Hello everyone, welcome to the latest installment of Tales From Alamut. Today I’ll discuss the final touches to finish the Zaxaan mini I have been working on.

To finish the metal areas off, I applied some weathering effects: starting with a thick wash of Vallejo Game Colour Sepia Ink. I applied this over the whole of the blade, then worked back using a clean damp brush to remove most of the ink from the edge of the blade to simulate the cleaner metal in a high use area. When laying the ink onto the model, be careful not to leave brush strokes in the wash; use your brush to stipple and push the ink around.

Next, use Vallejo Model Color (VMC) Burnt Umber thinned with a glaze medium to the consistency of a thick wash, and apply it in a similar fashion to the previous wash, restricting the paint more to the  body of the weapon to simulate the build up of grime. Follow this with a thinned layer of VMC Flat Earth stippled onto the blade, again reducing the area it is applied to, adding some depth to the grime effect.

To finish the metal areas off, mix VMC Orange Brown with a glaze medium to the consistency of a thick wash. Apply this carefully to any recesses and other areas where rust might accumulate, like around any rivets or where two plates are attached to each other. The VMC Orange Brown gives a fantastically realistic iron oxide effect to your metal areas. It is one paint worth checking out.

To paint the left eye, I looked at images of frogs to find something a little alien and to make it more interesting. I base coated with VMC German Camo Beige and highlighted with the addition of white, I then painted the pupil with black and further highlighted around the pupil with a mix of the Camo Beige, white, and the addition of a little VMC Ivory to better define the pupil. For the right eye I tried to simulate the cloudy effect that blindness can cause in some people by blending the blue iris up with white over the pupil.

The loincloth was base coated with VMC Cork Brown. It was highlighted with the addition of VMC Grey Green to the base coat and finally white to give the effect of a greyish skintone. The hair was base coated with VMC Dark Sea Blue and highlighted with white.

Finally, to build the base I wanted to try some new materials to introduce some different textures. The pieces of flat rock were made from Superfine (white) Miliput. When snapped, the cured epoxy putty breaks in a definite strata effect that works well as slate. Simply roll the putty into a flat sheet about 2mm thick, then press sandpaper into the surface to give the putty a bit of texture. Let it cure fully and break it up into chunks.

To texture the rest of the base I glued fine railroad ballast on with PVA and let it dry, then repeated the process over the ballast using ground ginger bought from the supermarket. I have found experimenting with different ground spices can result in a finer base texture that is a better scale for dirt and grass on a 30mm miniature. The rocks were painted with VMC Brown Violet and highlighted with VMC added to the basecoat, and the dirt was basecoated with VMC Flat Earth highlighted with VMC Iraqi Sand.

Zaxaan towers over most Helldorado miniatures!

That’s my Zaxaan done!

I hope I have provided some new ideas you can apply to your own miniature painting, thanks very much for reading.

Matt.

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