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Used Tamiya clear blue to coat the Water Weird and Reaper paints for the well and highlights.

So, I wanted to try my Tamiya clear blue on one of the Bones translucent blue elementals and I chose the Water Weird. So far, so good but I'm not sure how to finish it off from here. I'm thinking of trying to get a curly-wave-white-foam effect at the extremities but I'm not sure. What do you think hive mind?

Here we have my finished 77310: Water Weird. The plinth was worked up from a base of Peacock Green to Pure White through a succession of glazes - I was playing around with how high I could take it and have it read as stained marble. The 'gems' I left translucent and coated with Tamiya Clear Blue. The runes were picked out in Vallejo Model Air Silver, then tarnished with Black Ink. The water weird itself is three different 'strengths' of Taimiya Clear Blue. The base coat was diluted 2:1 with Tamiya Thinner. I then hit the crevices on the figure with a 1:1 dilution, and finished off the face with undiluted Tamiya Clear Blue. I really like the variation in tone this gives the figure - it's much more subtle than just throwing undiluted Tamiya Clear paint on the figure, and reads a lot more like water to me than say the ice wall or crystal golem I've done previously. The 'crest' was worked up through LED Blue to Pure White, with a Black Wash to define it. I also tidied up a few 'whoopsies' with the 2:1 dilution of Tamiya Clear Blue. The teeth are Pure White again, with Black Wash to define, and the eyes are Pure White worked up to Clear Yellow. I also tried underlighting it with a LED light source to see how it'd potentially look if I mounted one permanently. It's not too bad - the Peacock Green base coat on the plinth comes through a little, and looks kinda eldritch. This, however, is closer to how it looks in person when underlit I think I should have tried to work the runes up from a blue to the silver, perhaps as if lit from the gem above them. But still, quite pleased with how this turned out.

At Castle Bedlam, in the Iyanden Craftroom, where miniatures are painted, quilts made, and various projects undertaken, there is the Garage Sale TV, which has a built in VHS player. Being who we are in this house, there are still VHS cassettes hither, thither, and yon, and recently, I wanted some back ground noise while I painted, so I stuck a cassette in there. I hadn't actually LOOKED at this cassette since 1994 or so, but it still played fine... and gave me a surprise. Used to be a show on USA about bad movies. It was called "Reel Wild Cinema," and consisted of Sandra Bernhardt doing kind of a postmodern Elvira gig as they show really bad old movies, edited down to allow for the time constraints. She also conducted a short interview segment, once per episode, with a bad movie celebrity... some included Russ Meyer, Dave Friedman, and Mamie van Doren, among others. This particular segment was themed "Sword And Sandal," and the main movie treat was "Medusa Vs. The Son Of Hercules," an ancient Italian dog from the sixties, in which the Son of Hercules must scare up an army FAST before the evil invaders come, but for some reason, Thessaly's entire army went out, one at a time, to deal with the Medusa, and never came back. So now it's up to Junior to go out and kill Medusa, which will make all the stoned soldiers come back to life! If they did this today, it might be an entertaining piece of cheese... but when we finally see the Medusa, it's hilarious. Rather than do the whole "woman with snakes for hair," thing, they decided to dress someone up in a tree costume with a sort of face hung on the front, and a spotlight for the single eye. It doesn't look much like a tree... but it looks more like a tree than anything ELSE, including a Medusa. And if you look into its spotlight, you suddenly become frozen and painted gray! ...well, I hadn't seen this show in twenty years. I'd forgotten I recorded the episodes, back when it was on. And I wound up forgetting all about painting as I watched this gawdawful movie. And I had more fun than kittens doing just that. I went online looking for the show. I'd gladly buy the entire series on DVD, but it doesn't seem to have ever been compiled or released, and it barely appears as a footnote anywhere. And I mourn for this awful but gloriously entertaining show. It reminded me of another show I liked, once... "The Evil Touch." Ever heard of it? Didn't think so. I used to think I had imagined it, until I finally found it on the Internet. Australian TV show, kind of a Twilight Zone thing, anthology show with each episode being self contained and having a different cast. Anthony Quayle did the Rod Serling duties, and the first episode featured a monster in a lake. I ate this show up when I was a kid. But after its initial run, it vanished, and never went into reruns, and I never saw it again. Until there was IMDB, I seriously began to wonder if I'd just imagined the whole thing. Still wish I could see the episodes again, just to see if they're any good after 40 years... Anyone out there have a fondness for something obscure that most other people haven't heard of?

"The focus of many a cautionary travellers tale, Nightmare Rams are said to inhabit the wild, lonely parts of the world. Appearing before lost travellers to offer their services as a guide, those who are foolish enough to accept their help are led deeper into the wilderness, never to be seen again. Occasionally, someone will seek out the truth behind these tales. Those who are unlucky to uncover the truth, and lack the strength to resist the strong hypnotic powers the Nightmare Rams possess, soon curse their curiosity, as they are swallowed whole and slowly become one with the Ram, their mind forever trapped along with all the other unfortunate souls the Ram has consumed over the centuries." Been working on this one for a while (as can be seen from the WIP), and I'm super pleased with how it turned out. Comments and critiques are, as always, much appreciated.