Blood Angel Captain - need help with Fur (and elsewhere)!

[Lord Putridus]

Hey guys, this is my first post here. I am working on a Captain for my army, but I still want him to look nice. I haven't finished any of the steel/silver parts, the gems, or the plasma coil yet, but I have some idea how I'll approach those.

The issue I have is the fur... how the heck do you paint fur? First it suffers from my amateur greenstuff work, but I want it to look like leopard fur (for reference: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/52/c5/fc/52c5fc4f6289684f1ef530908bf7eb17.jpg)

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Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, for any part of the model, but specifically for the fur. Thanks!

 

[Foxtail]

Hi Putridus, everything's looking pretty great so far.
I would push another light layer of pure white dry brushed over the fur, at the moment it looks more like a light brown. After that paint small patches and rough rings of black and drybrush those with a dark grey.

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Snow leopards, aside from being awesome, have quite a beige coloured fur everywhere except their bellys, so you're not far off there. But I think getting the black patterning on will really push the look. Might annoy PETA some more though.

 

[Lord Putridus]

Thank you for that reference! ...although I wasn't quite able to reproduce it very well. Something just looks 'off' about the fur, any ideas? Also do the scrolls look too sloppy? I messed up the first attempt and rather than completely paint over I just did a thin cover-up but now I just don't know.

Finally - what color to paint the 'power rod' going up the length of the sword blade?

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[Sicks]

I think the fur looks off because it is too white, if you look at the reference pic above the leopard isn't white in many places at all, it's more grey/cream coloured with white in only a few places. As for the little power rod bit on the sword, it seems like illustrations of power swords leave it silver but I've also seen many paint jobs that make it look like the little ball type bit on the end of it is lit up and in some cases a lightning pattern coming from it

 

[bullfrog]

Great job so far. Also look at the patterning on the leopard. Towards the foot there is a tighter, smaller patterning. In fact most of the legs have a tighter pattern. As the spots get bigger they also include an irregular spot of the coat colour inside the main. The rougher texture of your fur might make painting the spots smaller a bit difficult though. For some reason my brain keepers telling me it's a bear skin though. Maybe the large claws.

 

[ekipage]

No means an expert at painting here, but I think something that is throwing off the look is that you are trying for something like a leopard effect, yet the fur is too textured so it doesn't quite fit (as Bullfrog said, it reminds me more of bear fur). Cat fur doesn't usually have the texture you see on this mini (as you can see by the image that Fox put up). You might be better filing the fur bit down a little or using greenstuff to give it a smoother finish on the fur and then painting it with the leopard effect you are looking for. The texture in the current fur seem like they will break up any kind of pattern you are trying to get because they are adding depth that wouldn't normally be there on a cat, although the paint job may help hide this a little. But at this point in your progress, I could see where this might not be an option. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who is just getting back into painting so take it for what it is worth. Otherwise, I think the scrolls look alright, maybe a little too much black, especially the one on the sword arm, but since these pics are quite a bit larger than the actual figure, it might not look that bad in real life.

 

[Lord Putridus]

Thanks guys, unfortunately I think you are right... I could certainly do things to improve the painting but the sculpt will never look like a leopard... it looks like a Bear to me too.

So the question now is ...try to keep going looking sort-of-like snow leopard hide colors (more in theme with the character 'Captain Aphael') or just go all the way towards Bear fur?

 

[ekipage]

You might still be alright, maybe just tone the white down with some grey/creamish color like Sicks said (or at least not have so much white) and get the spots a little more black and it might look alright. Just in case, the spots you are going for look more on the light black/greyish side on my monitor, so real life might be different.

 

[Sicks]

If you are able to, on the leg looking parts of it make it more grey feathering out to white on the edges and the paws in white or near-white, i think that would look good, if you look at the space wolf image below, like the leaders wolf skin but in grey and white, with the spots added

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