Painting Poorly Special - The Pit Part 1

by Kerberos Productions

A Mike Meeple First...

So, I know that Painting Poorly has been predominantly about general tips and tricks, and less about specific figures, but a few of my followers (yes, I'm talking about you, Yuri) have requested that I start going over some specific figures.  Not to mention the good people at Kerberos Productions sent me some samples of the miniatures included in their upcoming game, The Pit, now available for pre-order here.

So, I figured it'd be a good time to start some game specific tutorials, starting with: The Brawler.

1. Gameplan

So, once again my gameplan is always to stay as close to the in-game art as possible.  There's only one issue...  The game's not out yet!  But I was able to find a picture of this beefy fellow in the game's digital instruction booklet and he matches up pretty well with the sculpt above:

Based on the above art, my gameplan for the Brawler looks something like this:

As such, I've selected these base colors from Target and these metallics from The Army Painter and Vallejo:

Metallic paints are tricky, so I do recommend spending the cash on them.  That said, Army Painter Metallics are $3 a bottle and you can get an 8 pack of Vallejo Metallics on Amazon for $20, which comes out to $2.50 a bottle, and it's worth it.  I've had my Army Painter Plate Mail for almost a year now, and I'm not even close to needing to buy a new one.

2. Prime and Basecoats

I went ahead and primed the Brawler with Army Painter Matt White, like I do with all my minis, and started with the red armor first, before moving to the black under armor (?).

I actually didn't use black, per se, but a very dark gray, as grays take the wash better and show more depth.

I left the Plate Mail silver for last as it goes on really well, and you can use it to easily cover up any mistakes from when you painted the red or black that bled out of their respective sections, but it is harder to cover up itself, so take your time and use your detail brush if you have to.

Currently, the red of the armor could use another basecoat (what you're looking at is 2 layers of basecoat for the red and gray), but instead, I'm actually going to move straight into HIGHLIGHTS.

3. Highlights

Normally I wait until after I've already added the wash to the mini, but with the Brawler, I'm going to use the shade to help blend in some of the highlights in order to give it more depth.

For the red armor, I'm using a much brighter red (Candy Apple if you will) and for the under armor, a much lighter gray.

I'm just applying from top down.  Starting with the top of the head, the top of the arms, the shoulders, and the top of the feet.  Once those top sections are highlighted, I start working my way to the more subtle highlights, like the top of the chest, the top of the belt, and the front of the mask.  Here you can see the fully highlighted mini:

While the highlights (especially the gray on the underarmor) may seem a little jarring, the wash will take care of it.

4. Adding Shade

So, I'll be using two different types of washes/shades: Dark Tone and Red Tone by The Army Painter, but any black or red wash will work.  Apply the red wash to the red armor, and the black wash to the metallic sections and the underarmor.  Be careful not to get any red wash on the metal, as it will tint it PINK.

Adding shades and washes to the small metallic accents around the boots and wrist armor can be tricky, so I ended up using my detail brush to apply the washes in those areas.  But you can see the washes helped mute the highlights and blend it all together, while deepening the details, leaving a decently painted mini.

5. Finishing Touches

So, if you wanted to leave the Brawler here and spray finish him and call it a day, you could.  For me, however, I thought, you know what?  He's called a Brawler, not a Princess!  He'd be UP THERE in the nitty gritty!  FIGHTING BAD GUYS!  So, I took some of the Army Painter Plate Mail and did some quick small brush strokes and some little dabbing with my detail brush to simulate scratches from combat.

I tried to apply them as randomly as possible, but sparingly.  You don't want them to overtake your mini.  Once you ask yourself, "Hmm...  Should I stop?" the answer is yes.

The last step was to add some yellow to the green of the visor using my detail brush to make it look reflective and paint the small red lights within the metal shoulder pieces.  Then paint the base and spray finish and...

THE BRAWLER!

Hopefully, you found this helpful, and be sure the check out The Pit, by Kerberos Productions!

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