Prodigious Gloat

As promised in my last post, here's a quick tutorial on how I did the skin tones on Prodigious Gloat, the ogre player for my human Blood Bowl team, the Synnetowne Abbey Manglers.

This is a simplified and customized (and less skillfully and less stunningly executed) version of the method found here. You want a trip? Scroll down to the comments to see how John Effin Blanche answered my question about Winsor & Newton inks!

I've altered the above procedure for a ruddier, more flushed result, but the same basic method can be applied to any variety of wacky color schemes with good results.

The first step is to mix up a base tone. For this I used a mix of about 1:1:1:8 (or so) Primary Red:Cadmium Yellow: Dark Chocolate Brown: White. The key to a good base coat is to make sure that it's pale enough. This can be really hard to judge...I almost always end up worrying that I've added to much white, but it's never the case.

You can see the base coat on the top half of Gloat in the picture above. The legs and feet are already on step two, which is a general wash of diluted W&N inks in a mixture of 1:1 Crimson Red:Peat Brown (this mixture is designed to represent the areas on the skin where the blood is visible, which is useful to keep in mind when designing less conventional schemes. The contrast of hue that it adds really makes the effect work.) If you do not use inks, you can make a passable wash by diluting your desired acrylic color with water and matte medium (Liquitex matte medium is a nice value brand available at craft stores), though you might have to apply a couple more coats to achieve the same vibrancy.

A final note on W&N inks: these suckers do not 'set.' If you go over them with wet paint, they will bleed and run. This can be a real pain if you aren't expecting it, but it is also something of a boon for blending if you know that it's going to happen. It basically allows for easy as pie wet blending, which makes for a really nice effect for all kinds of things.

Once the wash has dried, go back in and reapply the original base coat as the first highlight. You should notice the red/brown mixture seeping in a little from the recesses.

Now simply begin highlighting while increasing the proportion of white, and keeping the mix thin with water and matte medium. I tend to work on a wet-palette, which means I can keep a pool of my base color next to a pool of white and gradually form a gradient between them. That way if I need to go back and fix something, I can easily return to taking paint from a darker portion of the gradient.

After that, it's basically just a matter of continuing to highlight until you think the overall tone is light enough. Above you can see I'm probably on my second or third highlight. (I work quick with more dramatic steps than most; blending is not my forte.)

Once I'm nearly satisfied with the highlights, but before the final layer, I go back with a very dilute red ink and glaze over the boils, lips, nose, and nipples. After that dries, I go ahead with the final highlight, bringing everything into balance.

I called it done at this point because the Gloat looked plenty flushed and sweaty; however for a more pale/sickly/eerie effect I will often go in and apply a very faint glaze of blue mixed with brown to the raised areas. The idea there is to have the fleshy or fatty areas contrast with the reddish bloody areas. In this scheme, that means contrasting warm and cool colors, though it could easily be the reverse when painting something a little more...imaginative.

Let me know what you think, or if you have any questions, by building up your query in delicate layers in the comments box, just down there.

Synntowne Abbey Mangles: Blitzer Conversions

Having (quite a while ago) completed my plastic Orc Bloodbowl team from the Bloodbowl box, I have since let my human team sit gathering dust. Well it's time to change that.

However, the models provided in the box make for a silly line-up. To get a working team, I need to make some changes. The first (and maybe only--I haven't really decided) step is to turn a couple of the many linemen into a more useful position--blitzers.

This kind of project can be tricky, but when I thoroughly mutilated and reconstructed a couple of Orc linemen, they actually became my favorite models on the team. So I had every confidence I could do the same for these measly humans. What I had in mind was to re-position both the legs and the right arm of a lineman to achieve a running pose similar, though not exactly alike, to the standard blitzer models. Here's some of the preliminary surgery:

I went on to cut the leg on the left into three pieces at the knee and ankle. After a bunch of pinning and careful, strenuous drilling, I was ready to roll!

...Until the newly glued foot fell off and skittered into oblivion. Then I was ready to cry.

So, after much tossing aside of possessions in the ensuing search, I carefully set the first model aside and decided on a more conservative conversion for the second blitzer. A simple arm re-positioning and a sculpted knuckle duster.

Fortunately for me, by the time I got to the sculpting stage on the second model, the missing foot dropped back from oblivion into plain sight where it patiently awaited me. NOW I was ready to roll.

The Finished Blitzers

There was, of course, much gap filling, but the really important putty work needed to sell these guys as blitzers. I needed more than just the pose. Looking at the original models, I noticed the distinctive leg padding. So I slapped some on. An easy step. I also gave them some plumes by sticking a tiny length of paper clip into the tops of their helmets to use as support for the sculpting. Finally, I slapped on some fun, ridiculous, custom visors. My favorite.

The finished blitzer's arses.

And that's that. Ready for basing, priming, and paint. I still need to decide whether I want to try and convert some of the team into more catchers, since the box only comes with two. However, the box also comes with two throwers, which I think might be one too many. Now what would be really cool is if I could figure out a way to convert the extra thrower convincingly into a catcher... we'll see. Oh, and I have to decide if I want to sculpt an ogre.

I also need to come up with some fluff for this team, for as we know, teams with a story always play better. So far I'm thinking they might be the sporting initiates of some violence-loving brotherhood of monks. We'll see what I can come up with.

On another note, I've begun stripping my second-hand citadels from my last post, as well as some plastic dwarf warriors which I really messed up on my first try. I'm trying a solution of dish soap and water to see how well it works. Stay tuned to see the results.

Oh, and if you have anything to say, too bad. It's not like you can comment or anything.