Doc Zoff's WIP

I met Tony for a counselling session today, he said some things that he needed to say, I did the same, some feelings got hurt, some tears were shed, but then some bridges got mended... after a long process we have decided that we are going to try again. I have agreed that I will look at him in a different light, and to be fair he does look a lot better in daylight...
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Tony agreed that he is prepared to change and accepts that a green wash might tone down his clown trousers a bit.

We were also told that we couldn't leave the session until we had found one nice thing to say about each other.

I said his wings looked warmer and less frozen in daylight...
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He said maybe I'm not quite so much of a complete c#nt as I seem to be.

"Yeah? Well your clown trousers still look sh!t to me!!"

Early days!

Who says counselling doesn't work hey!

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Originally Posted by Sigmar3

Who says counselling doesn't work hey!

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It takes a long time and the mini has to want to change!! However, scalpels, gouges and other surgical instruments can be far more immediate! Moo ha ha ha haaa!!

Tony ... you tell that big mouth stuck up cold winged...eh tony whassup buddy didn’t see you there....lolololol I don’t know what thisisbutilove it just the same...crazy and ballad ishow I like these bold creations...

Doc, I'm still excited to see how this turns out. TBH, your thread has become something of a guilty addiction for me...I find myself frequently checking in on your thread, in hopes that there's been some new twist/turn/addition to your project. It's interesting, and your *imagination* is intriguing. Glad to hear you two have come to an agreement!

Hey Doc! I love the work you did on the wings. Amazing blend. Are you using regular craft paint instead of $$$$ hobby paint?

The trousers are not my style though, sorry... Technically they are pretty cool, they do look like lizard skin (the effect you wanted?).
But I think the yellow/green clashes with the beautiful pink/blue wings.

Then again, my wife swears I'm colorblind, so please take my opinion with a pinch of salt :)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone! I was going to shelve Tony and switch attention to repairing a zombie dragon, but you guys have given me the motivation to keep working with him. We've had anothe counselling session and defined the source of the relationship issue as an argument over who wears the trousers...

"You wear them"

"F##k off they look stupid, you f##king wear them!"

The sharper eyed amongst you may have noticed that Tony is only wearing two trouser legs in the photos above... and guess who gets to wear the other two!! (deep joy!)

And now, my entry for 'Skankiest conversion tip of the week'...

Don't throw away model sprue off-cuts, chew them between your teeth until they look like battered armour plate. Perfect for ork battlefiled armour mods.
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(author accepts no responsibility for dental bills).

No progress on Tony yet but hope to get some more WIP photos up soon (have to beat my 7 Days To Die gaming addiction first).

Cheers,
The Doc

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Originally Posted by Doc Zoff

Don't throw away model sprue off-cuts, chew them between your teeth until they look like battered armour plate.

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This is such a weird and wonderful idea! Each armor plate is a snowflake: you'll never get the same piece twice :)

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Originally Posted by gorb

Hey Doc! I love the work you did on the wings. Amazing blend. Are you using regular craft paint instead of $$$$ hobby paint?

The trousers are not my style though, sorry... Technically they are pretty cool, they do look like lizard skin (the effect you wanted?).
But I think the yellow/green clashes with the beautiful pink/blue wings.

Then again, my wife swears I'm colorblind, so please take my opinion with a pinch of salt :)

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No worries Gorb, I think the trousers look gopping as well which kinda raises the question 'Why did I paint them like that then?' There is a single character in the Chinese alphabet that portrays the entire concept of 'a person who intends to achieve greatness but through lack of understanding of their own limitations actually causes disaster. Nah, not really, I made that up, its actually a single English word... 'Fuckwitt!'.

Thanks for the thumbs up on the blending though, I do feel that I've improved my blending skills so there are positives here. :)

I was a bit pushed for time this evening so I did a quick bit of basing instead...

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It's slate with cork CA'd down, and CA with bicarb to fill the various gaps. I then soaked the cork in more CA and sprinkled bicarb to quickly harden everything. Painted all applied various washes and higlights, and then glazed a few shadows into recesses and darker areas of rock. Final touch was a wash of very dilute blue over the bedrock which just pulled it out from the rest of the base. It's nothing special, except that my usual base is bare plastic, so this is a bit of a personal achievement for me. I've got some pre-made small grass tussocks with scattered stones that would finish this base nicely, but can I find them!?

The figure is GW's Golgfang Maneater ogre character, and is pretty much a straight build other than having to do a lot of clean up of the initially very rough 'finecast' resin. I did a lot of resculpting of his cloak at the back, but did I get a photo of this (D'ohh!).

Usual apologies for the flash phone shoddy photography, a colleague at the uni I work at has offered me some time and assistance in one of their photographic studios (plus studio lights, pro cameras etc.) but I want to build up a good portfolio of work before I take him up on this (and the studios are pretty heavily used in term time so probably in the summer).

So I have eventually summoned the motivation to get Tony the undead Pony back ont ot he workbench.

I decided the bet thing I could do with the yellow and green polka dot was take it back to white. I'm going to have another try with the lizard skin idea, but this time using pinks, reds and purples to tie in with the wing and body colours.
Here's stage one...
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I've applied purple spots to all four legs, which initially looks very polka-dot, but the main purpose of this first very thickly applied base is to give texture. On the front right leg I've also added dark pink detailing to start better defining the shapes of the pattern and break up that polka-dot look. I'm much more encouraged with the initial results both technically, and more importantly easthetically. I'll try to continue stippling in more detail and colour variation (first attempt with stippling, so I'm very much learning as I go) and then progress to glazing in some background shade over the white and see whether I can acheive a degree of blending (may not be possible, the transition distances are tiny).

