Kurt J Hanson

I’m sure some of you reading this will be aware that I’m having a month or two away from my beloved Trolls.  It’s not that I hate them all of a sudden, I just felt a bit gamed out with them with all the big tournaments over the past few months.  So I have been painting and playing a little faction called the Protectorate of Menoth (but more of that soon).

This was all well and good until I became aware of a brand new Trollbloods Warlock due for release.  But then – he’s not due out til mid-late September … so nothing to worry about.  Until not only was Jarl Skuld being pre-released at conventions, but I had an offer of a Ninja shopper to pick one up for me.  How could I refuse?

More over … when he arrived 5 days later, how could I do anything but paint him as quickly as possible to make best use of his early arrival?  Menoth were shelved temporarily (for which I’m sure I will burn at some point) and a pistol welding Troll took centre stage (well, desk).

Waking up late on a Saturday morning (my wife offered to get up with the girls) to a small internationally marked parcel  is excitement like no other.  I tore the box open quickly to bask in its glory – then remembering that the convention releases had a special stat card, I opened the blister to observe the radiance of the golden halo added to each card.

The baby was already asleep again and my other daughter thoroughly occupied, so I took advantage and started work on the mini.  Cutting the tabs off his feet I instinctively tilted the model and quickly decided what I wanted to do with the base.

I rummaged through my box of slate bits to find a piece perfect for Jarl to step down from.  With only a minor twist and bend to his left foot, he sat perfectly.  I just about managed to drill his feet and arm and got pins in place before the baby woke up for lunch.

Once he was firmly attached to his base and his arm affixed and dry I sprayed him with primer and give his a quick black wash to cover any areas missed by the spray.  Once this was all dry I set to work on the metals.  I’m a messy painter (to coin the very old GW term) so my metals are always done first (almost always) and in a very rough harsh drybrush fashion.

To keep things consistant with the majority of my Trolls, I painted all the flesh with Hawk Turquoise and wash it with blue after.  I then highlighted back up with Hawk Turquoise, adding Elf Flesh gradually as I went.  Other details followed, the purple for his tartan and eye patch, highlights on the metals, especially his pistols and the leathers.

More detail and metal work followed, including adding bronze and a touch of thinned metallic purple to the barrels.  I started work on the base as well, basing the slate in Granite, then washing black.  I painted PVC over all the inner base areas and added a mix of sand and fine gravel, washing this in Devlin Mud once it was dry.

Another highlight followed on most of the browns and metals, as well as details like his one eye and another wash over the eye patch to increase the contrast.  The purple had had a purple wash and aq highlight by now as well so I added the fine lines in Bleached Bone, again to tie him in with my other Trolls.

The slate base was then drybrushed a few times with a light grey to bring back the stone look and the sand/gravel given a brief going over with a mid brown.  I went round a the model a few more times, picking out details I had missed (like his bottle and adding some Bleach Bone to the rope) before adding spots of PVC and static grass to most appropriate places.  Jarl Skuld then had 2 coats of spray varnish before I added two tufts of longer grass to give him that ambush feel.

I am very happy with the result, he is unlikely to win any painting awards, but then I did finish him with 36hrs of receipt and a clear month before the official release date.  Jarl will be hitting the table this week. I will get a few games under my belt before drawing any real conclusions on him.