Yay, base!

More semi-naked vestal pictures at the bottom.

So, my husband finished the wood base for the monk vignette I was working on a while back. Today I cut the plasticard pieces I'll be using for the ground and wall of the scene. Here's what it looks like with the pieces put together.

I'll use a little putty at the join of the two pieces of plasticard to smooth it over. I'll also need to fill in the edges of the 'wall' part to make a nice edge, or at least a better edge.

Here are the pieces separately. The plasticard will be painted with the airbrush. I think the wall and the ground will be different colors, but I haven't decided which ones yet. And, I think I want them to be slightly different, but not hugely different. They're not meant to draw a lot of attention.

And here's the base. There are still some strips of the double-sided tape I used to hold the plasticard to it while trimming it down to size. I've since taken it off. The base is walnut; I'm going to finish it with some oil-based poly, which should give it a nice glow and shine.

Put some darker shadows on Azumi's gown, and put a layer of highlights on it. That's probably it for the green parts of the gown until I come back to do the freehand. Next I'll do her hair, the edging on her gown, and her sleeves. Also, you'll notice she lost one of her swords. Snapped right off while I was working on her. (Sigh.) I think I'll be able to glue it back on, but I won't do so until I'm ready to paint the swords. Putting it on earlier will just be asking for it to break off again. But, it does show she's a show piece only - too fragile for gaming.

And, the vestal. Put some deeper shading and lining on her skin. I'm using RMS Rosy Skin triad, but adding some RMS Ashen Brown to the Rosy Shadow to make a darker (and cooler) shade color. I also used straight Ashen Brown to line the edges of her skin. Using Ashen Brown in skin colors is something I got from Jen Haley's DVD's, and thought I'd give it a try here. I need to smooth the shadows out and clean them up a bit, but I'm liking the look so far.