Violinist finished

The Violinist

It is done.  I missed last week’s post due to house issues and needing to do some roof repairs (something I hate doing).  So the final stage of the piece was a little dragged out.   So lots of pictures to make up for that :)

This stage was everything come together.  Gluing on the fence and the cat; adding a new broken pillar in the back corner as the single bush looked a little barren; painting up and gluing on some fallen leaves; gluing on the pots and bowl and lots of pigments over the ground.

I also needed to putty up the base of the fence as there were a few gaps there.  I also added in a vine to add some extra colour to the piece.

Black cat

The vine

The vine trunk is a piece of coconut fibre.  On that I superglued some paper leaves (the laser cut kind).

Paper leaves

Once they were dry I used some PVA glue on the trunk and dipped the whole thing in some loose leaf mixtures (light green, dark green and olive).  Then I added some yellow paint to the tips of the vine and some dark green into the leave bases and trunk.  I really should have painted the trunk first.

Scenic leaves

I don’t really know if I like the end result of the piece.  I think it’s just been too much time on one project so the grind got to me.  To early yet to enjoy it.  Doing the wall twice wasn’t fun.  I also learnt I need to spend more time planning layouts.  I changed the layout a few times and that did cost me time.  I ended up painted a dog I didn’t use and four wooden boxes that I didn’t use.

I’m really glad I tried new things like the water effects.  Much like the snow effects I used on the Prince of Novograd I learnt a whole new set of skills and which products are good (and not so good).  Next time water and snow :)

Go water!

Unfortunately this weekend the rain came in so I don’t have any decent light for real photos.  So I’ll need to get those later.  For now here are some bench photos.

Bone?

While in the shed fixing other things I also made up a prototype figure holder.

Figure holder, made for 54mm figures but will work with 28mm figures .

I’ve seen these around previously.  The idea is the metal bar allows you to rest your fingers on the bar to be more steady with your painting.  The bar also spins so you can access all of the figure.  Rather than pay $40+ for one I made my from a coat hanger and wood scraps and the spring from a peg.  Shed life!

Violinist part 11 and Dungeon Saga side trip

Violinist, pretty much done

This week I finished off the violinist figure.  The right arm was finished off and I spent some time doing the odd touch up here and there.  He is still sitting on the bench as I keep going back to him to fiddle a bit more.  It’s always hard to stop when you are getting near the end of a project.  Take awhile to let go.

Love the puppets

On the base I glued the wall onto the main base.  There was a thin gap that I needed to fill in with green stuff to stop the wall from floating on top of the pavement.  I also had to putty up the rear of the wall which will need to be repainted in the gloss black paint when everything is sorted out.

The thin green line of 'almost, but not quite'

Tonight I should be able to use some pigments on the wall/base join and then I can get onto the next step of glueing down the smaller items.  I think I will do the violinist, begging bowl and dog first.  Then the fence (as the fence would get in the way of gluing in the violinist) and the cat (which is next to the fence) and finally the other small items.  Once they are all done I’ll need to paint up some more leaves (like the ones in the pond) and then glue them down.  Finally bit more pigment work to blend everything together.  Once that is all done, I can paint the sides in the gloss black.

Dungeon Saga skeletons, bases still a bit wet

Taking a slight break from the project I did some rapid fire dry brushing and painted up three of the skeletons from Dungeon Saga.  I also painted up the main villain,  Mortibris.  Nothing fancy here, just get him done in an hour or so.  After all he’s only in two adventures and we already have done one of them.

Dungeon Saga Mortibris

Violinist part 10 - still trucking

Got cracking on things this week and got a few bits done.  First up was finishing up the ground work.  This was painting the weeds (made from jute twine) a few different shades of olive green/yellow.  The pebble path was painted and needs some pigments to finish it off.  I’ll do that after pieces (i.e. wall/fence) are glued down to avoid smearing the pigments.

Violinist

On the figure itself I got the bag, puppets and the violin arm done.  The other arm is glued on and once the glue is set I’ll need to do some putty work on it before painting.

Puppets on the bag

The two puppets are of death and a woman.  For death I went for more brown/blacks on the bottom and faded greys on the top of the figure.  I still have to glue on the scythe but will do that as the last step as it is the most fragile part of the whole figure.  The woman I did in purples (based off the old Citadel Warlock Purple) to add a bit of colour but by keeping her purple she tones in with the figure’s cloak.