I guess the most significant progress is picking him up again!

Cheers all!

Indeed a thing that nightmares are made of!!! The

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Originally Posted by BloodASmedium

Indeed a thing that nightmares are made of!!! The... <<My batteries are low and it's getting dark...........>>

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<<BAM, This is Houston, are you receiving???>>>
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<<BAM, This is Houston, are you receiving???>>>
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<<BAM, This is Houston, are you receiving???>>>
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<<BAM, This is Houston, are you receiving???>>>
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Slower progress tonight...
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... using the sharpened tip of a bamboo skewer to stipple in better shape to the patches and introduce some colour transitions. As ever the photograph is rather harsh and very forensic at such high magnification, the original look much smoother. I'll probably call it a day for now on the visible side of this leg and move on to the other side and then the other three legs. Though I haven't grabbed a complete photo tonight the reds, pinks and purples are far more in harmony. Definitely an improvement over the yellow and green.

Better progress tonight and I'm feeling like I'm getting some control back on Tony's paint job. I started with a couple of purple washes over the trial snakeskin, both to consolidate the rather uneven finish and to give a little more visual contrast with the areas of flayed flesh. I then painted in the flayed flesh on the test leg, I may apply some more oranges to increase the colour contrast with the skin and to pick out muscle groups, any advice here guys?

I also tackled a problem area that I've not been relishing, the head and neck. Molded in the cheapest quality polythene thinned paint just refused to key despite several prior coats. I solved this by applying a fairly undiluted coat of GW Ceramite White, because I know this paint has a very course pigment grain. The white provided the key after which I could easily apply thinned coats of blue to the hair, and pink to the face and neck. I also painted in the exposed spine and attached sinew.
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I now feel that I have a much better overall balance across the figure, with the various elements tying together more.
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The tail is the last part that hasn't had a rough colour applied, partly because I'm not completely comfortable with my sculpting. At the moment it looks like a bit of an after-thought that's just been stuck onto the figure. I was considering a scorpion sting but I probably need to completely remodel the tail for this to work, and I've not got it clearly visualised which will leave me struggling to sculpt it. I'm thinking more towards a long whip-like tail (maybe pink rat like) flicked forward with a devil's barb on the end. Plenty of other work to do yet so I'll ponder the tail while I continue.

This nightmare is starting to come alive! Much more cohesive, with the colors you chose for the legs.
And the flayed flesh and bones on the back look great!
I'm sure the tail will work out just as good as the rest of the model, don't worry.

Well you guys just gave me a bid laugh. I am liking the evel pony. The new shapes on the red spots look much more naturalistic than the previous attempt. Keep after it!

Bit more progress tonight, I shaped and painted Tony's hooves...
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There was a fissure in the milliput on one hoof (think I stretched the last bit of milliput a bit too far during sculpting but it was a couple of years back so not sure now) that caused one of the cloven 'toes' on the back left leg to break. Looking back at previous photos the gap was always evident. I've left it unfixed for now and will see how it looks when the painting is nearer completion. It's also handy being able to quickly look back at 'before shots' because it didn't feel like I achieved much for an evenings' filing and scraping, but I can see that the hooves had needed a lot of shaping, so it has been worthwhile.

I'm veering away from the scorpion tail idea. Tony's back is very arched and is very much the opposite pose to a scorpion in attack stance (probably why I couldn't visualise the pose). I am quite liking the idea of a long barbed rat tail though. The obvious step is to sculpt the tail first (or sculpt several and choose the best) and only start modifying Tony if I think it's a clear improvement.

Thanks for the positive feedback Gorb and KruleBear, I'm glad you apporve, and seem to agree that the revised style and colour scheme of the lizard skin is an improvement. I saw a youtube vid today of a computer graphics artist painting scales. He got a great three dimensional effect by adding highlights to the top edges of the scales and shadows to the bottom. I had a quick attempt on Tony, but the detail would have to be far finer than I'm able to work to, so I wiped it away quick before it started to dry. Maybe very small single spot highlights might work at this scale, I'll have a try and be ready with the wet cloth in case it doesn't.

This WIP is keeping me on track. There have been a few times when my typical reaction would be to lose heart and shelve Tony indefinitely, but regular positive feedback from everyone, plus seeing other painters facing similar issues (or far more challenging ones) on their WIPs has helped me past those points (so far). I still have a fair amount to do (by my slow standards) but I'm feeling more confident of seeing this one through.

Cheers all!

<<update: as usual looking at the photo give a different perspective, I think I need to build the back hoves up to match the height of the front, so will fix the break at the same time, and I'll be happier when the 'in progress' polka dots are gone ;) >>

Nice change of pace for Tony today, he stopped of at the salon for a nice relaxing cut and blow-dry...
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Hang on a mo,
New clothes that give a slimmer look, toenails recently painted, cut & blow dried hair-do... I think we might be getting towards the root of Tony's unhappiness. And the weird thing is that now that I see it, I'm not even that suprised (in hindsight the Tiara was probably also a bit of a clue).

Ahh right... I 've been wondering why all his mates have started calling him Tanya. The penny finally drops!

Sickening but most enjoyable to watch!!!

Can we compromise and call her Tonya? Love the hairdo.
What in grud's name is that green thing poking out of Tonya's chest?
This build is great!