Viking Archer – Conversion and Paint by Alfonso Praolo

PRELUDE

I have known Alfonso Praolo (an historical figure painter from Spain) for a couple of years now and although he is not a prolific painter, each of his projects is a master piece. I have wanted him to write something for quite some time and finally with some delays, Alfonso was kind enough to give me this exclusive!

The figure will be making its’ way to Monte San Savino show next month, so if you are going, be sure to look out for it! This won’t be a long piece of writing but there are about 60 images showing the process in the gallery at the end of the writing!

THE FIGURE

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ready for primer

It is a discontinued figure from Andrea Miniatures in 54mm scale. It belongs to the series dedicated to the Narnia movie franchise. It is a figure that has many possibilities and that has passed fairly unnoticed in the world of miniatures.

Luckily, at the time I could get my hands on the figure painted for the box-art by Jose Manuel Palomares. The figure was delightful with its elegant pose and a touch of femininity.

Tired of always seeing female figures represented semi-nude I opted to look for a female figure that had an elegant pose, and also strength and character. With a few slight changes I was able to transform the character of Susan into a Viking Archer.

To do this, I changed the Horn and I added a pair of braids to the hair of the Archer. I also changed the arrows of the kit with ones I modelled myself. The arrow from the bow is a very fine needle. Finally pour the metal underneath the skirt.

PAINTING

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subtle and realistic hair tones

I use the “Moldel Colour” range of paints from Vallejo. I always start to paint the figures from top to bottom. First I painted the hair and then her face. After painting the face I paint the eyes. At first my original idea was to represent a redheaded Archer with blue dress. The problem is that the clothes of the Vikings were not very colourful, so I decided to change the tone of red hair to blonde and paint a rather neutral beige dress.

The blond hair always seems to me to be more difficult to paint than any other shade of hair. If you do not control the mixture of yellow and beige, the colour could become very artificial.

Creating shadows within blonde hair can also be quite challenging because it can give the impression of dirty hair.

I started from a mixture of ENGLISH UNIFORM 921 (33%), GOLDBROWN 877 (33%), and JAPAN UNIFORM 932 (33%). For the lights I added GOLDEN YELLOW 948 and then ICE YELLOW 858. For the highest lights I added IVORY 918 to the mixture. The successive lights means that I can avoid the shadows.

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stunning texture and freehand

The dress is painted with brush making small dots simulating woven fibres from wool or cotton. For the colour base I use ENGLISH UNIFORM 921 colour mixed with a bit of FLAT BROWN 984. To give light I added DARK SAND 847 and later IRAQI SAND 819 to the mix.

For the last few points I added IVORY 918. In this figure, face is the most important part, so to give a touch you naturally simulated freckles on face painting small dots in a very subtle way.

Enjoy the pictures and see you!

 

Alfonso Praolo 😉