Bailey03's WIP

[Bailey03]

I'd love to get out to Euro Militaire. I'm hopeful it'll happen in the next couple years.

Darth, yeah, I could have sanded off the barnacles. Of course it would have been a lot easier before I attached it to the body of the figure.

Thanks, SaintToad. Yup, I'll be doing some weathering on him. Nothing over the top, but certainly some dirt stains and blood stains here and there.

 

[Khonner]

Cant wait to see this guy in person. Might as well leave my stuff at home..

 

[Bailey03]

I did a little work on the sword. It's certainly not finished, but I like where it's going. One thing that bothered me about the box art and sculpt is how the only thing on the sword were the barnacles. Seems to me if barnacles are growing on it, there would be a lot more corrosion going on. So I took a cue from Sproket and used his baking soda technique to add some more texture to the blade. Now it looks like something the pirate has pulled from the ocean to intimidate and hack at his foes with.

Quick caveat on the photos, I took this with my cell phone at the office. So the colors are off and the lighting is crappy, but you can at least get an idea of how it looks. I took it at a slightly higher angle than the last photos, so you get a better look at his beard too.
View attachment 44646

 

[Zab]

Well, that is amazing. Good job

 

[ten ball]

That sword blade is a real winner mate.
God bless sproket and his clever ways

 

[Canny]

Fantastic looks great

 

[BloodASmedium]

AND first place crystal brush goes to david powels with his amazing guy well done pirate dwarf guy that none of us even new existed u b til he showed up with th it (says jen haley as she beholds sone of the greatest painting she's seen in her on career.applause is given...with thunderous roar.

 

[ArchArad]

I like the addition of the baking soda to give more "grit" to the sword. Do you just sprinkle it on to superglue? Some variation in tone or even a couple of bits of seaweed or something would also help break it up. But I'm sure that you have plans - and, as you mentioned, this is not the best photo to be judging things like colour etc from.

I know I've said it before, but thank you for taking the time to share part of your process with us. I love visiting this thread! And your willingness to answer questions and take feedback from people of all experience levels is admirable. Just thought you should know.

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, everyone. BAM, ha, not sure about that. But hopefully 2016 will be the year pirates win a bunch of CB awards. =P

ArchArad, well, after you said that I suppose I have to answer your question! =) Yeah, I would like to add a few more bits of stuff crusted onto the sword... though I'm not quite sure how to achieve the effect. I'll poke through the web for more reference images. In the same way as I applied baking soda, I could use fine turf (the kind for model railroad groundwork). I did that on the elf piece to mimic moss on the trees. Perhaps I could try and model some seaweed or seashells using greenstuff. We'll see.

As for how to apply the baking soda, it's not done with superglue. Instead you mix it along with your base color and some matte varnish, then use an old brush to apply it to the figure. Mixing with the base color just saves you a step in painting. But the matte varnish is the important part, as that will help hold it in place when it dries. For the moss, it's the fine turf mixed with matte varnish. I thought it'd be fragile, but once it dried that stuff was really stuck on the base. I was surprised how well it held. Anyway, the baking soda idea and description is all from Sproket. I picked up the moss from MassiveVoodoo.

It's a nice technique to add texture to the figure, definitely one I'll keep in mind for future projects. Since I'm on the subject, another useful texture tool is crackle medium. I've used it on groundwork, not figures... but you never know when it might come in handy

 

[Bailey03]

Hmmm... I just had a neat idea for further dressing up the sword. I'm not sure I've got the sculpting skills to pull it off... however I do have some instant mold, so perhaps I can get a little help from another figure. I know I'm being vague, but if it works I'll post some pictures in the next day or so.

 

[Demihuman]

Whoa baking soda huh? That's cool, I really like the beard. Your blending on the sword edge is so good you need to add some scratches or something.

 

[ArchArad]

Thanks for answering my question.

 

[Bailey03]

Happy holidays, everyone! I hope all of you are enjoying the long weekend.

Here are a few better pictures of the dwarf. I did more work on the sword, pushing the highlights on the texture to bring it in line with the rest of the figure.

Since the figure is almost complete, I went back to work on the base. You may remember from a previous post, the main structure was built using balsa wood.

To match the sword, I decided to add some texture to the side. I used pro-create (grey stuff) to create some barnacles there as well. Then I used the same baking soda + matte varnish technique to fill in the spaces around the barnacles. I also added some rope and a portion of the rigging. This was done using string. I used superglue to coat the strings and lock them in the desired shape. A bit of regular superglue can be helpful in attaching specific spots, but mostly I used thin super glue. This quickly soaks into the string and is really useful for fixing large sections. You've just got to be careful since it can get all over the place and you don't want to touch the strings as they'll be coated in glue. Needless to say, I got a lot on my hands and there were numerous times I almost glued the myself to the base!

 

[ten ball]

Bravo sir. How you planning on staining the ropes?

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, 10. I wasn't sure how well balsa wood would take the stain, so I decided to paint the entire base.

 

[ArchArad]

Very cool additions to the base.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I think Ten Ball was implying that you can apply a stain to the ropes to make them look like brown ropes. Another tip in this department, to change the rope from string to rope looking, is to apply watered PVA glue to it, covering the ropes fully before painting like normal. Otherwise it isn't going to take paint too swell.

The he base is off the chain man. Wow. Really next level modelling work there. You do some pretty amazing things with balsa. By the way, the watered down PVA technique is used frequently on balsa as well, because it is so porous.

Edit: just read about your use of thinned super. If you covered the entirety of the string with this, then it should paint well.

 

[SaintToad]

I continue to adore this project. The base is looking great. I definitely like the addition of the barnacles. Is there any way you could slip a rat or two down beneath the decking?
Do you mind telling us how you got the ropes so nice and straight with your super glue technique? It may just be the way you have the picture croppped, but it looks like they're self supporting. They look really nice and I'd love to add that arrow to my quiver for some future project.

 

[Bailey03]

Thanks, ArchArad, BFK, and SaintToad.

BFK, good tip on coating the balsa wood with glue. I hadn't tried that. And yeah, I suppose 10 could have meant that as well. Either way, that answer is the same, I'm planning to paint it.

SaintToad, yes, the ropes are all self supporting. To get them straight, I taped them to my painting table and let them hang down, then coated them with glue. To keep them straight, I recommend taping a piece of balsa wood to the other end of the string for a little added weight. You can just pull it with your hand, but that's a good way to get glue on your hand too (learned that the hard way). And best to put some paper down to catch glue drips. Once it's dry, I just clipped the ends off and cut it down to the desired size. Some of the smaller pieces were glued in place. For the horizontal pieces I just held it out further than where the glue was, then clipped it when dry.

 

[SaintToad]

Thanks a lot, Bailey! That is super clever.
I have a Hasslefree pirate goblin (but sculpted by Werner Klocke?!) I'd like to repaint (I stripped it, thinking it deserved a better paintjob) that will definitely want some rigging for his ship!