Micon: More shadow

Trying something new and different with the shadow for his skin tone. It's gonna be red. Looks a little weird to me, but that's because it's quite different from my usual palette. Also because it's partly done - it'll be better once I've cleaned the shadows up a bit, smoothed things out, and added a couple darker shadows and the highlights. I do like his back better than the chest.

Also got some work in on Dena. I put some green stuff on her boot where it needed to be reconstructed after removing her broccoli base, and also started extending the sword. When the green stuff has cured I'll cut it down to match the rest of the sword. What I didn't do that I should have done was add some brass rod off the end of the sword to act as support for the green stuff and help it stick; this may fall right off the end. Guess we'll see.

Micon: Skin Shading

Today I got back to Micon. I'm going to be trying to clear him off my table. I got started on shading his skin. This is just a first pass of shadow. I used RMS Olive Skin for the base color of his skin, and this is Olive Shadow in the shadows. It's not dark enough to be a final shadow, but it has helped the definition a little bit...and he has lots of muscles to define!

11!

Here's Takhi with his base finished and everything put together. Done!

I am a little concerned that I didn't do enough with the back side of the piece, but...the back is pretty vertical there. And either way, I need to move on to other things. He's done.

Speaking of other things, my next major project will be a diorama I intend to put in competition at ReaperCon, if I finish. It's going to be a kneeling woman facing a woman on a throne - both Reaper figures - with the title 'Fealty'. Tonight I started cleaning up the kneeling woman, which included removing her integral base. That was a pain, but it could have been way worse than it was.

I have some Green Stuff work to do around her feet and lower legs where I cut, trimmed, and filed away the base. There's some reshaping and filling in that needs to be done. I also need to lengthen her sword. With the original base, it reached the 'ground', but I think that's because they built the base up to meet it.

And lastly, there's this guy. A friend of mine has a Captain America figure he wants to paint, and wants help with the metallic reds. I haven't really done metallic red, so this is the first of a few experiments on how different techniques come out. This will be TMM with red metallic. I put a red undercoat on there, and then the RMS Ruby Red red metallic paint. Heck, with good lighting it's not terrible just like that.

Takhi: Base Update

I got a lot of work in on Takhi's base over the last couple days. Here's where it stands. I'm going to take another look tomorrow and see if there's any more changes I want to make, but I think it's pretty much done.

Takhi's Base

Here's an update on Takhi's base. It's coming along steadily. Next will be ferns and such, but I will need to paint them before applying them.

Hunter: Done!

Well, his paint is done, anyway. I need to put together a base for him. Going to play with  doing a swamp base. He's pretty rough - the blending is terrible - but he's done, which was the goal. And from arm's length he looks fine.

I've also done some work on Takhi's base, but failed to get pictures. That'll have to wait for tomorrow.

Hunter: Face, Hair

I did get a little more done on Takhi's base today, but was unable to get pictures I spent most of my time on the hunter, working on his face, nails, and fur. I think I'll go back and make his fur darker.

Takhi's base, Hunter Highlights

So I've been working on Takhi's base, mostly planning layout and practicing techniques. Here's a shot of a potential composition.

Takhi is behind the base rather than on top of it, so he will look bigger in the final composition. That's a squirrel on the left. I will not be using that actual squirrel, it's just there for test purposes.

Here's the base with some additional rocks glued on.

This is the vegetation I'm thinking of using as a tree after it's been painted. Not too bad, eh?

And these are test boards for moss. It's texture that's glued on to the base and then painted. The one on the left is painted; the one on the right is just glued and waiting to dry. The surface is a mix of two different sized flocks glued on with Elmer's that's been mixed with green paint. I plan to put that moss over a large part of the base.

Last, I got in a little progress on the hunter. I've highlighted his skin and did a bit of smoothing. Not a ton; I'm not trying to make him a super smooth competition piece. But I am liking the way he looks.

Takhi and His Base

Did the cleanup on Takhi today. I don't think you'll see a lot of difference from yesterday's pictures. I'm gong to look him over for anything I missed, but unless I find something, he's done. Well, he needs sealer and then he's done.

I'm quite pleased with him. The only thing that is questionable is how the saturated green on his staff draw attention away from the main body of the figure, but I'm hoping once he's on his base (which will have a lot of bright green) that will balance that out some.

Speaking of his base, I started painting it today. It's meant to be like a hill that's mostly dirt with some rocks sticking out. I'm going to put lots of moss, ferns, and foliage on it, in hope of giving it a ;woodsy undergrowth' sort of look. We'll see how that goes. My basing skills are not great.

Takhi: Staff

Did the highlighting and shading on the ribbons on Takhi's staff. It's pretty much down to clean up now for him.

Takhi: Spear

Did the metal ends of the spear and started on the ribbons. Attaching the arm is making it both easier and more difficult to paint - easier in that I don't have to hold it while I'm painting it anymore, harder in that I'm having to move the figure in weird directions to get all the angles and some of them are still pretty hard to reach. It's been harder keeping him from leaning, and holding the figure upside down is a little scary as I think he's going to fall right off one of these times.

But I'm almost done! Just the ribbon and the feathers and then touch up. And then, of course, his base.

Takhi's Details and Base. Hunter's Shading.

So I decided what to do with the talisman on Takhi's base. Then, with all the stuff on his main body done, I glued his other arm on.

I think having the other arm in place helps a lot. I also got in some work on his base today. I had planned to cover the top of the wood with some textured paste, leaving just a 1/4 inch border around the edge, but now I'm thinking I kinda like it this way and putting some plants right along the bottom edge of the bard might be good enough.

Since I had to set Takhi aside while the glued arm was setting, I got back to work on the hunter by darkening up the shadows.

Going to have to go back and smooth some of the transitions.

Takhi: Feathers and Other Details

Continued working on Takhi's details today. Did the feathers and some other bits. The last thing (other than his arm) is the talisman on his back, and I'm having trouble picking colors for that that work for me. I might end up going a completely different direction tomorrow.

Takhi: Beads and Details

Got back to Takhi today, and worked on some of the details of the sculpt. Today it was another string of beads, and then a base coat on the hilt of his knife and the thing on his back.

I'm going with bone for the handles, mostly because putting in yet another brown did not work out that well. I suppose I could go with a very dark brown, but I have my doubts.