Zethia

Mini update today! My Vallejo ink set came in the mail, so I tried to make my black rocks as black as they could be, and I'm happy with the result. Most importantly it let me get a bit more contrast between the dark backsides of the rocks and the lava illuminated fronts. I don't know if it's a noticeable difference in the photos, but it kinda feels like comparing black screens on LED and OLED TVs. Just a little less...foggy, I guess? I dunno. Here's some pictures.

I really like your choice of color for the exposed rafters. Makes them look like exposed bits of skeleton. Very nice all around!

Last update for at least a few days, I'm afraid, but I'm happy with the progress I've made over the past week. I didn't take pictures of each step here, but it consisted of some basic touch ups. I did some dry brushing of ash grey followed by a mix of oak brown and dragon red to amplify the OSL effect from the lava, then some deepening of darkness on the rocks with a selectively applied dark tone wash. I'm particularly pleased with how well the dark wash worked on the rim of the base; going the whole way around, right up to but not over the dripping lava, really highlighted them and turned the overspray into a nice dull glow. (Still a little wet in one spot there, sorry.) I want to make the back face deeper and darker than the front, but I couldn't manage it with my wash and I don't want to straight up paint over what I've got. I think I need some more pigment, which has led me to place an order for something I've never touched before. It's time to start learning to use inks! Looking back over this thread, I just realized that this bit of the project went from an errant thought to a tangible, halfway decent volcanic base, with a bunch of new techniques learned, in two weeks. If you're reading this, I appreciate you! Having somewhere to share and be excited about these things is a great motivator, and I'm making more progress lately than I have in quite a while. Next up: figuring out how to integrate a dragon that is currently lit from the entirely wrong direction.

Your whole style here is fantastic! Kinda has an old school animation feel to it, the kind of fantasy videos that would give me nightmares in the best way. I may have to try some sculpting of my own once I finish a few things.

Airbrush day! This project just keeps giving me new things to try, and I love it. I'd been in a plateau for a while, and I FINALLY feel like I'm starting to break through it. On to the fun! This one's gonna be pretty image heavy, so I'll start with the result and post the step-by-step afterwards in the spoiler box. This is just after airbrushing; I'm still gonna touch up the rocks tonight. Click the thingy for the full breakdown!

The wait was excruciating, but after two days the glue was finally dry. (I may have gotten a little carried away with it. Time to prime! I had wondered if two layers of spackling and a thick layer of glue was overkill, but the experiment really paid off. The spackling created a nice level of subtle variation in the lava's surface, and the blue smoothed everything out nicely. I love the oozy, undulating look. At first I was afraid that the rocks were being covered up too much, but I like the impression it gives of the rocks sinking or being swallowed up. The bubbles are a bit less subtle than I'd hoped, but they're kinda helping define the scene. This is looking less like a lava flow and more like a boiling pool, maybe the inside of a volcano. I'll need to do my hot spots carefully. I still haven't figured out OSL, but I know that I don't want a standard bright zenithal effect on these rocks. They're gonna remain pretty dark and crispy volcanic rocks. I did a little bit of low-angle grey over the black and omitted my usual pure white from the top. I want the eye to be drawn up the rocks to the dragon, so I kept the back a bit darker and did maybe a little more than necessary on the front edge. Not sure how that'll work out. Now comes the scary part... Success! I've only ever used my airbrush for some pretty simple priming. It was a joy to successfully navigate those tight spaces with the spray. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about those drips at first, but I think they'll look pretty cool dripping off the edge. Letting the lava run right off the canvas, so to speak. Tomorrow will be a fun day with the airbrush! Lest I forget why I started working on this crazy thing... I promise I'll get back to him soon!

Been a bit of a crazy week, but I'm committed to not letting this become another abandoned project. Any little bit of progress is progress, so I did a little basing work yesterday and today. I roughed up my rocks a bit and added another layer of spackling to integrate them into the lava flow. At this point I wasn't quite happy with the flatness of the whole thing, and the second layer of spackling was a bit higher than I anticipated. I did get to play with some sculpting tools to smooth out the surface, which was fun. Lots of 24 hour drying time waits with basing, definitely my least favorite part about this. Added a little more height to my stones. It was around this time I realized that I wasn't happy with the roughness of the spackling surface, didn't quite feel right. Decided I was gonna have to do something terrifying. First though, I needed some bubbles. After going through my collection of beads for about an hour looking for some that would work, I remembered that I own green stuff now and felt slightly foolish. It's almost there, I can see what I want it to be. But of course, first I have to risk destroying I'm now realizing is a base that I've already put over 10 hours of work into. Time to break out the Gorilla Wood Glue and give flooding a shot! Dear god, that was horrifying. I just finished doing this about 30 minutes ago, so it's gonna be a looooooong and frightening wait to see how it looks once it's dry. Hopefully I haven't made a terrible mistake. Don't know if I'll have to add a bit more to the rocks or if I like the look of them being swallowed up. I guess I won't know until it's all set. Hopefully when I post again, this thing will at least be primed!

Oooh, that's beautiful! I haven't tried textured paints/pastes yet, but after seeing that I may have to give it a shot.

That is haunting. I can vividly picture a stop-motion animation version of this model and it is freaking me out miserably. I love it.

That is a fine red beard! Very nice.

Well, this project just got a whole lot more complicated. I needed an emotional break from painting...hmm, this dragon needs a name. Gotta work on that. So after yesterday's tinkering, I broke out/up some cork and started kicking some ideas around. The cliff wasn't quite doing it for me, ate up too much of the base and crowded the wizard. I thought about having him on a hill instead, but had trouble choosing a setting. Couldn't figure out what a fire dragon was doing in a forest, didn't really have the space or a clear image in my head for mountains. A little dejected youtubing later and I ended up watching videos about lava bases, and everything clicked. I broke out the wood glue, made myself a nice solid chunk of cork and started carving some rock. Before I knew it, three hours had passed and I found myself running out the door to buy some spackling... And after another two hours of chipping, scraping, stabbing, and scratching I had a decent perch for my grumpy guy. \ I'll have to stop there for tonight while the first layer of spackling dries, then I'll be able to better integrate it with the rocks. Then I'll just have to unflatten the rocks in the flow...finish painting the dragon...integrate the wizard....prime the wizard, paint the wizard, prime the base, learn to use my airbrush better to do a weird negative zenithal, study up on object source lighting, figure out how to paint lava... My god, what have I done?

Not much to report today other than I'm starting to brainstorm a bit on basing. It's the area I've the least experience in, so I may as well dive into the deep end. I've always wanted to do a diorama, so what am I waiting for? Playing around a little with some rough drafts. Any thoughts?

Hmm...I like using a flesh wash on my bone and then doing a bit of dry brushing, but Doomsday's palette is maybe a bit on the cool side for that. I've always liked how his earlier appearances had a bit of icy blue on the spikes, which might go well with the OG pants you gave him. Either one of those choices could mean the difference between a modern, earthy Doomsday or a classic, alien, vat-grown look!

This is freaking cool. I love how much detail you were able to get in the spikes. So many planes and angles! Looks fun to paint.

Scary, scary session today. I've never painted this much surface area on a mini before. Made some hard choices, some big decisions. Lots of pictures in the hidey box!