Werecroc: Details, shading

Got back to the werecroc today. I've got a commission piece I'll be starting soon, and I want to get him finished first.

I put the stripes and spots on his back. That's an idea that was pulled directly from my reference photo. I also put some highlights on the claws, and shaded and highlighted the inside of his mouth. I also put a little bit of a darker brown around the bottom of his teeth.

Next will be doing some (probably limited) shading and highlighting on the rest of him.

Cowboy: Base, Con't.

I attached the cowboy to his base. Not bad!

I also made some adjustments to the railing. I 'broke' one of the spindles and leaned it to the side. I also shortened the side pieces and put caps on them. Here's the result.

And here's what he would look like, more or less, with the railing in place.

It's a little taller than it would be, as I'd trim the corners off the floor boards and set the posts down under the floor. I haven't decided if I'm going to use it or not. It's just be in the way of painting him right now anyway, so I'm going to leave it off, do the painting, and decide later.

Werecroc: Details. Cowboy: Base

I went with adding details on the croc. I did his eyes, mouth, and claws. I actually did this yesterday, but didn't get a chance to post.

A note on painting from a source picture. His skin colors and the color on the inside of his mouth came right from pictures of crocodiles that I found on Google. However, when I looked at the colors for eyes and claws, both were similar greens to his skin. I didn't go with those. Why not? Well, for his eyes, I didn't want them to blend in with the rest of him. I wanted something that would stand out, so I went with yellow/orange. For the claws, I went with a darker color because I also wanted them to stand out. He's a were-crocodile and should be scary, and part of that is the big, sharp, claws.

Today I built the base for the cowboy. I'm going with wood planks, like on a porch or front entrance to the local saloon. Here's the base.

It's built with coffee stir sticks that I grabbed from my favorite Starbucks. That far back plank does have glue on it; I put the wrong side down on my first attempt. I'll have to sand that down. I have painted it gray here. It will end up gray, but this is just a primer/basecoat to start with so that I wouldn't have to worry about painting the bottom of the pieces or in between the planks. It will get final paint later. The broken board is on purpose to add a little interest.

I also built a railing.

This is made with plasticard. It has a number of imperfections. I'm going to put the cowboy on and see how it looks with the railing. I may not end up using it, but here's what it would kind of look like together.

Now, the bottom of the posts will be lower, and I'll trim the thick posts shorter. But we'll see. First I have to see if it works with the figure or not.

Werecroc: Rest of the Base Coat

Today I did the rest of his base coating, at least on the hide. I went with a lighter green stripe and then an almost white belly. I did a lot of wet blending to ease the transitions between those colors.

I'm liking him so far. Not sure what I'm going to do about shading and highlights, exactly.

Next time, I'll either finish detailing on his hide or detail his face. For his hide, the picture I'm working from has darker stripes across the back. For his face, it'd be doing the eyes and mouth. Maybe his claws as well.

Werecrocodile: Base Coating

Next project: the Bones Werecrocodile.

This is just a base coat on his back and other darker skin areas. Next I'll probably try to blend in the lighter color areas along his side and his belly, so the whole thing will be base coated.

19!

Finished of Marcus's base and attached him.

He'll do.

I have a Bones crocodile guy I'll work on the rest of this week. Then, I'm hoping this weekend to get back to the cowboy by building his base. His plinth is made and being finished with polyurethane now. After that I can build the scenic elements he'll be standing on, attach him, and get back to painting.

Marcus: Paint Done

I did the metal on Marcus today. That's all the paint for him. I just have to do his base now.