Garden Grimdarkness

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Have you ever thought to yourself, 

"If only I could make this mini temporarily huge, I could really go to town on the details, blending, etc..."

Because this line of thought is about to get me into trouble. I've seen quite a few examples of kickelf busts done here, and seeing the sunbleached and sorry state of some Garden Gnomes I found last year in a forgotten tote bin, ideas began to ferment. Also I've been playing more Mordheim than is probably healthy on the PS4 which led to dreams of Gnome Witch Hunters purging the lawn of weeds and heresy. Which then led to various other forms of madness that can be expressed in a lawn setting.... but for now let us begin with Gnomes and Mushrooms.

 

Partial basecoating done with some ancient craft paints, as I'm somewhat intimidated by the sheer amount of surface area I'm dealing with, and the fact that my skintone blending is not something I feel is paticularly strong as of now. The plan is to have his shirt come back up to white, and his overalls will also be black. The shoes as well, maybe. Beard and hair will likely be blonde. His walking stick might be converted to an axe once I find my hobby saw and get a pattern traced on some balsa wood. Overall, the vision is of Puritan/Amish village mob.

I've already coated the stems in beige spraypaint, and I'm thinking to paint the caps in an orange/red with white in the holes. I'm tempted to try sculpting some Malefaction faces on them, but seeing as how I've never sculpted anything before I figure it's best to get used to painting the absurdly large first. (As I type this I hear the voice of future me muttering something about how the sculpting is inevitable and something about moldmaking. He's suspiciously silent when I ask back concerning winning lotto numbers...)

[Glitterwolf]

Cool project!

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Continuing with this morning's theme of angry bearded ones, got some Blonde Shadow on the Gnome's.

It took a bit more than I expected as the paint went on thinner than planned, but better coverage than the craft paint at least. But considering my Citadel spray primer was from 97, applied over a mystery plastic made in 94, I can't really complain. Hopefully by the time I get to the highlight layers, this won't be as much of an issue. I'm estimating that if all goes well, I might have all five of them finished around Halloween, which would be thematic at least. Gives me time to find my hobby saw and figure out their weapon mods....

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Ok, so it's been about a year, but some more progress got made at last.

After dusting him off, I put down some Burnt Sienna on his shoes, and some watered down Blonde Hair over his beard as well as some GW Altorf Guard Blue in his eyes. Added a second layer of Flesh and Misty Grey where needed.

A layer of Coffee Bean craft paint over the shoe, leaving Burnt Sienna in the creases. After this dries, I'll see how it looks before doing the other shoe.

An unsettling expression to say the least...

[Glitterwolf]

I do not trust him!

He might look nice and all but the way he looks at you...

 

You can hear him say.

Hmmm? No, I have no idea where your friends are, I might have met them, not sure where I left them, I mean where they are..

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Earlier this morning I attempted to cut some wood bits to create the gnome's warhammer, with less than stellar results. So I moved on to other various related things while my patience bar refills...

One of the decorative bird boxes I picked up last year for Birdheim, Nestboxes of the Damned. Sprayed down an undercoat, but I'll have to go over it again with a brush.

Figured that while it's too early to use it yet, I ought to get started on repainting some of the lawnmower.

The forth is still in the spray box. But they're looking good so far. Next I'll delve into the knowledge of youtube and see about either taking the muffler off, or if it can be modified to get a meaner sound... I also found a spiked skull Halloween decoration that I might be able to mount on the lawnmower as well. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Got a second coat of red on the wheels. After watching a few videos on the subject,I have begun

 Operation Make the Lawnmower Louder Than The Annoying Neighbor's Buzzing Car.

Part 1: The Straight Pipe

Tearing through the garage yielded a somewhat suitable pipe. Drilled a couple of new holes in it only to discover that this is as far as I can get it to fit. I also found an old mailbox door I can cut into a back piece and some aluminum tubes that can be cut down so the nuts can go back on as normal. 

In the morning I'll try using the cutting tool to carve some grooves in the pipe, see if I can get it more or less flush. Otherwise I'm looking at having to break out the ancient soldering iron I found about two hours ago, and rig a small connecting pipe. I've never used a soldering iron before, so it will be...interesting. 

Eventually I plan on building a glasspack exhaust, probably out of a can of Hamms, but for now I figure I'll keep it simple. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

After a bit of hammering, cutting and cursing, it is done...ish. Ready for testing at least. 

At some point I'm going to have to replace the aluminum tubes with nuts or washers, but it's good enough for now.

Hammered the pipe flat on top and cut away a bit of the plastic housing to accomidate it. Not liking how close to the pipe the clutch cord is...

Mangled a piece of scrap metal into a bracket. Now all that remains is to test it, which will take awhile as the wheels are still drying from the sealer. 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Test was a success! Getting a nice "Brrapp" out of it, somewhat like that of a stock car. The wider pipe is making the sound somewhat louder and deeper too.

A few chips on the wheels, but I can go over those later. I also blacked out the vaious warning stickers, leaving only the oil weight reminder, giving it a nice clean appearance. Next part will be repainting and mounting the skull, but for now it is ready to annoy the neighbors! 

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

It's Super Happy Wash Abuse Time!

Sepia Liner/Water/Flow Improver mix applied to the smaller mushroom. Had a bit of trouble with it bubbling, might do a second coat later.

Flesh Wash/Water/Flow Improver mix. Again problems with bubbling/streaking, but since he's getting another Flesh craft paint layer, I'm not too worried about it. Also added another layer of blue to his eyes. 

And finished his other boot. Next will be an attempt at his shirt.

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Blue Grey Mist/Wicker White mix.

Really watery Maroon craft paint. And I think I'll call it a night..

 

[Darcstaar]

Really sweet project.

[Glitterwolf]

Wonderful!

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Day of the Mushroom.

Covered over the maroon with a brighter red that didn't run near as much. Wet a napkin corner and got what red I could off the stem, but it looks like I'm going to have to go over the stem again with a brush instead of the spray paint.

First layer of purple on the big guy. Probably going to take three or so coats before the orange stops bleeding thru. Although I am now beginning to wonder...

If I set these outside, am I going to be fending off hobbits from here on out?

[Lord of the Dish Pit]

Went over the stem with some ancient Cloudberry craft paint. 32 years old and still good! 

Next I slathered it in Agrax Earthshade, which worked better than my previous mix.

Now begins the tedium of putting all the little dots in.