Wildfire Spirit

 Welcome back to the Vault once again! This week's hobby time has been split between playing the regular D&D game and some painting. I've started work on the next squad of Plague Marines, but was also inspired by the D&D session to paint a fantasy mini that's been in the shame pile for some time.

I've been playing Immerel the half elven Druid in our Dark Sun-esque adventures. He originally started as a Desert Druid but circumstances of the campaign have seen him recently re-spec to the Circle of Wildfire.  This Circle allows the Druid to summon a Phoenix-like spirit which provides the summoner with a variety of amazing abilities.  

Although we are playing online and not using miniatures, I have a Phoenix familiar model from Wiz Kids which I decided to paint up to mark the occasion of Immerel's rebirth.

A very simple paint job but I'm pleased with the overall result. I've used an Orange Contrast paint  as a heavy wash before dry brushing up to yellow. I've dry brushed onto the stone to give a reflection/OSL effect but that could probably do with a bit more yellow to make it look more effective.

The base is 25 mm in diameter to give a sense of scale. There's a lot of texture on the mini which makes it ideal for the Contrast paint, but the detail is quite soft on the head/beak:

An edge highlight may help, but it definitely looks like he's smacked his beak into a tree or two!

Coming full circle (little Druid joke there), one of the reasons I'm so excited about having the Wildfire Spirit available to Immerel was that earlier in the campaign he had a Lammergeir (Bearded Vulture) companion called Ringo (named after one of the Vultures in Disney's Jungle Book) who met an untimely end. Now Spirit Ringo is reborn!