[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

Today was the day! I placed the gift on the colleague's table before she arrived; when she opened it, she surprisingly immediately knew whom it was from - it could have been from anyone, couldn't it...? ;-)

She came laughing to my office carrying the glass dome and thanked me exuberantly, all the time laughing and discovering new details.

And thus looks the happy beneficiary :-)

Happy Christmas!


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

The Zwölfe was sprayed in gloss varnish from a spray can, then with matt varnish. When this was dry, the gems were painted with 70.510 Gloss Varnish with a brush to give them a more glass like appearance.

Final touch was the sign at the front:

Finance-Zwölfe bringt den neuen Kontenschlüssel

 

literally:

Finance-Zwölfe delivers new account key

 

Finance-Zwölfe delivers new account determination

Then I glued the miniature in place, putting her foot on the pile of folders.

Here is the final result:

And with the dome in place:

Finished just in time to be handed over tomorrow :-)

 

 

All the colours I used for this project:


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

I painted the carpet in 70.867 Dark Bluegrey, then tried to recreate the pattern on our office carpet with 72.047 Wolf Grey. While I am quite happy with the colour choice, the pattern I lightly brished on does not look like the original... but I guess it is colourwise still recognisable.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

The key ring was painted in 71.064 Steel and the key in 70.801 Brass

The door frame was painted in a mix of

  • 71.071 Arctic Blue
  • 72.155 Heavy Charcoal

The door handles were painted in

  • 71.064 Chrome

The sign is basically white, but to contrast it with the white wall Í used

  • 70.986 Deck Tan

As a final step to the Zwölfe herself, I airbrushed her in gloss vanish, then washed her in oils:

  • W&N Raw Umber key
  • W&N Lamp Black I applied a blacklining to distinguish areas from another.
  • W&N French Ultramarine Hair and wings.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

I basecoated the whole model in 74.602 Black Primer.

The wall was then airbrushed in

  • 73.601 Grey Primer
  • 71.001 White where I tried to leave some areas darker to create some pre-shading, like the edges of the door where it meets the wall.

Next I painted the woodgrain of the door with... well... 70.828 Woodgrain - what else?

The wood colour I painted with the aptly named 70.834 Natural Wood. This is a very translucent colour, as you can see on the first two pictures. I applied 3 coats in total. These coats also made the woodgrain blend more into the wood colour.

The missing item is the Kontenschlüssel (literally: account key, 'account determination'). This I constructed from plastic rod and some thin clear plastic packaging. Working with clear plastic proved a bit difficult at times, with me searching for the cut pieces all the time... The teeth of the key are done in the form of a T - like in t-account where you post debit and credit. The key is carried on a key ring, which I bent and cut from a glitter ball hook.

Finally for today, I painted the folders.

  • 70.947 Red
  • 70.962 Flat Blue
  • 71.002 Yellow The hole in the back and the front lower edges are metal rimmed, painted in 71.064 Steel.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

Today I added detail to the model. First, the door handle was constructed from plastic rods in different diameters.

Below the handle is an electronic lock, which consists of only a piece of plastic rod, the detail will be painted only.

From packaging paper, I cut two strips and glued them to the wall as skirting board, which consists in our building on a piece of carpet designed for this purpose.

The front part of the floor was covered in masking tape, the floor and skirting board then in wood glue and very fine bird cage sand to represent the structure of the carpet.

From some slightly thicker advertising paper I constructed ring binders, using balsa wood as the paper stored in them.

The folders will be used as the foot rest for the Finance-Zwölfe, where the original model has her foot on some sort of earth mound/foliage. The final model will look like this:


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

I started to work on the diorama. I got four decorative glas domes quite cheaply on amazon; the dome sits on a plate which has a slight rim. To have the Zwölfe fully visible and not hidden by the rim, I started by constructing a dais. In the DIY store I found this connecting piping thing, which's rim had the correct diameter.

I cut it free.

Here it is inside the dome.

From plastic card I cut a circle...

... which was glued on top the dais.

Unfortunately, this construction was too high, having the wing tips touching the dome which forced the miniature backwards...

So I had to do what I wanted to prevent from the start: I had to construct my own circular dais. To get it to resemble a cirlce at least somwhow, I cut another disc from plastic card, glued it onto 6mm Depron, and the carefully cut along the edge of the plastic.

From another piece of Depron I cut the corridor wall, which I fitted into the dome by trial and error. The door I cut from plastic card. The notch around the doorframe I pressed into the depron with a pencil. I cut out the wall to make room for the door.

The door was then glued into place.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

Last bits to paint were the feathers hanging on the belt. I did not want to paint them white, but also did not want to add another colour to the model, so I decided for grey and drab blue.

First I painted the sides and undersides in Charcoal to be left as a sort of blacklining, to get more contrast between the feathers and the gown. The feathers were then painted grey, the tips blue. I did not apply any shading/highlighting, this will be done by the oilwash.

  • 72.155 Heavy Charcoal
  • 70.989 Sky Grey
  • 70.816 Luftwaffe Uniform WWII

After touching up some mistakes, painting is done.

I then glued the wings onto the Zwölfe.

Next up is constructing the key, and the diorama base.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

I painted all the leather parts, the belt, the straps with the dangling gems, the hair band. I used:

  • 70.822 German C. Black Brown
  • 70.876 Brown Sand
  • 70.843 Cork Brown

This was not very distinct, so I added another more extreme hightlight:

  • 70.917 Beige

Next were all the gems. These are quite small and even with my smallest brush these proofed to be callenge. I basecoated in the darkest green, then highlighted towards the lower right corner in the lighter greens. Finally, a white dot was placed in the upper dark part to represent light reflection.

  • 72.029 Sick Ggreen
  • 72.032 Escorpena Green
  • 72.033 Sick Green
  • 70.951 White

The clothing on this miniature I do not fully understand. First, I thought she was wearing a gown and some sort of jacket over it. Now it looks more like she is wearing a corsage only.

The thing with the sleeves I still do not fully get. There are two quilings: one at the wrist, which seems to come from under the sleeve, and another one above the elbow - this one causes me problems. If there would only be the one at the wrist, I would see it as some kind of blouse worn under the gown. But what is the one above the elbow doing? It nearly looks like some kind of overdrawn sleeve, starting at the quiling above the elbow, ending above the wrist, where the sleeve from the gown can be seen again ... which does not make much sense in my mind.

So in the end I decided to paint the whole arm including both quilings as part of the gown - turquoise tinted white.

The only thing left to be painted then is the corsage. I choose Hexed Lichen as a basecoat, to make it really distinct from the gown colour. I then added several layers with squid pink mixed in for the highlights.

  • 72.015 Hexed Lichen
  • 72.013 Squid Pink

The sash at the right side was painted in the same colour.


[Christmas Present]
Finance-Zwölfe

I blocked in most of the remaining areas:

  • leather straps/belts/ribbons

    70.822 German C. Black Brown

  • gold

    70.941 Burnt Umber

  • petals

    72.013 Squid Pink

  • nails

    72.027 Scurvy Green

    &

    72.034 Bone White

  • lips

    72.013 Squid Pink

    &

    72.015 Hexed Lichen

    &

    72.928 Light Flesh

The gold was first highlighted, then washed, then again very sparingly highlighted:

  • 72.055 Polished Gold
  • SWW021 Red Black
  • 72.055 Polished Gold

The pedals where finished as follows:

  • SWW017 Purple
  • 72.013 Squid Pink
  • 72.013 Squid Pink & 71.001 White