This one certainly lived up to her name, she proved a right pain in the buttocks both to put together and to paint, though the latter was partially my fault.
Getting her body to line up properly with where she was supposed to go took some doing, and in the end a little putty to fill the gaps, but I should be getting used to it by now – as nicely detailed as the Atomic Mass Games’ minis are, they’re not the best though out when it comes to assembly.
As for the painting, I made the mistake of fully assembling her first, as I usually do, but it made access to her back and the inside of her cape a tad on the difficult side, though I managed in the end (note to self: fully assembling isn’t always the way to go!).
I really didn’t enjoy painting her and it was a bit of a come down after the experience I had painting Loki. The fiddliness was partially to blame, but the choice of colour didn’t help – the dark greens and blacks, so dull! The card art shows her sporting much brighter greens, but that doesn’t hold with how she’s portrayed in the comics and the one AMG has painted up on their Website also goes with the darker scheme.
In the end I went with very similar colours to that of AMG’s, as can be seen on the box. The cape was painted with various mixes of Heavy Blackgreen, Heavy Green, and Black, and Camouflage Green as the highlight. All this was glazed over with a mix of the Heavy Green + Blackgreen + Black + Glaze medium to blend it together.
Her bodysuit is actually built up using many of the above-mentioned greens with the addition of Wolf Grey, though it’s very subtle and isn’t really noticeable in the pictures.
Something else not noticeable is her sword, which was basecoated with a mix of Black and Metal Colour Steel then highlighted with just the latter. This was then coated with neat Green Ink – it looks quite nice when it catches the light!
The magic Aura bits I painted the same colours as I used for Loki’s coat – Goblin Green, Snot Green, and Escorpena Green – and it adds a bit of contrast to the figure.
I took plenty of photos as I went along, posting them to my Facebook page, I thought they’d prove useful to show the process I followed, which in this case was mostly following the Zenithal priming. Here they are with a brief explanation of what’s going on…
The Solo Meeple 
Very nice I think, Justin! 🙂
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Thanks John 😁
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Well done! Captures the comic feel very nicely.
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Thanks Slotch… I always try for the older comic look rather than the MCU versions. I have found, though, that the newer release comics tend to mirror the movies just lately.
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Very nice! I like the colors, although I might go a little lighter when I get around to Asgard! I’m wondering if there is opportunity to run more skin than just her face – I’m thinking shoulders and top of the chest – that’s the way I remember the 80’s comic-book Hela,
Oh boy, the fit. I’m with you. I don’t remember having to use so much filler on other miniature ranges, and that includes figure in scale modeling ranges as well. It’s as if AMG when out of their way to cut as many parts a possible; and when they keep the parts count low, there are alignment and/or not issues.
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Thanks Eric.
Yeah, my research brought up the odd version of her with bare shoulders and I think it would be easy enough to do… should have thought of that myself 🤔
I’ve just assembled Daredevil and he was a breeze compared to the others. Bullseye also looks simple, at least there’s only one part to his head!
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I’ve learned about fully assembling miniatures the hard way too. Games Workshop minis often require you paint in sub-assemblies since they’re so dynamic and complex.
I think this mini is one where you “leveled up”, mate! While many of the minis you’ve painted recently look great, this one has the best level of contrast yet. A lot of the colors look very realistic like the pavement on the base. If it were me, I’d be tempted to push the magical green smoke’s highlights even further (or making them even brighter in other words). You don’t actually have to go back and do that but it something to think about for future minis as you try to develop your skills further.
Its great to see you getting better and better and really working hard to improve. You may even find yourself in a position like I was where painting Mansions of Madness minis becomes really hard because the sculpts are poor enough that you can’t really paint them all that well no matter how good of a painter you are. Then you can join the miniature painter’s snobbery club like I’m already in. We always have room for one more! 😉
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Thanks mate, kind words indeed. I do feel like I’ve been getting better, as I’ve been pushing myself to try and explore new things.
Contrast is always tricky, I tend to stop short of where it needs to be, a common mistake I know. I thought I’d done it again with Hela, but when we played MCP the other day she looked awesome on the table. I do need to start taking a step back and see things from a distance. I tend to concentrate on what the mini looks like close up and hence don’t push the highlights far enough. It’s definitely something I’m trying to work on.
Funny, but at the moment I’m really enjoying painting the MoM figures. Probably because I can paint them quickly, as opposed to the usual slow speed I paint everything else at – it’s nice to be turning finished items out regularly rather than one a month – it’s a boost to my confidence!
Miniature Painter’s Snobbery Club? Does that mean membership cards, regular meetings and a yearly ball? Where do I sign…! 😁
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It took me a couple of years get contrast figured out. I usually stopped short too so I know exactly what you mean. I think the three color up rule can be a good one to follow. For GW paints, I usually darken the base color and then use both or sometimes even three highlight colors to layer or glaze up to the highlight color I want. I don’t know if that is helpful at all but I figured it couldn’t hurt to share as I think it is a mental thing as much as anything else.
It always feels good to crank out some gaming pieces for sure. I imagine that will be me painting Hellboy pieces in the near future!
Your membership card is in the mail and you may have to get together with our English chapter instead of mine here in the States. Fortunately, we’re all united in snobbery so you should get along great with the other members 😀
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It sounds like we follow the same methods, but I don’t go light enough – It’s something I’m conscious of, so hopefully it will improve.
I really need to crank things out and I’ve been handbagging for far too long. I think working more detailed pieces at the same time as some simpler minis is definitely the way forward for me… If only there were more time in a day🤔
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That is what I tend to do too. I’ll bounce between something that is easy and something that takes more concentration and skills. It makes you appreciate both sides of the coin, I find. I can only warn you that the better you become at painting, the more time you will sink into it. Pretty soon, you’ll be like me and spending months on a single mini that has no gaming value (to me personally anyway) all in the name of art 😀
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Thanks for the warning😀
I’ve got a few figures set aside that I want to try and push myself with. So far though, I haven’t worked up the courage to start them, as I could see all my spare time disappearing quickly!
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Excellent painting! Hela looks amazing, and the way you’ve blended the greens on the aura bits is superb.
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Great work Justin, disappointing to hear about the model fit, but you’ve done a great job of covering it. I like what you’ve done with the colour scheme, and made it your own.
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Thanks Dave.
Fortunately, a lot of the gaps that needed filling were hidden by her cape, otherwise it may have been a different story!
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