Lesser Stitch Golem #2: Bones 3 Figure

     This week I decided to finish up the Stitch Golem set from the Bones 3 Stoneskull Expansion, and painted the second of the two Lesser Stitch Golems.  You can find his brother here: Lesser Stitch Golem, and the big one here:  Gutrags.
     I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.   I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then placed the figure in my painting grip.

     I began by giving the figure a wash with Reaper MSP "Brown Liner"; and when that was dry, I started painting by doing the large square of fabric on his belly with Crafter's Acrylic "Navy Blue".  I then painted some of the textured sections of fabric with Americana "Antique White", some textured section  with Folk Art "Butter Pecan".

       Next, I tried to finish painting the textured fabric bits, using Folk Art "Barn Wood", Americana "Mississippi Mud".  and Americana "Sable Brown"

      I then worked on painting the smoother fabric; painting his head with Crafter's Acrylic "Tutti Frutti", and his "diaper" with Folk Art "Porcelain White".  Next I painted parts of his arms with Americana "Forest Green", and Ceramcoat "Denim Blue".  After that, I painted the large square on hs back with Apple Barrel "Yellow".

       Next, I painted the lettering and border on his belly to try and make it look like part of a flag, and then did some red polka dots on the "Yellow" square on his back.  After that, I painted the buttons an assortment of random colors I had around the table, and his claws and pattern tracer  with Americana Zinc.     Then, after everything had time to dry, I gave the entire figure a wash with Citadel "Agrax Earthshade" wash.

     After the wash was dry, I began highlighting by drybrushing all the brown/tan/beige colored cloth with the "Antique White", and then did a lighter drybrushing with Americana "Bleached Sand".   This was followed with highlighting his head  with Crafter's Acrylic "Cherry Blossom Pink" and highlighting the flag cloth on his belly with some Americana "True Blue" and highlighted the letters with the base colors.  I also highlighted the polka dot section with some  Crafter's Acrylic "Daffodil Yellow", and the dots with Ceramcoat "Bright Red".

      Next, I highlighted the green on the arms with Americana "Festive Green", and then highlighted the "Rusty Red" sections with some Crafter's Acrylic "Orange Spice", and the blue section with Apple Barrel "Apple Scotch Blue".  After that, I did the stitching, using both the "Bleached Sand", and Ceramcoat "Black" in different spots.  I highlighted the buttons a variety of colors I had sitting around, and then painted the claws and needle with Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey", and then highlighted them with Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver".
      Lastly, I painted the figure's integral base with Americana "Bittersweet Chocolate".
     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.    Then, when  the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to flock the base.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".

      I'm really happy with how this last one turned out.  They were fun figures to paint.  And, to finish things off, here is a family photo of the completed trio from the Stoneskull Expansion.

      Also to note, since Reaper announced last week that there would be a slight delay in shipment of Bones 4, pushing it back one month to March; it looks like I'll have more time to get more of Stoneskull completed. :)

Gutrags, Stitch Golem: Bones 3 Figure

   This past week I painted Gutrags, Stitch Golem from the Bones 3 Stoneskull Exxpansion.    I think I'm going to try and complete the Stoneskull Expansion box before Bones 4 arrives.  We'll see how that goes... 😄
      I painted one of the other Bones 4 Stitch Golems back in October of last year: Lesser Stitch Golem. So I had had then blog entry to guide me in painting this bigger one.
      I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.   I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1.5" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then placed the figure in my painting grip.

  I began by giving the figure a wash with Reaper MSP "Brown Liner"; and when that was dry, I started painting by doing the large square of fabric on his belly with Apple Barrel "Lemon Chiffon".  I then painted some of the textured sections of fabric with Americana "Antique White", some textured section  with Folk Art "Butter Pecan", and others with "Sable Brown"

        Next, I tried to finish painting the textured fabric bits, using Folk Art "Barn Wood", and then Americana "Mississippi Mud".  I then painted his head with Reaper MSP "Hearth Fire", sections of his arms and legs with Reaper MSP HD "Rusty Red".  I also used some Reaper MSP "Christmas Wreath", and Anita's "Violet" to help finish the remaining fabric sections.

