Chors by Ignis Art Miniatures
This was my first ever bust! This is Chors by Ignis Arts, it was part of a series called Slavic Legends on their website. I had always wanted to have a go at trying to paint at bust and also practice skin tones but had always been intimidated. I saw this previewed on their Instagram page and I fell in love with the sculpt immediately!
Right from the start I was impressed, the consumer experience of opening this box for a limited edition model was 10/10 but also made a tad nervous to paint her. Inside the box there was Chors herself printed in a very high quality. A sticker of her and a information card about her in Slavic folklore along with the print number, they only made 350 of these at the time. See the bottom of the page for those photos.
So after thoroughly washing the pieces in warm soapy water, letting them dry and gluing her together leaving the moon separate. I primed her black and got to work. I initially began with Citadel Phoenician Purple for the base of her skin tone as I wanted to follow the concept art design of her, working my way up in lighter purples and blues. The table later would be completely flipped on this…
For the hair I wanted to keep in the same theme of using purple for undertones, so I mixed white into the purple to desaturate it before applying 2 smooth layers, taking my time on the hair around the chest and arms to not hit the skin. I had yet to put her on a plinth so I pinned her to a polystyrene block to help during drying and handling. At the time for each step I was overly cautious and hesitated a lot as I was worried there would be no way to save the model if I messed up.
So… I messed up here… I decided to darken the hair using Vallejo Game Ink Azul Blue all over her hair. However after it dried it had left these uneven spotty drying marks all over the hair, I had been pushing the ink around after the 5 second drying time rule. It had darkened the recesses lovely but the rest looked horrible. Me being the king of mistakes decided to add more layers of the ink thinking I could fix the mistake and sadly I couldn’t.
I went away to clear my head and hatch a plan how to come back from this mistake, I would not be beaten! I decided to layer up blues starting dark to light then apply glazes to tie it all together. I started with Pro Acryl Dark Grey Blue using thin layers, then Pro Acryl Blue, Pro Acryl Sky Blue getting smaller and smaller. Finally mixing Pro Acryl White and Sky Blue for the top highlight layer so it was bright but just the subtle hint of Blue still, I didn’t want pure white. I applied this all over the hair from the front.
I had begun to glaze layers of the mid-tone Blue to bring the hair together again, but the project was put on hold as my family member passed away around this time. This threw me out of painting for a while as I had a lot of responsibility suddenly put in my lap, including moving into a new house. I couldn’t focus or even had the energy to sit and paint.
Sudden skin change Gasp ! Hehe fast forward to summer 2025. Finally my life had settled down again, my partner helped me set up a permanent hobby space in the new home and I was fired up to finish this model, I wanted a win by completing my first ever bust!
I decided I wanted to redo the entire skin so I started with painting Pro Acryl Golden Brown over the purple. Then for the raised areas like her muscle definition etc I used a 50/50 mix of Ninjon’s Pro Acryl Dark Warm Flesh and Golden Brown, applying it in thin smooth layers. I then added a tiny bit of Pro Acryl Tan Flesh to the mix to add more layers. Sadly this is the last of my progress photos for this project as I got locked on and didn’t really think to take more photos, sorry.
And here she is finished, even though I haven’t got progress photos I will do my best to explain what I done for the final steps. I finished glazing the mid-tone blue across her hair and I am so happy it worked after the blue ink catastrophe! I painted her cape with Pro Acryl Dark Grey Blue.
For her armband and tiara I used Vallejo Model Air Metallic Arctic Blue followed by a thin layer or Daler Rowney Pearlescent Galactic Blue. The Model Air Metallic range applies incredibly well with a brush if you don’t have access to an airbrush.
The eyes made me nervous, I carefully blocked the eyes in with white, followed by sky blue for the iris. Then I dotted the eyes making sure to exhale as I did so.
For her makeup I used Pro Acryl Coal Black for the eye shadow. I used this black also to neaten up the corded neck piece she has on. For her lips I applied a heavily water down Pro Acryl Bold Pyrrole Red to just tint them.
Finally all that was left was the moon she is holding, I primed it with Citadel Macragge Blue then very carefully applied Pro Acryl Blue. For the inside section of the moon I used very thin coats of Pro Acryl Faded Ultramarine, catching the edges ever so slightly.
I pinned her to a Plinth and with that, Chors was complete! It was an very emotional project for me as it was the model I was working on when my family member passed away, so to complete it finally and display it proudly in the home he left me was a somber moment. I learnt a lot painting this model including to trust the process and not to panic, things can be undone. Would I paint another bust with skin tones? Absolutely! For anyone who may be contemplating painting a bust, please give it a go and push yourself out of your comfort zone.
Once again thank you for reading this and if you want to see full 360 photos of Chors, head over to the gallery.
Take care!