Violin

The violin I used VGC Parasite Brown mixed with some VMC Smoke as the main colour.  The edges were done in VMA Mahogany.  I used VMC Smoke to shade down every part of the violin to again tone the various colours together.  The sculpt on the violin is fantastic.  I was able to paint the violin strings by painting with the edge of the paint brush.  I used some yellow in the shades/glazes at the top of the violin to lighten up around the face area to draw the eye there.

The right arm socket is not a great fit for the arm so I pinned the arm and used a lot of two part epoxy glue to fill up some of the gaps.  I will also need to use some green stuff to fill in the gaps as well.  Then it’s down to painting the arm and all the painting is done.  Well except for the touch ups where I’ve missed something or some paint has rubbed off (on the base of the cloak for example) from me handling it during dry fit test runs.

I’ve also spent some time putting all the pieces on the base, to see how everything is starting to go together.  I’ve decided that the German shepherd dog will probably go and although I was going to put the violinist on a box I think I will drop that as well.  Kind of annoying as I spend a week making multiple boxes and painting them.  On the plus side, I can make pretty good boxes.  The cat was going to be near the fountain between the pots but I think I will move it to the garden peering around the fence.

Next week, finish the arm and touch ups.  Then the final touches to the base and maybe start gluing things together.  Almost there!

Speed painting base coats - 15mins

Finally, while waiting for glazes to dry I speed painted the base coats on a Dungeon Saga figure and undercoated some skeletons.  Might teach the kids about dry brushing and see what they can do..

Violinist part 9 - return of the ground work

I got a bit lost this week as it seems that I’m back to not making much progress.  So I decided to focus in on getting the last of the ground work across the line.

Pond life

I did the bricks around the pond in a similar paint scheme to the garden fence.  The base was VMC Tan Yellow with highlights in yellow and white and shade colours of medium and dark brown.  For the algae I used my favourite, the Coat d’arms Russian Green.  I really wanted to get the aged feeling so did many layers of glazes and a few times (more by accident than design) had to rework the algae layer from scratch.  On the plus side this gives much more depth to the algae.

Algae scum for all

I finished up with some Vallejo pigments and used the Chrome oxide green and Natural Umber/Burnt umber on the lower sections.  On the higher sections more European Earth and Secret Weapon Ash Grey were used.  Still fumbling around with pigments I find.

Ground work

For the ground area I painted it with VGC Earth and then used some pigments (mixed with PVA/water) and painted on some of the above pigments colours.  Once dried I used some of the numerous flock/scatter/painted sawdust terrain materials I have and put down some  ground colour.  Rather than the standard static grass puff balls I used some jute twine (thank you Mr Paine) as the grass.  I still need to paint these once the glue holding them into the ground has dried.  I may put on a few more grass tufts to brighten up the area.  Once the grass is done then the base is pretty much complete.  When all the components are glued on I’ll add some more autumn leaves.

Jute twine grass

On the wall I’m still thinking about rain streaks.  I redid the glaze on the bricks (using light yellow) to warm up the wall colour.  I found the wall and the cloak on the figure were blending too much.  This wasn’t an issue originally as cloak was going to be blue.

Green pants

On the violinist himself I repainted the yellow pant stripes on his pants in a light green.  The yellow was just too bright and when looking at the figure the pants were the focus point, not the face.  So bye bye yellow, yellow light green.  Bit sad as that yellow was probably the best yellow I’ve ever done.

Cleaned up cloak

So next week, the bag and puppets on the figure and maybe the arms.  I’m sure some more base work will creep in as always.

Next knight costume time and some violinist work

I did quite a lot of painting this week, just not on the miniature front.  It’s almost time for book week at school and my son wants to go as Axl from Lego Nexo Knights.  So I was in full cosplay armour manufacture and painting.  All of the armour pieces are made from foam garage mats and painted with either rattle can sprays (for the undercoat and metal colour) or airbrushed with enamel paints with my trusty Paasche model H.  Just need to add the straps and it’s all done.

Axl Shield

Axl armour chest piece

Axe time - wood handle and foam axe head

Leg and arm pieces

For the few hours that I did get to do figure painting I tried a new technique of sketching the light patterns on an area first before doing the neat paint work.  I tried this on the violinist cloak.  The paint sketch took 2-3 minutes and was really fun.  Painting without too much worry about neatness.  I did get a bit too wet and some paint lifted off on the lower cloak.  However I then used this sketch to start the neat work.  I’m also really happy with the colour hue (a mixture of VMC Violet Red and VMC German Cam. Medium Brown) and the tonal range I’ve gotten so far.

