A paint job to keep you Enthralled
Tom Primett paints up the Ninja Printz World of Warcraft Boss, Thrall
Manufacturer: Ultimate Modelling Products/Ninja Printz
Scale: unknown, 6 inches tall with base
Kit Type: 3D print resin
Kit Number: NP205
Price: TBC
Thrall is a well known character in the World of Warcraft game universe. I’d heard of him yet never played, so have many other people I know. There is much fan art imagery available online, all slightly different but following a theme. There are many interpretations of the ‘green’ skin, armour is similar in most. So great references available.
Ninja Printz have done it again with a superb 3D printed huge chunk of resin, we are talking about roughly 11 centimetres (4 inches) tall and the same wide, without the great supplied base which takes the height to 15 centimetres (6 inches)
When you handle this figure you quickly see that there will be a complex painting sequence to follow. I think I’ve sussed it but am probably wrong.
Due to the complexity of the design I decided to map out all the colours before detailing. This involves basically filling in all the base colours. The flesh is AK RC012 Pure Green diluted 1:1 with IPA. The cast iron areas of the armour are painted with diluted Tamiya XF-84 Dark Iron 1:1 Tap water. The Brass area was covered with Vallejo 70801 Brass whilst the Steel areas got 70864 Natural Steel. The hair is given a diluted coat of Tamiya XF-85 Rubber. Don’t be too accurate as other layers will be applied later, this is just to see where everything goes, it’s not obvious where some of the transitions are.
I started the sequence with the flesh areas. I made shadows with the base colour mixed with Olive Drab 1:1 and then this mix with a touch of purple ink for the deepest shadow. The highlights were the base colour 1:1 mixed with yellow ink and dilutes 1:5 with water. To blend everything together I mixed the olive drab and yellow and heavily diluted as a wash covering any areas that the base coat still shows. This was all finally covered with a filter coat of 1 drop green ink, 1 drop brown ink and 20 drops of water (this will vary based on ink brand, mine was Andrea, test before use). This glaze/filter brings all the shades together.
Next the eyes and teeth. Piggy eyes are the most difficult to paint. A little dab of off white was added then the bright blue iris and black pupil. Any overlap to the green skin is cleaned up with some green ink. The teeth also use the off white, basically white with a touch of yellow. The teeth are slightly darker at the base with almost pure white as the highlight of the tips. The nose ring got a dab of Molotov Chrome pen.
Next on my sequence is the armour. The Tamiya Dark Iron is given a coat mixed with Natural Steel and randomly dabbed onto the existing Dark Iron mapped area. Next the Brass which was given another layer of the base Vallejo 70801 Brass. I left off any shadows until I finished with the metallics, the final area being the breastplate which got a treatment of AK Silver and Metal Mid tones AK3035 followed by a light application of AK451 Steel True Metal wax applied with an ear bud (cotton not Apple)
After touching up any overlaps on the metallics I added the outlines/deep shadows with a Purple Ink and Gun Metal Mix, without dilution.
Moving on now to the hair and ornaments which were given a purple ink wash then dry-brushed with Ammo Dio Drybrush paint Panzer Grey A.MIG 0604 and then progressively lighter greys until a final light grey (A.MIG 0603 Basalt Grey) to highlight the top of head.
The only bit that wasn’t mapped out in colours at the beginning was the small amount of fur, leather belts and chain mail. The fur was painted a light grey and carefully highlighted with a mix with white. The leather belts were first painted Leather and then a highlight at the tops and shadow at the bottom with base colour lightened and darkened respectively. This is carefully (as in don’t let it run and ruin the flesh) given a 1:10 diluted wash of Brown Ink which blends everything together. The buckles are picked out with Brass and everything given an outline/shadow with a Purple Ink/Brown Ink mix 1:1 but not diluted.
The chain mail gets a purple/black ink wash and then careful dry brush with Tamiya X11 Chrome Silver. A few links are picked out with the Molotov Chrome Pen to add some extra highlights.
This big boy looks like he says “ooh Shiny” a lot and takes what he likes, so all the silvery bling bits got a touch of the Molotov Chrome Pen to bring out the shiny.
I purposely left off painting the stand until last as I wanted it to look like a separate item and not blended into the colours of Thrall. So Gun Metal was the way forwards as well as sandstone colours. The sandstone was painted with AK RC030 Earth Yellow, using the more solid paint from the bottom and stippled it on to give some more texture. The metalwork was given a coat of AK True Metal Wax Gun Metal. The highlights of the metalwork were given a very light dry brush of AK True Metal Wax Steel. The beauty of this wax paint is that it can be blended like an oil paint after application. The sandstone was given a wash of Brown Ink diluted 1:5 with water.
The final main painting area is the leather bits on the arms. These haven’t been previously painted and my process closely follows a YouTube video from Vallejo.
The leather areas are given a good coat of Vallejo 70.994 Dark Grey diluted 60:40 with water. Use a good brush for this. A second coat is added followed by the first highlights, Vallejo 70.871 Leather Brown diluted 50:50 with water and added to the higher parts of the leather. This can cover more than half the area. Now the 2 colours are blended by a mix of 70.871 and 70.994, 75:25, diluted 30:70 and added up-to the highlights. Some warm highlights were added with a mix of 70.871 and 70.928 65:35 diluted 40:60 Now the scary bit, a wash of Vallejo Game Ink 72.092 Brown diluted 50:50 and added to the whole area. Let this dry fully. Some cold highlights of 70.904, 70.871, 70.907 mixed 20:40:40 diluted 40:60. Some outlining is added with a fine tipped brush using 70.994, 72.092 Brown Ink and 72.087 Violet Ink 20:40:40 undiluted and carefully added to the deepest areas. A lot of work but works a lot.
Note, some paints were changed from the YouTube video to protect the out of stock.
The final touches are to the furry bits, a light grey with some lighter grey highlights.
I left the build for a couple of days and then went back with a torch to find the missed bits and over paints. Finally finished.
Conclusion
Yet again UMP and Ninja Printz have come up with the good goodies. Loved this bust and enjoyed the painting. The range and diversity of their offerings is expanding monthly and I have my eye on quite a few of their very diverse subjects. My next subject will be an Alien Bounty Hunter who will get an extension of the leather technique as his skin colour.
