Dark Watcher: Bones 4 Darkreach Figure

     This past week I painted the Dark Watcher figure from the Bones 4 Darkreach Expansion.

     I prepped the "Dark Watcher" in the usual way, soaking the pieces in a dish of water with a couple drops of dish-soap added; then giving the pieces a light scrub with a soft toothbrush, and then rinsing and drying everything.  I then glued the two halves of the head together and glued the tongue in, then glued the head to the base using Gorilla Superglue gel. I then glued the figure to a brown-primed 1.25" fender washer using Aleene's Tacky glue, and then glued the washer to the top of a large pill bottle with a couple drops of Elmers white glue.

      I debated how to paint this.  The obvious choice would be some dark color; grey, green, blue, brown, typical for subterranean monsters, but having already painted a couple monsters from this expansion that way, I wanted to try something different.  So I then thought about going with a more pale, almost albino look, to represent a creature that has never been exposed to sunlight and evolved in the dark.  I Googled photos of various albino animals to give myself an idea of what to try for.

     I began by painting the rocky base with Ceramcoat "Charcoal Grey".  When dry, I drybrushed it with Folk Art "Rock Grey", and Americana "Grey Sky". 

     Next, I painted the entire head with Americana "Snow White".  When dry, I gave the entire head a coat of Citadel Contrast "Apothecary White".   When dry, I drybrushed the head with the "Snow White", and then used a brush to do even further "Snow White" highlights.  I then painted the inside of the mouth with Americana "Cranberry Wine".

     I quickly decided that the mouth looked too strong of a color for my liking, so I repainted it with a mix of the "Cranberry Wine" and some Crafter's Acrylic  "Cherry Blossom Pink".  I then highlighted it with just the "Cherry Blossom Pink" followed with further highlights using Apple Barrel "Apple Lt. Pink".  After that, I painted the very back of his throat with some Citadel Contrast "Templar Black" to try and give it some depth. I followed that with painting his teeth with Americana "Bleached Sand", and his horns with Folk Art "Gray Green".

    I let the figure dry for a while, and then applied a coat of Citadel "Agrax Earthshade" wash to the teeth, and  a coat of Citadel "Nuln Oil" wash to the horns.   After that, I painted the eyeball with Crafter's Acrylic "Light Antique White". 

     Next, I painted the outer iris with Folk Art "Cloudy Day", then painted the inner iris with Crafter's Acrylic "Cool Blue".  I then painted the pupil with Ceramcoat "Black", and afterwards did highlights on the teeth with the base "Bleached Sand" followed by a little Ceramcoat "White".   After that, I highlighted the horns with the base "Grey Green", followed by some Folk Art "Porcelain White". 

       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 the figure with Testor's Dullcote". When the "Dullcote" was dry, I went back and repainted the eye and the inside of the mouth with a little Americana "DuraClear Gloss" varnish.

     I'm pleased with how this fellow turned out.  The mold line running across his teeth bugs me, but there was no way I was going to get involved in the insane amount of time it would take to try and clear all that out.  (What a crazy place to put a mold line!) In the end I think the mouth perhaps is still too dark in color for an albino creature, but I think in general he looks ok.