A thing a week 2022, week 13

After multiple weeks of buildup...we're here. This is the big project I've been talkingtyping about since week 5. I had expected to put a mess of time into this fig, and I did, just not as much time as I expected.

This is Aislinn, Shadow Tracker sculpted by the one and only Julie Guthrie. I love this figure so when I started looking for my ten high quality figs for the year, she was at the top of the list. She hasn't seen a lot of screen time having never portrayed a player character but I put her on the field as often as I can. Wolfkin aren't well represented in the miniature world much like lionfolk but are similarly well represented in my fantasy world. That's left me with problems showing them in game. In fact, I have a series of these figs from Reaper in metal to fill the gap so expect to see more of them in the future.

Prep started as normal with a prime, umbral, and zenithal but this time I followed them with a wash and a drybrush to pop out details. Actual painting started with blocking out the colors from reference (grey wolf) and then putting a lot of effort into her face. Without the typical makeup, I did more with the highlights around her eyes and muzzle and I think it's a good result. After that, the fun began!

Bought in the heady days of 2016, I've had a lot of time to think about how to paint her and I figured this'd be a good time to give detailed fur a shot. This entails painting with individual brush strokes that build up into an interesting texture which honestly sounds a lot more dreary than it actually is. In fact, it's pretty easy and dare I say a relaxing way to paint with a lot of ability to correct mistakes as you go. I also misjudged how much time this would take. It compares favorably to the normal amount of effort putting glazes down with the bonus that I don't have to care about blends being smooth, in fact, it's the opposite of what I want. When I first encountered this technique several years ago, I couldn't imagine spending this kind of effort on a fig. Now I'm looking through my collection looking for similar figs to get the same treatment.

Overall she was complete in something like 15 hours which is way under the 50+ I'd expected. Part of it was opting out of the NMM which I have little confidence in, but part of it was how quickly the fur patterns went. Now that she's painted I'm even happier with this fig and I really hope I get an opportunity to get her some screen time.

2022 finished mini counter: 57/100, 4/10 high quality