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I’m Fair and I’m here to tell you about some fun miniature stuff I’ve been doing lately.
This one’s extra special so I thought I’d start out with it: it’s the piece that won me runner up in The Drowned Earth painting competition from a few weeks ago and 1st prize in the ‘Eavier Metal one! I’m really happy with how it turned out and I’m gonna take you all on a step by step (Editor’s Note: an almost complete one...) on how I got it to look that way.

E.N.: this is a miniature from The Drowned Earth line, one that most of us here at GHG proudly backed when it hit Kickstarter a little over a year ago. It’s a solid line of high-quality metal miniatures, backed by the IP which has personality in droves, a free-flowing system guiding it on the tabletop, and the fact that it’s going from strength to strength at retail.
We actually met the brainiac behind it at Salute 2017 (Hi, James!) and have nothing but kind words to say about him and his product. Legend has it his voice is still hoarse to this day after basically living through a 12-hour-long interview back then.
Back to the issue at hand:

This all started when I received this pretty cool package one day. I was definitely excited, but not as much as Joplin, Gung-Ho Pussy #2 (#1 will show up later!):

Since I forgot to take assembly and primer pictures (E.N.: told you!), this is going to have to do for a first step. Picture 1 is early colour blocking. Nothing too fancy here, just laying the groundwork for what will be highlighted later on.

The contraption you see the mini mounted on is a Rathcore v3 miniature holder that really helps you keep your hand steady as you’re slapping paint around and an item that I recommend any budding miniature painter purchase because it really makes a big difference in the end!

E.N.: can confirm, I’m actually using a soldering iron clamp system that I have handy because… Well… I keep forgetting to buy one of these. And Fair here’s gonna take care of our painting duties so I can sleep easy in the end. But the difference is… I’ll let you guys judge:

Carrying on with some more colour blocking (picture 2), the pants will now be a reddish hue instead of brown because of me running into a case of ‘not paying fucking attention’. That’s what happens when you reach for the brown wash and end up grabbing the red. In my defense, it wasn’t in its normal spot as *certain people* derive some sadistic pleasure of swapping around my paints ><

Then (picture 3) the blue really started doing my head in and I was close to chucking the model through a window or something equally destructive. No, I have no idea what I did. I wish I did, though. I still hate painting blue, and lots of swear words were used (in various languages, I’m pretty fluent when it comes to swearing).
Also, I may have snapped a brush.
E.N.: ask Fair to paint some Water Elementals…
Fair’s Note: You will fucking not :P

So I didn’t rage quit (picture 4), and the blue is better than any blue I ever did. Because this was the first time I did it. I will not be doing blue again, so his little lizard buddy will now be green, thank you very much.

Here’s where it starts to get more and more nerve wracking. Naturally, this is also the point when my cats want to “help”, resulting in me turning an interesting shade of blue. As long as I don’t breathe, nothing will go wrong, right?

There’s actually a 2 week gap between pics 7 and 8, because at this point I had decided to enter the ‘Eadbangerz Competition (that I also won first prize in, for the Rookie competition!). And I have a tendency to start rushing when I’m getting close to finishing. Also having done the bestest blue ever (and I really liked his pants), I was kinda scared to fuck shit up so I paced myself for a change.

Getting close to finishing here…
Pic 10 was me trying to get a half decent pic of the lizard and realising I need to do more work on the face when I get around to the whole skin bit.

Pic 11 is the best I could do zooming in on the little guy.
E.N.: I’d like to point out the patience and care with which everything is highlighted here. Note the various layers but more importantly the small, white dots on the mini’s glasses and in both its as well as the lizard’s eyes, giving the impression of light reflections. Awesome stuff. That I wish I had the steady hands to do.

Editor’s Note: Another few pics to showcase the mini from different angles but also the base that goes a helluva long way to bringing everything out even more. A little sculpting, some aquarium plants, some corkboard, ye olde PVA glue for the water effects, and you’ve got yourself a great-looking piece. Miniature dioramas like Fair did here are a sight to behold, and while the PVA hadn’t fully dried clear, it’s safe to say that’s one based base!
And if you don’t believe me, just ask C. Khali, Gung-Ho Pussy #1, pictured here after having convinced Fair to switch the display base with the acrylic one to prevent damage:

About the author:

Amber is that funny friend of few words everybody likes. When asked about penning a small bio, she had this to say: “I’m not a complete idiot, some parts are missing. That’s it. I suck at bios.” What she lacks in the “about” pane she more than makes up in humour, cats, painting prowess, and in being a kickass, loving mom.