I was able to complete another figure this week. The figure, Janan, Female Dragon Slayer, was another from the 30 New Bones Set that I was not entirely happy with. I use my figures for gaming, not displaying, and having a figure who's standing on a large dragon head just looks odd on the gaming table. What's she supposed to be doing; dragging the head around as she battles? And so, after my success with the
High Wizard last week, I decided to give Janan the statue treatment as well.
I had prepped this figure a while back 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 also had sprayed it with the Krylon with Fusion Flat Black back when I was still using spray primer. To help with the statue look I dug around and found an old toy kaleidoscope piece, that I had stuck away in a box of bits and pieces for scratch building, to use as the pedestal. I glued a 1" red-brown primed fender washer to the top to cover the hole in the plastic tube, and a 1.5 inch fender washer to the bottom for a base, both E6000 glue.
I then sprayed the pedestal construction flat black, and glued the figure on top of it with Aleene's Tacky glue. I let this dry and then glued the whole assembly to a tongue depressor with a couple drops of Elmer's white glue.
I began by painting the figure with Ceramcoat "Bronze"
I then used my unidentified Free-Sample Reaper paint ("Surf Aqua", maybe), slightly thinned and with a pin head drop of dish soap in it, and coated the whole figure with it. When that was dry I painted the pedestal with Folk Art "Medium Gray".
When the "Medium Grey" was dry, I gave the entire pedestal a wash with thinned black ink. When the black ink was dry, I drybushed the gray with Duncan "Slate Grey". Lastly, I painted the washer with Americana "Mississippi Mud". After everything had time to dry, I painted the entire thing with Ceramcoat "Matte Varnish". The following day I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote
I think it turned out okay, but I'm not as pleased with this statue as I was with the High Wizard one. I feel the pedestal came out a little too large and monolithic. Unfortunately, due to the large diameter of the figure's inherent base, I was forced to use such a large diameter pedestal. Still it will make a nice addition to a village's center square.
Figure 107 of 265: Complete
Maybe you should have integrated it in a wall on something. It looks great to me but I'll take your word that it is a little too massive.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yes, I'll agree it looks good in the picture. Maybe I'm just being a harsh judge of my own work.
DeleteI have been lurking here for a few months, and I really like your work as well as the description of techniques and colors. Like you, I have a Reaper Vampire set, but I generally only paint when I need specific figures.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if the massiveness of the pillar could be reduced by making it a bit shorter since the diameter is kind of fixed? I also was wondering what kind of material you were going for on the pedestal. Have you tried any of the cans of spray on stone texture that are in the hardware or craft store?
Hello, Brian! Thanks for your kind remarks!
DeleteYes, being shorter may have helped with the size, but when I thought of most monuments I see in cities, the sculpture is usually located above, or at, head height, so I tried to make it taller than most 28mm figures.
The pedestal is just supposed to be some sort of polished stone. Yes, I have used the stone texture spray paint before, usually for terrain projects. It's super stuff! I usually like using it for more rough hewn stone then this pedestal is supposed to be.