      I painted the small patch on his back with Crafter's Acrylic "Storm Cloud Grey, as well as one other small section of fabric I found.  I then painted a tartan pattern on the fabric sections i had painted "Christmas Wreath", and a little blue flower pattern on the large "Lemon Chiffon" square on his belly.  After that, I painted the buttons an assortment of random colors I had around the table, his claws and needle with Americana Zinc, and his open mouth and belly rip with Ceramcoat "Black".

          Then, after everything had time to dry, I gave the entire figure a wash with Citadel "Agrax Earthshade" wash.    After the wash was dry, I began highlighting by drybrushing all the brown/tan/beige colored cloth with the "Antique White", and then did a lighter drybrushing with Americana "Bleached Sand".   This was followed with highlighting his head with Crafter's Acrylic "Bright Yellow".

     Next, I highlighted the flower pattern cloth, as well as some of the lines on the Tartan sections with a little of the "Lemon Chiffon".  I also highlighted the Tartan sections with some Crafter's Acrylic "Holiday Green", and then highlighted the "Rusty Red" sections with some Crafter's Acrylic "Orange Spice", and the "Violet" sections with Apple Barrel "Apple Lavender".  After that, I did the stitching, using both the "Bleached Sand", and the "Black" in different spots.  I highlighted the buttons a variety of colors I had sitting around, and then painted the claws and needle with Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey", and then highlighted them with Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver".
      Lastly, I painted the figure's integral base with Americana "Bittersweet Chocolate".
     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.    Then, when  the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to flock the base.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".

     Well, I'm really pleased with how this fellow came out. I had a fun with all the different fabrics.  I'm looking forward to getting the third (and last) of these Stitch Golems painted up, and then I'll post a picture of the trio.

Lesser Stitch Golem: Bones 3 Figure

   This week I was again pressed for time, so I selected one of the Lesser Stitch Golems from the Bones 3 Stoneskull Expansion add-on to paint, figuring it would be simpler to get done in limited time.
     I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.   I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then placed the figure in my painting grip.

  I began by giving the figure a wash with Reaper MSP "Brown Liner"; and when that was dry, I started painting by doing the button section of fabric on his back with Folk Art "Deep Tomato Red".  I then painted the area around his shoulders with Americana "Antique White", and the section of fabric on his belly with Folk Art "Butter Pecan".

      Next, I painted his head, and sections of his arms with Americana "Sable Brown", and then painted bits of his thighs and arms with Folk Art "Barn Wood", and then his feet and other parts of his arms with Americana "Mississippi Mud".

I then painted the two cloth patches on his front; doing the lefthand one in Reaper MSP "Frosty Blue" with Crafter's Acrylic "Purple Passion" checks, and the right hand one with Crafter's Acrylic "Forest Green" with a Crafter's Acrylic "Bright Yellow" pattern on it. 

     Next, I painted the "hands" with Americana "Zinc", and then all the buttons with a a variety of colors I had sitting around the work table.    Then, after everything had time to dry, I gave the entire figure a wash with Citadel "Agrax Earthsahde" wash.

     After the wash was dry, I began highlighting by drybrushing all the brown/tan colored cloth with the "Antique White", and then did a lighter drybrushing with Americana "Bleached Sand".    Next, I highlighted the front center cloths; using the base "Frosty Blue", and some Apple Barrel "Apple Lavender" on he lefthand one, and Americana "Jade Green", and the Crafter's Acrylic "Daffodil Yellow" on the right hand one.   Around the back, I highlighted the central panel with  Ceramcoat "Bright Red".  After that, I did the stitching, using both the "Bleached Sand", and Ceramcoat "Black" in different spots.  I highlighted the buttons a variety of colors I had sitting around, and then painted the "Hands" with Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey", and then highlighted them with Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver".
      Lastly, I painted the figure's integral base with Americana "Bittersweet Chocolate".
     I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.    Then, when  the varnish was dry, I used some white glue to flock the base.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".

