Mooooooooonstone!!

Ribald is all done! I really had such a blast working on this ‘friendly’ looking troll.
Looking back now I am really glad I abandoned my initial idea of trying to get the Moonstone minis painted up quick as possible and jsut to use as game pieces. They are just far too nice nad characterful to not spend the extra time giving them a fuller paintjob. I’ve even entered Ribald into this years “Eavier Metal ‘Eadbanger paint competition.

As to the paint.  I tried a one or two new things out on Ribald, as I try to do with every mini: try something new, take a risk, experiment.  Each mini is an opportunity to push myself harder and further as an artist. This year so far has been a belter for growth I feel. I’ve already (I think) finsihed more models than I did in the whole of 2020 (37 models done so far -from 28mm to 75mm, from vignettes to busts to diorama)  and the improvements in my painting have been both noticeable and palpable, which is a great feeling.

For Ribald I tried a different way of doing a more battered metal in nmm. A lot of nmm we see in the community has and still is all about smoothness of transitions and smoothness of materials as well as correct application of light and shadow. But what if its a metal that is old, uneven and was never particularly well-wrought in the first place?
So,  with Ribald, and how his armour was already sculpted, I tried to do this more battered and less reflective metal plate justice through nmm. Usually I would have just opted for tmm as it lends itself very easily to older metals when used in conjunction with washes, filters and effects to tone done the inate reflectivity of the metallics paints (I’ve done a few YT videos on the subject folk might find useful) and if metal is highly or at least moderately polished and smooth, I would use a nmm approach.  But with the Moonstone minis and their overall aesthetic,  I felt that nmm was more suited to their look.
Some miniatures (and ranges) lend themselves better to one or the other – for example – Kingdom Death works better with an nmm approach and tmm often deosnt really look as good on them as it would on other lines. The original Judgement minis (the 54mm scale models before they fecked the whole thing up by lowering the scale and letting creature caster take over the aesthetic) definitely looked a lot better with tmm work than nmm. Of course this is all just my take on things and how I see them!!

Anywayssssssss – I think a more rough and textured nmm approach suits the overall look adn aesthetic of the Moonstone minis so I (starting with Beaky Bobby) wanted to tweak and adapt a slightly different nmm look for them.
As usual I paid particular attention to light, shadow and over contrast as that is core to making nmm workups a success but this time I also paid equal attention to the texture of the armour. Stipple & smudge, makeup brushes and  more …… aggressive brush work played a big part in this. And it seems to work – we break up the light reflections so that they are not reflecting from a perfectly smooth and polished surface but rather from a more rough, pitted and eroded surface.

As to the skin of the troll and also of the goblin. I tried a differnt approach here which was at very quite monochromatic but then brought to life by utilising differnent coloured filters and glazes. I detailed this in the last post so I wont go on about that here!
A very quick note on the basing – as these are ultimately going to be used on the tabletop, I wanted a definte homogenousness of base.  So rather than basing e3ach mini individually and with basing materials,  I opted for cast resin bases  – as the whole quick paint to play idea was out the window, by going with scenic resin bases I could claw back a little time. After looking through a lot of different companies I finally settled on the rocky terrain bases from model display products for the gobbos n trolls and the regal stone bases from the same company for the humans. Havemt decided what bases for the gnomes yet. Fauns and faeries will be on woodland bases and so on.
A quick note on the quality of the bases. MDP are to be HIGHLY recmn’d  – the quality of the resin and their resin casting is near flawless. I was really impressed when the bases arrived (apart form the bastarding customs tax I got charged on a 20gbp order >< ) the details are all really sharp and there was not a single airbubble to be found on all the bases I ordered. really top quality product – 10/10
So I’ve blathered on for ages here so I’ll shut up now! More pics of Ribald below and please,  if you have any questions,  feel totally free to ask in the comments or PM me 🙂