Bailey03's WIP

KruleBear

Active member
Nice. The only nit picking I can come up with is that the Aquilifer's skin may be too smooth. Doesn't look blotchy or as tanned as I would envision for a trooper slogging around in the environment. ( or I could just be jealous that I can not get skin that smooth ;))
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Yeah, I should have added some dirt and muck to him... but I was so pleased with how the skin turned out I couldn't bring myself to smear brown on it. I recently bought some pigments that I've been meaning to try out. Once I get the hang of them I'll have to go back and make this guy look a little dirtier.

Until then I'll just have to subtitle the figure "First Day on the Job" :smile-big:
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Taking a break from 40K and trying to finish up my Kingdom Death White Speaker. My attention has turned from the figure to the base. The wraith I posted the other day was my first foray into making a complicated base. Well, this is my first foray into making a really complicated base. I just finished building it and getting the whole thing primed. Below are a few pictures of what I've done.

The base with the figure...
View attachment 17502

And more views of just the base...
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I started out with cork and a few sticks. I didn't really have a clear vision of where I wanted to go. After working on some other projects I returned with renewed interest and inspiration. I decided to go with a ruined temple overgrown by the surrounding forest. To create the columns I took a thick straw (smoothie straws are nice and big), cut it up into several smaller pieces and filled it with plaster. Once the plaster dried I took a hobby knife and cut a line around the straw at several places. I was then able to break the parts into even smaller pieces and give the ends a broken stone look. The bases of the columns is green stuff. I used more of the plaster to make the stones and broke up pieces for the ruble.

The rest of the texture on the ground is a mix of sand and baking soda. The stringy root structures are pieces taken from the outside of a coconut (thanks to a tip I got from Brovatar's site Den of Imagination). And the mushrooms were sculpted from green stuff (that's about the level of my sculpting abilities).

Once the painting is finished I'll go back and add some grass and leaves and who knows what else. Thanks for taking a look!
 

Milosh

New member
Yeah brother, that is awesome stuff. I see that you can still see the straw as another layer on the column. What about slicing the straw lengthwise and removing the plaster? The white speaker looks very very good. I typically wont go into a base with a major plan either.

Great work sir.
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Yeah, I was hoping it'd be less noticeable once I had it primed. I'll probably take some liquid green stuff and see if that will fix it. I had considered doing what you said and removing the straw. My concern was that the plaster would be brittle and the column might snap. I also liked the smooth finish of the straw... I'm hoping to make them look like marble columns. I guess we'll see if I can pull that off.
 

Cileon

New member
The base is really well done, thanks for sharing your method, I wanted to do some pillars myself but was always stumped how to do it.
 

Flow

New member
I love what you've done in this thread!

I guess we'll see if I can pull that off.

I was wondering if using magic sculpt instead of plaster might help. I'm thinking it's likely hardier than plaster and so would be less brittle after removing the straw.

I tried an experiment. It has a couple of issues, but I think it could be perfected. I thought I'd share it in case it could help.

Results below. All I did was cram magic sculpt in a straw, let it dry over night, and then removed the straw. It's "not terrible", and feels pretty strong. It did unfortunately record a crinkle in the straw in the top half. Perhaps a person could load up an entire straw, remove the straw, and thus create a long straight resin rod - they could then break that into column sized pieces, discarding any that have a "crinkle" effect.

It might have been better to use a larger straw (this was a standard drinking straw). Cramming the sculpt in it also took awhile!

goodside.jpg
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Thanks, Flow. I'll have to try that next time. With a thicker straw it might be a little easier to get all the magic sculpt in there.

Well, as it is Sunday night looks like it's time for another recap of this weekends progress. I've been putting the finishing touches on the White Speaker base for the Wamp contest. I also started working on a figure for a different Wamp contest. This time it's a Red Box Games figure called Bruiser Gus. Wow these guys are small. But they've got a lot of character and I had fun with him. His clothing was a patchwork of different pieces so I wanted the painting to reflect that. I thought about doing stripes but I figured the checkerboard pattern would look better in the end. Here is the figure essentially finished. I'm in the middle of building the base and I might go back and do a little tweaking there and there. Let me know what you think. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated... as I said, this is for a contest so anything that can help me improve would be great!

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Also my new painting station arrived and has helped me get a lot more organized. Hopefully I can keep it this way. The usual chaos around my painting area drives me crazy.

View attachment 17644
 

Milosh

New member
Whoa dude. Gus looks freaking brilliant, maybe one of your best. Looking at him in front of the painting station shows how little he is. Fantastic work and curious about the base. An executioner style base would be cool.
 

KruleBear

Active member
Gus looks great. One item to consider is the hood highlights do not seem to have the same level of peak highlights as the pants and skin. Maybe a couple point of very light red on the tops of the upper folds.
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Thanks, all. I'm very happy with how he is turning out. KruleBear, I think you're right. I'll go back in and see if I can up the red highlights some more. It's a tough color to work with, but I agree it would benefit from some stronger highlights. Pariahrob, thanks. The patterns were fun to paint and I was really pleased with how they came out. Milosh, yeah, he is really small. I've been spoiled working on 54mm and up figures. Even the gaming figures I paint tend to be heroic scale... so closer to 32mm. This guy is a true 28mm. I've got another two from Red Box and they look even smaller! Hmmm... an executioner scene would be cool. Though with that big club/mace instead of an axe he'd be a pretty cruel executioner. With the way he's standing I initially pictured him busting in a door so that's the direction I'm going. I'd like to finish building the base this week but probably won't have time to paint it until after the holidays.
 

Sionid

New member
You have a lot of nifty projects going, but I have to comment on the White Speaker. She looks fantastic, and the base sets such a perfect atmosphere for her. I can't wait to see how it comes together with some color!
The patchwork on Gus is impressive, especially because he is sooooo tiny. I would not have guessed at his tinyness from the first two pictures, so well done :)
 

Bailey03

Well-known member
Thanks, guys. I'm glad you like.

Well, here is the "finished" White Speaker. I say "finished" because there's more I wanted to do with her but ran out of time (at least in regards to the Wamp contest deadline). I fully intend to continue to work on the base and tweak a few things on her as well. I'm going to hold off posting her to the gallery until I've had time to take care of all of that. Having said that, she is quite close to what I had envisioned so I thought it was worth sharing here. Now I just need to take a break from this project and work on some other things. Take a look and let me know what you think.

View attachment 17737
 

Sionid

New member
I love every darn bit of it except for the pillars. I think they're too neat and smooth-looking. Maybe some vines, cracks or just a general dirtying-up would help.
But yeah, it looks awesome. Good luck in the contest!
 
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