This model was scaring me for a few reasons. I’ve never really been happy with my painting of Mei Feng, who should be the visual center of any crew she’s a part of. She was my first Malifaux model I painted, and I’ve since found that the details on most Malifaux plastics are a lot smaller and harder to paint. I felt like Lady J was another moment of “do it right”, that I shouldn’t mess up. Also, she has a lot of skin, and I haven’t gotten the hang of painting skin yet!
She turned out ok.
The skin was: Dheneb Stone, layered up with a mix of Menoth White Highlight. I thought it was Ryn Flesh…but no, Menoth White. The Dheneb stone is interesting, as it’s a pinky-grey colour, and not just grey as it looks in the bottle. Mixing it up with the MWH turned her skin much to light and washed out. I used the SW Flesh Wash next, but this turned her skin yellow which I wasn’t overly happy with. So I did another mix of the Dheneb and Menoth to re-highlight over the Flesh Wash, and I think it looks pretty good! Not to bright, not washed out, not chalky.
SW Amethyst over Mithril Silver is pretty great, I used this on her greaves and heavier on her sword.
The hair was odd. I started with Codex and Fortress grey, then SW Amethyst, which turned it purple with whiteish highlights. Seraphim Sepia turned it brownish and with whiteish highlights still. Then I applied some Ushapti Bone in single strokes, then that Dheneb Stone+MHW mix from her skin in single strokes, making sure to maintain the depth created by the earlier layers and I like it.
Similarly with the coffin, brown basecoat, Sepia, then a couple single-stroke sections to give it some variety.
Last, I watered down some Abaddon Black and lightly applied it into some sections that needed a bit more contrast. I’ve been finding that after “finishing” a model, I’ll look at it and find a few distinct sections that seem to blend together more than they should, and all they need is a quick line between them to create a larger difference. Lots of ways of solving this (including painting them contrasting colours to start with…) but this simple black line is working for me.
This Guild crew is coming along!
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