Nice doggy! Aargh, my hand!

Hi folks, in between sessions of experimental painting trying to get an Eldar colour scheme right I was able to bash out this pack of fearsome beasts:

These are Fell Wargs from Games Workshop's Hobbit range (a range of models so evidently and patiently awaiting a certain dragon and five armies to get going that it is almost funny). I decided that simple would be better for these lads, less is more and all that, and so based the whole scheme around Mournfang Brown. I drybrushed up highlights from the Mournfang base with increasingly lighter shades for the main body. Drybrushing, by the way, is often rather maligned in our hobby as a "noob" technique. Nonsense. It isn't for everything but especially with animals that have been sculpted "smooth" rather than furry it imparts a delicious texture that helps to sell the paint scheme. The underbellys got a lighter tone and the muzzle and furs got some Agrax Earthshade to help the differentiation of regions and textures. All that is a rather long winded way of saying 5 drybrush stages and a thin wash!

I'm rather taken with the range of motion GW have gotten with this kit. There's a nice flow to the unit that gives a dynamic appearance on the table. I think these might make lovely mounts for goblin wolf riders, if that plan wouldn't add £18 to the cost of every six wolf riders...

With such simple models, I felt that a slight upgrade in the basing department was called for. Cue cork piece rocks and pools of muddy water. I used some of the AK Fresh Mud more normally used on tank tracks to stain the legs of the wargs as though they were splashing through freshly rained-on earth. One quick point on the groundwork on the bases. The rocks fit in with the soil don't they? That's because I mixed 'soil' colour in with the greyish rock tone and the last highlight for both the rocks and the soil is the same. It's important to do this. I constantly see deep brown soil with bright grey rocks in paint schemes. Sadly that isn't how soil works. A lot of soil is actually the weathered down remnants of the local rocks mixed with organic matter. Thus the soil has a similar - but darker - hue to the local stone. It's made of it! With that, I am getting back to tanks, I think I've got it sorted now!

TTFN

RPG Rogue

Eyup folks! After a morning of fiddling around with Eldar infantry assembly I needed a therapeutic paint job for the afternoon, cue:

Another RPG character commission. I have to say, while I adore army building - it's my favourite part of the hobby - it is these single character commissions, especially for RPGs, that are my favoured commissions. I just love 'em. You can lavish attention and bring someone to life. This one has a slightly "Resident Evil" vibe for some reason. Maybe Ms. Jovovich wore something similar one time. Who knows.

The brief was a hired hand, leathers and black leather boots. I used an array of different leather tones - Doombull brown being the dress - and shaded everything with Agrax Earthshade to help the colours hang together. The client had asked that she be wearing leather leggings so as to avoid the usual fantasy female 6 inch heels 3 inches of fabric look that so many fall in to. The black is highlighted with Val Leather Brown in order to give the appearance of black leather. Because the pale leather colour of the undersuit is technically a skin tone I needed to clearly emphasise which areas on her were skin. For that I went very pale on the flesh. Paler than it appears on the camera. This helps her hands stand out from the sleeves and also gives a lovely contrast with the dark hood.

I did feel the need to talk about the sculpting a little. I think this is a Rackham piece and has a couple of common crimes nicely illustrated. The first is Continuity of Sculpting. This is when, because of the nature of the beast, you have to sculpt in many many small stages to avoid messing up what has gone before. Trouble is you really, really have to watch that new details follow logically from the old. It's like a watch switching wrists in a movie, continuity fail. In this case it is the bag. From the back it is clear that the strap goes over the shoulder and is pulled taut by the weight of her arm pressing on it. From the front, suddenly that weight has gone, she is actually pulling it up, while gravity ignores the strap as otherwise the strap would move between the breasts or would partially flatten the one it is pulled over. It is a small thing but it makes it seem like two different moments in time on the same figure.

The second is Single Aspect Sculpting. All models have their best angle. It is inevitable as the molds are in two parts so there will be a front-back plane on which the sculpting looks it's best and from side to side there are compromises made. Lots of sculptors work to a 3/4 turn casting angle rather than head on to allow some movement and animation in the sculpt (very complicated, I'll either talk about it later or find links to more professional knowledge!). HOWEVER. You cannot sculpt with only this front-back aspect in mind otherwise weird stuff happens at the sides. Go back and look at the shots above - taken from flattering angles. Looks fine right? Now look at the one above of the profile. She just isn't there. The girl could hide behind a sapling. The sculptor has clearly spent a lot of time worrying about the front and the back and forgotten to add any depth.

Both of these don't detract totally from the fact that she is a nice figure. I like the overall effect. But it did have the best examples of those two minor sculpting crimes I'd seen in a while so I thought I'd share. Until next time folks.

TTFN