First of all I have to say this model is very cool. I normally dislike undead figures (mostly because everyone else seems to love them - I'm a hipster like that) but this figure is just large and imposing with a great sculpt and a menacing look.
I wanted to make him a little taller, so I started by adding cork to the base. I glued the figure together completely and that was my first mistake. After priming him (pretty terribly to be honest), I picked up the model to apply the first few layers of paint and subsequently dropped him on the work table, smashing him into smithereens... I then decided it would be good to pin the crap out of this model - something I should've done from the get go. I did, however, keep him separated in two major parts: the legs and body, and the arms and weapon. I don't normally do this due to pure laziness and the idea that "what is covered up I can't see anyways so why paint it?" but I decided to try something new. I don't regret painting it in pieces.
Other than that, I pretty much knew what I wanted to do for this guy. This was originally intended to be a Gottacon 2014 painting competition entry but I didn't finish it quite on time. With the competition in mind, however, I wanted to throw as many silly gimmicks into this figure as possible. I'm not one for "special effects" on figures, but I know judges sure like them (I'm looking at you Kelly Kim!), though I am a huge fan of technique. Thus, I added NMM, which I wasn't originally intending to do, OSL, AND some silly airbrushed cotton fire just to really cake on the cheese!
I used my Skorne red, my Circle of Orboros gold NMM, my standard steel NMM, and some black cloth. I got some GW skulls (because lets face it- PP can't sculpt a decent skull worth crap half the time) for the base as well to add to the undead theme. Usually I think putting corpses on bases is super tacky but I felt it suited this figure.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the results and I'll have to kindly ask Shawn to borrow the figure for a competition of some sort in the future. Which one I'll enter it in is yet to be decided.
So... I'm easily impressed by cheese, am I? ;)
ReplyDeleteBeautifully done, as always. The gold and silver NMM is sterling (pun intended). Super contrasts really give it that highly reflective finish. This is one undead that seems to love his chrome and Turtle Wax.
You are definately the undisputed master of technique and foundation mastery. Your blending is about as good as I've ever seen in person. I think the few times you've been frustrated in competition is the fact that you undervalue a few other aspects of miniature painting. Not all judges are the same, and what impresses each one is slightly different from judge to judge. My only advice is what has (kinda) worked for me in the past: use each entry as a showcase of as many different talents as you can present to a judge. I always try to throw in a tiny bit of weathering, a little freehand, a lighting effect or two, something thematic, maybe a minor conversion, etc. etc. etc. The fact is, I have no idea who will be judging a particular competition, so hitting the model with everything I've got is like shooting at a flock of geese with a big blunderbuss full of birdshot... I'm bound to hit something that the judge will like. No guarantee that it'll win, but it's much more likely to get into the final cut at least.
F*ck... I've judged my fair share of competitions, and entered in my fair share (I think my first competition was back in the mid '90s), and I still don't know what will win any given competition. I've seen the absolute MOST technically flawed models beat out the most superlative miniatures, just because some odd aspect of the winner tickled a particular judge's fancy. It's kind of like a cooking competition... just throw everything into the pot, and see what happens.