     Well, I'm happy with how this fella turned out.  He was a lot of fun to do, and I look forward to painting his brothers from the same set. 

Wild West Wizard of Oz Tin Man: Bones 3 Figure

     This past week I started the Bones 3 Wild West Wizard of Oz set and did the Tin Man mini.  I don't know what particularly makes this set Wild West; it seems to me it would fit in in any kind of Steampunk, VSF, Pulp, or Post-Apocalyptic setting.
     These figures were actually cast in the newer grey Bones material, and are a bit stiffer than normal Bones.

       I prepped the figure in the usual way; soaking it in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then giving it a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying it.    I then glued the figure to a black-primed 1" fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and then glued the washer-mounted figure to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of the Elmer's glue.

      I began by painting the entire figure, and his base, with Black.   When the Black was dry, I drybrushed the figure with  Folk Art Metallics "Gunmetal Grey".  I then passed over it with a lighter drybrush of Ceramcoat "Metallic Silver"

     I applied a little Iron Wind Metals "Medium Blue" Ink to the eye sockets, and then that was dry, I pianted the eyes with Crafter's Acrylic "Tropical Blue".  I then did pupils with Crater's Acrylic "Cool Blue", and then added White dots in the center  of the pupils.
     Next, I painted his pendant and the chain it is on, as well as some of the rods in his abdomen with Ceramcoat "Bronze".  I then painted the pendant with Ceramcoat "Opaque Red", and did a shadow on it with Ceramcoat "BlackCherry", and a highlight with Crafter's Acrylic "Tutti Frutti".  I finished the pendant by doing small White highlight dots on it.

     I then went back and highlighted the "Bronze" pendant, chain and rods, with Ceramcoat "14K Gold", and after that I went back and did more specific highlights on his armor with the "Metallic Silver".
     When I was done painting the figure, I used some white glue to glue a mixture I made of some fine brown sand, and courser black sand to the base.  When this was dry, I drybrushed the sand and the figure's own base with Ceramcoat "Territorial Beige", and then with some Americana "Antique White".  When dry, I glued on some bits of grass tufts.
      I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave him a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".

     I'm really pleased with how this figure turned out, particularly the glowing blue eyes.  Next up, I will be working on the Scarecrow.

Painting my Bones 3 Shipwreck Revenant Conversion with Succubus Queen Figurehead

     Last week, I posted my article for the conversion work I did on my Shipwreck Revenant, from the Bones 3 Titans of the Tide add-on set.    Since then I have been busy painting the model, and here are the results.
     To go way back to the beginning, the first thing I did before I even started the conversion work, was to soak the parts in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added, then I gave them a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsed and dried them.  I then did all the conversions.
     My first step to begin the painting process was to spray all the parts with Krylon with Fusion "Flat Black" spray paint.

    After the Black primer was dry, I drybrushed the whole model with Americana "Charcoal Grey", and then Americana "Mississippi Mud".

  I then did a final dry brush of Folk Art "Barn Wood".

     I decided to paint this model in parts rather than glue it together first and then trying to paint it as one piece.  I selected the left arm to begin with.   When all the the drybrushing had a little while to dry, I began by applying some thinned ink splotches here and there to represent various algae and slimes. I used Iron Wind Metal "Orange", "Chestnut Brown", "Dark Green", and "Deep Turquoise".

     When the ink was dry, I base coated the coral with Crafter's Acrylic "Cherry Blossom Pink", Ceramcoat "Maple Sugar Tan", and Americana "Buttermilk".  I painted the lantern with Americana Sea Breeze, and the cannon with Ceramcoat "Walnut". The rope was painted Ceramcoat "Territorial Beige".

