Stepping Stones

One of my favorite miniature lines is Siren Miniatures, for a few reasons.

First, there is always a lot of wonderful detail, but not at the expense of "paintability".  Even though there is a decent amount of details and other elements, you can still paint these up without much tedium or difficulty.

There's also quite a bit of flow and movement in the poses, even when the subject is a dwarf like this guy!

Check out the rest of the collection on their website:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

He's also available here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/323305831137?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Droud

As I have mentioned before, Siren Miniatures are packed with all kinds of details, and this was no exception.  It seemed like a very simple dwarf, until I started painting it!  Every time I turned around, there was another sneaky element lurking.

It does make it more enjoyable to paint when you have crisp detail.  I believe at the time I was also working on other much older figures that were just the opposite, where everything had to be "painted in".  That was no fun at all by comparison!

I used another Secret Weapon base on him, to make it seem like he was running over the body of a fallen foe.  As I was working on this, I was also painting monsters and historical figures... taking advantage of similar colors, even though the figures were drastically different in genre.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222660336823?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Chaibo

There are many new interesting miniature lines these days, and one of them is certainly Siren Miniatures!  Each figure is sculpted with incredible details, like little Chaibo here.

Every time I turn around, there's a little touch of detail, but not something that is overwhelming, or intrusive.

I have painted many of the dwarf characters, and each one is very unique.  The way the muscles are sculpted reminds me of the old Ilyad Games figures.

These details allow for all kinds of color transitions, which is what I did here.  There are bright lemon yellow colors next to muted purples and greens, while grays and reds balance against those combinations.

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322792146759?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Nadia

I see that I forgot to post the other sister to Ingrid!  She has to have her sibling!!

This is Nadia, also from Siren Miniatures.

I had a lot of fun with the hair.  Since it carried through the entire miniature from top to bottom, I could do some brighter, more saturated mid tones and light colors and not worry about it popping too much.  The rest of the tones are quite muted in comparison.

I also added the grass clump to the base to make sure that intense burnt orange shade did go all the way down to the base.  The idea is to 'carry' the viewer's eye all the way through the piece, as I did when I was making 2D paintings.

That's a little easier by default when you are working on something that is already 3D, as opposed to trying to simulate such dimension on a canvas or watercolor paper.

You can see her and all other sorts of fantastic minis here:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

Ingrid

Ingrid is one of two very nasty sisters from Siren Miniatures.  They are also my two favorite figures from the fantastic Siren line!  

You can see more of those Siren figures here:

http://sirenminiatures.com/

I tried to have some variations on both the leather of the figure, and on the base surface, positioning greens next to subdued warm tans and even purple.  The purple was incorporated to bring in the bright red hair, as the same color was used to shade the darkest portions of the hair.

This is a sneaky way to tie colors together without it being too obvious.  I learned early on in my 2D art career that all colors must have some kind of link to each other.  Should one be too out of place, it will cause the viewer some discomfort to look at, which is never good!

You can also see that I used one of my recently created Celtic ruins bases made with the Green Stuff World texture rollers!  Now that I am finally getting a chance to paint some of these, and put figures on them, I love them even more!

I will always have fun carving my own sculpey bases, but now I have the ability to make very intricate designs with a variety of themes in no time at all!

These ground level views show you a little bit of the reflected colors that I attempted to place on the white mask and the ribbons flowing from it.  There are hints of red along the sides of each, which helps to tie those very light colors into the rest of the figure, which has a lot of darker tones or highly saturated hues.

The Paladin

I have enjoyed every Siren Miniatures figure that I have painted.  Even in the Dwarf characters, there is a great deal of dynamism to the poses, and lots of fun details.

This is the latest in the long line of dwarf characters, which will soon be joined by some very fun female assassins!

A while back, I used to paint metals with a combination of seafoam green and pinks.  Since I have been painting more weathered metals for Steampunk Wild West and WW2 figures, that has not been the case of late.

However, you can see that color scheme on full display here!  I had a lot of fun contrasting those pink and purples with the teals, also providing a few accents of yellowish green in the reflected light in the shadow areas.

