Once, a long time ago I bought something from TTCombat. I can’t remember what it was, a paint rack perhaps. Whatever it was, I also picked up a Barnabotti, who is a member of the Patricians faction for TTCombat’s skirmish wargame Carnevale. Set in Venice at the very end of the 18th century, I often find myself flicking through the webpages for Carnevale on the TTCombat website. The setting is certainly intriguing, and the gothic nature of the models makes them ideal conversion fodder for more grimdark locales like the 41st millennium or even Trench Crusade.
Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops
For myself I wanted to do the latter. I’m always on the lookout for more civilian models that I can use to make my narrative games that much more immersive. And as my Rogue Trader is currently shacked up with a member of the nobility, having such a model on hand seemed like a good idea.
As they’re a civilian the first thing I needed to do was to disarm them. The model comes equipped with a fan and short dagger; the former is fine although I wanted to switch out the latter. And as the arms are separate pieces that are glued on, it seemed like an easy swap. In the end I decided on a pair of arms from the Frostgrave Wizard II set holding a bottle. The Frostgrave parts are a bit more heroic scale, and therefore chunkier, than Carnevale’s more slender scale but I feel like they worked. In fact, they worked well enough that I didn’t need to do any gap filling around the shoulders.
Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops
With the arms swapped I got started on the painting, first by priming the model with Colour Forge Raven Black. From there I basecoated the skin with Two Thin Coats Dwarven Skin, whilst I was tempted to give them a very pale complexion like I had with the Mörderin miniatures I settled on a warmer tone. I did, however, give them blonde hair by painting it with Vallejo Khaki. For the dress, I decided on purple as I felt that’s a rather regal and vibrant colour. I painted the main body of the dress with Two Thin Coats Rayne and the frills with Archive-X Reefer White. For the feathers I picked those out with Pro Acryl Ivory and for the bows, I wanted to paint them pink. However, the only pink I have, Vallejo Squid Pink, is an airbrush paint. So to save doing a million coats I instead mixed Army Painter Matt White with Fiery Vermillion in a two-to-one ratio, which made a nice vibrant pink, and used that. Lastly, I painted the bottle with Incubi Darkness and picked out the cork with Vallejo Khaki.
For the wash, as the model has a lot of warm and lighter colours on it I figured that Sonic Sledgehammer’s Marine Juice would be best. An unholy mixture of Army Painter Dark Tone, Lahmian Medium and Reikland Fleshshade it shades the model without darkening too much and thanks to the Reikland Fleshshade, keeps a fair amount of warmth.
Backdrop by Jon Hodgson Backdrops
Moving onto the highlights, I first highlighted the raised areas on the dress first with Two Thin Coats Sorcerer’s Cloak and then completed the Two Thin Coats colour triad with Runic Purple. The bows I highlighted with a mix of Vallejo Scarlet Red and Pro Acryl Ivory, and while I had it out, I used Ivory to highlight the hair. For the skin, I gave it some quick highlights of a mix of Dwarven Skin and Scale75 Pale Skin. I then mixed Scarlet Red with some Scale75 Pink Flesh and carefully painted this over the lips, hoping it didn’t look too gaudy. Lastly, I highlighted the bottle first with Caliban Green and then did small highlights with Warp Stone Glow.
With the model done I quickly moved onto the base, filling any flat areas with Vallejo Dark Earth texture paste. Once that was dry I gave a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone followed by a drybrush of Tyrant Skull to bring out the texture. I then dabbed on patches on PVA glue and added some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Patchy Plains. I sealed this in place with some Geek Gaming Scenics Matt Sealant and finally painted the rim of the base with Steel Legion Drab.