Fire Tackles Maal Drakar in 7 Days

[Guindyloo]

Awesome!!! You’re doing so well!!! You’re definitely hitting the part of the challenge where it gets mentally exhausting and you’ll start thinking about quitting, but your method for pushing through was really smart and you’ll be thanking yourself toward the end for getting those fiddly bits out of the way relatively early on. And they look really great! I love the eyes and the mouths are so realistic, I fully understand you wanting to be sure that you’re documenting the process for them. 

 

That paint rubbing off is so frustrating, I know. That’s why I always take the extra time and effort to lay down a good coat of Brown Liner to minimize paint rub off. With a figure so large and heavy, some rubbing off will still occur even with the brown liner, but not to the extent that you’re seeing it happen. I think it’s a little worse for you because your paint station is mobile, if I’m not mistaken. 

But that’s in the past now, there’s no rewind button and you’re too far in to go in with brown liner now. On the bright side, Well, it’s literally the bright side because your colours will be more vibrant and you’ll need less coats to get a solid colour. Sealing as you go is a good idea, for sure, but you might think about some extra precautions as well. 

First of all, if you don’t already have gloves, get some. You can get a box at the drug store or whatever kind works best for you - nitrile, latex, etc. I think OneBoot actually has cotton gloves that she wears when handling a big beastie like this.

Get something soft to put the parts on - a silk pillow case would be great, a microfiber towel, a regular towel, something like that. You want to avoid touching any of the pointy bits directly onto a hard surface as even setting them down as gently as possible will rub away paint on a high impact zone like that. Even too much friction on something soft will start to rub away paint. 

Make sure you’re setting the pieces down in their own spots, not putting them in a pile where they can rub together. Not that I think you’re just tossing pieces around, but if you’re mobile, it would be very naturally to put all of the pieces into a box or holding several pieces in one hand to transport them, not realizing that you’re causing them to rub up against each other. 

 

Hopefully some part of that is helpful to you. Just keep pushing, you’ve totally got this and you’re going to have an awesome looking dragon at the end! 

[SaintRigger]

Looking sharp!

I hate that part at the project in the "Tween" stages - it can be very frustrating and demoralizing - but you just gotta keep plugging away. 

Edited January 26, 2018 by SaintRigger

[Crowley]

On 1/22/2018 at 2:51 PM, Fire_Eyes said:

And we've begun! Free background puppy too :)

Background puppies are the best! 

 

This is coming along really well. I love your color choices, and the eyes look fantastic!

 

Keep going! (and listen to @Guindyloo, she knows her stuff!)

[Cyradis]

I love the striped body mixing the head colors! 

[Pezler the Polychromatic]

Didn't realize another Ma'al Drakar Challenge was going on! You're doing great so far, keep it up!

[OneBoot]

Ah, the dreaded "I don' wanna" stage; that's to be expected on any large project, but it's tripley true for an insane Goblin Challenge like this one!

 

However! You did a very wise thing, which is the true secret to completing a difficult challenge: You kept going! You made the decision to get back up and keep fighting, because no plastic dragon beastie can keep you down!

 

You CAN do it, I know you can, and I believe in you!  I know it's hard and tough and painful, but you are a brush warrior, and you can do this thing!

 

Your progress so far has been extremely good, and now that the small fiddley bits are out of the way, you're in great shape. The wings are just large expanses of flat space, so load up your most frizzled Size 0 brush and go to town. :) The terrain takes well to drybrushing, and isn't as daunting as it tries to seem. Smack it with your brush handle a couple of times to show it you mean business, and it should behave after that.

 

Your colors are so lovely and bright and pretty! Ma'al will have good cause to preen after it's done.  I like what you did with the eyes; making each one from a different animal is a such a fun idea! 

 

Again, you can do it, you've got this thing! As a very wise goblin told me during my very first Challenge:

 

On 5/18/2016 at 3:21 PM, buglips*the*goblin said:

Speed is the key, trust your instincts to reveal the "best quickest" path.  Worry eats time, perfect is the enemy of good.  You'll know the zen when you get there, and this will push you past fatigue and doubt.

 

Huzzah!

--OneBoot :D

Edited January 26, 2018 by OneBoot

[Dilvish the Deliverer]

Somehow I missed this!  Everything is looking good so far!  Keep it up, you are doing great.

[Cyradis]

We want more updates! PAINT LIKE TEH MADNESS CUZ TEH GOBLINS ARE COMIN'! 

[Fire_Eyes]

6 hours ago, Cyradis said:

We want more updates! PAINT LIKE TEH MADNESS CUZ TEH GOBLINS ARE COMIN'! 

Hahaha sorry sorry!

 

I'll do a more detailed update later when I have more tangible work done, but today was the day I worked, so not quite as much done.

 

I've been working on finishing all the Blue, which I'm quickly realizing is the most prevalent color on the dragon body, so once this is done things will move a bit quicker.

 

I've got a little tease pic to show what I'm doing with the blue.

 

 

I also was able to knock out the base in between clients at work today, and will have pics later! One less thing to worry about!

 

Thank you @Guindyloofor your advice! I'll admit that I usually do use brown liner on my Bones, but I was hoping I could make the brush on primer work so that I could skip a step (I usually drybrush white over it since I like brighter colors). Oh well, lesson learned. I have made Maal a comfy bed, and I'm being much more careful about how I put him away at night.

 

Thank you again everyone for your encouragement! It's really helping a lot! Now let's go finish this dragon!

Edited January 28, 2018 by Fire_Eyes

[Guindyloo]

You’re very welcome! 

In the future if you want to try using brush on primer on Bones, try a 60-ish percent Brown Liner and 40ish percent brush on primer mix. It’ll be a light grey colour so you can see it on the white of the Bones but it isn’t anywhere near as dark as working up from straight Brown Liner. I’ve used it to good effect before on Bones figures that I wanted to start out with a brighter base, although not on anything as big as Ma’al that has a higher chance of friction rub off. 

 

I’m so happy that you were able to get a lot done despite the interruption of work! That was a huge stress factor for me when I did Ma’al as I had to work a regular work schedule at the same time. So getting stuff down during work hours is a huge plus! 

 

And that blue! It’s looking really great! You’ve got a wonderful delineation between the darkness of under the scales and the brightness of the tip of the scale that’s really making things pop. 

 

You’ve so totally got this! 

[buglips*the*goblin]

That's shaping up to be a nice-looking beastie.

[Cyradis]

^^

Toldja the goblins would show up. 

[Fire_Eyes]

Another quick tease!

 

 

Almost done with the hard stuff!

[Fire_Eyes]

Blue head finalized!

 

[Pezler the Polychromatic]

That's looking absolutely lovely!