gorb's paint & putty pony show

[gorb]

I'll be putting all my little WIP projects on this thread: mostly sculpting, but also painting.

To start with, some pics of a couple of 35mm sculpts I recently did. I haven't worked at this scale before, so it is both awesome and infuriating at the same time.

My first sculpt is a little space explorer called Ace Bolt.
This is from a sketch I did a while ago. He came out pretty rough, but I'm still learning how to layer polymer clay over epoxy putty, so basic shapes it is.
The sketch was drawn in a cartoony style, so it suits the figure.
He is up on the gallery here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/432646

The second is a 3-eyed 6-legged killer octopus that is most likely trying to kill Ace. From the same rough cartoony sketch. I got more confident so added a couple of details.
Still rough though. Please check the final photo shoot out here: http://www.coolminiornot.com/432843

The third one is a space pilot called Delta Jet. She will most likely end up saving Ace's sorry ass from the killer octopii.
For this one I started the same way: wire armature, covered with a skeleton of green stuff, followed by bulking out with fimo+sculpey.
But I had real trouble smoothing the surface of the poly clay, until I finally realized that maybe it was because I bought the fimo at Michaels, and it had probably been sitting on the shelf
since 1850. So I re-skinned her with pure sculpey, which I softened with alcohol and water. Much better.

As always, learning as I'm going.

[gorb]

So I spent the weekend putting my wips on bases. Nothing spectacular, the simple wood glue + cork and sand. I put Ace Bolt and the Killer Octopus onto some wooden dowels, and the dreadnought got the top bit of the cap from an empty bottle of liquid detergent. Then I primed it all.

I added some Terminators that I got off ebay and stripped (that was a nightmare, they were covered in a very thick paint that was super difficult to get off, even after a week in degreaser). The Terminators have some home-made bases that I made from cardboard, drinking straws, some plastic matting, etc. to give them a more Space-Hulky feel.

Looks like I have enough to paint for a while...

[CyAniDe]

The terminator bases look pretty good and I also like the cybot base

Your primer left a pretty rough surface though :/ Hope it won't cause problems for the paintjob.
For stripping off colours I'ld recommend Revell Airbrush cleaner! It strips off even dried enamel colours without attacking plastics (like aceton would do). I use it to clean my airbrush (obviously, still the best cleaner I ever had) but also stripped minis in it. Works really well!

It's around 10€ for 500ml -> so pretty cheap. If you still want to safe more look for 1-Methoxy-2-propanol

[KruleBear]

That killer octopus is cool.

[BloodASmedium]

Again ... i LOOOOOOVEthe rough look on things-bases, brushstrokes. Things like that add to the mood in my book. Differences is what your looking for models that look like “hey those are wonderful painted models” where everything is pristine and looks like fine china. Or “wow all those Lil nuances reflect those models as tenue tiny realistic looking entities!” ))) i say keep the imperfections)))!
BaM love that space dude.and that space calamari -well done !!!!

[gorb]

The terminator bases look pretty good and I also like the cybot base

Your primer left a pretty rough surface though :/ Hope it won't cause problems for the paintjob.
For stripping off colours I'ld recommend Revell Airbrush cleaner! It strips off even dried enamel colours without attacking plastics (like aceton would do). I use it to clean my airbrush (obviously, still the best cleaner I ever had) but also stripped minis in it. Works really well!

It's around 10€ for 500ml -> so pretty cheap. If you still want to safe more look for 1-Methoxy-2-propanol

Thanks for all the tips CyAniDe. Yes, the terminator primer surface looks pretty bad in that photo. It looks better in real life, but I am planning to pick
up some proper primer (most likely some stynylrez) soon. Let's see what happens once I start painting them. It might show, but as BaM says it might just give them some character too

Regarding the airbrush cleaner, I'll give it a go. Pre-painted minis, especially badly painted ones, are always cheaper but you've gotta put some work into cleaning them up, so any help in that regard is much appreciated!

That killer octopus is cool.

Thanks I like him too, he was great fun to sculpt.

