Ender's Crafts: Painting a female Frost Giant

Introduction

A proper giant miniature I have from Reaper. The gear and clothing have a distinctly Eskimo feel as opposed to the Viking culture the Frost Giants posses in the lore, but I do find the sculpt charming.

Painting

Prime in black. I was too giddy to start painting and forgot to take a picture before, but you can check out the unpainted mini at the link above.

Fur coat

With most of the figure dressed in furs and leather (which I intended to paint brown), I wanted something different for the large fur coat on her back, and decided to go with grey. I did some variation on the painting tip, given that the surface is quite large.

Instead of just having the two greys next to each other, I did a 2-brush wet blend (of Stonewall Grey and Heavy Charcoal). Not just a steady gradient from top to bottom, but having spots of each all over the coat, to provide variation. I decided on having a lighter front and darker back for the fur, like if the front was truly the front (chest and belly) of the animal.

Spots of black wash provide even more variation. This was applied more sparingly on the front, to preserve the lightness.

Finally, the drybrush. The back was drybrushed with pure Stonewall Grey, while for the lighter front I mixed a bit of white into it.

Basecoats

Having learned from the Blue Horrors, I decided to give both the skin of the giant and the leather clothing a basecoat - maybe this would avoid the need for corrections later. Heavy Blue and Charred Brown.

Blue skin

Instead of the blue-grey of the Storm Giant, I went for a vibrant shade of blue.

First darken the skin and bring out the shadows (under the breasts, for example) with Drakenhof Nightshade.

Start brightening back up with a diluted glaze of Heavy Blue.

Apply successive glazes by mixing in Electric Blue.

I used water instead of medium for the glazes, and the results were quite patchy. Thus the final step was to mesh it all together using Guilliman Blue.

Spear

This step started out as a coat of Heavy Brown all across the leathers. Then I realized that I wanted an overall shade, one that would go all over the spear, too... so I gave that a basecoat as well.

Beasty Brown for the leather straps. 1:1 mix of Bonewhite and Heavy Brown on the bone on both ends of the spear. Gunmetal on the two bolts holding the weapon together. Left Charred Brown for the wood.

Agrax Earthshade on everything!

Line and edge highlight the wood and bolts with the original colors. Highlight the straps with Beasty Brown, then Leather Brown for extra brightness.

Highlight the bone with Bonewhite. This is a straightforward edge highlight on the small bits in the back. On the large piece in the front, I started with stipling for the irregular texture it provides. Then I switched to drybrushing to pop the edges out. Finally an edge highlight all along the actual edges.

Leather and fur

Heavy Brown layer on the leathers, leaving just the recesses tinted by the wash.

Leather Brown on the raised areas and the stitches.

I originally wanted Khaki for another type of leather color, but it looked way too pink next to the other browns, so I just applied it on the pearls (or whatever baubles) are hanging off the bracers.

Boots

I wanted them to be a darker shade of leather, so I gave them a Dark Fleshtone drybrush and a wash of Agrax Earthshade. The result was barely visible on the already dark Charred Brown.

So I did a second drybrush of Heavy Brown, and another wash of Agrax to tone it down.

Hair

I initially wanted to complete all the brownish details first, but there are some bone ornaments sticking through the hair, and the cold white I envisioned needs some drybrushing, so let's get this out of the way first, so as not to mess up later.

Wolf Grey basecoat.

Diluted Drakenhof Nightshade (used Lahmian Medium).

Successive drybrushes with Wolf Grey, Ghost Grey and white.

Bone and skulls

Use the bone painting tip for the skulls and the horns painting tip for the long bones strapped to her head and upper body. Steps for these are intermingled with the other areas, as below.

All the rest of the browny details...

Bonewhite basecoat on all the bone, skulls and fur trimmings.

Wash the bones and skulls in sepia.

Basecoat the leather straps in Beasty Brown.

Wash Agrax Earthshade on all the straps, and bits of the bone as per the painting tips.

Highlight the leather straps: thick edge highlight with Beasty Brown, then a thinner one in Leather Brown. The leather is now done.

Black wash on bone and skulls, as per the painting tip.

Reikland Fleshshade on the fur trimmings. This is just to give it a different tint than all the other bone-based surfaces.

All the Bonewhite highlights!

Edge highlight the skulls and bone.

Drybrush on the fur trimmings.

Small highlights on the stitches in the clothing to make them stand out.

Finish the fur trimmings by drybrushing, mixing white into the Bonewhite, up to white.

I discovered some more baubles around the figure (neck, hands, feet), so paint them in Khaki.

Bronze mask

Initially I wanted this to be painted wood with tribal designs, but looking at the surface, it looks way too smooth and curved for wood. As such, I decided for it to be made of metal. An aged bronze look should suffice.

Basecoat in Hammered Copper.

Highlight in Bright Bronze.

The result was way too shiny for what I intended. Looks like Hammered Copper is an excellent basecoat for Bright Bronze. So I took it down with Agrax Earthshade.

I wanted a somewhat corroded look, but not quite Nurgle-level corrosion. So I took some from the painting tip. Biel-Tan Green wash but only around the bolts and other recesses where I intended some verdigris.

Then just very small amounts of Nihilakh Oxide in the previously washed areas.

Green gem eyes.

Basing

I imagined her standing on a snowy seashore.

Shore and rocks

Start off with corks, rock and home-made putty.

Rugged wasteland base.

Wash the seabed in Drakenhof Nightshade. That came out almost black, so I did another layer of Guilliman Blue.

Water effects

I used Vallejo Water Texture (Still Water) for the following.

First, I made a border for the base (and wished I had any beveled 60mm bases) using tape.

Prepared some water by mixing it with Guilliman Blue.

Pour it in.

When dry, the water contracted a lot - barely visible on the base.

I poured in a second layer, this time, a lot more.

Which wasn't a good idea. This stuff is self-leveling, so it flowed into the back (where I did not want any of it to be). Moreover, there it was very thick, not transparent, and not quite dry after 24 hours.

Unsure what to do, I ripped off the tape.

In the back, this took off the entire not-yet-dry water, along with any paint it came into contact with.
In the front, this left a peculiar-looking surface, as the capillary action made it climb unto the tape. In some places, it even folded back unto itself. I cut these off with my hobby knife. This made it look a lot better - something like waves.