The adventure continues! In my previous post I wrote about painting a witch miniature for my Sunday D&D homebrew, The Black Solstice. Like most epic campaigns, my game needs a lot of NPC miniatures. At one point, the party strikes for Baldur's Gate to secure transport on a sailing ship to reach the mysterious Necromancer Island (oh, the horror!).
The Warmachine Trollblood
I actually painted a 3 foot pirate ship for the campaign -- the biggest piece of terrain I've ever tackled (it took weeks to finish, and I'll dedicate a future blog post to the project). Anyway, what good is a ship without a crew? This is were the Warmachine Trollblood comes in.
Fellow travelers, let me introduce Blue (yes, not a very original name, but it fits the character I had in mind: a hulking brute of a first mate who is as gentle and tenderhearted as he is tall and strong. Blue is supposed to be a goliath, but out of my vast collection of miniatures I didn't have one that I liked as much as this Trollblood to represent the NPC, so I went with it.
A few things about this model that I love:
- He's cast from metal (some Privateer Press Trollbloods are plastic)
- He's super heavy (because of the metal) and has a satisfying heft when you set him down on the game table (Boom! "I have arrived!)
- He's got a mischievous mini Troll dude peeking from his satchel
- He's got a honking-big axe.




Trollblood Base
Seeing as how Blue is the first mate of my ship, I had to somehow give the miniature a nautical feel. I suppose it doesn't make a lot of sense for a first mate to be sporting heavy plate armor (hope he doesn't fall overboard!), but hey -- it's Dungeons and Dragons and if I can suspend my disbelief about invisibility potions and whatnot, plate armor on a sailor isn't too much of a stretch.
Not wanting to modify or kitbash the mini, I opted for the easy route and based Blue on a sandy beach. For the caribbean water, I tinted some AK Still Water modeling liquid with a kiss of Tamiya clear blue acrylic paint. I wasn't 100% sure if the two products would play nicely together, but they did. The mixture was self-leveling and went down easy for a smooth water effect (it took two layers and each layer needed to dry overnight).
For the sand, I simply used some white sand that a friend sent me from Florida. I tinted the edge where the sand meets the water with some watered-down sepia ink to give it a wet appearance (like the waves had been washing up on the shore), and my daughter made me a tiny starfish out of Sculpey clay to complete the base (my favorite part!).

Trollblood Painting Choices
Before I even started prep work on the Trollblood, I knew I wanted blue skin. His name is Blue after all, but beside that I really like the Privateer Press studio paint jobs for the Trollbloods (blue skin). Also, it gave me a chance to use Pro Acryl Turquoise paint for the first time (an absolutely gorgeous paint color). I went for a playful, cell-shaded look with dark shadows and bright midtones/highlights to really make the miniature "pop."
For the armor, my gut instinct was to go with steel, but I decided to try something different at the last minute. Borrowing a recipe I used for my Warhammer Deathguard (more on that in a future post), I gave Blue battered white armor.
The armor is actually really easy to paint:
- Paint all the armor with Rhinox Hide or similar brown
- Sponge or stipple Mournfang Brown (or similar) atop the previous brown
- Once the paint is fully dry, paint a light coat of AK Worn Effects on the armor
- Once dry, paint the armor with an off-white color of your choice (I used Pro Acryl Heavy Warm White)
- Wet down the armor and gently scratch/scrape away the off-white to reveal the browns underneath
- Note: this is a very organic process and is arguably more akin to weathering than painting. It's very satisfying!
- Important note: the AK Worn Effects product has a limited working time. Basically after it's application, you want to paint and scrape the off-white within an hour.
The underlying brown armor "rust" compliments the blue skin nicely. From there I opted for bright red cloth and a complimentary green for the little troll for some added vibrancy.

Final Thoughts on Painting the Trollblood
The Trollblood was another project I had a lot of fun with, and I'm happy with the results. Blue turned out to be a memorable character in the game and my players really enjoyed him. There are two other important NPCs from the ship that I'll post about later (the captain and the navigator).
So much to paint, so little time, but so much fun! Until next time fellow travelers :)
