect to see a lot of detail on the entire process.  For those of you with more experience who still want to check it out, I recommend skipping down to the bottom where I start to get into the painting itself.  I recorded a couple videos as I did the face.  Unfortunately the part where I did the blending did not record properly, so that part is just text.  But the rest, where I setup my shadows, do the eyes, and paint the glazes did manage to record properly.

Gladiator Part 3

I'm trying to wrap up the non-metallic sections on this guy.  I continued on with the legs, painting the linen covering behind the greaves, the leather of his feet, and the feet themselves.  I then moved onto his right arm, dealing with the leather and wraps there.  I still need to paint the wraps on the back of the greaves, along with some small leather details on his armor, but that about does it.

I've also sketched on the metallics for the sword, just trying to get the light/shadow placement how I like it. As with the armor, though I'm using metallic paints, I am still approaching it as if I were pointing NMM. I want more control over how the light looks on the sword, so I'm forcing the shine and shadow to be where I want. I still need to blend it (though lighting for the photos makes it look smoother than it is) and add a few top level highlights.  After that I'll have no more excuses to avoid the dreaded chainmail! =)

This weekend I'm hoping to stop by my storage unit. I've got some old kits in there and I think I can scavenger parts from one to make a dead gladiator for the base. It's going to require a bit of sculpting (though just the body, the head and limbs I think I can use). So we'll see how it turns out. I'm hoping it'll be good enough to use, otherwise I'll just do a more traditional arena style base for him.