Kaeghir or the oil spill

Directly inspired by Kaeghir, the Coal Shadow, I wanted to paint a dwarf leader for a squad of Naphte thieves. In the end, I decided that Kaeghir would be the only "oiler" (see the MDJ 2005 gallery).

The conversion

I used the body of the Thermo-prieste n°2 to which I beheaded and cut the upper part of the steam engin. I also cut the flexible part in the back that linked the machine and his weapon. The drawing of the card represents the dwarf holding his hammer in one hand and a test tube in the other : I kept this equipement.

I got his left arm from a Garde-Forge 01 that I had already cut up to get his steam engin and hammer to do the conversion of Yh-Ibenseth. The test tube is a piece from my bits box that I cut flat on one side and filed round on the other. I simply put it in his hand, having drilled it just before.

I then pinned the arm to the body ; the pin is soft enough to still bend it into the right position so that the body seems natural. Once the position is chosen, I filled the crack in the arm with Green Stuff (GS) and tried to place the muscles as realistically as possible (yes, I said tried ).

I then took a head from the box "Soldiers of the Plains" that looked like the concept art, a hard look and a pony tail at the back of the head. This done, I sawed the head just under the nose to keep his characterful appendice but I tried also to respect to height of the mini (even though, it’ll still be taller than the original model).

Once I pinned the half-head, I attached it to the body while being careful to make the eyes look at the test tube. This way, my dwarf looks like he’s looking at what’s in it. Unfortunately, the cheeks were not correctly filled with GS.

To complete him, I took the cone from the Goblin Blower 01 : this opening lets the dwarf fuel up his engin.

The last part was the toughest (because of it, the miniature sat on my WIP shelf for a year) : the right arm. Clearly, the one from the initial miniature wasn’t right at all. So I cut it of with some pliers, and used a file and an X-acto blade to seperate the hand and the stick. This time, it was the Garde-Forge 02 who donated the bit : I used a small saw, I hacked here and there to get the arm, the hand, and the head of the Steam-Hammer and I used pliers again to give the general form of the arm and the hand. The inner part of the hand was completed with GS (it could have been better though).

Once the hand was finished, it was time to work on the hammer. Still inspired by the concept, the staff had a mechanism to, I suppose, let loose the steam on impact. This time, I used Dirz parts for this stage : the weapon of Cypher Lukhan 1st edition, once cut up to the right length, would work perfectly. Hammer, hand, and staff (in two parts) are pinned in one run to garanty the alignement of the 4 parts. The jonctions are then filled in with GS. The hand is now ready to be attatched. The technic is identical to what was done on the left arm : a flexible pin so that the best orientation can be defined, superglue is used to attach it and GS replaces the missing parts : the better part of the arm and the arm is resculpted to look like a sleeve on bear skin.

Once the GS has cured, the converted parts are rubbed by a humide piece of milliput to fill the holes and the errors in sculpting (but this wasn’t enough to fix everything). Once the milliput dry, I cleaned the mini with detergent to take off the grease. There, it’s ready !

The painting

Except for the Bleached Bone, Elf Flesh, Graveyard Earth, and the Snakebite Leather, all the other colors are Model Colors from Vallejo. The miniature is primed in white.

With this dwarf, I didn’t want to do the traditional happy and red skinned look : I was looking for colder tons or at least something to give Kaeghir a sinister aura of a polluter, ready to do anything to steal the oil from Bran-O-Kor.

• The steel

I applied a first layer of Germ. cam. black brown 822 which defines the details (rivets, spaces between armor, etc.), I then applied a 50/25/25 mix of Neutral grey 992 / Germ. cam. black brown / Dark sea blue 898. I then highlighted adding more and more of Neutral grey, until I reached pure Neutral grey, then Pastel green 885, and finally Ivory 918 on the more exposed parts.

I then used some German fieldgrey WWII 830, Leather brown 871, Dark sea blue washes and a bit of Black red 859 to darken the steel parts.

• The gold

I applied a base coat of English uniform 921, highlighted with Green-brown 879, then with some Pastel green and finally some Ivory. The shadows were done in German fieldgrey WWII.

• The robe

Here again, German fieldgrey WWII was used : it’s the base coat that I highlighted with Green-grey 886 then some Pastel green and some Beige 917. For the shadows, I used different washes of Germ. cam. black brown, of Leather brown, of Cavalry brown 982 + German fieldgrey WWII and of Black red + Dark sea blue + German fieldgrey WWII.

• The flesh

Based on a 50/50 mix of Graveyard Earth/Elf Flesh, I highlighted it progressively until I reached pure Elf Flesh. I then applied several washes of Bleached Bone until I reached pure Bleached Bone on the top of the head. A final highlight with Ivory makes the details come out more. The deepest shadows are done with Graveyard Earth and around the eyes with Purple P959 (a very light wash).

• The leather

The base coat is 50/50 Graveyard Earth/Snakebite Leather, this is followed by several layers of Graveyard Earth. I then highlight with Pastel green and Bleached Bone. The darkest shadows are done with Dark sea blue, and the others with German fieldgrey WWII.

• The glass

Based with Neutral grey + Dark sea grey, the highlights are done with Light grey 990 and then Ivory and the shadows are done in Dark sea blue.

The oil in the tubes are a 50/50 mix of Black red and of Dark sea blue, highlighted with Light grey.

• The final touch

Up till now, the lightest color used was Ivory. I added little specs of pure white on the most reflexive surfaces : the metals and the glass.

The base

For my oiler, I wanted to make an oil corrupted base because of the oil rig activities. The little lizard is desperately trying to save his life from the final drowning : the boiling oil spill rises little by little. Kaeghir has discovered a new oil field !

Part of the base is emptied to make space for the branch and the oil. The rock is sculpted in Milliput and marks are made with a needle ; the oil is made of smoothed out GS, the bubles are little balls of GS pushed into the still fresh GS of the oil, and the lizard is a tube of GS with 2 eyes and 2 legs (2 ?! hey, it’s fantasy right ?). Once everything is cured, the whole is primed white.

• The rock is painted with a base color of Desert Yellow (GW), shadowed with Graveyard Earth and a bit of Vert Allemand WWII, and highlighted with Bleached Bone and then Ivoire-Os.

• The oil is a mix of Bleu Marine Foncé, of Camo. Allem. Brun Foncé, of Rouge Noir, and Vert Allemand WWII. The highlights are made with Gris Pâle With small dots of Ivoire-Os on the bubles.

• For the branch, I started tracing the bark with German fieldgrey WWII. I went on to diluted Graveyard Earth to give a "wood" effect, I then highlighted here and there with Bleached Bone. The part next to the oil got a glaze of Dark sea blue and Camo. Allem. Brun Foncé.

• The little lizard was first coated with a base layer of Green-grey shadowed with German fieldgrey WWII and highlighted with Pastel green. The stripes were made with Terracotta 65 (Game Color GC), shadowed with Oxford blue 807 and highlighted with Tan 66 GC and Pastel green. The white stripes are highlighted with Kommando Khaki GW and Bleached Bone.

Stupid idea found at 1 A.M.

Finaly the mini is finished, it’s time to go to sleep... but will the jury understand the oil spill ? So I made a little sign : Fimo putty, baked in a half hour, painted with Neutral grey, Light grey, white, glaze of German fieldgrey WWII, Orange brown 981, and Black red, and writings in Dark sea blue and black. Good night