Wings of shame

[Samedi]

"Always two there are, a project and another project" (Master Yoda, sort of...)

 

I've experienced, that it helps productivity to work on two or three projects at once. When you run into a wall with one project, you can just switch. At the moment, my projects are slowly finishing a few minis I began during RVE classes and my fairy challenge. The little fairy is currently on hold, though, because of needs for supplies. So I need another project. 

 

I've decided to face the end boss: Barros. And Tempest. You see, they fight as a tag team. 

 

My miniature painting journey began a long time ago when I got the old LTPK1 for my birthday. Also, I got Barros and Tempest, making them my oldest yet unpainted mini at the moment.

 

There was a first attempt a few years ago when I painted the Pegasus in ghost white. Didn't like it for whatever reason. Repainted him pure white. And that's as far as I got.

 

I've never painted a mini this big and I'm still not sure what to do with this ugly flight stand (although I already had some good inputs from you guys here in this forum). I'll aim for slightly above get-it-off-my-desk-quality, with a lot of white, gold and blue. This sculpt just screams "lawful stupid, and he got away with it, too".

 

Will this be fun? I don't know. But it needs to be done! We're starting from here:

[Samedi]

This is going to be a long post, because I will ramble about a lot of stuff. Mostly, because I'm really procrastinating, but also because I'm struggling to find a motivating approach to this project. I've split this post up in different chapters, that you can check out under the spoilers - or you can just skip whatever doesn't interest you.

 

Samedi does research

Spoiler

First thing I do when starting a new project is always to look for inspiration. The knight is fairly easy for me, but I was not so sure about the Pegasus. A Pegasus is just a mixture of a big bird and a horse. I don't find horses particularly interesting. Cows are absolutely fascinating animals, but horses... 

 

Well after some research and googling up a lot of pictures I have to concede, that at least cold bloods are kind of cool animals (pun not intended). And I'm in luck: This Pegasus is definitively a long haired, cold blooded horse. I found a few inspiring pictures of white Friesians and Belgian Coldbloods. Often they have a golden undertone to the hair. But that would force me to repaint the whole pegasus with linen white. Ain't nobody got time for that!

 

The other animals that I often find boring are birds. So yeah, perfect thing to paint, a pegasus.  His wings are sculpted like the wings of a bird of prey. And then it hit me: A stork! That's a big, white bird with wings almost identical to those of a bird of prey. There are a lot of storks around here, I see them almost daily. And yeah, storks I like! Googled some pics of flying storks for reference, they have this little black "thumb-feather" that is even sculpted on the mini. Way to go! By following that colour scheme, the pegasus will probably look like a panda in the end, but that is a risk I'm willing to take!

 

Samedi rants about the sculpt

Spoiler

I hate painting big minis, because I get bored easily by repetitive tasks. Especially those wings - they took forever to base coat, and today they took forever to wash. Don't expect another pegasus from me. Or a griffin. Probably no dragon either, although the most annoying thing is really this huge highly textured surface that just keeps drinking up all paint I throw at it. I just hate the wings.

 

They are magnificently sculpted however! I can just copy from my reference picture, almost feather for feather. Did I say that Sandra Garrity is my favourite sculptor? I just love her eye for proportions and her attention to details. Strangely, the belly of the pegasus is just a mess with no distinction where the cloth ends and the animal begins. She's really cuts corners there. I find that very odd when you compare it to the brilliant sculpting of the rest of this mini.

 

Since I made the huge mistake of already attaching the wings before painting (here is a great WIP by Auberon that shows exactly how you should assemble the mini during painting), handling the mini while painting became really hard, because it got very heavy (it's the pewter version, don't know if there's a bones one). It won't stick to any handle either so I mainly pick it up by the awkward flight base.

 

Yes, the base. I need it for stability, but it looks really out of place. At one point I thought about just painting it up as pewter and then use some blood effects to make it pierce the belly of the pegasus (you know, because art and message ) but upon closer inspection the base doesn't connect at the belly. It's a bit further down. I can't do that effect there. I'm a responsible adult! At the moment I'm thinking about just painting it in a plain colour, to say: "look, it's just a base. This sculpt needs the base. But please look at something else now."

 

Samedi muses about the characters

Spoiler

Who is Barros and who is Tempest? I don't really know. To make matters more complicated, the blister introduced the two as Burrow and Tempest. Tempest may be a noble name for a paladin's steed or even for a paladin, but Burrow? Not so much. So maybe Barros? Well, while it sounds good, it supposedly means "blackheads" in Spanish. Among a lot of other unpleasant things. It seems we're not dealing with the standard knight in shining armour here. And did you know that storks sometimes eat little cats? Now you do!

 

The orcs were finally beaten. A few lay dead in the fields, the rest had fled. But the fighting had been heavy and too many of the villagers had fallen in battle. Many more were wounded. And there would be no harvest this year, the fields were burning.

When the golden knight had flown in on his pegasus a few days ago, the villagers thought that their pleas to the Temple of the Clouds were answered. But during the battle he just kept "organising the fight" and "gathering tactical information" up in the sky. He didn't meet a single orc in battle.

Now he was taking the coins out of the alms chest in the little shrine. As compensation for his "help". His shining white mount was chewing on a little kitten he had found in the rubble. Who could stop them? Who would even believe the villagers?