Again ... i LOOOOOOVEthe rough look on things-bases, brushstrokes. Things like that add to the mood in my book. Differences is what your looking for models that look like “hey those are wonderful painted models” where everything is pristine and looks like fine china. Or “wow all those Lil nuances reflect those models as tenue tiny realistic looking entities!” ))) i say keep the imperfections)))!
BaM love that space dude.and that space calamari -well done !!!!

BaM, you're the best Yup, all the little dents and imperfections in the things I build are kinda my mark on them. I try to be as steady and careful as I can, but nothing is perfect. We all just get better as we keep doing more.

Here is one last one, she is now 99% finished. There are a couple of hairline cracks that I need to patch, but otherwise she's ready to be based.
Then I can start painting all of this gear!

[Graishak]

Your killer octopus is very nicely designed. Reminds me somehow to the Matrix movie ;-)
Any plans, by when you're going to put paint on it? I'm curious.

[gorb]

Your killer octopus is very nicely designed. Reminds me somehow to the Matrix movie ;-)
Any plans, by when you're going to put paint on it? I'm curious.

Thanks Graishak, much appreciated! It's in the pipeline, I started working on the Terminators and Dreadnought last night, had a lot of airbrushing to do so I did that first.

[gorb]

Spent Wednesday night doing some serious assembly line airbrushing.
First a basecoat of white on the shoulder pads, then covered them with silly putty and did a black preshade into all the crevasses, and finally some darker red on the body panels.
This is rough, I will clean up the lines, deepen the shadows, etc. then proceed to do all the pretty stuff.
So this is just to get an idea.

[gorb]

The Delta Jet sculpt is finished! you can see the final result here:
http://www.coolminiornot.com/433341

Now, back to painting

[gorb]

After basecoating the terminators, I decided to do a test run first, and take one of the figs and finish it far enough so I could tell whether it was going to work out or not.
The look I'm going for is like the one in this painting, just of course in a different setting:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ea/0f...77f0d7a354.jpg

So I've got a very dark red / green shadow, going all the way up to a brighter red on the highlights. The shoulder pads are bone white, going to white highlights.

I still need to finish the metallic bits, purity seal, and the various lenses etc. But so far the overall scheme is what I could come up with to duplicate the above mentioned painting.

Please let me know your comment, advice and critique.

[BloodASmedium]

Very nice very very nice(Borat) lol real nice looking tremors.

[gorb]

Thanks BaM! I am not sure where to take this next, it still feels unfinished. Like I need some more shading in the shadow areas (???) they look too flat. And overall it looks very dark. Anyways, looking forward to any advice.

[ekipage]

I am thinking a little more mid-red tone and some highlights (just my opinion) as you have quite a bit of shadow. But if that is what you are going for, ignore that

[gorb]

I am thinking a little more mid-red tone and some highlights (just my opinion) as you have quite a bit of shadow. But if that is what you are going for, ignore that

Thanks, ekipage! I'll definitely do that.

[gorb]

Almost finished: Added some variation to the shadow areas. More highlights. Filled in the eyes, lenses. Worked a bit on the base. Added the freehand raven.
Still need to finish some of the detail, and add some of the BaM-inspired weathering!

Any and all comments and advice welcome. And have yourselves a happy new year!

[Chaotic Creations]

Ah man how did I not come across your thread until now, sorry mate!!!! Some really cool stuff has been happening here. The terminator is looking great, especially that freehand, nice clean, straight lines. Well done

[BloodASmedium]

All this a from the scratch- you gotta love it folks-you just gotta love the passion!!!

[gorb]

Thanks CC & BaM. Painting is where I suck the most, so this is where I'll be asking you all for advice, over and over again until I get it

I finished the terminator up: added some dark-lining, and a couple of scratches from previous encounters with Things on the space hulk, which
is very rusty, it seems. Cleaned up the freehand, and gave it a matte hard coat.

I didn't go all out with the scratches, since I barely know what I'm doing. It is nerve wracking to me, holding a paint-filled brush next to a piece of blended armor
that took me ages to paint. I almost backed down...

Here are some larger shots of the finished unit, and I've put it up here for your voting pleasure.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/433747

[gorb]

I finally figured out where about 90% of my subliminal inspiration comes from. Here's a clue: Ace Bolt, for example, reminds me of a certain Strontium Dog.
So I started giving him some nice pyjamas: