Grenadier Orcus WIP, please comment

[Tinweasel]

Dug this guy out of my collection of old figures, stripped off the crappy paint job, patched some gaps with Kneadatite, and figgered I\'d give him a new and improved look since he\'s been sitting in a drawer for about 15 years.

I\'m aiming for a pallid, sickly flesh tone but started with a base shade color and plan on working up from here. (Actually, this is a first layer of color over an initial shading mix, but the two looked very funky together so I more or less painted over the whole initial color.)

Anyhow, anyone have suggestions on lightening and highlighting his skin to an unhealthy paleness? I\'m thinking of adding in successive amounts of VMC Deck Tan and/or GW White, but I\'d like to try and avoid a \"chalky\" finish if possible.

 

[Sand Rat]

Nice.

For an old Gren piece that one aint too bad.

 

[Tinweasel]

Originally posted by steelcult
For an old Gren piece that one aint too bad.

Near as I can tell, he is definitely OOP. This, I believe, is the original sculpt of M-38 their \"Demon\" figure, AKA Orcus, and in looking through later catalogs (this figure\'s from \'84) it was apparently revised with a straighter arm, a scaled belly, and a tail wrapping around his leg as opposed to curled off to the side - very wierd. Even though Grenadier figures are being reproduced by another company now (whose name escapes me) their Demon/Orcus figure uses the newer mold with the scales.

 

[treide]

Try mixing increasing amounts of pale grey or pale green into your base color for a sickly skin look. At the end, a very dilute glaze of blue or green gives the skin a nice dead or rotten look.

I did an old Grenadier zombie that way and I liked how his skin turned out. I used more green in his basecoat, though.

 

[Tinweasel]

Here\'s step 2, with a little bit of VMC Deck Tan/GW White and a touch of Scab Red/Scorched Brown added to the mix:

I\'m thinking if I keep adding in the lighter colors, I\'ll get there eventually. Thanks for the suggestion on colored washes - I tried that before with Smoke over pallid skin that was outright white mixed with purple and green and it turned out funny. I should\'ve probably saved the colors for a final glaze or two.

 

[Tinweasel]

Well, this is where he\'s at so far:

I\'m adding in successive amounts of Tan (sort of a greyish beige, really) and White together and at this point I\'ve dropped the concentration of red down to maybe 1:10 out of the total mixture. I\'m liking the way this is coming along, but I\'m wondering how far along I should advance into the white scale of things and how small to do the highlighting - given that it\'s skin, I don\'t want to do sharp edge highlights as it\'s a satiny surface but by the same token, he\'s got all kinds of wrinkles and sinews and such that it\'d be a shame not to play all that up.

Suggestions and comments would be appreciated!

 

[Tinweasel]

Haven\'t been getting much in the way of feedback, but I figgered I\'d post a shot of where he\'s at as of this evening:

 

[Antnol]

That looks really good so far man. I would like to see him when its finished. keep posting for us so I can see your progress.

 

[Ayla]

I\'m a newbie to painting, so can\'t offer much in the way of feedback, but just wanted to say please keep posting updates, cause I\'m watching your progress with fascination and learning from you!

 

[Tinweasel]

 

[misterjustin]

Tin, that\'s incredible. Nothing unusual from you, of course -- but that doesn\'t make it any less impressive. I really like the dry, weathered look you managed on his skin. And those eyes fit him perfectly. I count, what, four colours in the eye? Five? Very well done.

 

[darkartminiatures]

I love the eyes and teeth :twisted:

 

[treide]

He is shaping up very nicely. Those eyes are amazing - you definitely captured the funky goat pupil effect.

 

[Tinweasel]

Thanks for the comments and compliments, folks! Still very much a WIP, but I\'m putting a lot of time into this guy as he\'s always been one of my favorite miniatures.

So far as the eyes, I was aiming for a yellowy-brown goatish look when I started - basecoat of GW Tanned Flesh, highlights of Tanned Flesh/VMC Deck Tan and then Tanned Flesh/Deck Tan/Skull White. The initial shading around the outside of the eyes was GW Bestial Brown and I was going to aim for a \"gemstone\" effect... but then I decided to get creative.

I put a glaze of straight Tamiya Red around the outmost part of the eye, and then the crevices were lined in with GW Black Ink, but when that was too dark I toned it back a bit with VMC English Uniform. So that\'s actually 6-7 colors, if you count the lining-in - who knew?

I\'ve got a running WIP thread over on the Relic Painting & Modeling Forum if anyone wants a specific breakdown of steps - it\'s a got a few more WIP pics and it\'s a little more detailed. Right now the bone areas are the current work in progress, but I\'ll post another pic here when I get \'em to a decent-looking place.

Any other suggestions, though, would definitely be appreciated. I\'m kicking around the idea of a tattoo - it\'s been suggested. I\'m also kinda at a loss as to what color to paint the membranes of the wings - I figger the ribs ought to be the same flesh tone as his body, but the in-between ought to be some sort of leathery color. Mythologically, Orcus as Roman god of the dead I believe had black wings (and I think black fur) but I\'m running with a dark blackish-grey for the fur and stuck on the wings.

 

[Tinweasel]

 

[JakeSh]

That looks super-sweet!!

 

[treide]

I\'m not sure a tattoo would look good on him - just my opinion.

A pale green or blue might work for the wing membranes if you made the \"struts\" dark like his fur. If you want it closer to his other skin tones, maybe a bit of orange or yellow to make it stand out.

 

[mr gask]

This guy looks great, too bad he is OOP. For the wings I would go for a really pale blue, almost white. But I am just a newb, so what do I know.

 

[Bill]

Friggin\' fantastic! great skintones, but what I really love are the eyes. Just like a toad or a goat Simply perfect!

 

[supervike]

Tin, that is fantastic!

I always loved that figure, in fact I used him for my first OSL experiment....never worked out too well....I\'m very tempted to strip him and use yours WIP as a Step by step guide for a repaint! (i have NO shame!)

Heres mine...