Dr Grant's WIP [Forge World Ogres]

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Thanks chaps, very much appreciated, I've now finished his base and am really happy with the final product. Just waiting for some good light to snap some photos.

@ Southy - Absolutely not! :-)

I'm no DMS, once I've done a figure it's done, the idea of painting the same thing again makes me feel quite ill! :-)

No worries on the colour pointers though! I must say that I was really helped by the (very basic) painting guides on the back of the box as they made me pick up Rakarth Flesh and Pallid Wych Flesh, neither of which I'd used before. I've always worked up my white from Skull White (White Scar) and Kommando Khaki and these two paints really made a difference.

Azog - base coated Rakarth flesh - washed with a mix of Nuln Oil and Ogryn Flesh which gave a dark shading with hints of red. Then I spent a lot of time building up highlights, first with Rakarth Flesh and then adding more and more Pallid Wych Flesh until it was almost pure PWF. It took a long time but highlighting it up very slowly gave a far more natural finish than I can normally achieve. His scars were painted crimson gore and then had a thin line of pink painted down the inside of each one.

The White Warg - He was base coated Codex Grey (sorry DMS!) except the darkest areas which were base coated Eshin Grey (you can see these areas in the WIP pic in the Fili post above). There's no doubt this created a much darker than expected result and so the fur was then very heavily dry brushed Fortress Grey. I then started picking out every bit of fur individually with Pallid Wych Flesh but soon got frustrated as this was A) TAKING FOREVER and B) not looking nearly as good as I hoped. I then changed tact and dry brushed all the fur with Pallid Wych Flesh. Unfortunately, this left the model 'looking drybrushed' which I really wasn't happy with and so I took a big gamble. I mixed up some Pallid Wych Flesh with a little Fortress Grey to make a very, very pale Grey and then REALLY watered it down, I then painted this over all of the fur as a wash. This was quite a gamble and at first I thought I'd completely ruined it but as it dried I was really pleased with the result. It had the effect of making the whole model look Whiter whilst maintaining the shading in the recesses, more importantly it also blended the speckled look of the dry-brushing and made everything look far smoother. I've been trying this a fair bit recently on horses, dry brushing highlights on and then washing over it with a very thing coat of paint to blend it all - it seems to work well. The scars were painted Crimson Gore and washed with Orgryn Flesh, the very edges of all the scars were then picked out with pure PWF. The fleshy areas on the warg (legs and face) were then built up from the Eshin Grey base coat with Fortress Grey and mixing in more and more Pallid Wych Flesh. It all took a while but I think it was worth the time, particularly for such an important hero model.

Hope that helps - enjoy, it's a nice model to paint. I'm looking forward to doing him on foot early in the new year.

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:23 pm

Savage looking - that's how to do a White Warg (whom I believe is actually the alpha female which is why all the others are scared silly of her - cannot remember where I read it).

GothmogtheWerewolf · **Posted:** Sat Dec 21, 2013 9:38 pm

That's a nice and quite effective colour scheme :yay:

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Thanks for the kind words guys, as promised here's some better pics of Azog who I've just entered into this month's painting challenge.

Been assembling some Mirkwood Rangers over the Xmas hold as I've been staying with my folks so not been able to get any painting done. Hopefully will have the brushes going again on Sunday evening, think I'm gonna get stuck into Tauriel. poor old Bofur, he's the only dwarf left but I just can't see him getting done in favour of all these lovely new elves :-)

JamesR · **Posted:** Wed Jan 01, 2014 7:34 pm

Azog looks great! Are you planning on painting in any teeth? Or anything

Harfoot · **Posted:** Wed Jan 01, 2014 8:21 pm

Nice work, thanks for the painting guide, I will give it a try.

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

It's been a while since I posted and even longer since I painted as I downed brushes over Christmas while staying with my folks. Still, I've been fairly busy in the last two weeks.

Thanks for the kind words as always, @JamesR - I actually have painted in Azog's teeth, they're a yellowy brown, looks pretty cool up-close but doesn't seem to come out too well in the photos.

