Beauty and the Beasts (more Bushido charity)

Greetings y'all, back to the business of painting funky things and showing them to the world. Today's offerings two models from the Cult of Yurei - Bushido range. The Geisha and the Shapechanger (Nezumi). Lets start with the Geisha:

Now, the first thing to say is that the face has photgraphed terribly. It is a very subtle effect the shading on her features but the camera washes it out and emphasises the other details. Hey ho, just trust me that it is better in person! I wanted her to stand out from the horde of zombies and weirdos around her (not that she isn't a little weird herself, Joker style scars and all). Pale colours were therefore the order of the day. Happily white is also funereal in the orient so it works nicely with the whole necromancer vibe the Cult have going. I had had the mad idea to do a willow pattern parasol for her and that informed the contrast colour. A classic cobalt blue (Macragge Blue in this case). I faded it along the bottom of the kimono and used it "neat" on the Obi (belt). I threw a few white crysanthenum-esque shapes on the obi to make it seem more of an ensemble. Incidently, the little gap in the makeup on the back of the neck is also authentic Geisha, look it up! But how about that umbrella you teased us with? I hear you ask:

Well, there it is, my version of the Willow pattern style. Authentically oriental it isn't but lovely none the less. Frankly, I was surprised how well it turned out. Apparantly practising furiously for two and a half years makes for improvement in your freehand skills. I gave the top of the parasol a coat of satin varnish to represent the laquer on the paper parasols and moved on to gribbly things.

The Nezumi is a sort of were-rat. There are way more shapechanger types in the orient than in the western world, I think the term is Hengeyokai. Anyway, the model is a cool wererat-wolfey thing and comes with three bases of rat swarms. Let's check out big daddy first though:

Dawwww, isn't he pretty? *Shudder*. Most of the model is based around Stormvermin Fur. The tail is actually Stormvermin Fur and Bugman's Glow mixed as a basecoat and then highlighted with bone. The flesh, Stormvermin Fur highlighted with increasing amounts of Karak Stone. I made sure the tail flesh colour was repeated on the hands, feet, muzzle and ears. Otherwise it was just bones and blood from the score of cuts that cover his form. To remind people, my blood mix is 2/3 red ink to 1/3 chestnut ink with a little glaze medium and water added. Applied in layers it makes a nice convincing wound.

Keeping Daddy-rat company are three bases of rat swarms. These are a bear to paint. The sculpting is so confused in places it is hard to ID which rat is which. I used every ratty brown and grey colour in my arsenal. Bugman's Glow for the tails and then gave the whole lot a drybrush of Terminatus Stone and a wash of Agrax Earthshade. They wound up pretty nice in the end.

So now there are only four charity models left to paint. The puppetmaster and his three zombies. Yay! Until next time folks.

TTFN