20 February 2022

Fembruary: Astrid, Half-Elf Bard

You go almost four years in the hobby without painting a female character called Astrid, and then two show up in the same month. Weird. Unfortunately, unlike the other Astrid I had no way of fitting her into a post-apocalyptic zombie setting so she's going to be one I painted for fun.

This Astrid has been a proud citizen of the Magical Box of Unloved Lead since last year, when she was dumped in my Amazon basket so I could — you guessed it — qualify for free shipping. I thought she was a pretty cool mini and I don't paint too many fantasy figures, so she'd make a nice change from zombies, monsters, post-apoc survivors, Space Marines and Lovecraftian horrors.

Astrid's original colour scheme was going to be much brighter, with Light Turquoise for her clothing. But after priming her white, I thought she had much more of a goth/rock chick look about her, so Black was the way to go. Her boots, bodice and sleeves were lightly drybrushed with Violet a couple of times to add some colour, and her leggings were going to get Purple stripes until I totally messed them up and just repainted them Black. All her clothing got a wash with Druchii Violet.

She has a lot of little details. The straps, sheath and leather pouches were all done Chocolate Brown highlighted with Flat Earth, and the end of the sheath is Bronze. The sword hilt is Tinny Tin to keep the dark look going. The scrolls in her backpack, which I assume are her guitar tabs, are Ivory and Off-White.

The guitar was a bit of a pain, mostly because of the strings. The body is Purple and White, and the neck is Heavy Skintone shaded with Sepia Tone. The strings were carefully gone over with Ghost Grey but are a bit of a mess.

The final bits were her hair, done with Light Turquoise and Deep Sky Blue, and her skin, which is Cold Flesh highlighted with a bit of Ghost Grey mixed in. Her eyes were an absolute sod to get to, so I just dabbed in some Off-White and didn't bother with pupils. 

Astrid comes on an integral base (AAARRGGHH) in the form of a rock, so I glued her to a 32mm plastic base and coated it with Vallejo Black Lava paste. While it dried I used Milliput to make a sort of basic flagstone shape and left it to dry. The paste got a coat of Stone Grey, and then several washes of Biel-Tan Green. 

The Milliput flagstone was broken up and random bits glued around the base, then they were also painted Stone Grey, washed with Nuln Oil and drybrushed with Stone and Ghost Greys. At this point I realised I had no real plan for the base and was making it up as I went along, so I stopped to have a bit of a think. The green wash got a drybrush with a mix of Park Flat Green and Ghost Grey, and then random daubs of Druchii Violet to break it up a bit. Finally, I sliced up some tufts and purple flowers and superglued them in place. 

It turned out pretty well given I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going with it, and it does suit her fantasy setting.

13 comments:

  1. Excellent work Matt, all the colours work well together. As for not being a zombie survivor, I think your missing a trick.
    Astrid was on her way to her weekly LARPing session, as part of the Drow Guild, with the pointy ears superglued on ( They were not falling off this week !) and a new face paint that was supposed to last longer than any other on the market. She had brought her electric guitar as they were having an after party tonight, when the world turned to Z

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    1. Dave has the right of it! Definitely a LARPer!

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    2. Dave and Dai, if you think Astrid should have been a LARPer then you're going to love the next mini I post later today LOL! Excellent backstory for her, Dave, and to be honest if she'd been holding a sword or bow instead of a guitar I'd rebase her on pavement!

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  2. I'm with Dave, I see no reason why the new Astid can't fit into a Zombie apocalypse setting, LARP, Fancy Dress party etc. (r maybe she's just a little weird?). Great colour choices making for a very sinsiter looking character imo.

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    1. I'll definitely give it some thought, she could fit in by using her guitar to whack zombies across the head LOL! Cheers, Joe, I'm very happy with how she turned out!

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  3. Love the scheme you’ve gone with for this one and her base colours are a great choice! She’s a pretty cool sculpt in general, very fun for a dnd character for sure. And grey skinned elf eh? Good choice! :)

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    1. Thanks, Dai, but is grey skin wrong for an elf? I was sticking with her dark colour scheme, although I did think about doing her with very pale skin. She is a cool sculpt, which is why I bought her; she just stood out to me when I saw her on Amazon. The base turned out way, way better than it had any right to LOL!

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    2. I think the base is perfect for her mate.

      And yes, grey is a good choice! Of course it must be, it's the same colour I went with for my Sea Elf's skin in my last post! LOL

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    3. Cheers! The base looks good finished, but halfway through it looked terrible because I hadn't planned it out properly. I think the flowers and tufts really save it.

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  4. I really like her, I'd seen her on the Reaper site, and to be honest I wasn't that impressed, I think it was the concept of the Electric style guitar on a fantasy Elf that put me off, but your painted version is ace! now I'm wavering.... I think I'm going to have to say it "I blame Matt!" (for a change) all you Fem'bruary figs are edging ever closer to my ordering them for next year!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger, and I'm glad I could influence you to pick her up LOL! I think the electric-style guitar works, she'd look odd if such a rock chick had an acoustic :-)

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  5. She is an excellent change of pace from what you've been working on. I don't entirely know why she has a guitar but she looks cool with it so I guess it works! I really like the Drow/Dark-Elf color scheme you used on her too. She looks like someone you don't want to mess with!

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    1. Cheers, Jeff! Her goth/rock look wouldn't have worked so well with a regular skin tone, so I thought about going either very pale or grey, and plumped for grey. Yeah, you don't want to mess with Astrid, if her sword doesn't get you she'll just whack you across the head with the guitar LOL!

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