Back in the Temple of the Clouds nobody suspected a thing. Nobody knew that Barros was indeed the pimple on the pure skin of the order, and that "Tempest" was just the longer name for "Pest"...

 

 

Samedi finally starts painting

I now have some ideas and a direction. Enough talk, here's a picture. No spoilers. Enjoy!

[Samedi]

I'm painting a lot, having a lot of fun, and I'm fairly productive (by my standards, that is). Only ... not with this. No idea why. 

 

Today I at least managed to base coat all the metal parts with Vallejo metal primer. I also primed a plastic cup to try out some metals, because I can't decide on a scheme:

• A nice cold gold with dark blue cloth to suit the famous paladin as I originally planned?
• Colour shifting light blue/gold for that extra magical oomph (I caved in and bought a bottle to try out)?
• A very shiny silver contrasted with red cloth to play a bit with the stork colour scheme?

Decisions, decisions...

 

Here is a picture to prove I put at least some paint on the mini :

 

[Samedi]

Testing some options for the armour. At the moment I'm leaning towards the silver/red paint scheme, mostly because I'm not too happy with the gold paints I got. And the colour shifting paint is very flakey. I could see it work with insects, maybe. With this project not so much.

 

 

[Samedi]

This project just keeps dragging along, I'm still lacking enough enthusiasm but bit by bit it moves forward.

 

Today I base coated the metal parts. Steel for the horse armour and gold for Barros. I'm planning to pick out the details on the armour and contrast it with red cloth (because of the "stork" theme, red legs on the pegasus just wouldn't look right ).

 

[Samedi]

Got some more work done on Barros and Tempest. I started with the first round of the details on the armour: Vallejo Metal Steel, Vallejo Metal Gold and RMS Adamantium Black. Those Vallejos have a wicked sheen to them so it was hard to actually see what I was doing. It still looks messy and I'm in no way done with the metals. Was fun, actually. It seems as long as I don't touch the wings it's ok. 

 

On a side note: I'm not sure the back story works any more, Barros seems to change his character and starts to become more heroic. Maybe he's not a coward. Maybe he will fight those orcs after all. Maybe he won't plunder the alms chest. Maybe he'll even fight a dragon. Let's see.

 

I really enjoy when a mini starts to get a character on it's own!

 

[Fencig]

keep going! this is one i always wanted, and for $25. on E-bay for the complete kit with alternate Torsos it was a good deal. In the end i chickened out, so i will look forward to seeing how yours turns out.

 

the only option to the flight stand is to pin it's hind legs  to a "rock ledge" like it's leaping into flight. Not my idea, poster " Auberon"  pulled it off nicely in 2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Samedi]

Yeah, Auberon made a really cool version of Barros and Tempest. I checked out his WIP, it was very helpful!

[Samedi]

As my painting sessions are becoming sparser since work is picking up (which is good!) I decided to take some time off my rangers project to finally advance this one. I began with cleaning up the paint job on the metallic parts and was really hoping to finish the metallics today.

 

Instead the flight stand came off. 🤬

This project is cursed, I tell you! Cursed! ☠️

 

Well, good thing is, now I have another chance to decide what to do with the base.

Bad thing is, I have to figure out what to do with the base ... 

... again ...

 

The eagle pegasus has landed:

[Fencig]

doesn't appear to be much mechanical engagement between the flight post and the heavy model. This will likely require pinning to make it really solid if you go with the flight stand.

 

Don't push it, if it's not coming along there's nothing wrong with coming back to it later, even if it's months later. I've barely managed to start 1 paint since i finished my last diorama and have zero guilt. It's just  not fun if i force myself to do it

[MediocrePainter]

keep going! Think about playing with it and you will stay motivated (at least that usually helps me). some time ago i Was also not motivated to do a certain miniature and then decided to do a simple paintjob with a wash to finish it. Sometimes getting it done in a simple way helps to stay motivated.

[Samedi]

Thanks for the encouragement, guys!

 

Right now there is so much going on at work that I have no time for painting at all. I've not given up on this project, but it may take a while until I can get back to this...

[Samedi]

No actual progress in the production department, however the research and development department was busy and made a few experiments.

 

I came across a company that makes scenic resin bases in a wide selection of topics. Those bases should be heavy and durable enough to support the minis if I use heavy pinning rods. So this will be the road I try next. 

 

Now I just have to decide on  a theme: Something natural like rock or forest? Ancient ruins? A warped chaos base? A desert of skulls? Something completely different?

 

What would you suggest to match a stork themed pegasus with a pale golden rider?

 

[Samedi]

Finally, after months of waiting, the scenic base I ordered in September arrived today! So hopefully I'm back on track with this somewhat cursed project.

 

I made a pin out of a sturdy nail that should hold the pegasus in place and test fitted the mini to the new base. There wasn't a perfect position for the mini - the face coming out of the ground wouldn't allow it - but there was one that somewhat worked:

 

 

I'm thinking the best course at this time would be as follows:

1. paint and seal base
2. paint wings
3. paint metallics and the separate top of the rider
4. paint the cloth
5. attach rider to pegasus, fill gaps and touch up
6. attach pegasus to base
7. finish painting pegasus
8. varnish
9. celebrate!

Does this order make sense? Am I missing something important? Do I shoot myself in the leg (again)? Will the curse of this mini come back to haunt me once more? Stay tuned! 😁

[Glitterwolf]

Very nice!