54mm Black cat and violinist diorama mock up

Black cat

The cat of my violinist diorama was up this week.  He is going to be a black cat with white paws and white area on the chest.  I wanted to be very careful with the highlighting so that the black didn’t end up at ugly grey.  I base coated in a mixture of black and VMC Black/Brown.  This way I could shade down the true black.  I used both AP Black (which was a very “black” black) and VMA Black which had a more purple tone to it.  So the first shade was VMA Black, followed by AP Black.

meow

For the highlights I used VMC Leather Brown and VMA Armour Brown initially.  Again these browns had a measure of purple in them.  These highlights were then followed up by adding in some grey highlights created by adding in a small measure of white.  I applied many more layers of the highlight around the face area to pull the face up.  For the eyes I went for yellow (first base coating the eyes in tan brown as yellow over black results in green) with a black pupil.

Now that the three animals are done I’m starting to work on the fence.  Hopefully pictures next week.

Violinist diorama

I also did a full mock up of the diorama to push around where the animals would be sitting.  Originally I was going to put the cat on the fountain but now I’m thinking of putting it behind the two pots.  Note the wood piece under the cat is there just while it is being painted so it’s easier to hold onto.

Finally I’ve started gluing the brick wall onto the wooden support.  After a few days to let the glue fully set I’ll chop it down to size and sand it into shape.  I’m seeing a lot of hand painting bricks up ahead.

Slow progress on the violinist diorama

Wasn’t feeling the mojo this week at all.  On the plus side I managed to watch Ant-man (which I liked more than expected), Captain America Civil War (which felt like everyone was going through the motions, except of the actors who didn’t turn up - no Hulk?) and John Wick (watched for the second time, and still good).

Wall section

I made a number of attempts on the wall section but nothing was working.  In the end I went for a sandstone look and repainted everything with a base coat of VMC Tan Yellow.  The iron fence is base coated in a mix of VMA Black Metal and VMC Dark Sea Blue (to take the shine out of the metallic).

More boxes, base coats

Although I was happy with the boxes I painted last week, on reflection they looked way too extreme and cartoonish for my liking.  So I made two new boxes.  This time I used balsa wood strips around a core of pine.  I was afraid the metal pins of the figure in the soft balsa wood of the original box would result in the figure coming loose over time.  However the pine won’t have this issue.  Also the glue bond onto the wooden base will be better.

More pots

I went back to the terracotta pots and started working on them.  They are going ok.  Still thinking about filling the larger one with some water effects/slime/fish.

Wooden core of the resin brick wall

For the brick wall I needed a solid foundation.  I cut three strips of ply and glued them together to be the core of the wall.  The resin brick walls will glue onto this piece of wood.  This way I can pin and glue the wall to the diorama base and not have it move at all.  To get a smooth slope I used polyfilla and sanding it back to the line of the slope.  The larger piece of ply will be where the resin walls glue on.  For the other two sides I will glue on plastic card to get a smooth finish (hence why I used the polyfilla so the plastic card has some support underneath it).  You could sand/fill/sand multiple times (like I did for the base of El Torres), or just go for the plastic card finish (which I did for my 54mm Samurai) which is a lot faster and results in a better finish.

54mm Dogs, cats and boxes

Woof woof

This week I worked on the second dog for the violinist diorama.  This dog was painted like a Border Collie in black and white.  For the black parts I started with a base of black + VMC Charred Brown and highlighted up by adding VMA Light Brown.  For the white I started with a base of VGC Bonewhite and shaded down with VMA Light Brown (again, harmonizing the colours like I did with the German Shepherd by using the same colour across both areas) and some VGC Beastly Brown in the very dark areas.

meow

For the cat I was thinking of a black and white cat but that makes it too close to the Border Collie.  So instead I will got for a black cat with perhaps white feet.  I glued the cat onto a scrap for balsa wood for ease of handling.

I did some more brick wall trials.  I’m still undecided on which red to use.  The left side is use a base of VMC Red (which over the black undercoat looks plum) or VMC Flat Red which is more a vibrant “red brick” red.  Almost too much so.

Fences, boxes and bread roll

I puttied up the brick posts on the iron fence section I am going to use.  These brick posts have a slot cut in them so the various types of fences can slide into place.  I had to putty all of these up to get them above a wargaming terrain standard.

