This last two days has been busy! I finished off those base coats on those roman fighters and they're ready for inking and finishing now. I really enjoyed them in the end even though they took a while to get the motivation up for them. Usually when there's a bit of free hand involoved (bottom of capes, some shirts etc) then can be put off for a while, but once you get started it always becomes more fun and flows. 

I bought myself some of the astounding harry potter sculpts (they're massive to) and assembled them ready for painting and hopefully my first proper planned re sales on etsy or ebay. I figured it's a nice way to implement my income while not straining myself creatively if i've got a few single figures up here and there. Sadly the base tabs on these have to be some of the worse "slot in" situations (for how well they blend, or in this case don't) and i had to some filling on the bases. For miniatures that cost about £10.00 each i'm honestly shocked at this. Truly. 

Thre return of angmar! The remaining Angmar pieces turned up and i got to work drilling, pinning and filling these trolls and warg. They're funny these old trolls, they are SO HEAVY which is so odd since they're rather small for "big" models. I had to fill over the paint work of the painted troll and i'm under the impression my client wants it touched up but not painted, i may ask if he's comfortable with me doing a re paint, as i don't imagine he will blend that well with the style i'm currently working this angmar stuff in. 

My final Dragon in the big 6 i was sent by my client Dom is a large and boney Gemstone dragon. He is painted and pictured in the art reference in purple. I left this guy till last for one simple reason. Purple hates me. I have bought P3, vallejo, games workshop etc and i have always found purple to be a color that just doesn't seem to want to be painted in small scale. Am i missing something? Yes, likely i am. I will do my reserach for this model, but starting out i gave it a grey undercoat with a light to blue grey gradient on the wings which will give me a great base to work from. 

If this dragon doesn't remind you of Clover, then either you haven't seen the movie or you forgot to put your eyes in today. 

Recently i finished these "wild wargs" for my client. Mildly disapointed by games workshops re release of warg models that are designed for miniatures to go on their backs (therefore having literall flat backs with no fur) i sculpted som extra fur on and then gave them a lick of paint. Not to linger on the point but come one games workshop (or as i call them the "evil empire") you literally could sculpt a bit of fur on them and THEN re release them. Such money hungry, money grabbing desperation and it deeply saddens me. The capitolistic nature of our industry is saddening. 

Although my client was appreciative of the little effort and paint job he did say that the skin was "to clean" and i agreed immediately. I think that's a second danger of these basically detailed models, they will always have a danger of seeming to clean. As a fix i decided to mix a flesh wash/home made black wash and added that onto the models skin today and it has worked a treat. I imagine i may go back and give them a little beige drybrush later today when they're dry. 

Basing these romans has been a fun challenge so far. I sat down the other night with a few old kung fu movies and removed the base tabs with clippers. I considered going completely tab less as with the test model but i realised that some of the models wouldn't work that way (thin legs) so i have had to compromise the style a bit to get a uniform (ish) look to the cobble across the board. 
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I kneeded some putty and squeezed it onto the base wity my fingers. i found that the less i thought about it the better a job i did, which then i could clean up with a tool afterwards. 
After doing the first base i decided to go out and get a better sculpting tool from the craft shop. 

The main issue i met with these "multi bases" is the thickness of the putty. If i was to compeltely match it to the fighter i think it'd have looked odd. However in trying to do something a bit different for the multi bases i worry i've strayed to far. This took a fairly long time to get done and i'm happy with the result. Luckilly my clients seem to trust me and usually follow my judgement on orders. I realise looking at this that i could totally add other bits now that it's dry. I also do believe on these bigger bases there will be more brown leaves and tufts. 

Just four more mob characters left to do then i'm gonna get on matching those fighter bases to the test model as i feel it's more pertinent to do so with them. That will take a lot longer than expected. 

A long time ago i used to sculpt a bit here and there. One of my favorite mediums to work in was Miliput. It's a fascinating alternative to green stuff and comes in four different versions (as far as i know they're different hardness). I bought some miliput standard for these bases. Miliput is a fraction of the price of green stuff (at about £3.00 for about £15.00 worth of green stuff equivalent) and it really is the actual basis of green stuff. Games workshop created there own "miliput" for citadel and it stuck as an industry mainstay, mainly due to it's destinctive green color, a clever marketing ploy by the evil empire indeed. Many professional sculptors use both green stuff and miliput in their work for three ups, depending on the part of the model they're sculpting. 

Miliput mixes faster than green stuff, although if mixed to wet it does cover your hands in a dusty paste, but it washes off really easily. I tend to work it dry then use wet tools after. For this base i squeezed a sausage onto the base and then worked the cobble effect in with a cuticle tool (used during manicures and picked up from pound land for next to nothing in a nail kit). The miliput set to hard in about three hours, but will need to cure overnight for painting. I couldn't wait any longer as i really wanted to see this fighter on his base for reference. It worked out really well and the effect really sells the "feel" of the model. I can't wait to paint this one!

I also got a wash on those cavemen and my black/brown mix worked perfectly bringing to life all those larger flatter skin areas. as with most of my work the proof is really in the pudding, so i can't wait to get this lot done and in the photo booth to show off these whacky sculpts.