Last WFB Empire Amethyst Wizard WIP

 At this point, I think I can safely say that I've put as much work as I'd like into this Empire Amethyst Wizard without going too over the top, being totally nitpicky and fiddling with things to the point that I've done with previous competition painting figures.

 The base is finished with texture added, now painted, and a "spot color" element to tie the green areas together in a "triad" of sorts so the color looks balanced with the majority purple/violet in the rest of the figure's coloring. With input from Brandt over at Toadkiller Miniatures and my wife, the back of the figure now looks much less bland and "boring" that in previous postings.

 I think the liquid appearance effect I attempted in the flask turned out nicely, and while I'm not completely sold on the glass appearance effect I tried on the upper part of the flask (mostly due to the wonky bottle shape, or at least that's the official reason), I think that turned out reasonably well also.

Here's a pic of the wizard prior to spray sealing (a little fuzzy due to the image being taken on my iPhone):

Feedback, suggestions and comments would all be greatly appreciated. As per my intent with this guy to paint him up specifically for sale (as opposed to "for keeps"), I'll post details of the auction and such when I get that aspect of things together - haven't sold any painted figures of mine online yet (outside of commissions) so I'm looking forward to this!

Nearly-Finished WFB Empire Amethyst Wizard

 Awright - a roundup of changes/additions since the last posting about this guy: I added another slight highlight to a few select skin areas - bridge/tip of nose, knuckles, etc. I added shading to the gold skull at the top of his scythe and used the same sepia/burnt umber wash color to add a little more definition to his skin tones, especially depressions like his mouth, between his fingers, sides of his face, arm areas where they blend back into his sleeves, etc. I used the same dirty/rusty color on the blade and back end of his scythe on both sides, although why it shows up darker on the right side pic versus the left I have no idea. A light drybrushing/wetbrushing of Mithril Silver on the top edges and in striations down the scythe blade.

 I worked up smooth transitional highlights on his outer cloak with a thinned-down 1:1:1 GW Space Wolf Grey/VGC Hexed Lichen/GW Black Ink mixture, and then glazed the whole thing several times once dry with GW Badab Black - it's a nice paint when you balance the figure so it can dry evenly into depressions w/o tide pools. I also added striations on his beard with the original purple/grey highlight color I worked up to on his outer cloak.

 I worked up the wood grain on the wood of his scythe with fine lines of GW Graveyard Earth, 1:2 Graveyard Earth/Bleached Bone, VGC Sepia Ink, and then a slight glaze of thinned down VGC Sepia Ink to tie it all together more.

 As for the bottle, the highlights and interior "glass" color are painted on (minus a little glossiness from my paint thinners) - never tried anything like this before (it's quite a bit different from painting simple gemstones, I tell ya) and I'm really curious what you guys think of the finished bottle. I added more of a color fade from light to dark on the vivid green of the liquid in the bottle, too, as a part of tidying up the darker glass areas. If anyone wants more detail on the painting or colors used, just ask!

 I've got a little something decorative planned for the base so as to balance out the other greens with a "triad" of spot color. Aside from that, I'm thinking just plain muddy dirt appearance and a few patches of burnt-colored static grass. I had been considering some freehand to make it more saleable, but I think I've already put in more time and effort than I'm likely to get back in an auction for him so I don't think I'll do any of that, but I think the base decoration will be pure win... and who knows, I might actually get some decent bids out of it with a long enough auction.

 Would and of you readers familiar with selling figures online recommend a Buy Price or some such on eBay (or are there better mini auction sites, even?) - I still haven't sold any mini-related stuff via that route in all this time, so this guy will likely be my first. I was thinking a minimum price of at least $19.95 US - I don't consider that to be excessive considering he's a high-end tabletop character model, I put a fair amount of time and work into him... and I've no idea what to expect.

WFB Empire Amethyst Wizard

 Lately I've been painting with and helping out Brandt of Toadkiller Miniatures. Looking through my collection of figures I could work on in a similar manner to sell online or locally, it put me in mind of a way-old GW Empire Wizard I basecoated 'round about 2007 along with a way-old plan to work on this guy, sell him, and post the results as I went along. He's painted as a member of the Amethyst College of Magic, according to Warhammer Fantasy background.

Without further ado, here's my current progress:

 I can't really write up what I've done because in the past few days I've had a flurry of activity working on it. I can say that I have tried the recently-released GW color range, and that the roses have benefited from highlights with GW Emperor's Children layer paint and glazes/washes/lining in with GW Druchii Violet shade color in addition to the old GW Baal Red Wash.

 The skin was highlighted up with a mixture of 1:1:1 Reaper MS Bright Skin Highlight/Vallejo Model Color Deck Tan/Vallejo Game Color Skin Wash ink thinned to a 1:4 paint/thinner consistency, and then having a few drops of GW Skull White added and then suitably thinned - I went up a few steps in color on the skin, adding more skull white until I got to the final highlights on tip of nose, knuckles, etc.

 The cloth strips and hood had previously been colored and shaded a dirty cream color, and overall just weren't working in terms of the overall scheme. I went back over them with a mixture of thinned Vallejo GC Hexed Lichen, Hexed Lichen with a few drops of GW Bleached Bone as a next layer, and then with Emperor's Children added to the mix in a separate palette well with additional drops of Bleached Bone. I went back and forth with these three thinned colors for a while until I had gotten shaded areas darker purple, mid-tone areas the second color set, and highlights a combination of the 2nd/3rd color sets with pure Emperor's Children/Bleached Bone as sparse edge highlighting.

 The next biggest change was switching the color of the liquid in the vial from my original purple to an unhealthy green - I actually had the liquid fully painted using similar colors to what I used on the cloth and hood, but all the purple on the figure seemed all too close together and too similar in shade. I decided (well, mostly my wife suggested and I agreed) to go with a poisonous green color for the liquid so as to not have things too monochromatic, as well as balance out the green of the vines on the scythe and a presumed green something-or-other on the base when all's said and done to have a spot color "triad."

 Oh, and since my painting skill has improved over the past while, I'm going to try for a "glass" appearance on the non-liquidy part of the flask. I'd also like to put some minimal freehand work on him somewhere, but am undecided as to exactly where and exactly what - I'm not really as familiar with GW's Warhammer Fantasy game as I am with Warhammer 40K.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated! Moreso, since I'd ideally like to sell/auction this guy off without a specific commission for him, which is something I've not actually done for any of my painted figures yet, surprisingly enough.