The old man of the sea

Hey everyone,

I know it's only been a couple of days since the last post, but really wanted to get this post on.

This one started out as an experimental piece to try out some new colour theories and actually ended up quite nice. I picked the figure up in the recent Black Scorpion metal overstock sale at a real bargain price. It's a cracking figure with bags of character and seemed like a good piece to try this technique out on.

The figure has so much character, you can practically hear the wind howling and see the rain chucking down. The theory was to use a pallette of three main paints (plus a metallic) and use them all to mix the various tones across the model.

The model was based on a resin scenic base before applying a sprayed Chaos Black undercoat. Using the airbrush, the figure was then basecoated Stegadon Scale Green (SSG). The rest of the palette was comprised of Rakarth Flesh (RF), Scorched Brown (SB) and Tin Bitz (TB), which is essentially metallic Scorched Brown. (Although Astronomican Grey is pictured, it wasn't used :D )

This is the model at the basecoat stage. The outer jacket and hat remained neat SSG; the boots, rifle, hair and inner clothing were 50:50 SSG and SB. The sword, telescope and other metallic areas were straight TB. The face, hands and skull were approx 30:70 SSG and RF. The base had the same mix, but was subsequently re-painted SSG.

The figure was then washed with Asurman Blue. As an aside, from time to time there are some hobby products that stink a bit (Citadel Skull White spray, for example). Asurman Blue from the old wash range really chucks up.... the smell is un-godly!

Once the wash was dry, each area was re-layered up. All mix ratios from this point on are really just guidelines (much like the pirate code...) and the mixing process was quite fluid, changing tones as it was applied.

The inner clothing, boots and hair were layered with the initial 50:50 mix of SSG and SB, with straight SB highlighting. A little RF was mixed in for a final highlight. 

The jacket and hat were layered first with SSG and then with a little RF mixed into the SSG. The metallics had another coat of TB and a final highlight with a little RF mixed into the TB. The flesh areas were re-layered with 50:50 SSG and RF, with a highlight stage adding more RF to the mix. The skull had a further stage with more Rakarth Flesh added in.

This is the figure at about 90% complete. The telescope lens was SSG with a layer of SSG and RF and a spot highlight of straight Rakarth Flesh. The base (having been re-painted SSG) had a water effect applied by mixing increasing amounts of RF to SSG and highlighting up the rock surfaces to simulate water frothing around the base.

Anyway, hope you like the finished piece. I'm really stoked with the way the final piece turned out.

Laters all