77157: Griffon

[Grim]

I haven't gotten my Bones II Kickstarter yet (tomorrow afternoon, according to UPS,) but hey, I still have plenty of minis to paint.  I haven't posted anything in a while, sorry about that.  I just finished this guy last week, it is the Bones Griffon.  I wanted to paint the eagle portions to look like an actual eagle, so I did some hunting and decided on the Steller's Sea Eagle - sure the beak on the real bird is kind of goofy-looking, but I love the coloration.  Since I was going with black and white, I continued the coloration to the lion portions.  I am aware that black lions are a hoax (they're photoshopped white lions,) but I rather liked the idea anyway. :)  Pictures are very high res, feel free to click on them for a closer view.  Comments welcome!

 

[kitenerd]

fantastic!

[Pingo]

I love when people work from real-life models for colors. This coloration really brings out the movement of the sculpt.

[ub3r_n3rd]

Great work!!

[stormbreach]

Excellent. Mine is awaiting paint right now too.

[Silvervane]

Great work.  Good to see you posting again. 

 

I love when people work from real-life models for colors. This coloration really brings out the movement of the sculpt.

I agree wholeheartedly.  This is one of those figures that just screeches at you (well, me at least) don't you dare give a generic coloring.  Glad to see you didn't Grim.

[Grim]

Thanks for the comments everyone!  If you want a little of the messy details of creation, including an interesting story, I'll go into a few of them here:

 

The white is Vallejo's Dark Sand with highlights of Linen White and Pure White.  Mostly drybrushed because, well, feathers.  I used a more brown/yellow as the shade color after my experience with the Snowy Owlbear - a blue/grey shade looks neat, but pretty unnatural.  The black is Walnut brown, drybrushed with Dark Sand and Linen White, then washed with black ink and sometimes a little more drybrushing.

 

I initially painted the beak and claws Sun Yellow but they provided very little contrast with the white since the white had yellow/brown values.  I then mixed in some Lava Orange to get a sort of a light orange and used that - it looked more natural that way and allowed me to use the Sun Yellow as a highlight.  I'm particularly happy with the talons.

[uncas]

That's lovely! I like the griffon model a lot, and your colors are excellent. Like Pingo said, it really brings out the movement in the sculpt. It feels very alive.  

[Jasonator]

Terrific Work.

Gray is such a bear to work with !!