Miniature Showcase

HELLHOUND

This was one of my very first miniatures. The hellhounds actually come in a clear resin. In my inexperience, I sprayed it with a grey primer. This is how I painted it after that mess up. I started off by painting the entire body black. Then I painted the spine tail in the Skeleton Bone color from the Nolzur’s Paint Set.

I used a bright red to paint the deeper lines of the hellhound. I wanted to go for a molten lava under hardened, burned skin look. This was before I knew that it looks a lot better when done the other way around, with the yellow being the base color.

I added the orange color next, leaving parts of the red underneath visible. Now it really started to look like lava. Around this time I realized that I hadn’t started detailing the face and decided to tackle that next before adding the final coat of yellow to the fiery lines.

I added the final coat of yellow to the lines after adding the facial details and I did the same thing with the eyes. I wanted the hellhound to look like it was made entirely of this molten lava and hardened ash.

This is a back shot of the miniature. That bone tail is just all kinds of awesome creepy!

I added black pupils to the lava eyes and painted the mouth. I used the same vibrant red of the base color for the fire lines and painted the teeth in the same bone color of the spine tail.

I used a black wash to add some depth the the spine tail. It added shadows to the bone and muted the color to make it look more like a regularly used part of its anatomy. I also painted the collar silver with black spikes coming out of it.

This is a side shot from the opposite side. As a first try it isn’t too bad but there are definitely things I would add to make this more realistic looking. I would add a grey dry brush to the black portions, after cleaning up the lines a bit more, to add depth to the musculature.

The final piece of detail I added was the basing. I used some basing glue and a bit of sand I had on hand. I added a nice piece of reality to the miniature. I think it’s important to review early work and evaluate how much you’ve grown. You can see the progress you’ve made over the months, years, or decades that you’ve been painting.

Have any questions or comments? Message below or find me on Twitter @DnDWifeStories and on Instagram @dndwife. I would love to hear from you!