Make-it Monday: Mini, Dire Wolf

I took my new paints for a spin this weekend and painted up a dire wolf miniature following Derek Schubert's tutorial on Reaper Mini's The Craft. My selection of paint colors didn't match his suggestions, so I did quite a bit of improvising. Also, my wolf was primed with black instead of white, so I tried to skew things toward the lighter end to counteract the dark underlayer.

I was quite impressed with how the new paints handled. The coverage was far superior to the cheap-o acrylics I had previously picked up at Hobby Lobby. I managed to finish my entire base coat with just five or six drops of paint!

I was quite pleased with how wolfy turned out, though the black primer left the snowy base a little gritty. I am especially pleased with the eyes. I feel like I really got them to pop, and even got a little highlight next to the pupils!

who knew the "food" setting on my camera produced the best macro shots?

For those of you unfamiliar with gaming minis, they are tiny! The two crosshairs on the surface the wolf is standing on are 1 inch apart, so achieving any sort of detail takes a bit of practice.

Here are a couple pics of this wolf standing next to one that I painted some time ago. I think the one on the left was the second mini I ever painted. Though the fur doesn't look a whole lot different, I feel like my ability to render sharp facial features has taken a pretty significant jump.

I may still do some touch-ups around the jowls and paws before I seal up the figure, though I will likely wait until I have another mini I'm working on so I don't use up a whole drop of paint just for tiny touch-ups.