Back to the 30mm: Get to Know Old Joe (Painted 12/29/18)

So Xmas had come and gone. During the month of December, I painted a decent amount of miniatures and I didn't want to lose the momentum. As such, I decided to start up a miniature that had been in my queue for some time: good Old Joe.

This miniature is part of a set: Old Joe and Young Rachel. I've been pretty interested in these two since I first opened up my KDM Core Box Set. I mean, what are they for? What's their lore? Why are they a part of the core set? Seriously, does anyone know the answers here? I'm dying to know. I mean I know that Old Joe is included as one of four mystery miniatures, but still... Poots! Tell me why!

Anyway, I put together and primed up Old Joe months ago, so he's been good to go for a while. However, I've been contemplating how I wanted him painted, and it took a while to reach a decision. In the end, I took a bit of inspiration from the Greek God Poseidon. Poseidon is a God from the polytheistic religion first created by the ancient Greeks.

Even though my theme was to imitate a Greek God, I still wanted the miniature to have realistic characteristics. I knew that I wanted Old Joe to be darker skinned, much like a sun baked sailor. I also wanted to paint his hair bleach white, with light-blue highlights to accent his age and also to mimic the colors of the sea.

While I was going for realism, I also wanted this miniature to reflect the nautical themes that represent Poseidon. One thing I did involved the lantern; as you can see, the light shining out is a dark blue hue. Normally I use various yellows, reds, and oranges to depict the light coming from the lantern. This time I wanted to use blue to as a nod the sea. Also, the blueish tinge that is seen in Old Joe's hair was intended to serve a duel representation: blue to represent the sea and to represent his age (I will always remember one of my old bosses referring to old people as "blue hairs." This was comical because at the time he was in his late 60s. Pot calling the kettle black?). Lastly, I wanted the custom base to represent terrain more similar to some found near a beach shore. I didn't have a base that looked like sand, otherwise I would have done that.

Like earlier posts, I used a custom base insert that I purchased from eBay. Normally, I've painted bases a dark grey, or if custom, I've used darker color schemes. For this base, I wanted a lighter color scheme to represent a grassy, rocky terrain. I went with a base grey and army green. Then I used a wash for the stone, then I did some dry-brushing on the stone and green. I didn't use a wash for the grass.

A note about the face: I'm most proud of this aspect of the miniature. Although the picture is a bit blurred (this was the best picture we could get) I very much like how the eyes look focused, giving the miniature a sense of determination. I also was able to paint the eyebrows, and I can't really think of a miniature that even has eyebrows normally.

Besides my focus on Poseidon and general nautical themes for Old Joe, I also wanted to try to be subtle with the details, the shading, and the highlighting. I think the best representation of my strategy is reflected in the skin and the cloth wrapped around Old Joe. With the skin, I used a layering technique, wherein I first used the darkest hue and painted the entire skin area. Afterwards I used a slightly lighter hue, then painted most areas, avoiding crevices and areas were natural shading would occur. Then I used another lighter shade to act as the highlights on the skin.  I've been using this technique almost exclusively for skin areas, and I'm starting to like how it turns out. I normally go 3 to 4 layers, depending on my mood.

For the grey cloth, I use my standard strategy: base, wash for the shadowing, then dry-bushing for the highlights. I think I applied about 6 or seven separate layers to really add subtlety to the tone changes. Out of all my 30mm miniatures, I think that this one has come out the best so far.

Unfortunately my camera (AKA my phone) doesn't do the best job showing off the details that I've been describing. I really need to invest in a quality camera that does good micro shots. Any recommendations?

Back to describing stuff. The final bit that I focused on was the bone club that Old Joe carries. If you go to the core Kingdom Death: Monster game, you'll find an equipment card that describes the weapon that Old Joe carries. I decided that I wanted the paint job to reflect the art. This bit was pretty easy; I went with a Skeleton Bone colored base coat, then went with a base metallic coat on all the jagged and protruding parts of the cudgel. After that, I went with a Strong Tone Wash. Afterwards I gave the weapon some minor dry-brush touch-ups and I was done.

Old Joe was fast and fun; I finished him in less than 7 hours which is quick for me. I'm happy with the result and look forward to finding an excuse to use him in game (and to figure out his deal in general!).

I finished this guy at the tail end of 2018 and it's almost Feb of 2019. It does look like I'm finally catching up with myself for this blog. Soon I'll be able to post articles that are more detailed, since I won't have to recall from memory. I can't wait! Luckily, for the month of January I've been working pretty much every fucking day and therefore I don't have as much painted. Still, I'll get those posts out as soon as I can.

As always, I hope that this showcase is enjoyed by all whom read it. Please, please feel free share any comments or critiques. If you find my blog enjoyable, be sure to follow and subscribe. Not sure what either do but it should be fun either way.

 Thanks very much!