Sketch work

Need to keep working on it and clean it up some more.  The front left shoulder I got ok, then messed it up three times before finally getting back to where I wanted.  After all that I realised that most of the area will be covered up by the violin.  This issue is because my base has two colours and all my highlight and shades also have two plus colours so it’s very hard to keep getting the same results on every mix.  Sometimes too purple, sometimes too brown, etc.  But the colour is great.  Have to work out the deep creases as currently I go too dark and the result is much too stark.

Starting the neat work

I’m also surprised on how quickly the coat progressed.  With just the arms and the bag left he is getting towards finished.

Violinist part 8

Repainting the base

Things kind of went to plan this week for once.  I redid the ground work and built up the area under the fence posts.  I also started painting the edges of the base.  Giving up on the stained wood look I repainted everything in matt black and then started the multiple layers of gloss black.  I find it takes 3-4 to get a decent finish from the gloss black I have.  The pond bricks got undercoated but are on hold until the edges are done.

Ground work prep colour done

On the figure I worked on the shirt, the tights, shoes and the jacket.  Still not sure on the green jacket but I think I will press on with the cloak before deciding for sure.

Progress at last

I had a lot of trouble with the highlights on the green.  I was making the jumps between layers much too large and the blends were not working at all.  My first colour chart was

base - VMC German Uniform + Coat d’arms Russian green
highlights - VGC Khaki and VMA Light Brown
shades - more Russian Green and VMC Dark Sea Blue.

I found the highlights just weren’t working at all.  For the highlights I instead tried used some yellow, a bit of Russian Green (to stop the green going to lime) and some VMC Dark Flesh (which despite the name is a very light flesh colour).  I’ve read of a lot of people using flesh colours as highlights.  I’m starting to see why as most flesh colours have some yellow and brown in them making them great for highlights.

Show some leg...

I also rediscovered my old Coat d’arms Dark Angel Green and used that as the shade colour with some black.  I need to leave the coat for awhile and come back to it later and make a final decision before I glue on the arms.

For the stockings my colours were

base - VGC Khaki + VMC Dark Flesh + VGC Bonewhite
highlights - glazes of the base with yellow, white, lighter flesh colours added
shades - glazes of base + browns

I was wanting the stockings to look like the flesh colour was coming through.  On the areas that the stockings were stretched (knee, shin bone) I kept highlighting almost up to white.  Super thin glazes were used and on the extreme highlights almost point painting (i.e. small dots of colours) was used.

Another technique to do stockings is to paint the leg as flesh, then glaze over repeatedly with the stocking colour.  Guess I’ll try that next time :)

The shoes were based with VMC Leather Brown and highlighted up with VGC Khaki.  I made the mistake of trying brown as the first highlight colour but that failed and then I remembered the VMC Leather Brown (note, not the VGC Leather Brown) works better with the much lighter Khaki/Bonewhite colours.

So next is the blue for the cloak.  I’ll start with the area on the front of the figure so I can figure out quickly if the blue is going to work or not before I get to the large back area.

Violinist diorama base work part 7 (and figure)

Bubble, bubble

With the resin ‘water’ in the fountain now dry I started adding the many layers of Vallejo Water Effects to the pool of water and the spout of water.  The spout of water is a piece of clear fishing line glued into place and then water effects painted over the top to make a water stream.  For the pond I tried to make the turbulent water nearest where the water stream hits.  There probably needs to be another 3-4 layers to call this one finished.

For the main base it was a bit of two steps forward, one step back.  I glued on the wooden board onto the foam (to make a more solid base for all the rest of the components to glue to) and then started the dirt ground work with some DAS modelling clay.

Cork rocks in the ground work

 Then I glued on the foam stone ground work sheet.  At this point I realised I had trimmed the stone work too much and there was a small (.5mm) gap on two sides.  Secondly the ground work would need to be raised more than I imagined to meet up with the level of the stone ground work.

Flagstones glued one, pond retaining wall done, edging being glued..

So out came the milliput and I filled in the gaps between the stone ground work and the base edge.  While I had the milliput out I also made up the stone retaining wall around the pond.

I planned to cover all the layers of the base by putting styrene sheet around the edges of the base.  So I decided to do that next so I would know the level that the ‘dirt’ ground would have to be at.  For the edges I used 0.5mm styrene sheet glued onto the foam with Shelleys Allfix glue (one of the few glues that doesn’t damage foam).

