“Gnome on the Range” (Fem’bruary & Advent Challenge)

Week two of Fem’bruary, so I am of course staying with “Le Femme”, and as I also need to fulfil my Advent Challenge for February too I’ve dug out a couple of lady figures from what I received in there. A two for one as they say, or I could say a “ménage à trois” but I wont 😇.

No 1 “Blink Berenwicket”, Female Gnome

No 16 Female Ranger (sorry can’t find an official name for her)

They were rebased onto two pence pieces (I really am starting to get desperately short of these now!), and then were given a spray coat of matt black then a touch-up with more matt black and a brush, and a quick dry-brushing with some chainmail. Then…

Starting with “Blink”, now she I think is one of the older “Bones” figures looking at the colour of her plastic (Matt can confirm or dispel this of course), and as such her detail is not as crisp as on the ranger, Now I knew I didn’t want to just dry-brush all her armour in chainmail, but what to do with it, I started by painting some pieces in copper then highlighting them with bright gold, then as I’d quite liked the effect I’d gotten on Krass the other week, I thought I’d try a blue tinge to her “protective clothing” but rather than mix up a colour I just used blue steel, I then highlighted this with chainmail after which I added her face in European flesh and then after her eyes, and lips (in pink burgundy) were added, I highlighted this with a mix of the same with a little pale flesh added. I noticed that the blue steel looked very plain, so I decided to “black line” around the various piece of armour, this is an awful tedious job, but I do think it looked a bit better after I’d done this. Next I added her belts, gloves and the little bit of her boots that are showing, in chocolate brown with leather highlights. She has a long strip of cloth hanging down at the back (unseen in photo) that forms the reverse to her, chainmail tabard in front. This was painted ocean blue, highlighted with the same lightened with some cream and a stripe was added at the bottom of this with more coffee and cream. Lastly her hair was added in chestnut with orange highlights.

My Female Ranger, well after the above same start, I undercoated her bow, quiver, boot’s, wristlets, belt, and scabbards (well most of her really), with chocolate brown, them all the bits that were to be leather were highlighted with (you guessed it) leather. As for her “doublet” I settled on Tamiya green (that’s all its called), I tend not to use “Tamiya color” paints very often, as I’m not keen on the way they cover, but I thought the colour was appropriate, so why not. I highlighted this with more of the same with a touch of white added. Next I tackled her cape, sticking with the “green theme” (I always end up painting archers in shades of green, curse you Robin Hood!), I went for German field grey, highlighted in the same mixed with a little coffee. Then I added her face and the little bits of her arms that are showing, with the same colours a “Blink” above, but with a little more of the pale flesh added to the highlight. Her scarf was then done in dark red with more pink burgundy for the highlights here, and her hair was sand with lemon yellow highlights. Now she has leggings (or bare legs, but that didn’t seem appropriate), so I went for Eurasian flesh (I never use this colour for actual flesh🙄), and highlighted it with the same with some coffee added, while I was at it I used the same colours for the grip on her bow stave. And yet more coffee was used on the flights of her arrows this time highlighted with cream.

I decided once again to go with the “light tone” version of my Quickshade, and talking of “Quickshade” that is what came next as I painted both “Gals” with this, before I painted their bases with chocolate brown, dry-brushed with Khaki and coffee (what would I do with my coffee paint!), then I picked out areas with scenic green that were later flocked with some “Javis”, summer mix hairy grass. A final spray coat of matt varnish as usual took the shine off of everything. Though I have to say the softer detail in “Blink” made her considerably less fun to paint than the Ranger (she might be an Elf, but in that hood who can tell!), but once again they were two very nice miniatures that in truth I would never have bought if not for them being included in the calendar, my last two “Fem’bruary” lasses next time, and I’ve been saving these two, as I thought we’d get a little bit more “Racy” toward the end of the month! 😉

But till then, stay safe, and cheers Roger.