Bloodthirster pics

It has taken me about two years to find the time to finish this miniature, but I am really pleased with the result.

My photography/Gimp skills are fairly poor, but I've included pics if you'd like to see...

The miniature came out of the box a little bent in places.  This meant I had to come up with a couple of workarounds.  For the axe I simply tried to bend it back into shape.  It still isn't dead straight, but it's a lot better than it was.  

The legs were bent, making the feet nowhere near level.  I made that into an opportunity to sculpt some rocks for him to stand on (Yay for Milliput!).  They've come out even better than I'd expected.

The final workaround was due to the wings just not staying stuck on.  I tried to pin them, but ended up making giant shoulder muscles out of Milliput to hold the things on.  I actually quite like the effect, and it gave me much more flexibility with their positioning.

I also used some Milliput to extend the neck a little.  I didn't have to do this, but having the head facing slightly to the side seemed to make a much more dynamic pose.  There was a price to be paid for this though - I just couldn't sculpt the hair properly over the join.  You can't see my painting cover-up on these pictures.  On the actual miniature, it's not really noticeable unless you look for it, but it's blatantly obvious if you know it's there.

I think I am most proud of the face.  I had to paint the eyes really early on because they were so deep set.  The horns are a blend from Dryad Bark (with a little Catachan Green) through to Karak Stone, and final touch ups with a mix of Karak Stone and White.  The teeth and face-horns are the same.  The tongue and gums are based on Enchanted Blue (shaded by mixing Dryad Bark; highlighted by mixing Karak Stone).

This is the first time I've used browns for shading and highlighting - I think it gives a much more organic look.  I'll probably stick with black/white for clean metal/plastic, but overall I think for me brown is the new black.