TBB Entry: "evil Zara"

[Babs]

Just thought I'd add a little extra to my TBB entry (I Wuz Robbed )

Seriously: Here's my rationale:

This miniature is painted to give a new take on the Zara miniature. Her
name is Trinity Blade. She is painted to look like a female 'Blade' like
character - a vampire out to kill all the rest of her kind. I had fun
painting her as an 'evil' style character, yet not in typical undead colours
(hence the dominant yellow faded to red/purple). There is absolutely no
converting on this miniature, it is only painted differently.
As an aside, the rock on the base is meant to be a piece of paving thrown
onto the pitch by an angry crowd!

Apologies for the varying nature of photos. They are designed to show the
vividness of the colours of the model, but the ones using the flash can show
white areas where the flash light is reflected. There are no white undercoat
parts still showing on the model I assure you. Hopefully the photos in
similar poses without the flash will help see that. The flash also can make
the model look glossy (like a gloss varnish) but it is actually a matt
varnish on this figure - and the photos in natural sunlight will give a
better indicator of that. Apologies for some images being blurry - my
digital camera does not automatically focus as well as I'd like.









....still beaten by fairer competition in the end... But what do you think anyway?

[Xtreme]

Paint job is amazing Babs, the only thing I didn't really like was the fangs. I can see where you were going with it just my personel taste.

[gken1]

Paint job is amazing Babs, the only thing I didn't really like was the fangs. I can see where you were going with it just my personel taste.

that was my opinion too. I didn't like the fangs.---basically it looked really good until i saw the fangs.

[bound for glory]

nice job, babs

[Musta Surma]

I like the painting and the idea, but the fangs throws me off.

[Chairface]

It's a great take on Zara.

[Babs]

I think the problem with the fangs is they look like tusks - hence Zara/Trinity now looks like an Orc!

BTW, the eyes (of a cat) that I painted for her were something I came up with for my first ever BB paintwork - a 2nd Edition Dark Elf team back in 2nd Edition (early 1990's). I was frustrated trying to get the eyes to work as a dot, and couldonly get brushstrokes. One attempt got me to thinking perhpas my dark elves should have cats eyes, and it went from there....

However, my problem with the fangs gets back to the fact that I promised to do no conversion work on her. When I got the model there were some casting issues. One was her necklace had a hole in part of the chain/string for a section - it just wasn't there! The other was there was some pretty stubborn flash around her mouth. The flash became the fangs, and they were already in that shape when I started painting. I didn't even move them.

[Tojurub]

I liked the color scheme very much. the only thing I didn't like wa the way the hair looks. I didn't even see the fangs until they were pointed out. I blame the poor picture quality for that.

[traveller]

i painted this mini, too, a while ago as you can see at my website at the section 5.ed starplayers... its a more "conventional" colorschema. I liked painting this special mini very much.
About the bright yellow, red purple colors... well, just not my personal taste, but you got a nice background story with it

I got one thing i like to point out. The contrast between gloves, skin sticks, shorts and the boots isnt high enough for my taste... you can see this good at th 4th pict you posted. Or maybe just the quality of the picts ?

The fangs ... hm, i didnt see them before ... look to large for me. They are just painted and not modeled , right ?

Traveller

[Tritex]

No probs with the fangs ....Could she join a Vamp team??

Looks to me like she just failed an AG roll and is tripping over that big stone though!!

[kadu-c]

Really nice !
Too bad that your pics don't deserve your painting !

[Bonehead]

Your paintjob is great. I like the selection of colours you have chosen for her.
The shadows and highlights on her skin are also well executed. I especially like the blue shoulder pads and your blacklining is clean and neat. Didn´t try it myself but I think the hair is a bit tricky on this miniature. Not sure ´bout the fangs but it´s ok.
What I do not like is the stone on the base. Maybe it will look better when it is also painted (or is it - than it looks really realistic ).

For everyone who wants to achieve good effects on highlighting black I could only recomment Reaper´s Pro Paints Dragon black (the mattest black ever) and a highlight with Armor Gray (also Reaper). This two colours alone are enough at first and give an awesome effect. Later you can mix in a bit more white for more highlights but try out these two first and you won´t be disappointed. The blacks on my gobbo were painted with just the two aforementioned colours. It was a quick paintjob and still looks good.
So go now, and get those paints !!!

[Babs]

Hair: Tojurub - I'm interested why you don't like the hair. The idea was that she has black hair with white highlights (Like Elvira? Drow?)

My biggest problem was really my stakes. Thjey didn't turn out as 'timber' like as I'd prefer. I've seen some aweome work on High elf crossbows in WHFB and was wanting to emulate it a little. However, any hints and tips for that'd be sweet. My problem I think was my colours blended and my dark colours weren't painted thinly enough for smaller 'grain' on the timber.

[sturmjarl]

I like the alternative Zara overall. "Rainbow-effect" is very cool!! Base very well done. Critiique?

1. Blurry Pics detract a lot (Yeah, Like I should talk !!)
2. Yeah, a little lighter highlights on the stakes (snakebite leather and/or bone) would contrast better against her nubian skin.
3. Good idea with the fangs but I think less would be more. Fangs should be as small as possilble, primed black to outline and separate from the face, and painted ever so slightly with white. I plan on adding some fangs onto some of Phil's Black Widows and we'll see how mine come out Not really looking forward to it..

I also painted up a basic blonde Zara to go with my Valk team. Added chainmail on her Bikini area to match the rest of the team! Nice enough fig except...
1. Badly cast on the stakes and.... THE FACE !!! UGK!!
2. Deciding the exact front facing (I number/name the front of my bases).

Keep up the good work!! You've got some skills!!!

[Dave]

I had facial problems with the zara I did for the NAF legacy team too .. loads of flash in the face. Badly casted stakes as well btw.

I really, REALLY like the rainbow colours, better pics would do the fig much more justice ..

skin is cool

I think slightly greyer hair would have looked better / maybe slightly thinner highlights ..