Wing It

Sometimes I paint with a planned formula, or a packaged set of matched paints. Other times, I just start mixing and blending until something good happens (or I give up and strip the paint off to start over.)

For the Ettin, I know I wanted a grey-brown base for the skin tone, but I didn't want things to look fully undead-grey, like they did with my Red Box Keeper mini, from last year. What you see above mixes some bronzed skin tones and browns into the highlights, but is, overwhelmingly, grey.

Pro Bono work

I never take paid painting commissions. I have limited free time, and even more limited painting time. I would never feel right taking somebody's money with the knowledge that their mini would get back to them "eventually". I would also have to charge a ridiculous fee, based on how I value my time. In short, nobody sane would give me the job, even if I were to accept it.

Having said that, I have painted models for free as favors or gifts. This year a friend of mine, and his son, asked me to undertake a project. Let's call them L and M, respectively. L bought a brand new Ettin miniature for M for Christmas, and they both asked me to paint the thing up as a trophy for one of M's Pathfinder characters. How could I refuse?

My raw material for the project is a Reaper Bones Ettin miniature. I asked M how he wanted the thing based, and he said it should be on a pedestal, as if on display. I started out by standing the unmodified mini on top of two bases, stacked up as base and platform. The fit wasn't perfect, but it was close, and could be made to work. It also saved me the trouble of tracking down, or fabricating, a suitable replacement.