This Step by Step Work in Progress is for a contest hosted by The Miniatures Page (www.theminiaturespage.com). When I saw this figure, I said to myself, "Hey! That’s Neo from the Matrix!" ;) Yea… I know it’s silly, but I couldn’t help it. So I’m painting him in a very simple color scheme. Blue armor with dark brown leather trench coat. Here we go:

Preparing the miniature: Not much assembly needed on this figure. I decided to keep the rifle and the base unattached until I finished painting the figure. The base is made by Champion Industry, cool stuff! Since the color will be mostly dark, I went for black primer this time, using GW Black primer.

Painting the base: Sci-Fi figure, with urban base tempted me to do NMM, but with this one, I want to do mix NMM and MM, so for the base, I’ll go with MM to get realistic urban look and feel. Started with Vallejo Oily Steel, thinned down with water with consistency of 1:1. I drybrushed lightly on the base until all the top area is covered with the paint. By drybrushing lightly, you will get a smooth surface. Next, I inked the base using Vallejo Smoke, again thinned down with consistency of 1 (paint):3 (water). I didn’t brush on the ink, but I stippled it, so it looks splotchy. Then after the ink completely dried (yes, you have to wait until the ink is dry or your next paint will flood into the crevices), I stippled the Vallejo Light Orange mixed with Vallejo Ochre Brown (about 1:1) to the base to create the rusty effect. Tada! The base is done.

Painting the face: Hmmm… not much to paint on the face. So on this figure, I didn’t put any highlight, since it won’t show up anyway. Straight on top of black primer, I painted Reaper Hill Giant to paint the face, maintaining the black area for the eyes. Then I painted Ivory to the eyes socket. Followed by Vallejo Black Brown for pupil and a fine dot of thinned down Ivory for the light on the pupil. Thank you for Vallejo Kolinski Brush that has such a fine point that help me paint that fine dot!