Ragnarok Squad - Beast o' War

[demonelf3]

Hey ya'll, I just started working on a squad using one of Rackham's old Ragnarok boxes - 6 warriors will compose the human portion of the squad... and one Privateer Press brute will be at the center. I've already started working on the basing for the squad - nothing too fancy, I want it to look like red clay. Here are the steps I've done so far.

 

1. Lay down a base of terracotta milliput, with some miniature bricks set in (can't remember the company the bricks are from), chamomile tea pressed in, and tree bark pressed in. One new thing I tried was using an incredibly fine silicate for sand instead of the usual playground sand - since clay is composed of such fine silt, I thought it appropriate. Unfortunately, its fineness and (I think) its very nature as a silicate made it difficult to glue - there is less than I had hoped on the base. The guy in the center, as you may guess, is the brute.

 

2. Once the squad's base holes have been figured out and the groundwork done, basecoat of armory white. I went for white because I believe it will be easier to control some of the more subtle shadows with washes instead of just straight black. You can see some of the Rag guys here, too.

 

3. Start off with a couple think washes of red liner. Nothing is spared ;)

 

4. Pick out the stones (tree bark) by drybrushing heavily with Privateer Press Cryx Bane highlight, all the way up to Liquitex Titanium White (edges). This will be toned down by the clay drybrushing colors.

 

5. Then, I heavily drybrushed A 50-50 mix of tanned shadow and PP Skorne Red. This will be the basecoat for the Ragnarok men's skintones.

 

6. Add palomino gold and continue to drybrush, lightening pressure.

 

7. Add bleached bone, lighten to pure bleached bone. Touch up rocks.

 

8. Current state:

 

For now, the goal is to keep touching up the base, adding interest with more washes (dark reds, greens, yellows, and purples - complements), and adding terrain features (bushes, etc)

 

I'll be in touch soon! As always, comments and especially criticisms are welcomed. My paint hand is rusty.

Edited May 23, 2013 by demonelf3

[demonelf3]

A little more detail as the my design - I want to have the beast in the center, surrounded by the Ragnaroks, three of whom are holding chains attached to it. Two around the tusks, one at its back. So the Rags have their arms raised because they've got chains on this guy.

 

Began fleshtones on Ragnarok. Basecoat of 80-20 Tanned shadow-Skorne Red. Highlighting with Rosy Skin, all the way up to Rosy Skin + Menoth White. I plan to use jade green accents for the men, and do some faded-red SENMM (or just bright metal) on the swords. More shots of the beast, including the freehand chrome scales on his back tabard thing. I just want to say - I haven't painted a lot in the last couple of years, but these SmartPhones are ridiculous at taking WIP shots. I mean dang, I love it.

 

[haldir]

Nice start.

 

Love seeing dioramas such as this one, come together.

[vulture]

really great base, but i am concerned the miniature bases are too tall and will not sit in the recess completely.

[AnneO'Leary]

This is lovely work and I really like the way you've chosen to do his skin tones.

[demonelf3]

really great base, but i am concerned the miniature bases are too tall and will not sit in the recess completely.

 

Yeah you're absolutely right, I thought of that when sculpting but I guess I'm a putty miser :P. What I will end up doing is either sculpt up the terrain around the bases or rebase them on some hardboard (like the brute). Thanks for the insight.

[Jasper_the_2nd]

This looks really excellent, and your timing couldn't be better. I'm just starting to plan out my first attempt at a diorama, and was wondering how to set it up so the figures could be removed like you are doing. I think I might need more putty... :)

[vulture]

next time use a layer of thin cork-board as a filler to add depth. it is cheap, easy to work with, and juuuuuust the right height to conceal a base.