Painting Velgra Stonecleave: Desert Teal, Oxblood Leather and Oxidised Steel
Velgra Stonecleave is a large-format wasteland warrior built around movement, layered equipment and hard-worn surfaces. The live Maximum Minis listing describes a Wasteland Wars display figure by Haito, standing roughly 180mm tall without the base. It is supplied unpainted in grey resin, giving painters a clean starting point for a strongly controlled post-apocalyptic palette.
The palette: faded colour against hard metal
The core scheme uses sun-faded desert teal for the main cloth, deep oxblood brown for leather, and dark oxidised steel for the improvised weapon, buckles and armour hardware. Copper-orange hair adds warmth near the face, while tiny turquoise verdigris marks repeat the teal without making every metal surface look equally corroded.
This works because the materials separate clearly: teal reads as worn fabric, oxblood as dense leather, and steel as cold machinery. Keep the brightest highlights near the face, shoulders, hands and upper weapon so the eye travels through the pose instead of settling on the base.
Building the desert-teal cloth
Start from a dark blue-green basecoat, then mix in a muted sand or warm ivory for successive highlights. Place the strongest highlights on knees, elbows, shoulder folds and the upper edges of the top. A thin brown-black glaze pushed into seams will restore depth after highlighting. For sun bleaching, stipple a very dilute sandy tone over exposed areas rather than drawing sharp scratches everywhere.
Oxblood leather without a glossy plastic finish
Begin with a near-black red-brown, layer toward a muted brick red, and finish with small tan edge marks on straps, pouch corners and boot creases. Reserve satin varnish for selected high-contact areas. Keeping most leather matte makes the occasional sheen feel like rubbed, compressed hide rather than fresh paint.
Oxidised steel, chipped edges and restrained verdigris
Paint the weapon and hardware in dark gunmetal, shade with brown-black washes, then stipple irregular rust tones into recesses and around fasteners. Re-establish only the most exposed edges with a bright steel line. Add verdigris sparingly around rivets or copper-bearing details; it should be an accent, not a blanket wash.
Skin, hair and focal contrast
Warm, dusty skin helps Velgra sit naturally in the wasteland setting. Use a medium warm flesh base, deepen shadows with a muted red-brown, and finish with small highlights on the brow, nose, cheeks and knuckles. For the copper-orange hair, work from dark brown roots through burnt orange to restrained ochre tips. Dark roots keep the hair believable and stop it competing with the face.
A cracked-concrete display base
Keep the base pale enough to frame the darker figure. Layer cool grey concrete, warm dust and rust-stained rubble, then use pigments around the boots to connect Velgra to the ground. A few darker chips beneath the rubble add depth. Avoid covering the whole base in bright orange rust; concentrated stains tell a more convincing story.
Finishing the printed model
The listing notes that the resin model is printed on demand, cured and supplied with supports removed, though small supports may remain. Dry-fit the parts, inspect contact points, and remove any remaining marks before priming. Assembly may be required, and cyanoacrylate-style super glue is recommended. Because the model is intended for experienced modellers, take time to pin or reinforce any heavy joins that would benefit from extra strength.
Imaginative lore: the Stonecleave signal
The following is optional invented lore, not product information. Velgra earned the name Stonecleave after using her improvised weapon to crack open a sealed transit vault beneath the salt flats. Inside she found no treasure—only a dormant emergency transmitter. Now she crosses the ruins, broadcasting one short message at dusk: a safe road exists, but only for those willing to help keep it open.
For a display vignette, suggest that story with a broken cable, a faded route marker or a tiny strip of warning colour on the rubble. The narrative stays secondary to the figure, but it gives every chip and stain a reason.
See Velgra Stonecleave
Explore the unpainted Velgra Stonecleave display model at Maximum Minis:
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