Jump to content

Kaladrax In Seven Days! Buglips is Crazy! WIP


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 261
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Top Posters In This Topic

I'm glad people enjoyed this WIP and the result. Like all of my WIPs, I had no idea if it would work, get done in time, or what. That might sound like a scary way of working, but it's actually become addictive. It strips out the luxury of worry, and with that gone I'm forced to think fast, move quickly, and do what I can without fussing. For the most part it works out, and sometimes I discover some neat things - like the time I did the Bugbear's skin.

I think worrying about it is what kills it for most folks, so I say don't worry; be painty! All of it is pretty easy stuff, it just takes practice.

I had to cut short answering questions and doing write-ups as the sand ran out of the hourglass, so now I'm going to go round some up and see what I can drum up for answers and/or clarification.

This is scaring the hell out of me, considering I was thinking of trying to drybrush Kally. How many hours of dry-brushing have you put into Kally so far, Buglips?


That's hard to say. A bunch. The first basecoat of bone shadow was most of it, and you can solve that by either not using a semigloss black or dullcoating in between that and the next layer. Each successive layer is a smaller area, so it naturally goes faster. If Kaladrax all on his own is intimidating or more time than you want to devote to one creature, pick away at him piece by piece. He's probably good practice. So you could do the base stone work in between other projects. Then come back and do the skull. So on. Eventually he'll be ready for assembly, and if you do it that way it'll probably hardly seem like work at all.

The base is superb and the bones are very nice. The only part I'm not sure about is the innards. I like where you are going, but I'm not sure they won't be too dark in the end? I guess they'll show off the lighter bone color well if they are a bit dark. Great work my fine goblin!



The innards were a looming problem from the beginning, so I had my mind on them from the start. As mentioned, I didn't want a fleshy-looking Bacondrax. This pretty much meant the innard colour had to be dark. I didn't want just black, though. Or plain, boring grey - especially as the stone base was grey. So in the end I settled on the Dark Elf Skin triad as a compromise. As a colour, it was a good choice. As a paint, it was not. I had a lot of trouble with it, under thinning it separated easily - even eagerly. I don't think it would be a problem on a normal sized miniature for skin, but because of the size of Kaladrax it was a huge obstacle. In the end, because of this consistency problem, all the dark elf skin bits got a little abstract. The overall effect works, but close inspection would reveal many flaws.

As buglips current DM.... I am very pleased with the progress of my most powerful minion. (Inserts generic evil laughter). As such I cannot abide with pesky animal rights groups derailing my attempts at world domination. Therefore I have dispatched a host of Lawyer Genies to deal with this *problem*. Keep painting goblin.


Kaladrax has only one master - he who breathed life into him. I.e., me. But I may let you use him or take him for a walk, because after many years of training you have finally been able to stop destroying my painted little people during play. I remember the lawyer genie. Got me out of some tight jams.

Mr. Goblin sir, Thank you for another VERY insightful WIP. I learn something every time I follow your progress.

I do have a question (sorry if I missed it if you already answered). How many paint bottles did you actually end up going through? Specifically in regards to the bone triad, but other paints too.


In the end, despite my concern (which is why I bought 5 Bone triads), I didn't use up a single full bottle. The heaviest casualty was the Bone Shadow - that was fresh and unopened and I got through 3/4 of it. The Coat D'Arms black survived almost to the end. There was enough left in it to finish the job, actually, but it was getting gloopy. CDA bottles have a little lip on the inside of the cap and my rule of thumb is that if there's not enough left to fill the rim after shaking then consider it toast. The Armor Grey was next heaviest, and that was barely a dent. I wouldn't be able to pick it out from a line-up of my other Armor Grey bottles.

 

And though you didn't ask about brushes, it was 3. The Reaper Kolinsky 0 was already mostly dead, and I sacrificed what was left to try and preserve my Q Series 5R in case I needed it for smaller bits later. The Red Sable (Artoo) pretty much disintegrated right away, probably the glue in the ferrule was weakened from abuse. So the 5R wound up doing the heavy lifting anyway, but my concern for its survival was unnecessary. A selection of a half dozen other brushes, from 5/0 to 0, filled in where necessary.

Edited by buglips*the*goblin
  • Like 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I bet I could do a whole nother Kaladrax with the same brush. Sturdy!

 

And I'm pretty sure we'll never find out! ::P:

 

Awesome work, Buglips! I really like the reasoning (and subsequent coloring) you used for the "guts" to avoid a "bacon" effect, and the weathered bone effect looks great! Kudos, my good man... er, goblin!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A note on the red bits on his wings: when I went to do the wings, those were very distinct parts, so I assumed they were leftover skin bits. Because of his size, and to add colour, i decided to make them red. I left them very dark (it's reaper aged red brick with a quick highlight of reaper blood red) so he wouldn't wind up looking like spider-man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This has been fantastic to watch, and it's given me plenty of ideas about how to paint my Kaly.

 

I particularly enjoyed the insight into your thought process regarding not baconating him. I think I'm going to aim for a jerky kind of look with mine, as that makes sense from a slowly-drying-out perspective.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This has been fantastic to watch, and it's given me plenty of ideas about how to paint my Kaly.

I particularly enjoyed the insight into your thought process regarding not baconating him. I think I'm going to aim for a jerky kind of look with mine, as that makes sense from a slowly-drying-out perspective.

...now I'm hungry...
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think you are on to something about the worry Buglips.

 

I know the worry is what killed painting for me. It was speed painting that helped me out of that funk. I realized with speed painting competitions that I would get a better mini done in an hour than one that I spent 80 on. (Maybe my time with drawing and painting set me up to think every project should take 80+ hours to do.) Now that fear is mostly done with. I have painted more minis this year than I have my whole life, and it feels great.

 

But I still have Da Feartm when it comes to doing big projects. I think I am going to grab one and just do it, Buglips style!

 

<music starts in her head and she hears...>

wop! wop! wop!, heeeeeeeyyyy sexy goblin...

 

Wopa Buglips Style!

  • Like 9
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...