The Next Project - A Chicken

[Heisler 10274]

He was a pretty good carver. I was hoping to get started on this and was running a tack cloth over the body to remove dust and debris when I found a chip on the back leg. Well can't start painting till that's fixed. Also decided that another coat of primer is in order as well so that will add another day before I can really start.

 

 

[Warlady 4187]

These are amazing!  I always wanted a carousel horse of my own when I was a kid - still my favorite amusement park ride, even at 63.  Can't wait to see what you do with this.  Thanks for sharing.

[Heisler 10274]

Along with Chester there are a number of other pieces that need to be painted, one that needs extensive repairs and one unfinished horse.

 

 

The ostrich is one of two small animals he was experimenting with. The other is a figure that would have been part of the carousel or steam organ decorations.

Poor hippo, result of an enthusiastic 5 year old.

I think this will be the painting guide for Chester.

Edited September 27 by Heisler

[Heisler 10274]

Was hoping to really get a good start on Chester over the weekend, but that didn't materialize due to time. I did get the chip sanded down and the last coat of primer on him.

 

 

 

[Heisler 10274]

Working on something the size of Chester requires some fairly serious time. I can't grab a spare 20 minutes and throw some paint on him, I need at least an hour. I took an extra long weekend and managed to block out time to get some of the base colors on Chester.

 

 

Primary Magenta, note the highly visible brushstrokes, pretty much inevitable with enamel paint (the traditional paint for carousel animals, minus the lead base now). 

A stippling brush is used to help eliminate the brushstrokes, tedious but required if you are going to have something that looks good.

Raw Sienna as the base for the beak. Note the edge between the primary magenta and the raw sienna

After stippling the beak is pretty smooth at this point. You can also see some of the initial blending that the stippling provides between adjacent colors.

Burnt sienna for the first of the feathers

Raw Sienna for more of the feathers. The tail and the body feathers will be painted Prussian Blue for the base color.

Paints and tools

Oil paints, these will be used primarily for highlights and shadows. The advantage of oils going over the top of enamels is that the oils will dry much faster as they pull the drying chemicals out of the enamel base (at least that is how it was explained to me).

Edited October 15 by Heisler

[LarsM 1828]

Looks really good! 

I would like to try oil paint for a miniature one day.. 

[Heisler 10274]

Military figure painters have been using oil paints on miniatures for years, however, I think you may begin to run into thick paint issues on our smaller miniatures.

 

Time for a little more work on Chester. Unfortunately I took these photos after I had, essentially, packed the materials away for the day so these are not good pictures. At this point I'm applying Prussian Blue to all the body feathers. I'm very happy with the progress so far but this is still just the basic colors at this point. The saddle and other equipment will be done last so there won't be any paint on that till I'm finished with the rest.

 

 

[Glitterwolf 162672]

Great progress!

[Original_Carl 194]

This is incredible. I've never seen anyone paint a mini that big! :-D

 

Thanks for posting your process!

[Heisler 10274]

And I have finally managed to finished getting the base coat on the entire body. The "horse" furniture won't be painted till I'm done with the body. Time to move on to phase 2 which will be highlighting and shading with a combination of straight oil paint and enamels. I'm about 10 hours into this one at this point. With all the feathers I'm not quite sure what to expect time wise. I'm thinking this one will be quite the time sink.

A quick, badly lit, shot from the romance side after finally finishing with the Prussian Blue

 

Another romance side shot, better lit this time, with the legs finished up in a base of Raw Sienna

 

And a final shot from the money side.

[Darcstaar 8044]

Looking good!

[Glitterwolf 162672]

Great work!

 

[Heisler 10274]

And a little more work over the weekend. With the body colors blocked in I started blending and shading the red and yellows on the head and crest.

 

In the beginning, just the blocked in color, magenta and raw sienna

 

The reds with more shading and a lot more blending

And the beak, a base of raw sienna followed with primary yellow in enamel and cad yellow (non toxic) tube oil

 

The paints. I transferred some of the paint from the quart cans into smaller, easier to manage, 8oz Jam jars.

 

And the brushes being used at this point. Moving away from the house brushes to something more like what we are used too. These techniques are hard on brushes so I went with large but cheap craft brushes and stencil brushes.

[Heisler 10274]

And now the hard part, I started trying to get the color changes and blending in the feathers. I started with the money side, all the important work starts on the money side so you practice before doing the romance side.

 

[Heisler 10274]

A little more work on the head. Money side is basically finished except for some touch ups. The front is also pretty much done at this point and the romance side has been roughed in a bit more. Another hour or two and I can call the head finished and move on to the body.

 

The Money side basically finished

 

The front, also pretty much finished. This shot demonstrates some of the tough lighting conditions I'm working with.

The romance side in a roughed in state. Hopefully can find time to finish it up over the weekend.

Still shooting for this whole thing to be finished by Thanksgiving for my mom.