   When the paint was dry, I gave the parts I had just painted (coral, cannon, lantern, rope) all a wash with Citadel "Nuln Oil" wash.  When the wash was dry, I highlighted the coral with Apple Barrel "Apple Light Pink", the "Buttermilk", and Crafter's Acrylic "Light Antique White".  The cannon I applied some Duncan Aged Metal "Iron", and then I highlighted the rope with Folk Art "Butter Pecan.  Next, I drybrushed the lamp with some Ceramcoat "Bronze", and afterwards painted some broken glass in the panels of the lamp with White edges and Folk Art "Cloudy Day" streaks.  I also decided everything might look better if I tinted some of the wood a different shade so it didn't all look the same color, so I gave the cannon mount a wash with some Citadel "Agrax Earthshade". wash

     I basically repeated all the above steps for the other arm as well.  On this arm there were some barnacles as well, which I base coated with Americana "Dove Grey", and then highlighted with White.

     I then moved on to the lower body.  I also used some Winsor Newton "Peat Brown" Ink here to give some of the wood a different shade, as well as the"Agrax Earthshade".  And, on this piece there were some starfish which I painted with Ceramcoat "Raw Sienna", and some little knobby shellfish or coral of some kind which I painted Citadel "The Fang", and a couple larger shellfish which I painted Folk Art Pearl "Aqua Moire".  Also on this piece I painted some of the coral areas with Folk Art "Hunter Green" to (hopefully) look like seaweed.

     After the "Nuln Oil" wash was dry, besides doing the highlighting I had already listed with the left arm above; I highlighted the starfish with Citadel "Bronze Flesh", the knobby shellfish with the "Cloudy Day", and the seaweed with Crafter's Acrylic "Holiday Green".

    Lastly, I painted the top, just like I had painted the other parts.  However, there were some additions here:   There was an octopus around the back which I painted with a Reaper MSP mis-match sample that is kind of a salmon orangish color, and a paper handbill which I painted with Americana "Bleached Sand".  The skeleton I painted with Americana "Antique White", and the succubus I painted with Folk Art "Tomato Red".  I painted the gold coins with the "Bronze"

     After the "Nuln Oil" wash was dry, I did the highlights as outlined on the other parts above.  I also highlighted the handbill with the "Light Antique White", and did a little freehand writing on it with some Americana "Raw Umber".  The skeleton I highlighted with the "Bleached Sand", and the Succubus I highlighted with the base "Tomato Red". 

      When I was done painting the figure, I glued all the parts together with Gorilla superglue.    I then used some white glue to glue a coarse sand mix to the base.  When this was dry, I painted the whole base with the "Raw Umber"; then, when that was dry, I drybrushed the  base with the "Territorial Beige", then with some of the "Antique White", and lastly with some of the "Bleached Sand".  When dry, I glued on some tiny seashells, a little flocking, and some plastic foliage bits.

      I let the figure dry overnight and the next day I gave it a coat of Americana "DuraClear Matte" varnish.  Another overnight dry, and I sprayed it with Testor's Dullcote".   When the Dullcote was dry, I superglued some tiny gems onto the gold pile in the upper hull.

     I'm really happy with this project and how it turned out.  Unfortunately it's one of those models that don't really photograph well, but are better seem in person.  The way the long arms stick out to the front really blocks a lot of the good camera angles, and look weird jutting straight at the camera when photographed from the front straight on.  I also noticed the whole thing is a little top heavy from a composition standpoint.   I think if I were to do this model again, I might remove a couple sections from the middle and back end of the harpoon/anchor attachment, just to help bring it in a bit, and help it look less unwieldy.

Bones 3 Shipwreck Revenant Conversion with Succubus Queen Figurehead Addition.

     Over the past week I worked on doing a big conversion on the Bones 3 Shipwreck Revenant from the Titans of the Tide add-on set.   I was never thrilled with the "face" on the Shipwreck Revenant; it always looked a little contrived and dorky to me.  So when I got the model in the Bones 3 Kickstarter, I imediately began to think about how I would like to modify it.

I forgot to take a picture of the model before I started working on it, so I snatched this shot off the web.  It's not a great shot, but gives you an idea of what the face of the piece was supposed to look like; it was just a bit of curved planking with two portholes in it.

