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Ok so this is a work in progress. Looking for some advice as I modify him or move forward with other minis.

Things I am still needing to finish.
- Glue mini to base
- Use some polyethylene to add snow to the base
- Mess with my polymer on the base to make it more ice like
- Maybe add some more white highlights to the hammer in the corners to make it pop a little more.


Things I wanted to do with this mini.
- Have a cool color scheme
- not use metalic paints at all (I don't like them)
- not use washes (I much prefer working with inks)
- go for a very dark grey (its 5 parts the darkest grey I could find with 4 parts black, though it comes out lighter after layers of dry brushing other highlights in)
- try a few different techniques out

Things I tried on a previous test mini
- tried adding in an orange for lettering (didn't like it)
- tried wet blending the entire thing (worked but I lost patience lol)
- I am not that great at NMM =/

I don't have much experience with painting. I have probably completed a total of 20 minis (mostly a color or two with dry brushing because I am lazy) over the past 10+ years. I did this test mini a little bit each night after work while watching TV. Advice would be appreciate, or ideas to go further.

Maybe a bit natural shadow/highlight could help, at the moment the grey/black looks a little flat.

But I like the colour scheme, the blue looks very nice ... and how did you do the eyes? They look amazing.

I like the grey and blue together. Nice effect with the highlights on the letters. You might try a little more contrast in the grey... it's a bit flat (but not bad at all).

I ask why you don't like using metallic paints.

I am no great painter, so take this with a grain of salt. But the grey is way out of contrast with your other work in this figure. If you're not going to use metalics, then you need to work with the whole grey spectrum to enhance your shading. Add a bit more black for the shadowed areas, and a bit of white for the highlighted areas. Right now it just looks primered. with a bit of blue and white area's painted. You should add some color to the weapons accented areas. There are trim pieces on the armor that I would think about coloring other than grey. If you look at the shoulder pads, you can see that there is the pad, then a piece along the upper edge that should probably take on a bit of a different color. Mabye a lighter grey or darker, whichever you like more. Basically, I'd give the grey areas a lot more shading work. Don't forget that black outlining can really make detail pop. Hopefully this helps a little bit.

Just a guess about the eyes, but is it blue ink over a white base? I use this technique on my plasma coils.

The eyes are actually 3 shades of blue that is what the lettering was done with. As for the grey there actually is more shading but the iphone didn't pic up as much. The highlights could use more yes, but I found that I lost the dark grey feel I was going for if I added in too much with the highlights.

hard highlights on the armor edges would give it some pop.

If you just lined edges with black ink, that would create greater definition. For instance, look at the last picture. If you look at the hand and the gun, it is hard to see that they are really separate. But if you were to line inbetween each finger with black ink. Then line the edges of the gun. You'd give each area definition from each other. Also, I'd put some black ink in each of the barrel holes. In the area that is under and behind the shoulder pads, I'd shade those areas with a darker grey. That way the shoulder pad would stick out a bit more. You really only need to define each area of the model a bit more. Lining with black ink will help a lot. Just use a very fine brush.