Mountaineer – finished + some other stuff.

The Sundays ‘Goodbye’ 

 

I’ve finished one of the small projects I began during the Christmas holiday – the colours haven’t come out quite right in the photos, perhaps due to the white snow:

The method for painting the free-hand design on the banner was pretty much the same step-by-step process as outlined in a previous post.

How to make cobwebs

You need varnish (either matt or satin will do), some cotton from a Q-Tip, and a pair of tweezers:

I didn’t want to paint a free-hand design on the back of the banner, as it would have looked very crowded; so attached some plague boils, and rather than make slime-strands, opted to add cobwebs instead.

First, take some thin strands of the cotton, and use a paint brush and a small amount of water to brush them into place:

While the water is still wet, dab the cotton with varnish in order to make it adhere:

It’s best to let one set of strands dry before adding another, as it’s easy to knock them out of place – and this can be a quite painstaking procedure, as it is:

If you want the threads to glisten, paint them with satin varnish. I didn’t want that effect here, so simply left them matt.

I’m going to paint a night-goblin shaman next, as another small project, before moving onto something more complex:

While the Mountaineer was intended to have a very minimal, drab colour-palette, I want to make this one an exercise in vivid colour.

Mountaineer – Work In Progress (2): making a snow base

Medicine ‘Fried Awake’

Odd as it may seem, before making a snow base it’s important to decide what type of snow you want to represent – whether pristine, powdery snowdrifts; or slushy ice and snow, which is thawing. I chose to make this look like the snow had melted slightly:

Materials used – still water, on the left, which is smooth and clear; and the gel-like version, which can be used to create texture, on the right:

Crushed glass, on the left – this isn’t strictly necessary, and it’s quite dangerous; so it’s purely optional, but it does add a nice sparkle. On the right, snow flock:

Pre-made icicles: 

You make these by cutting small slivers of transparent plastic – such as the kind you get on blister packs – then painting them with successive layers of still water-effect. There is a short tutorial about this on SproketSmallWorld.

If you want snow to look white, rather than transparent, add some white paint to the water effect when mixing it with flock. I wanted it to have an icy appearance; so left the paint out of the mix.

Anyway, first attach the icicles using water effect as an adhesive – water effect shrinks slightly when it has cured, and so can change the angle of the icicles. To keep them vertical, I just use a bit of blue-tack to hold them in place:

Building successive layers of snow is more effective than daubing-on one heavy application of the snow-mix. So, the first layer was stippled on using an old paintbrush:

You can see how the snow becomes more opaque with additional layers:

I dotted some onto the bridge, and the rails – a cocktail stick is helpful here:

Finish by placing water effect in places where the snow looks heaviest, and sprinkling pure snow flock over these areas.

Finally, paint a thin layer of satin varnish over the snow:

 

Done.

Mountaineer – Work In Progress (1)

The High Violets ‘Sun Baby’

The beginning of a Blanchitsu-themed figure:

Along with a skull-hopper:

I had originally conceived of this figure and its companion as Scavvies, but they didn’t sit right with the rest of the models I made for the Necromunda diorama. Instead, they looked more like a pair of itinerant wanderers; plus, the gas-mask reminded me of a painting by the German artist, Otto Dix:

Dix had fought in the First World War; and made a number of paintings depicting the brutality of the conflict. Probably his most famous one is ‘Trench Warfare’:

So, I decided to characterize this model as a wounded veteran, of sorts. I didn’t want to make a direct replica of a WW1 battlefield; but I thought maybe some of the motifs – such as duckboards and tangled wire – would hint at it: 

Also, I kind of want to make a wintry base – partly because I haven’t made one for years; but I think it would make a suitably bleak setting as well. I may change this, though – as I quite like the steampunk aesthetic; and a gloomy backdrop might be better – but we’ll see.