     To me, I thought, it would have looked much better with some sort of menacing figurehead on the front.   Then it struck me that Reaper's Dark Maiden would be prefect for this.  I tried mine out, and was amazed at how perfectly it fit on the front, and how good it looked.

     But before I shelled out the money to order a new Dark Maiden, I thought I'd dig through my Bones pile and see if anything would fill the bill.  That's when I hit on the Succubus Queen from the Bones 3 Stoneskull Expansion.    She had a plain enough pose that she looked like she'd be a good candidate for a figurehead.  And as I played around with bending her wings back, I realized if I flipped them over they closely mirrored the curve of the prow of a ship. I thought her demonic appearance would help sell the evil feel of the Shipwreck Revenant as well.

     So the first thing I did was carefully pry the wings off the back of the figure, and test fit them on the prow.

     I then gave the Succubus Queen figure a quick and simple greenstuff top, so I could use the finished model in family friendly games.  I also cut off her right hand so I could later affix one that would be holding a sword.

     Next, I hunted through my plastic figure stash for a piece of sprue that had the right curve in it for me to use to make the front center beam of the prow of the ship.  I then drilled some holes in it, because I knew I would have to pin the Succubus figure to it in order to get her to hang properly in the curved figurehead position.

     I then glued the wings to the front of the model.  It took very little modification to get them to fit.  I simply had to carve down some of the inner wing spines to help them lie more closely to the existing hull.

     I then pinned the Succubus to the prow's center beam and glued her with some superglue; clamping the figure to help hold it into position while the glue hardened.

     I then glued the assembly to the front of the ship by inserting the little tabs on the wings (which I trimmed down) into the slot in her back where the wings had originally been mounted.

At this juncture, I cut some sections of coffee stirrers to make some planking for the prow; then after wetting them I set them under some weights to warp the wood into a curved shape suitable for constructing the ship's prow.

     My next step was to construct a bowsprit to insert into the hole where the face had originally mounted.  I glued it in place so it ran just over the top of the Succubus' head.  I also glued a bit of decorative shape cut from a GW Wood Elf banner to give the prow beam a touch of artistic scrollwork.

     I then glued my warped coffee stirrers into place, affixing one end of each plank under the wings, and the other end to the prow's center beam.  I didn't attempt to rebuild the entire prow, just enough planks to help anchor the masthead, and give the impression of a rotted ships prow.

     I finished off the prow by adding a sword-wielding hand to the figurehead.

     The second part of the Shipwreck Revenant that I really didn't like was the silly tiki head on the back.  I felt it didn't really fit in with the shipwreck motif.    So I sawed it off, and replaced it by a bit of dowel stuck in a half of a plastic barrel; with the idea it would look like a stump of broken mast.  I also added an old broken ship's wheel I had to help hide the lower area where the tiki head had been.

       Another thing that I was not thrill with on this model was the shear abundance of coral. One of the ways I hoped to reduce this was to make it look like the skeleton "driver" was laying in a pile of treasure, and not coral.  So I covered the coral around the skeleton with some white glue, and glued a bunch of glitter down to look like gold coins.  My plan was to paint over the glitter, as I was really only using it for its coin shape; it was mush too bright to look like old shipwrecked treasure in it's natural state.

       Then, just for fun, I added a section of greenstuff barnacles to one leg to help cover a bit of coral.

    I thought I was finished at this point, but then I noticed that, just from gravity working on it as it hung attached to the side of the model, the harpoon arm had begun to bend downward.

  So, I cut way some sections of rope running along the underside and glued in a section of bamboo skewer.

     I then used some more greenstuff to re-sculpt the missing rope over the skewer addition.

     At this point I declared the model done.  My next step is to prime it, and then begin painting it.  I will be posting that article separately.  I will try for Monday, but I can't promise it will be done by then; so perhaps the Monday after that.  Be sure to tune in for the exciting conclusion!