[Christmas Present]¶
Finance-Zwölfe¶

Recently at work, I was walking down the corridor towards my office. Some meters in front of me, a colleague left hers and walked in the same direction as me towards another colleague's office where she had some business to do. She looked over her shoulder at who was walking behing her and said hello. Two seconds later, she started to dance down the corridor, flinging her arms and singing "Ich bin eine Elfe, ich bin eine Elfe!" ('I am an elf, I am an elf!') which made us both laugh.

Some minutes later, when I was sitting at my desk (I face the door), she passed my office on her way back to her own, and again danced across my field of view, this time singing "Ich bin eine Zwölfe, ich bin eine Zwölfe!".

The translation of that is not so easy as the first. In German "eine Elfe" is a female elf and at the same time "elf" is the word for the number eleven. "Eine Zwölfe" is derived from the German word for twelve (zwölf) as Elf is from eleven: 11 -> Elfe, 12 -> Zwölfe.

So on her way back, the colleague had accumulated enough XP to advance her character one level ;-)

She then said something along the line of working long enough where we do (I am not sure if she meant the company as a whole or just the finance department) makes everyone a bit nuts.

Some days later, while browsing for miniatures, I came across an elf miniature and remembered that episode, I then thought this would make a nice christmans present for her, referencing back to that funny moment.

This is the miniature:

I cut off the spear, and drilled holes to allow me to insert a key ring for the "Kontenschlüssel" she will be carrying - it will be a Finance Zwölfe after all. Kontenschlüssel (literally: account key) is called 'account determination' in english as far as I know - so again, works only German. I used paper pins to help strengthen the joints.

Left-overs from the kit I will not be using.


[Christmas Present]¶
Finance-Zwölfe¶

I glued the hand to the arm, the wings I left off for now for easier painting.

The gaps at the wrist and one air bubble I found were hidden using grey stuff from Gale Force 9 (sorry, hard to see grey stuff on grey resin...)


[Christmas Present]¶
Finance-Zwölfe¶

I started to paint the wings. The colour scheme I saw some time ago in a YouTube video on the BuyPainted.com channel, and since then always wanted to try it - for the elven wings I think it will work just fine.

All the following steps where done using the airbrush, first step was to basecoat the whole miniature with 73.601 Grey Surface Primer.

Next, airbrushing 72.024 Falcon Turquoise and 71.001 White (2:1) lay the colour foundation for the wings.

I added some shading with pure 72.024 Falcon Turquoise (of course thinned down to not clog the nozzle).

The top and joint of the wings with body where then sprayed with 72.027 Scurfy Green mixed with Secret Weapon Washes Heavy Body Black (2:1 ratio), feathering that colour towards the middle section.

Next pure white was feathered towards the center from the lower outer edge.

Finally, the very tips where airbrushed 72.015 Hexed Lichen and 71.001 White (~8:1), feathering that into the white.

After assembling the wings will get a blue oil wash, other than that they are done.


[Christmas Present]¶
Finance-Zwölfe¶

I painted the skin. The base/shading colour uses the Hexed Lichen also used in the wings.

  • 1/8 72.015 Hexed Lichen

    &

    7/8 72.703 Pale Skin

  • 72.73 Pale Skin
  • 70.928 Light Flesh
  • 70.928 Light Flesh

    &

    71.001 White

  • 71.001 White


[Christmas Present]¶
Finance-Zwölfe¶

I painted the robe in a very pale pastel colour. I used the turquoise from the wings mixed into white.

  • 72.024 Falcon Turquoise (tiny little amount)

    &

    71.001 White

  • more 71.001 White added in several steps
  • pure 71.001 White
  • 70.951 White

The 71.001 I like very much for blending, as it is quite liquid and can be applied in very thin coats whithout the colour being runny. I might be wrong, but I always have the feeling that for a final stark white highlight, 70.951 is better suited and gives a brightness you cannot get with the 71.001.

With the whites still on the palette, I highlighted the hair over the grey base colour first with 71.001 then with 70.951 and painted in the eyeballs with 70.951.


[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


[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¶

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 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¶

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: