28 mm scale
A long time ago when the earth was green,
And there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen,
They'd run around free while the earth was being born,
But the loveliest of them all was the Unicorn.
And there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen,
They'd run around free while the earth was being born,
But the loveliest of them all was the Unicorn.
This lovely unicorn was one of the offerings in Bears Head miniatures' last kickstarter, and I knew I had to have one. I love its real feeling of bulk and power; it's not a gracile, vulnerable
"The Last Unicorn" style creature but a lot more like a war horse.
To me the unicorn represents hope... I didn't know how thematic that'd be when I ordered it late last year... sure do now.
I recently picked up a bottle of metallic medium and lightly applied that to the unicorn's back, mane and tail to give it a bit of enchanted sparkle. It didn't really work that well for photos, but in person it definitely adds something extra :) I'm also pretty happy with this nature base. It had some growing pains as I had to scrape off a really bad static grass attempt, but the second try with a mixture of flock, foam foliage, and Italian seasoning along with some Gamers Grass clumps worked a lot better.
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| (Idyllic setting courtesy of the Oxfam Canada calendar) |
Great paint job on this sturdy little guy.
ReplyDeleteA nice project :)
ReplyDeleteDid you apply the metallic medium over the paint finish, or mix it in?
I have had a bottle of something similar near my painting table for years now, unused. Maybe I should be painting more unicorns...
I finished the paint job, and then, trembling and grimacing, I applied the metallic medium over top. I only hit the highlights of the mane and tail, and then along the back and the edges of some of the musculature. I'm not sure this is the best use for this medium, to be honest. The results were too subtle. I've heard it's good for dabbing bright highlights on metallic paint, or for mixing with paint to make a sparkly color.
DeleteInteresting to know.
DeleteI considered using something like that for painting fish at one point, but went with more traditional methods. Ill have to take another look at it some day.
Using it for fish would be perfect! It's definitely an effect that'd look like shimmery scales.
DeleteThat's pretty nice. I was also curious about the metallic medium, thanks for the tip, quite interesting!
ReplyDeleteClever use of the metallic medium. There's a unicorn in A Cabin in the Woods.
ReplyDeleteThat is a lovely unicorn. Also great work with the whites, which is never easy for a miniature painter to pull off.
ReplyDeleteThanks! For all-white jobs like this I zenithal prime white over grey, then undercoat with a grey for cool white, or very light brown/tan for warm white. Then work it up to white at the high points. No blotchy washes or too-deep shadows.
DeleteThe unicorn is beautiful but the base takes all the applause!!
ReplyDeleteGreat work!
Thanks, I'm getting better at wild bases.. turns out the key is variety. Nature abhors a botanical monoculture.
DeleteSparkly and smells great! What's not to love? The base is really top notch.
ReplyDeleteThis is indeed how it was used back at the dark age days: people who went beyond citadel paints and had Vallejo before the internet kicked in, used metallic medium (and fluor paints in some cases) for the final highlights.
ReplyDeleteNow it's called edge highlighting and it's done in a quite different fashion.
About the mini itself, that bulky nature makes it look like a Pony unicorn to me.
Colorshift paints dotted here and there may or may not improve that glittering look.
Cheers.