Thursday, August 27, 2015

Another Sharkman (Desert Version): Bones II Figure

  I also completed another Sharkman figure this week, from the Bones II Core Set "Under the Sea" group.   For those who missed the first Sharkman I   painted you can see it here.  Like the first one I did, this figure was slanted off to one side.   So I used the same fix;  putting something under the foot on the tilted side to bring the figure back up into alignment.  Also, like the first, there were gaps where the arms were attached to the body that  needed to be filled.
      As with the first Sharkman,  the figure was easy to pry from its base with a little help from a hobby knife. And with some two-part epoxy putty I made a small boulder for the Sharkman's right foot to sit on, and filed the space under the left foot where it's peg no longer fit directly into it's mounting hole.  I also filled the small gaps at his shoulders.
   Backtracking a little,  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.  I then glued the figure's separate base to a 2" black-primed fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue.  Once the figure's base was firmly glued to the washer, I then added my new boulder foot rest.  The 2" washer was big enough to just hand hold, so I didn't glue it to a tongue depressor.
     I wanted to do something a little different with this second one.  The first Sharkman I painted just like a normal shark would look: so this one I wanted to do more as a creature who had adapted to life on dry land. Perhaps a desert world where all the oceans had dried up.  In keeping with that, I wanted to do this one in more a brown scheme like he had evolved to blend in with the surrounding rocks and landscape.   For fun, I thought I would keep a little bit of his ancestor's grey coloring in his tail.
     I began by painting his upper body with Americana "Mississippi Mud".  I then painted his tail  with Crafters Acrylic "Storm Cloud Grey". Next, I mixed some of these two colors together and worked on blending them on his body, so the color change from the brown body to the grey tail appeared natural.  I then took some of the "Storm Cloud Grey" and added some spots gradually extending from the tail on to the body.  I also added some spots to the top of the fin.  I then painted his undersides with Crafters Edition "Taupe".  His open mouth I painted with Crafters Acrylic "Cherry Blossom Pink".
   Next I painted his claws (both feet and hands) with Folk Art "Milkshake", and his teeth with Americana "Buttermilk".  I painted his sharktooth weapon with Folk Art "Porcelain White" on the pointy part and a Folk Art "Dark Grey" base.
  I then painted the wooden parts of his arm guards with Folk Art "Bar Wood", the wrap around his wrist with FolkArt "Barnyard Red" and the chains and handle of his weapon with Cermacoat "Walnut".  I fished off the chain and the weapon handle with my usual rust effects, using an old frazzled small brush and stippling Crafters Edition "Spice Brown" over the chains.   Next, I did the same, but to a lesser extent with Accent "Golden Oxide".  Lastly, I drybrushed them with Ceramcoat "Metallic Pewter".
       I then painted all the shells and other baubles hanging on his wrist guards with an assortment of yellows, grays, and blues I grabbed haphazardly off my painting table.    I also painted the rock he's standing on with GW  "Khemri Brown".
 Then, I drybrushed the rock he's standing on with first the "Golden Oxide", followed by the "Buttermilk".   When all the paint had a few hours to dry, I gave the entire figure a wash with GW "Agrax Earthshade" wash using a wet brush.
  After the wash was dry, I drybrushed the Sharkman's upper body with the base "Mississippi Mud" and then painted highlight details with the lighter Americana "Khaki".  I highlighted the underside body with the base "Taupe".  His mouth I highlighted with the base "Cherry Blossom Pink", and his teeth I highlighted with the base "Buttermilk" first, and then some Crafters Acrylic "Light Antique White".  His claws I highlighted with the base "Milkshake".  His eyes I painted Black and then added a tiny pinpoint White dot to each. 
   His sharktooth weapon I drybrushed with  the base "Porcelain White" on the pointy part, and the base "Dark Grey" on the bottom.  His wood wrist guards I drybrushed with the base "Barn Wood". The wrist under-wraps I highlighted with the base "Barnyard Red", and the baubles were all highlighted in their base colors as well.  
       After the figure had the afternoon to dry, I gave it a coat of Ceramcoat "Matte Varnish" in the evening.  The next morning I brushed white glue all over the the base and dipped it in a sand mixture.   When the sand mixture was dry, I painted it with Cermacoat "Walnut".  When the "Walnut" was dry, I drybrushed it with the same colors I had used on the rock: "Khemri Brown" "Golden Oxide" and "Buttermilk".  I then glued on a couple clumps of dried grasses.   Later that afternoon I sprayed the figure with Testor's Dullcote. 
   I like how this guy turned out.  I think he has a good alternative look to the previous one I painted.

2 comments:

  1. The spots are a really nice touch. How long do you think you spent on him and the previous one you did?

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