All aboard for some Shaded Basecoat!

Here's something fun.  The very beginnings of the Siege Train from Wild West Exodus.

This item is supposed to be a centerpiece of their display at GenCon!

I was doing some color test on the engine, and these are some images from the initial Shaded Basecoat.

As always, I was working with a filbert brush, moving quickly, establishing where I wanted the lights and darks to be.

I wanted to play off a few different shades of gray.  Some would be cooler, and others would be warmer.  You can see that already.

Even more noticeable now, as I added more blue/gray to the mix.

This mix is now lightened, as I plot the highlights.

By using the filbert brush, I can do a fair amount of wet into wet mixing.  Keep in mind, however, that there is going to be a lot of tinting and shading in the glazing stage!

Highlights and reflected light applied!

I have now worked the cooler shades of gray to the lightest point.

Now for some brass trim.  I began with a greenish brown.

Planning out these highlights and shadows will be very important.  They will form a vital center of interest for the whole piece.

Just starting to figure out what's going to catch light, and what will be in shadow...

I will be shifting the temperatures of this color, just as I did the blue gray.  That will happen after the glazing stage.

Some shape now revealed.

Long sweeping curves such as these can be very tricky when doing NMM, and this is no exception.

Brighter still, but making sure to ultimately leave 'space' in the value pattern for the brightest highlights.

Just about there.  Next up, a test of some glowing conduits and the blocking in of some other colors.

Remember, that's what this Shaded Basecoat is all about.  Just blocking in the colors, and working from there.