Season of Scenery: The Waymarkers

The Wayfarers line a lonely path through the gloomy forest. No one knows why they're there. No one knows who made them. No one knows what their esoteric carvings mean. No one knows why all three can't be in focus at the same time.

Another day, another set of minis bought from Etsy. These three chaps were pretty cheap — $10 including shipping — and despite being on a bit of a sci-fi kick at the moment I wanted to paint them as I think they're pretty cool.

They're available in a variety of scales, so I got them in 54mm so they'd be bigger than 28mm figures.

I started off by snipping away the small integral bases they sit on, which are moulded to look like rock but didn't do it for me. Then I tore up some cork tile and glued the pieces to 40mm bases, and once dry I superglued the statues on. I took them down to the garage to be sprayed with black primer.

I painted these in a different way to how stone is usually done, starting with a basecoat of Burnt Umber and a wash with Agrax Earthshade. I think I wanted to get away from the usual grey-over-black look that models painted to look like stone have. 

Thanks to the humidity here in Vermont the wash dried very glossy, so they all got a coat of matte varnish.

Next up was a heavy drybrush/overbrush with Stone Grey, which covered the statues and the cork, then a lighter once-over with a mix of Stone and Ghost Greys. I let that dry and gave them all a wash with Nuln Oil, which thankfully didn't dry with a shiny sheen.

The final step in painting these was to give them a very light drybrush with a mix of Bonewhite and Ivory, using a makeup brush. A final coat of matte varnish and they were done!

Basing time! The bases were covered with modelling paste to give them a bit of texture. Once it dried they were painted with English Ivy craft paint and then covered with Mod Podge and the same flock mix I used on my temple. As usual the flock was set with thinned matte varnish, and then they got a second coat of flock to build it up a bit.

I painted the bases with Mod Podge and sprinkled 4mm static grass over it. Instead of using the applicator I just turned them upside down and tapped the underside of the base to make the grass stand up, and it worked pretty well. 

Once all that was done, I just added some flower tufts to the bases and a few smaller tufts to the rocks. I like the juxtaposition of the cheery flowers with the creepy statues.

They're pretty basic models but look good once painted, and they didn't take long to do; ignoring the time spent waiting for PVA to dry these three probably took about 90 minutes to knock out. 

There is more sci-fi scenery to come, honest! I've been having issues with the piece I'm trying to make as it involves angles, which involves maths, so I'm totally out of my depth.