I wanted the sword to have a slight luminescence about it, so I used a few high chroma glazes to make it stand out a tiny bit.  And of course, some of these colors were introduced onto the armor as well!

The triple play of contrast is on display here, starting with the obvious differences in value.  Second, there is the "red vs green" opposing colors (in the form of purple vs teal).  Third, I have very saturated colors next to muted tones.  Thus, three levels of contrast.

What this will do is give the viewer more interesting things to look at on a figure that appears to be a limited palette exercise when you first see it.  It also means that one can look at it many times, and still see something new.

Here is the Siren website, which has all kinds of amazing figures available!

http://sirenminiatures.com/

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/322165874894?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649

Siren Sisters

Here are some amazing new figures from Siren Miniatures.

Meet Nadia and Ingrid, the Sisters of No Mercy.

These are actual assembled figures, not renders (I dusted some light gray and white paint on them so you could see the shapes a little better).  The detail is as amazing as you would expect from Siren, which means they will be wonderful to paint!  For such dramatic poses, it was also relatively easy to get them put together.  Always a plus!!

I think I will try to stick to the color schemes of the concept art, since that should make for some interesting side by side photos!

As a scale reference, the base is 32mm.  These ladies are perfect for a number of systems.  I think they could even be interesting characters for a Wild West Exodus scenario.  They could play the role of foreign assassins from western Europe who are sent to kill Dr. Carpathian, or something similar.

Another reason that I wanted to stay with the concept art colors was the fact that the sculpts stayed quite true to the concept.  So, once painted, I will do a set of side by side by side images, from concept, to render, to unpainted figure, to the finished result!

Be sure to visit Siren Miniatures on their facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SirenMiniatures

Where's Snow White?

 

This post is a wee bit out of order, since one of the dwarf characters in these images has yet to get his own feature.  However, things have been jumbled up in a massive way this Holiday season!!

 

These guys are all from Siren Miniatures, a company which produces a very large amount of special character types... not just dwarves!

 

Now matter what you choose, you will get fantastic details that are a snap to prep and paint, just as these fellows were.  They will also be unique... whether it's the armor, weapons, posing, etc., they will certainly stand out.

 

The clearly defined shapes of the muscles, clothing and weapons meant that I could focus my attention more on subtle color transitions, instead of wondering what the heck I was trying to paint. :-)

 

I didn't want to get too elaborate with basing on these, so I stayed with bark for the most part.

 

On some of the characters, I went with more greens in the shadows of the skin tones, but on others I went with something a little more purple.

 

I believe those differences might show up better in this image.

 

Here's a link to the Siren Miniatures facebook page, where you can see for yourself all the fantastic figures just waiting for you to paint them!!!

 

The home page is under construction at the moment, as all the new sculpts are reorganized.

 

https://www.facebook.com/SirenMiniatures

 

 

 

I think you will have as much fun as I did painting them!!!

Owen does it!

The dwarf heroes keep coming from Siren Miniatures!

This time we have Owen, who's always ready with that handy sword.

Here's the Siren Miniatures home page, which shows off all the amazing figures they have.  I definitely want to try out many more of these!!

http://sirenminiatures.com/store

The crisp details on every Siren miniature make them a joy to paint.  I am able to do a lot of subtle little color transitions because of the clean lines of the various surfaces.

Glazing is even more fun when you have precision casting and sculpting, since I know that each glaze is going to end up exactly where I want it to go!!

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/221979371638?

Siren Call

Tonight we have another Siren miniature.  Meet Greir, a dwarf adventurer. 

Coming up with a unique look for dwarves is a major challenge, but as you have seen in previous posts here, Siren worked quite hard to make some very interesting characters.

There is an ever expanding line of wonderful sculpts on their website:

http://sirenminiatures.com/store

I look forward to trying out many more of this incredible line!!  The base is made from baked sculpey clay... even the crystals!  I created an entire video on how to make this style of base.  

They are a lot of fun, as you press real rocks into unbaked sculpey clay.  We have a fairly large collection of rock types now. :-)

He's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321943663185?