Week 27 (12 Jan - 18 Jan 2003)
Ice elemental
The figure just stood out against the whites of the landscape, wrapped in like colors and moving quickly through the deep snow.
Nothing perceptible to most viewers made the figure stop, made the figure's hand drop to the bandage-wrapped sword-hilt. But with a clatter, the jumble of icy rocks just ahead sprang to life, hissing like cold wind through ropes.
The sword and the wielder were ready.
This week's miniature is a Ral Partha ice elemental, part of the Crucible range of miniatures. I believe the Crucible range is back in production by Iron Wind Metals, but I picked up mine on the cheap this summer at Origins.
I began by bending the miniature a little to try and pose it in a way that looked dynamic and menacing. I clipped the tabs off the miniature's feet and tried a few different poses. The best-looking one was a bit hunched forward and leaping off the base, but something still wasn't right. I decided to lengthen the spine crystal in order to give the creature some more height and make it more menacing.
I began by breaking off the spine. It was already cracked, and I wanted to make sure that any cut I made would get rid of weak spots. It broke near the top, and I clean the area with with some needle files. The next step was sharpening the crystal faces -- if an area is supposed to look sharp when painted, making it as physically sharp as possible helps me paint it convincingly. I use a flat needle file to clean up flash and put edges and points on areas that needed them. I paid special attention to the pointy ends of the limbs.
When it was polished up sufficiently, I drilled a hole as large as the remaining piece at the hips would allow, so that I could use a fairly heavy-gauge wire to join the two pieces.. The hole was acutally just a bit too large for the wire, so I filled the gap with a tiny bit of green stuff, put in a drop of superglue, pushed in the wire, and let it set. Meanwhile, I drilled a matching hole in the upper body.
When the leg piece had dried, I realized that I'd have to base the mini in order to make sure I had the pose I wanted. I drilled into the leg that would be resting on the ground with a very thin bit, making a hole just large enough to take a straight pin. I made another hole through the base just big enough for the pin, and inserted the pin up through the base. I glued it into place with some gap-filling superglue.
After that had dried, I bent the pin to an angle that looked good and set the miniature in place. Once again, my hole was a bit large, so I filled it in with a little green stuff before gluing. I put the miniature's lower half onto the pin and did some final adjustments. I made sure to leave some room between the "foot" and the base, both so that I could texture the base like ice and so that I could rebuild the foot, making it sharp like the other limbs.
Everything was once again dry, so I got out some brown/silver Kneadatite. It's better suited to sharp-faced areas than the blue/yellow mix, and can be sanded and filed after it cures. I layered the whole base but chickened out before I came to the foot. I put in some cracks under the foot, to add to the dynamism and just to break up the monotony of the base, if only a little. After the brown had cured, I made a new foot out of green stuff, which I'm more familiar with.
More drying time passed, and I was finally ready to join the whole thing together. I filled the hole in the upper body with just a little green stuff, then glued the two parts together. Once again, more drying time. When it had passed, I took a deep breath and mixed up some more brown stuff.
I wrapped the wire with what looked like a fair amount, blended it into the original miniature, and started shaping it. I found it a little difficult to get the four open faces to lie flat -- I kept curling one over another. Finally, things looked OK and I once again set the piece aside to dry.
After it had dried, I sanded the faces a little more to get a few lumps out and match up the original crystal spine with my addition. When I was satisfied, I took the miniature to the sink and gave it a light scrubbing with some dish soap.
More drying time. When it had gone by, I decided to prime the piece black, just like usual. He was going to be icy, but he was going to be dark and icy. I ended up priming him indoors, which I don't recommend doing. The exhaust fan wasn't really strong enough to cope with the fumes. I retreated to another room and once again waited for things to dry.
Finally, I got started on the paint. I began with a layer of GW Regal blue, then mixed in a bit of Ice Blue, finishing with pure Ice Blue. After yet more further additional drying time, I put on a few layers of Ice Blue blended up to Apple Barrel White. I wanted the piece to stand out against the base, so I used dark Vallejo yellows to shade the white in that area. I cut in the cracks a little clumsily with some Vallejo smoke.
All in all, a very fun piece to deal with. The Crucible line is quirky to begin with, and some of the pieces lend themselves well to further conversion. I've got to get started soon on similar projects for this summer's Games Day, as well as pump a few more pieces in here to catch up to one figure a week.
Back to week 26 (5 Jan - 11 Jan 2003)