Miniature Showcase

Magical Aurora Roc

My husband and I bought this miniature on Etsy for our Icewind Dale campaign start. It wasn’t as large as we had thought and the seller kept making strange excuses for not shipping the items on the agreed upon date. When my husband asked for his money back, the Roc suddenly appeared as shipped. When it arrived, more than a couple of months after ordering it, the resin was sticky and the pieces did not fit together very well.

I had to shave some of the joints down with an exacto knife to make them fit into their sockets easier. After a bunch of work on the joints I was finally able to fit the pieces together to mask the majority of the seams and glued them permanently. I primed the entire miniature with about three coats of primer to get the opaque look I needed.

I began the actual painting of the Roc with a beautiful midnight blue-black that I love to use. I wanted to go for the effect of a magical creature that is used in the creation of the aurora that appears over Icewind Dale as the effect of the Frost Maiden’s power. So, this was my way of starting off with the night sky.

To darken the night sky effect, I added a Dark Tone wash to deepen the blue I used for the night sky. I always love to see the dramatic changes that adding a tone or a wash can add to a miniature’s depth. I get the vibe of shadow, darkness and night sky from the simple addition of the tone.

To fill the “night sky” I used fluorescent yellow paint to add dots that were the stars to the dark background. It took a while but I eventually covered the whole body in glowing dots of varying colors and clusters. The really hard part was in adding the “aurora borealis” effect onto the night sky skin of the rock. For this part I used a large flat edge brush and added dots of fluorescent green, blue and purple to the ends. Then I dry-brushed the colors over random places on the roc.

I was a little unsure of how my idea would play out on the miniature but I am in love with the effect it is giving off. I also added some fluorescent blue to the eyes to show the power the Frost Maiden has over the creature. I wanted it to look like the aurora dusted off the roc and spreading through the sky as the Frost Maiden cast her icy spell over the land.

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