Giant Critter, Giant Base.

I see that is all the chaos of the last few weeks, I never shot any images of the finished base for the Great Elk!

I'm very glad I remembered before I went to place the Great Elk on this massive platform.

This is not a plinth, folks.  This is the regulation base!  Huge!

Considering it's combat radius is 3 inches, this is quite the pie plate template.

The broken machine you see is the Fire Bringer, which is a resin terrain piece made by Wild West Exodus.

I had SO much fun with the extra roots and undergrowth on this piece. Normally I would use dried foliage branches, but this more vine oriented look was great.

I wasn't sure what would happen to it as it was painted.  if the paint has too much water in it, things get soggy and start to sag.

I can't wait until the duel between the Lawman and the Great Elk takes place!

The roots along the ground worked out as I had hoped, and I have used that on other bases since.

The sprawled skeleton worked out equally well.  It sets up another one of those 'triads' of interest, between the Great Elk, shooter and skeleton.

Stay tuned for when Base and Monster are joined together at last!  Then it's on to the Crystal Brush for large creature category.

What you find in the swamp

Look out below!  Or is that above, as this huge snake towers above you.

This is the finished giant snake from the Confederate Rebellion, one of the four new factions being introduced via the Wild West Exodus kickstarter.

Hopefully the step by step images I have been posting give you a decent idea of how I went about painting this!

It's always very fun to see those WIP images next to a finished product such as this.

Next up, the Zombie Queen and her pet together at last!!

Blood and Guts in the swamp

We need some RJ-1027 glow for our snake.  Vallejo orange fluorescent paints work very well for this!  I mix in a little red where I need it to be darker... and some yellow when I want to lighten it up.

Be advised that it is a very thick, but very transparent paint.  When you mix yellow in with it, you increase its opacity.

A little bit of ivory was added for the final lights.

Between the reddish orange and the surrounding green color, those bits of RJ-1027 glow really stand out!

Last, but not least, we need some blood and gore!!

The Realistic Water serves as a 'suspender', which will give the gore a transparent appearance.  It will also give it a bit of glossy shine.

When you look at the Realistic Water on the left and see the lighter red mixed in, you get a sense of how this effect works.  The lighter red is applied first, and will be smeared around on the surface.

Here we have that first application.  Where I want the blood/gore to be thicker, I will build up additional layers, each one with more dark red included.

I also used the lighter red mix to take care of the areas of skin that had been cut open to insert various RJ-1027 elements.

On the tips of the tails, I used a very dark mixture of red and Realistic Water.  It was thick enough to pool up in a drop.

This image shows me working around the snake, adding successive layers of darker reds.

Heavy applications of deep red have been added to the inside of the mouth and the ends of the blades on his head.

A little side by side with the reference image...

He's almost done!  Just some picking out of final highlights and other details. Stay tuned for the finished images!!!

SSSSSshaded bassssecoat and glazing.

OK... here's something a lot of folks have been anxious to see.

This is the other half of the zombie queen set from the Confederate Rebellion, one of four new factions being created with the Wild West Exodus kickstarter.

This is an interesting shot, as it shows some critical elements.

First, the concept art which must be matched.  Doing so is always a challenge, since the final sculpt is always different, and you don't have the benefit of a 'backdrop'.  This can effect the appearance of a color far more than you might think.

Also, for those of you not familiar with my Shaded Basecoat technique, you see my #8 round craft brushes ready for action!  Each is in a different state of wear.

The more worn out brushes are used to make the initial applications of color, as the point has been worn away, making a nice version of a filbert brush.  The newer, more pristine brushes are for more detailed areas.

Let's begin  I chose a generic grayish green color for the scales, which was lightened with a rotting flesh type color.  A mid tone brown was used for the bindings, and a light grey for the metal parts.  As usual, the Shaded Basecoat begins light, and then gets lighter.

This will be shaded and tinted by subsequent glazes.

And let the Glazing begin!

I use a huge variety of glazing colors... Secret Weapon, Vallejo, and so on.

The approach here is similar to a watercolor painter... in that I concentrate my glazing in tightly controlled applications.

This is normally something I use in my Nurgle mixes, but the swamps demand the addition of this high chroma light wash.  I will mix it in with the Algae for some extra boost.

You ca see that I am working around the metal areas and the bindings.

A substantial difference already!

I have made sure to vary the colors of my mixes... some parts were more brownish, while others were more yellow or blueish green.

It is a lot easier to get this kind of color variation through glazing and tinting as opposed to laborious opaque color mixing.

So, the scales, which had been painted a very basic green color, could be turned warmer or cooler, brighter or more muted, with just the type of glazing color I was using.

The same technique was used on the bindings.  I was even able to incorporate some of the green glazes into the mix, which unified the colors... keeping the browns from getting too out of touch with the green of the scales.

Also, I can apply multiple glazes to a given area to darken it further, or tint it, etc.

A blue/black glaze was created for shading the metal pieces.

Now we have some decent shading, which can be refined much more with semi-opaque applications in those all important middle tones.

These techniques are so central to everything I do, I made sure they were the first two videos created for the Painting Pyramid series of instructional videos.

I like to think of them as the steel framework of a skyscraper.  It provides a lattice upon which I can 'hang' sheets of special effects, such as the RJ-1027 glow, and the Blood spatter!

Stay tuned for the Grand Finale!!!!!

A little Voodoo on You...

The Zombie Queen beckons you to join in on the fun.  Head on down to the Bayou and lock in on the Confederate Rebellion.

The Zombie Queen is a bit of a snake charmer, as you will see.  Her little pet is also finished, but I have some step by step images that I will be featuring over the next few posts.

And what might that pet be?

How about this guy!  Stay tuned. Keep pushing the stretch goals to bring these to your doorstep too...