By Keith Pogue

Salutations! I am pleased to bring you step-by-step articles on how I painted Reaper's Achiah Law Giver Angel. I entered the miniature in Sean K. Reynolds Anger of Angels contest. I admire Sean's site because he is not afraid to put pictures of his miniatures up for the public to see his painting progress. He is a gamer who paints and it is a lot of fun to see his efforts improve over the months. Enough chit chat, let's get rolling.

Set-up and Flesh

First, I washed the angel parts in warm soapy water and allowed it to dry completely. I attached the wings to the body with kneadatite model putty. I shaped the kneadatite to match the rest of the wings and cape around it. The miniature was given a white priming via brush and tacked onto a cork for painting. I really like employing corks to keep my oily hands off the miniature. The base flesh was painted with Vallejo Model Color 955 flat flesh and Vallejo Model Color 860 medium flesh.



Vallejo paints were used exclusively to paint this model. I used some Model color, but mostly the game color line. Vallejo's Game Color is intended to mirror Games Workshop paints. New Vision Studios is one of many sites that have the crossover charts. Using the chart, you can easily use Citadel Games Workshop paints or Vallejo Game Color.



Games Workshop Brown Ink was used to define the features.





The flesh was evened out with a very thin layer of Vallejo Model Color 955 flat flesh. Notice the ink areas have been neatened as well.





Skin highlights are started with with Vallejo Game Color 3 Pale Flesh mixed into the base flesh mix. Increasing the Pale flesh in the mix, and layering upward on the figure.





White is added into the flesh mix for final blended highlights. The eyes are given a thin slit of white paint and then dotted with black. The eyelid is highlighted.

The Hair

The hair is given a base coat of Vallejo Game Color 44 dark fleshtone and Vallejo Game Color 42 parasite brown. These are works in progress pictures, and sometimes the focus is not perfect as with this example:





The hair is highlighted by adding more and more parasite brown to the mix and a touch of white.





More hair highlights.

The Armor

The Angel's armor really required something special. I knew I wanted it to be gold, but I struggled on whether to go with Non Metal Metal (NMM) or my normal Reaper paints metals. I decided to try something new and do gold NMM. I had done plenty of blending and a fair amount of steel NMM prior to this, but I still approached it with trepidation. I called friends, I checked out web sites, including Finn Kisch's article right here in the Painter's Guild: I took a deep breath and took the plunge!



First up, a basecoat of Vallejo Game Color 43 Beasty Brown.



I admit it, right after this base coat I was thinking, "Uh oh, maybe I can do this over." However, my past experience told me that NMM does not look very good until you are almost finished - I pressed on.



The first armor highlight was Vallejo Game Color 43 Beasty Brown and Vallejo Game Color 6 Sunblast Yellow.





The second highlight added more Sunblast Yellow.




The third highlight with more Sunblast yellow.




I continued adding layers with more and more yellow. Finally, white was added to the mix until the final highlights were pure white.





Final armor.




Part Two covers painting the rest of the figure, including an unusual technique on the spear tip and the figure's base.

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Keith Pogue (pogre) has been painting miniatures since 1981. Although a fine painter he is no where close to world class, however, he has taught two other painters who have gone on to achieve fame as figure painters. A teacher and a coach, Pogue is a recovering attorney who really enjoys his summers off. Pogue's goal for his series of painting articles is "to provide tips anyone can use at the painting table tomorrow."