Hobby time: Alten Ashley

For Christmas this past year, I went with my standard gaming gifts to friends.  Typically, this meant getting a blister of a model and letting them build and paint them.  Not a problem for most of the friends.  However, one friend prefers the gaming and less about the hobby portion.  As a challenge to myself, I took it as a chance to build, paint, and base a one-off for his gift.  Picking a model for his army was tough, not knowing what was in his collection, with a focus on Cygnar and some mercenaries.  I decided on the Minion Mercenary Alten Ashley, hoping he hadn't picked it up yet and that it would be useful at tournaments.

As luck would have it, he didn't have Alten Ashley yet.  That gave me about 7 days to buy, build, primer, paint, and base the model.  I am a notoriously slow painter, so this was a personal challenge.  At the same time, I wanted to give him a model that could be considered "tabletop" level and that was consistent with his armies level of painting.  I also wanted to follow the Privateer Press color scheme because the new owner prefers the paint style to be identical to the card and books.

A quick trip to Game Kastle gave me a chance to pick up the blister.  I debated about getting a detailed base, but decided against a resin base because of all the other models in his army not having a resin base.  A soapy soak overnight washed away any remaining release agents and I began assembly after everything had dried.  I assembled the mini on its base and the added the sword on his back with CA.  All of the minor flash was sanded off and the model was washed again with soapy water.  The next day, I used some GW Black Primer to paint on the base.  GW Foundation paint gave me the basic colors.  Letting all that dry gave me some time to decide on the next shade of color.  I applied various brown color shades, leather and bestial mostly, to the cloak and pants.  The next level of colors came from a brown wash and then a black wash.  The face was hit with flesh wash to give it details.  I took the next step to paint some of the details, like the belt buckle, the metal components, the leather straps and belts, the chainmail shirt, and the padded armor on the knees and thighs.  I painted Bucking Jenny and the hands on her separately.  This gave me a chance to paint the model's front to a level of detail that I wouldn't have been able to with the rifle across Alten's chest.  I took a day to highlight the face, hair, and clothing to give it a little depth and wear.  I also took a chance on painting eyes, which I think I came out lucky with.  With all the painting and highlighting completed, I glued the arms to the rifle and completed the model.  The last step was to take the new GW texturing paint to give it a basic base.  At this point, I was out of time to add any special base techniques to spiff it up. 

Here are the pictures: