Welcome back all for your weekly dose of .... whatever it is we do here. This week I am painting something a bit different. We all know that Reaper has a wide, wide variety of miniatures in their catalogue. I went wide and deep into the catalogue and picked up the Reaper Nativity scene. I have actually painted this set two times previously, so this is my third go at it. My previous two were gifts for my parents and in-laws, I figured it was time to paint one for my own household. It is the right time of year afterall, and this will probably be the last things I paint for the year.
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| The first effort |
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| The second effort |
These previous efforts were all painted with my standard base and wash approach using Armypainter paints. This time, I plan on using a combination of traditional methods and Speedpaints. I am interested to see how this turns out compared to my more traditional approach. Therefore, the first step was to go ahead and undercoat it using my standard methods, Grey Seer base coat, dark grey wash, and white drybrushing. After this, I was ready to get started.
Oh yeah, I also painted some Giant rats real quick for various Fantasy games as a palette cleanser and warm-up. Very simple and quick painting with a simple coat of Speedpaints. Nothing much to say about these little guys.
With these Nativity scenes, I do not tend to paint them in a single batch. I tend to paint a couple of the miniatures at a time, work on them to a certain point, and then switch over. So, I got started on the flesh colors to start with, and the Manger. I really wanted to make the star on the Nativity scene really pop on this one. Here is where I ended up after my first quick sit down and painting session.
For the star, I painted the base with Zealot Yellow Speedpaints. Then, I used my basic Armypainter paints to add a highlight of Daemonic Yellow, and then painting it up another layer with plain white. The white really helps make it pop! The rest is simple Hardend Leather, Tunic Grey on the nails, and Zealot Yellow for straw.
The skin tones were Crusader Flesh for the shepherd boy, Jesus, Joseph and Mary, Sand Golem for two wise men, and Dark Oak for the last wise man. Now, it was time to dig into the models only a couple at a time.
Some progress as I have painted up Baby Jesus, the sheep, and the donkey. Jesus was Crusader Flesh, Plasmatic Bolt for the blanket, Hardened Leather for the crib (same as the Manger), and Zealot Yellow for the straw. Zealot Yellow will also be the primary basing color for all the models, to look like they are standing in straw. The Sheep was Grim Black and Holy White Speedpaints, with a drybrush of Matte White Armypainter. The Donkey is some Alchemy purple in the nostrils and ears, some Holy white on the nose, Grim Black mane, hooves, and tail, and Runic Grey skin. Starting to come together!
So, onto Mary and Joseph. Typically, I paint Mary in blue because many times that is how I have seen the Virgin Mary depicted in artwork. However, this time I was thinking about the idea that blue is not a common color in the Ancient world. For example, the works of Homer never really mention blue, and there is some linguistic works that indicate that blue is the last color to get a developed word in many languages. I also decided that I want to highlight Christmas colors in my Nativity scene and Blue is not one of them. That limits my palette somewhat to more Green, Red, and White with some accent colors/natural colors to go with it.
Mary is relatively easy to paint. The hardest part is the locks of hair around her face in her hood. I used Grim Black for her and Joseph's hair. I traditionally give Joseph some grey or white in the beard, but wanted a younger looking Joseph for this go around. Mary's dress is Orc Skin while her belt and cloak is Holy White with a drybrush of standard Armypainter Pure White.
Joseph was a bit more challenging. My Speedpaint's have a more limited palette of natural colors than my traditional set of paints. You can see in my other works, that Joseph is mostly natural tones. Here I went with the Camo Cloak tunic, Hardened Leather Belt, and Dark Wood cloak. The head covering is Holy White and the stick is Sand Golem. The base is Zealot Yellow for straw, like all of the bases.
That left the three Wisemen or Kings left to paint. Honestly, these guys are the most challenging of the Nativity to paint. I wanted Purple to symbolize their higher status, but also to keep with the Christmas color palette.
Look at that, all the miniatures are base coated. The three wise men I decided to give their base clothing in purple. That was the color of wealth and power in ancient days. From there, I wanted to use red, green, and white as the main alternate colors in order to fit the Christmas theme. I have always enjoyed painting the Three Wisemen. The Speedpaint colors were slaughter red, orc skin, holy white, and regular white from the regular range as well. Any jewelry I did with Zealot Yellow, which was also the base. The hard parts are done, now I want to do some washes, some highlights, and then seal them up.
Here is the final product after washes and highlighting back up......
Until next time!
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