btannehill

One thing I should mention: I never cut off the original base the dragon was attached to. I just pined the whole thing to the block of wood I had stained and varnished, then build up around the metal base and siguise which parts were metal, which were bits of wood chips I painted to look like rock, and then the model railroad ballast painted to look like granite scree. Added some different shades of green flocking to further blur which stuff was which.

My entry for the contest:

Metalchaos: That was one of the things I learned along the way. I should have used green stuff, especially aong the underside of the wings. As it was, I just used epoxy, and that wasn't enough, or the right choice. Definitely something I will do next time on the hydra I am going to work on.

My biggest project yet! I am happy with some parts, others I would do another way if I were to do it all over again. Still, it has been a great learning experience. Love to hear thoughts and suggestions on how I can make the next project even better.

Total time for each? Perhaps 2 hours at most. I did it assembly-line style.

Skin was done using desert khaki washed with oryn flesh, then dry brushes again with desert khaki. Some deep crevasses were darkened using devlan mud wash.

So, here is my first Bones piece. He's been done to death, but I think he turned out fairly well.

DId you use green stuff to texture the floor first?

Between Mama Geek, Sandra Garrity, Zabby, and myself, there are a few of us out here. The first two are extraordinary by any standard.

Wow. Hammer is gorgeous, and I'd love to know how you painted the base to look like that.

I made him all warm colors on purpose... this is intended to be played as a evoker specialist wizard... aka "The Pyromancer". Thanks for the input... the red things on the staff were supposed to be gems like the one on the headband.

This wasn't a speed job like the others. Happy with how his face turned out, not as much with his staff.

Lastman, Oddly enough, I got the idea from an article I read on the evolution of CGI effects. The article made fun of early attempts at CGI creating realistic looking skin, and noted that the solution was multiple layers of translucent shading. The article also showed that crappy looking skin in CGI also applied to some of the early monsters in CGI as well. A little light bulb went off in my head, and I thought that perhaps layering washes would approximate the CGI approach to realistic skins. I did not use a yellow wash (gryphontone sepia, if I had), given that the green, red, and mud layers all had elements of yellow in them. The first was was a heavy green one, followed by lighter red then brown ones. The green was for basic skin tone, the red-brown of ogryn flesh was for the blood and capilaries under the skin, and the brown layer was for shading and dirt. Additional brown was applied wherever I thought additional shading was needed (such as underneath the pectoral muscle or the armpit). Oh, and I found the articles I mentioned: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-common-cgi-screw-ups-explained/?wa_user1=3&wa_user2=Movies+%26+TV&wa_user3=blog&wa_user4=companion http://www.3dtotal.com/index_tutorial_detailed.php?id=824&catDisplay=1&roPos=1&page=1#.UApc-7Se7Aw

So, here's my grand experiment in speed painitng and doing flesh tones using many layers of washes. The orcs started out as pale green, and got washed with thraka green, ogryn flesh, and devlan mud. No idea if it really worked, but these are tabletop pieces designed to get slaughtered by PCs, so if they look awful no one is too upset (well, besides me...).

Ok, found a picture online of the sanding wheel / disk. Duh. <facepalm>. I will use those from now on when I am basing using the magnetic GW bases.