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!

Virina, Female Demon: Figure 119 of 265

     This week I painted Virina, the female demon, from the BBEG (Big Bad Evil Guys) set.  As I pondered how I was going to paint her, I got in my head to do her in all black, and then I thought it might be neat to give her bright red hair to contrast with the black body.  I then happened to see a picture of some pumpkinhead figures someone had painted and had done cool fire-glowing eye effects on the jack-o-lantern heads; and the idea came to me that perhaps instead of doing plain red hair, it might be cool to try and paint the hair like glowing fire.  Since I have 200-some Bones figures to paint, the opportunity to do experimenting with stuff like this is one of the things I like.

         I prepped this 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.  I then glued the figure to a 1" black-primed fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue, and glued the washer to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of Elmer's White Glue.
     I then painted her all black, doing my best to avoid the hair.

Next, I gave the whole body a drybrushing with Duncan "Slate Blue" to add highlights to the black body and wings.  Her hooves and horns I drybrushed with Folk Art "Medium Grey".

I then painted her hair Apple Barrel "Lemon Chiffon".

I then carefully drybrushed over the "Lemon Chiffon with first, Americana "Tangerine", and then Ceramcoat "Bright Red".

     And, lastly, I went over the hair with Apple Barrel "Apple Maroon".  I then painted the ring on her hair, first with Ceramcoat "Bronze, and then added highlights with Ceramcoat "14K Gold".  Next I tried to add reflected light from the hair onto her shoulders, chest, arms, tail, wings, and face by lightly drybrushing them with the "Tangerine"  Finally, I added eyes with the "Lemon Chiffon" and then added black pupils, and then touched up any exposed white areas of her integral base with the black.
       The next morning I gave it the figure coat of Ceramcoat "Matte Varnish".   Later in the afternoon I flocked the base, and the next day I sprayed it with Testor's "Dullcote" spray varnish.

     Well, I like it, but I'm not totally happy with the figure, I think the black body turned out looking cool, but I don't know if the hair effect really works, and I still need to work on my relected light effects, as I think they came off heavy-handed.

Figure 119 of 265: Complete