Finally I have been making boxes (for the violinist to stand on) out of balsa wood.  I scored some lines in the balsa wood using a metal scribe tool and the tip of a small round file.  I made some deep grooves for between the planks and smaller ones for wood splits/general damage.  To paint the boxes my steps were

1) Coat the entire piece in PVA glue.  Adds both strength and means you don’t get uneven paint absorption into the balsa wood
2) base coat of VGC Leather Brown
3) coat of AP Strong Tone
4) paint the grooves first by adding VGC Charred Brown and the black to the base coat
5) Using very diluted paint highlight with the base plus VMA Light Brown
6) keep adding more light brown
7) edge highlights in light brown + white.

Now a montage

Step by step box painting

Finally I have been making the wood support for the brick wall.  Lots of chopping and sanding in the shed for that.

So next week I’ll be working on the cat, back to the pots and maybe the fence.  Really need to work out the colours for the violinist :)

Mantic Games Dungeon Saga and the start of the violinist diorama

Valandor from Dungeon Saga

To earn some cool dad points this week I finished off the Valandor figure from Dungeon Saga for my son.  The more I painted him the more uglies I found.  He unfortunately has some very bad heat ripples in the figure that come through the paint job.  Given the figure is only in two adventures he was a bit of a quick and dirty job.  Lots of blue, silver and gold.  Very pretty :)

I’m not sure of the colours yet for the violinist figure so instead started working at some of the elements of the diorama.  The sub parts I need to work on are

* iron fence
* cobblestone pavers
* fountain
* terracotta pots
* 2 dogs
* 1 cat
* garden area
* brick wall behind fountain

Pots for all

First was the terracotta pots.  I tried a number of mixes to try and get the terracotta colour but couldn’t get it.  My yellow/browns kept going green.  However then I tried VGC Parasite Brown.  Near prefect straight out of the pot.  This was highlighted up with VMA Light Brown and VMA Yellow Ochre.  To shade down and dirty the base of the pot I used VMC Leather Brown.  I’ve done a test pot and am pretty happy with it.  So I need to do the real ones next.

Trial brick wall sections.  Oil wash at bottom, pigment wash middle right

The wall behind the fountain will be made from bricks using the J’s Work mould I have.  I made up a number of wall sections in plaster as practice trial runs.  I am so far trying dark red bricks with an off white mortar.  The bricks are painted first and then the mortar is washed in.  I’ve been trialling the wash method.  I have tried using an oil wash.  This gets into the cracks very well however it is very hard to complete get off the bricks so all the bricks end up slightly white.

The second method I tried was using pigments mixed in water.  I found the colour coverage not as good as the oil wash but it was much easier to clean off the bricks.  By happy chance I also found that the pigment fixer when brushed over the entire piece made the bricks go glossy, almost like a kiln fired glaze.  Ie they look like real bricks.  Need to do a full test now where I paint the bricks with colour variation and do the whole process end to end.  Once happy I’ll make up the full wall with resin cast wall sections.  The plaster is much to fragile to work with.

I also tried using watered down poly-filler but found it (unsurprisingly) to have too much bulk.

Max the dog, base coat

Starting on one of the dogs I choose the one that looks like a German Shepherd.  After a few Internet dog viewing sessions I was off.  I went for the standard tan dog with a black saddle.  Best to use colours everyone knows for minor items so it’s easy for people to classify them.  Paint a panda colour German Shepherd (yes, they exist) and everyone will just think you got confused.

Getting there.

I used a base of VMC Golden Brown with highlights of VMA Light Brown and VGC Bonewhite.  This didn’t work out too well as the highlights started to bleach out and the dog looked very odd.  I also tried using VGC Parasite Brown as the first shade but again that didn’t work.  So what I had tried on paper first didn’t translate well.  The colours were fine, they just didn’t look like dog colours.

Slight highlighting on the black saddle

Instead I went back to near the base coat and went much finer on my highlights and less range.  I switched my shade colour to a mixture of the base coat, VMC Black/Grey and VMA Light Brown.  This came to brown that on the black saddle (using it as a highlight) it looked right and on the Golden Brown base looked ok as well.  I found this to be crucial as the black saddle and the yellow tan base coat are very different.  Having an mix colour used on both areas unifies the figure.  I need to finish off his eyes and ears now and add a bit more highlighting to the tops of the figure.  The good news is that from afar he looks like a German Shepherd, which means the ratio of black to tan and the distribution of each is right.

Another technique I made sure I used was that the majority of the painting (i.e. brush strokes) was done in the directory of the fur.  This way the paint builds up on the sculpted hair lines and this adds to the volume.  To make fur look like fur I’m finding that lots of layers and lots of subtle variations in the colours seems to be the key.