A Year in Miniatures 18: Chimera

For some reason I seem to get a lot of miniatures as gifts. I can’t imagine where people got the idea that I was into that sort of thing, but I’m certainly not complaining!

This particular gift came along with the mimics we showed off last week. Unlike those which I painted pretty close to their official art, I wanted to do something a little more unique for this one (three?). After all, they’ll probably end up as a boss fight at some point! After roaming around the internet (and a number of TTRPG source books that we seem to have accumulated), I stumbled across an illustration of a pale chimera and suddenly had all the inspiration I needed!

The Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures range uses a pretty tough, flexible plastic that is fantastically resistant to damage. I’ve had a pair of dragons on top of a bookcase for over a year, which have fallen from that height several times without even a scratch! The other major advantage is that the plastic softens when heated, so parts can be repositioned by the simple expedient of sticking them in hot water for a few seconds, holding them in the desired shape, and dunking them in cold water to solidify them. The way this model was packaged caused the left wing to be curled inwards, and since I was going to be repositioning it anyway I took the liberty of adjusting the angle of both wings. In hindsight I’d probably reposition the tail as well, but I like the finished result enough that I’m not going to risk damaging the paintwork by submerging the model just to change that one detail!

I’ve been working on getting better at glazing lately, and I decided to use this model to try out applying glazes through an airbrush. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it works! It’ll definitely take a bit more time to get a feel for the right balance of pigment and thinner, but I’m pretty confident it’ll be worth the effort! I’m used to highlighting with an airbrush, so painting on shadows was a new experience for me.

Just one more miniature from the backlog to cover, so next time - that!

07/11/22
Weeks Elapsed: 45
Miniatures Finished: 40