A Warrior's Heart

While many of the fantastic busts from Black Heart Models are of the Horror movie genre, the line of historical busts has also bee fun to paint!  I have already tackled the Genghis Khan bust, with Ivan and Hannibal coming soon to a live session.

In the meantime, here is Geronimo, a bust which posed a unique set of challenges.

For obvious reasons, there are no color references to go by, so I had to extrapolate from other sources.  I had even toyed with a sepia tone concept, but that extra challenge of attempting to make the skin colors believable for this subject had to go forward!

I had also contemplated some designs for the pedestal that would have reflected the nation of Geronimo, but, it seemed to me it would only distract from the bust itself.  A muted and condensed color set was required for the face and clothes, so patterns or colors of any kind would not have worked very well.

You can see the design that I put on the Genghis Khan bust here:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2018/01/the-darkest-heart.html

I have done two live sessions so far on these Black Heart Models busts, with more on the way.  I am also creating a special recorded and edited video on a few others which will be made available to my Pateron subscribers:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

A New Species

Here's a few shots from the Black Heart Models bust that I painted during a live session last week.

It was a lot of fun, experimenting with new colors, in addition to the Mig Ammo Oilbrushers!  This link will take you to that broadcast:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10212698297826442/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

While I could not follow these reference pics exactly, they were a handy guide.  I might still try to do the lacquered effect on the skin, but I have to make sure everything is completely dry.

I used a Badger airbrush on the pedestal base, starting out with light primer colors, and then going over the top of those with a few of the Ghost Tints.  You can see that I emphasized the blue and magenta, as I thought this might be a perfect compliment to all of the greens and tans of the bust.

It was a tricky balance, since the colors on the bust were somewhat muted.  There are some areas that have a deep blue green or dark red, but those are in specifically designated areas.  Using Pthalo Green and Quinadridone Magenta really added some extra punch, very similar to what I do with the Reaper Clear and Liner paints.

I had been waiting a long time to test out these brighter and more intense tones.  This bust was certainly a great candidate!

You can find her on the Black Heart Models webstore here:

http://blackheartmodels.com/products/micro-mania-busts/micromania-sil-species

I will be painting many more of these busts, which I will be turning into various tutorials.  Some of these will be "hard copy" recorded and edited videos available only to my patrons on the Patreon Page:

www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

The Darkest Heart

This very nice bust from Black Heart Models was painted mostly with the Mig AMMO Oilbrushers.  Those offer very nice consistency right out of the container, which is identical to 'regular' acrylic based miniature paints.

I printed out a few reference pictures to work from, so that I could try some fun color variations on the face and the armor.  As you can see, I liked the 'hammered steel' helmet, and went with that.

Here's the webpage for Black Heart:

http://www.blackheartmodels.com/ecommerce/

I had a lot of fun painting this bust on a Facebook live episode, which you can view here:

https://www.facebook.com/james.wappel/videos/vb.1056181987/10211758937983033/?type=2&video_source=user_video_tab

I did some finishing details with acrylic paints once the oils had dried.  Working on large scale subjects like these busts are very fun for me, as I have never gotten a chance to do that before!  

The larger size allows me to incorporate even more of my old 2D art techniques.

I'm planning to do more of these historical busts on future Facebook Live sessions, including Hannibal and Vlad!  If the Patreon page receives enough funding, I can do more frequent live sessions and more Patreon videos as well.  Any contribution is helpful, and makes you eligible for the monthly raffle figure!

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Secrets of the Past

Continuing the finishing stages of the Black Heart Models bust means briefly switching to acrylic paints.  I will be using a few of the Secret Weapon Miniatures weathering paints, such as this Verdigris color.

The vast majority of the bust was painted in a Facebook live session here:

I darkened it with a bit of Emerald from Vallejo.  While I don't want to emphasize the copper too much, I thought that it would tie in nicely with the bust, the design that I will paint on the plinth and make the name plate on the back more integrated.

Speaking of the nameplate, you can see what I am talking about.  I thought that making it part of the weathering would make it interesting and less noticeable.

I tried to build up a bit of the verdigris on the upper surface as well.  This will continue up into the bust itself.

Once again, the company logo is worked into the weathering as I begin to do a few streaks.

I did some more streaks on the front of the plinth, and then did some research to look for Mongolian designs...

I tried to stick with something simple, and that would lead up to the face, and work with the medallion on the chest.  I thought I could get away with one burnt sienna tone and the verdigris colors in combination.

The design is hashed out a bit more, checking to see how much attention it might draw away from the bust itself.

Instead of doing a series of outlines as I saw in the reference image, I thought I would do some shading of it instead.  This way I could tone down the design a little if it became too much.

Just about done!  There will be another post coming up with the final images of the whole piece.

I have a few more of these fantastic busts from Black Heart Models that I will be painting in Facebook Live sessions, and also in special Patreon videos.  They might even be one of the monthly figure raffles as some point.  If you would like to join in on the fun, the Patron page is here:

https://www.patreon.com/JamesWappel

Busted!

Hey folks!  This is something truly different for me... a first time event!

This spectacular bust from Infamy Miniatures will be the first bust that I have ever painted.  It's going to be so much fun, because Infamy puts some serious craftsmanship into their figures.

There's a link to their facebook page at the end of this post.  When you check out the pictures of the renders on that page, you can be sure that all the details you see in those images directly translates to the actual casts.  Wow!

Not only are the details super crisp and well rendered, the consistency of the resin is very nice.  It is silky, resilient, and not brittle in the least.

I have been prepping a number of them over the last week, and they have been among the easier to prep resin figures... very impressive!

I'm sure that there will be a lot of unique challenges to approaching a bust, so I truly look forward to this.  Obviously there will be a lot of glowing effects!

You can check out their page here, and see what kind of spectacular figures that Infamy has created.  There will be more posts coming that show 54mm and 32mm scale versions.

Incredible!!

https://www.facebook.com/infamyminis