“Steady Boy” Update

So Using the Reaper purple Worm created a few problems. The most important was that it made the base top heavy so I decided to sculpt my own creature.

So this is where I’m at, at the moment.

 

First big thing is the creature.

The problems cause by using the Reaper Purple worm, the whole piece being top heavy and unstable, are fixed. This is made from a 50/50 mix of Super Sculpey & Super Sculpey firm over a some Aluminium box wire (from Tiranti) for the armature. It's a really simple armature, the wire cut to length then twisted and bent into shape. around the mid section I wrapped some thinner wire to add bulk and also give me a handle. Still some bits to do on the monster, sculpting its face and legs but it's progressing well.

Next is the base.

Since the balance issue was sorted it enabled me to higher the path slightly to add a layer of cobbles. these are offset to the left to balance the monster curving up to the right. You will also notice I added a hole for the tail to emerge from and have made a sewer cover. This was done by using some instant mould and making a press mould from another smartmax mini I have. It's made from magic sculpt.
Raising the base also let me put in a layer of earth, the rough sand & pva mix. Later on I'll attach some roots to this to make the sewer appear more dank and run-down.
Other things added are the window frame and the bracket for the streetlamp and some balsa strips on the back wall. I have thought I might add some rough floorboards that the creature has broken through but I'm still unsure about this yet.
Anyway, thoughts and suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

“Steady Boy”

Ok, time for a new project. It's a long term project but after painting a few 32's and busts with very little conversion or some base work I fancied a project that I can really sink my teeth into and stretch myself.

The title of the piece is "Steady Boy" and consists of smartmax's Major Dreadful & Winston out for a walk late one evening when Winston hears something...
The creature looming above them is Reapers Purple worm (man that thing was hard to saw off it's base) which still needs some cleaning up after my bones review (Issue 21 of Portal if you missed it). I plan on adding to it several things including a set of eyes on stalks, some chitinous legs with sharp stabbie claw things and I want to extend the body down and have the tail coming through the pipe at the front of the base in the sewer part. Might also replace the plastic teeth with something more menacing and if possible a drooling, slobbery tongue.
There is still a ton of work to do on the base. Might see if I have room for a wall mounted victorian lamp (which I've gotta make) as I'd like it to have some nice and moody osl to add to the drama of the piece., Sewer is obviously gonna have some manky water at the bottom. Oh yeah got a window frame to add and some broken glass, plenty of grime and dirt... And that's where I'm up to so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to add them.

The Bastard Prince

This is a great mini and a little diversion while I get a busy period of real life out of the way and feel I can continue with The Grudge. The miniature I’m using is The Squire by Stone Tower Miniatures.

Stone Tower is owned by a fellow WAMP member Cregan Tur who got none other than Chris Clayton (aka giganticdark) to sculpt his first miniature. I was luck enough to get a couple of these.

First up I wanted to change the pose so he was standing astride some step so I copped off his feet and re positioned them. I was also luck enough to get some bases from MDP to combine into one plinth.

The Story Behind the Mini

The story is that the young lad, brought up in distant castle finds out his true lineage the day his half brother takes the thrown and decides that the young lad is surplus to requirements so he has to defend himself. I wanted to portray him backing up some step fighting for his life.

Once the feet where removed it was a case of repositioning him and pinning his feet back this left a small problem that the tops of his boots looked odd So these were removed and re-sculpted using Green Stuff.

In this image he has been cleaned up and primed.

 

 

And using copious amounts of Milliput and some thin plasticard the two bases have been melded into one plinth.

The Grudge V

Over the last couple of days I have been painting the chest plates of his armour. I wanted this to look like very old Bronze that has seen a fair amount of use, much like the rest of his armour. I did some image searches for reference and decided I wanted it to look somewhat like this Greek helmet. I like the various colours working together but without the polishing!.

I gave the the armour plates an undercoat of green then a couple of flat coats of Vallejo Model Colour Bronze. This is a good base to start with.

Once that had dried completely I took a leaf from Jabberwocky’s leather tutorial (Portal issue 10) decided to stipple the the various rough textures on. I use VMC Park Green, VMC Smoke & VMA Black which I left to dry a while so it went tacky.

Once happy I gave it a couple of washes with VMC Verdi Gris Glaze.

The final step was a very light drybrush of the original VMC Bronze but just in one direction, in this case upwards so only the underneath parts or the plates and rivets received the highlight.

The gold band was a much more simpler method. I painted VMC Old gold over a brown basecoat, shaded with VMC Smoke and VMC Royal Purple. This was then highlighted with a mix of VMC Old gold and VMA Gold.

As usual Crits and Comments Welcome.

The Grudge IV

So at last I got some primer and paint on this guy. Started off painting the eyes then the rest of his face and inside his mouth. Once happy with that I moved on to the metals because I know I can get a bit messy with all the stippling and washes I use. I managed to finish the upper shoulder pads and do some base coats for the gold and bronze.

images are a bit poor because they’re off my cell phone. but crits and comments are certainly welcome

The Grudge III

I have finished the modifications I wanted to make in the base. As you can see I have added some runes out of GS. Also, I did a spot of filling with the left-over GS.

This is the front and right side and the runes are Warrior and Strength accordingly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the left side and the back. The runes are Disruption and defence.

I’m itching to put some paint on this but I have been busy doing other stuff (designing Portal Magazine for WAMP).

 

Anyway, let me know what you think

The Grudge II

Well I have done some more on this massive Dwarf bust. The more I work on this the more I like it. Fist off was to blend him into the base. This was actually War Griffons suggestion and was something I really liked the idea of because is signifies the Dwarven link to stone. Click on the image for a larger view.

 To do this I had to fettle away the old stone texture to a smoother surface, this also reduced some of the bulk. I did the same with the plinth to match the base of the dwarf and also added some stone working marks. I then fixed him to the plinth with 2 heavy pins and some 2 part epoxy glue. Once that was cured I went over the whole area with claydium. This is an air drying clay that has two properties I wanted. The first is that it is impregnated with tiny fibres making pretty strong for an air drying clay. The second is that it shrinks so as it dries it cracks adding to the natural stone texture.

Once this had cured overnight I went over it with thinned down milliput to seal the clay and add some strength,

One the original, under the shoulder pad there was just 2 stumps which again was covered in the same rocky texture as the base area. These bugged me and had to be sorted so, like above, I  smoothed off the texture then rolled out two strips of kneadite and sculpted in a chainmail texture copying that on his stomach. Once these were cured I cut them to shape and glued them underneath the shoulder pads so they look like upper arms.

Here is the bust from the front.

Let me know what you guys think.