Another job going backwards is the wall that the fountain is on.  I found the right edge (originally edged in black) will need to be repainted to look like the corner of the wall instead.  That edge of the wall and the fence weren’t working together how I originally planned.

Violinist at last getting some paint love

I also got some figure painting done (finally).  I’m pretty happy with the face (but will continue to fiddle for a bit) and I blocked out the inner shirt, pants, stockings and shoes.  So far I’ve shaded the pants to near completion.  Like all my major figures I spent a few hours doing colour map work on paper first to try and sort out shading and highlight colours.  These aren’t always final but they do help me trying to get a consistent colour feel.

Painting notes - yes it really is worth the time :)

Next week will be finishing off the edging of the base and then fixing up the dirt ground work.  Some more water layers on the fountain and maybe painting the pond brick work.  Also some more figure work I hope.

Violinist diorama base work part 6

Well painting the figure didn’t really happen.  Too many nights of broken sleep for that which makes the eyes rather fuzzy at the end of a work day.  I did get the first cut of the face done and I’m pretty happy with that.

Looks super clear...

On the base side things are all coming together.  The resin pour for the pond worked really well.  It looks totally clear.  However from the side there are some tiny micro bubbles (or maybe dust?) visible.

...but not so much

So not sure if I’ll box in the sides or keep them visible.  I’ll be covering the top now with the Vallejo Water Effect gel to get some water ripples.  I painted up three leaves to be floating on top of the pond water.  Lastly I’ll be putting on the water effect to the pond with the leaves (the water effect can be used as a glue for the leaves) on top.  Should get that finished off tonight.

Autumn leaves painted up

For the fountain/wall I varnished the fountain in a gloss varnish to add to that marble sparkle effect.  I use Vallejo Gloss varnish which I apply via an airbrush.  I find approx 50/50 varnish to water works best.  I normally do 3-4 coats but keep them very thin and let them dry (which only takes a few minutes) between coats.

Diggers casting resin and catalyst

With the fountain then varnished (and left for a day) I mixed up some clear casting resin for the base of the water in the fountain.  This was because using the water effect would take ages to build up.

Plastic lid to keep the dust off while the resin dries

If you apply the Vallejo Water effect too thick it dries white, not clear.  The Diggers brand casting resin cures without any bubbles.  It's a two part product and you buy the catalyst separately.  You have to be careful not to add to much catalyst otherwise while the resin cures it can get quite warm (or in one test case I did, too hot to touch) and potential damage items.  Too little, it may not set.  The only problem is that it the resin is slightly yellow, hence why I didn’t use in in the pond.  When the resin is dry then I’ll glue on a piece of fishing line from the fountain spout to the basin and use the water effects to make the stream of water.

Basin full of "water"

Violinist diorama base work part 5

After a very slow start I actually got some bits done this week.  I finished off the marble effects on the fountain.  In the end I just made the whole thing marble as I didn’t want the different colours breaking up the area too much.  Once the fountain was done I started shading the bricks.  I did two levels of shading.

Fountain wall with a quick mock up with the animals, violinist goes on the box

The first level was each brick was shaded individually with the bricks on the lower sections getting more dark area and the bricks on the top sections getting more light areas.  My light to dark mix on the bricks was

VGC Charred Brown
VMC Hull Red - base
VMC Flat Red
VMC Light Orange

For the second level I did a number of glazes by adding in VMC Dark Sea Blue and VMC Light Yellow to the dark/light mixes across the whole brick area.  So the dark glaze on the lower 1/3 and the lighter glaze on the top 1/3.  I repeated the glazes a few times but reduced the area each time so by the third glaze only approx 1/9 of the total brick area was being done.  I then tied up some of the grouting that had been coloured over by the glazes.

Your friend and mine, Liquid Gloss

Next big item was pouring the resin (Liquid Gloss) for the water pond.  Been putting this off for a bit as I didn’t want it to go wrong so did the usual avoidance technique.  Finally just did it.

Mold box ready to go

After boxing up the area and covering the paint with a coat of varnish I mixed up the resin and poured in three layers.  After each layer (approx 2mm deep) I used my propane torch to get rid of any bubbles.  This way I could pour the whole amount in one go without bubbles getting trapped deep in the resin.  Did slightly melt the styrene card.

Resin in, melted styrene sheet :)

Now to leave for a day before pulling off the mold box and trimming off the edges, and then a whole week before the sanding.

The violinist, at last

Lastly I actually started to put paint the figure itself.  Been a long time coming.

Next week I will try and get the water in the fountain underway and actually paint some more of the figure.