Excelsy WIP

[djizomdjinn 1856]

I feel a bit bad saying this, but since the Euro dropped in comparison to USD, I finally felt that it was worth it to splurge a bit on a mini I've always had my eyes on for a while:



The casting is absolutely amazing; no mold lines to speak of, square slots fit like a dream. Only gap I see is in the two parts of the cape; I'll need to fill that before doing much else. Only boo-boo was the sword crossguard was snapped off... but I hate bits that fiddly anyways, and I was on the fence about adding it in. Dilemma solved.

 

Assembled into all the major sections for now, need to think about what color the armor is going to be...

[Auberon 11132]

As I recall, my cape had the same issue.  Still a really nice job of casting.  Moon Sword on the other hand...

[djizomdjinn 1856]

 

You know it's an excellent casting job when it stays in place with no glue at all.

 

Filled, primed, and a base shade coat with the airbrush. A little bit of Graveyard Bone with Dusky Skin + Vampiric Shadow for the shadows.

 

 

What will probably be replacing her sword... if I can figure out how to pose with her.

[MarchHare 55]

A lot of nice detail in this model. Looking forward to more updates.

[djizomdjinn 1856]

 

Playing around with the idea of a ribbon for the hammer. Painted a familiar pattern on the cape... (it's not done yet though).

[robinh 9571]

The ribbon would be nice if the mini is meant to be ceremonial... guard etc....   But if the display is mid battle I think the ribbon would be in the way.

 

Mind you I DO like the ribbon on the hammer as it adds a lot of interest to the mini.

Edited December 5, 2015 by robinh

[ub3r_n3rd 152157]

She's a fantastic figure, looking forward to watching your WIP here. Great start!

[djizomdjinn 1856]

Well, it turns out my ProCreate is going bad– rolled it out and got cracking, brittle sheets instead of the soft, pliable sheets I need for ribbons (metal ribbons not really working out that well)
 
So, new order, new sheets curing. In the meantime, I was thinking over the color scheme some more. If the stock image wasn't copper armor, I would have done it in a heartbeat. As it stands, I don't really want to do another silver armor (and I don't want to use enamels on this anyways; it either goes really well or really badly, and there's no real way to fix it afterwards). What I have on my color sketch sheet is white.
 
Hmm. How about pearlescent?
 
 

 

It's a bit rough, since the dry pigment doesn't really want to suspend all that well, but a sealer or coats of gloss should smooth it out.... I hope.
 

 

I also patterned the cape a bit.

 

We'll see whether I make it in time for another last minute entry into the non-Reaper contest. My guess is no, and I'm not going to rush it to try for it.

[djizomdjinn 1856]

This face is not cooperating with me.

 

[djizomdjinn 1856]

Shelf of shame, resurrection!

 

Well, the PearlEx micropearl pigment I was using to create the pearlescent effect was chunky. Really chunky. So, I ended up stripping it with a Simple Green bath. I'll probably keep the same effect, but recreate it by using all my interference colors like I did for a Bones fairy. I liked the cape, so it escaped the stripping bath.

 

Also finally got an effect I liked on the hammer. A bit of interest without dominating the rest of the figure. Her thumb was positioned more for cradling a helmet instead of holding something, so I ended up snapping it off and sculpting my own.

 

Got replacement drill bits, so I finally pinned her other foot. Also the hammer is pinned now too.

 

[paint pig 213]

That is a great figure, realistic/believable proportions and armor and her boobs have been introduced to gravity and human dna. Looking forward to seeing what you can do with her.

[djizomdjinn 1856]

I'm liking the look of this a lot more already. The old pearl looked so... flat.

 

[djizomdjinn 1856]

Second time's the charm? Certainly like this face a lot better. Also PearlEx makes it's return, the russet this time instead of the pearl. Who knows, I might use the pearl again. Just... not on areas with such fine details; it's a real shame to obscure them.

 

[ub3r_n3rd 152157]

She's looking goooooood!

[djizomdjinn 1856]

Heard good things about P3 metallics, decided to try a few. But I don't know where to get them singly... so I bought the Convergence set. Four metallics, including three shades of silver that seem analogous to Reaper's triad system.

 

So... yes. They're pretty. A bit more polished and shiny, at least compared to the dropper of Honed Steel I have that seems to come out more shotblasted metal. But they're also very chunky and very temperamental, and dry VERY quickly. Need to be thinned with gloss acrylic medium (Future Floor Polish strikes again!). I also prefer droppers to pots. Oh well, as long as I like the end result...?

 

The problem is that the steel next to the silvery pearl made the garnet red look kind of odd.

 

 

So I painted her chest over with Blue Flame, and brought it down to her pants too. The way it's looking, I'm probably going to paint a very subdued mini, most of the contrast will be cold flat white vs warm flat white vs. rainbow gloss mother-of-pearl vs dark oily steel. With the occasional splash of red.