Did this gruesome monster for a friend. I told him I could paint that up in no time – who am I kiddin? I started this summer, finished mid september. So what more suiting than to blog about it on slowlypainted.com.
The model is a Games Workshop Jabberslythe, it is cast in resin and purchased second hand and I suspect it is a re-cast. I have never seen the original, so I cannot confirm its authenticity though.
Assembly
What a pain this was. Assembly was like trying to fit an orc in an elven dress. The length of the torso meant that the warped resin needed a hefty amount of greenstuff. I wanted to use my airbrush as much as possible on the large surface of the muscled torso, which meant I had to assemble the forelimbs and the wooden trunk seperately, in order to be able to airbrush the stomach and lower parts. This turned out to be a really bad idea, as the forelimbs and tree trunk alligned poorly with the torso, once again needing loads of greenstuff. Similarly I also wanted to paint the wings before attaching them and I was actually finishied painting the torsy when someone (wisely) suggested to magnetize the wings, again more drilling and greenstuff, resulting in re-painting parts of the torso. In retrospect all this should have been done before painting.
Painting
I thought long and hard on the paint scheme on this. I was tempted to go all out red and daemonic with glowing eyes and stuff, but figured this creature was more a mutated beast that slumbers for years deep in the forests until awakened either by the smell of prey or roushed by wile beastmen shamans. So with that in mind I wanted to make its skin more earthly as if it was part of the forest. The challenge here is that brown is the dullest color ever and the result could well just be a brown blob that would sit unnoticeable on the tabletop battlefield.
It would be impossible to try and list which paints I used and how, but I started with the torso using airbrush then ended with the horns, spikes and fur which are a simply shaded and then drybrushed. Notice i go from bright to dark on the horns. Many do it opposite, but in nature most animal horns are actually darker towards the tip.
Basing
The already very detailed tree trunk on the model begged for a woodland theme. Also because of all the brown used on the model I really needed something that would make the whole lot pop. Then I came up with the idea of covering the whole thing in a thick layer of autumn leaves, which of course has been done before by countless others, but here I really wanted bright red tones that could serve to bind the model to the basing.
The leaves are real natural leaves picked from my garage and punched out with a fancy leaf punch from greenstuffworld.
The leaves were glued on and then sprayed with red tones. I also added lots of moss to really add to the whole dark and moisty undergrowth wine.
Finished!
I really liked what the airbrush was able to bring to the table here. Not only does it add a nice thin layer that can be hard to do with a regular bush without getting brushstrokes, it was also invaluable in making all those smooth transitions. Am I still a total noob with an airbrush, yes. The damn thing clogs, needs loads of cleaning and sputters big blobs of paints in places you really don’t want it, but slowly, very slowly, I think I’m getting to terms with it.
Slowlypainted 