So I managed to get Tauriel done and I 've got mixed feelings about her, I'm REALLY happy with how everything turned out except the face. I just couldn't get her looking feminine enough and after a while I just had to call time on it. Obviously part of this is down to my lack of painting skill but I also think the sculpt's somewhat to blame. I love the pose of this figure but, to me, it just doesn't look like Tauriel at all; she's far too bulky and the face just doesn't look at all like Evangeline, it suffers from the same round-face problems as the Legolas plastic sculpt. It's a real shame as the Thorin's Company plastics and the Hobbit Finecast releases have great facial detail but this figure just doesn't convince IMO. If they release a different Finecast pose at some point in the future I'll pick her up in a shot.

Anyway, here're the pics:

As I said, I think she's ok but the face just doesn't look right to me which is a shame as it's probably the most important part, ah well, can't win 'em all :roll:

I also finished Beorn last night, pretty happy with him, was a very cool model to paint, just need to do his base now so hopefully I'll have pics up next week. Assembled Bard last night too so he's next on the to-do list.

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Fri Jan 24, 2014 2:35 pm

Tauriel does look great but I can see were you are coming from about the face. Read the below link for some ideas on female faces.
http://chestofcolors.com/how-to-paint-faces/

Harfoot · **Posted:** Fri Jan 24, 2014 3:38 pm

whats the old saying, "you can't make a silk purse out of a pigs ear" Still i think you have done a good job with a poor facial sculpt

Love the Azog and white Warg.

JamesR · **Posted:** Fri Jan 24, 2014 5:49 pm

On Azog and the Warg- I understand my photography skills are pathetic so my painting never looks anywhere near as good in my pics.
On Tauriel- I agree that everything but the face looks great. Have you considered softening the shade a small bit? Idk but to me it seems too strong for a softer feminine face

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Thanks for all the kind words guys.

@Gandlaf - thanks for the link, very interesting, I'll try and use the techniques when I get started on my female Mirkwood Rangers in a month or two.

@JamesR - Yeah I tried a few times, lightening, darkening repainting and so forth and got totally fed up with it. I'm convinced the eyes aren't sculpted equally either, whatever I tried I just couldn't get them to look right! Ah, well, who knows, I may return to her in the future!

Had another fairly productive week and managed to get Beorn finished, feel like I've got past that lack of precision that clearly led to Tauriel's dodgy paint job and I'm back to feeling 'match fit' - blame it on all the booze and food over Xmas, you've gotta keep up your conditioning! :-D

I'm really quite pleased with Beorn, I'm not normally a big fan of painting large areas of flesh but I think his chest and arms came out quite well, I think the darker shades make him looks nice and 'outdoorsy'

Now if GW would just stop teasing us and release the bear model I could get him on the table!

I've also assembled Thrain the mental and Alfrid this week, Alfrid jumped Bard in the painting queue and I managed to get him base coated and shaded last night. Why you say? Oh that would be telling, I'm certainly not considering using him in an upcoming event... :twisted:

C&C welcome as always, cheers guys.

Dead Marsh Spectre · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 9:47 am

Fantastic work on Beorn. Particularly, his flesh is outstanding!! Well done mate.

KnightyKnight · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 10:13 am

Beorn looks absolutely brilliant Dr Grant, great work as always! Love the face and boots in particular, his expression is spot on. But using Alfrid? ... You've changed, my friend..

JamesR · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 2:15 pm

I too really like your Beorn piece. Good work!

Gandlaf the Grey · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 4:46 pm

I'm with the others in complimenting your work on Beorn. Alfred seems to be coming along but I will hold comment until he's finished.

Dorthonion · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 6:34 pm

You missed the opportunity to employ the old 'Bear with me' pun....

Alfrid is a creepy looking character - like a more furtive version of Wormtongue I believe. Tough to paint with all the dark clothing but looking good so far.

Beorn has grown in my esteem since watching the movie again and reading the Chronicles book and Visual Companion. Nicely done!

Erunion · **Posted:** Wed Jan 29, 2014 8:40 pm

Excellent job on Beorn here. My issue with the mini is from the design perspective. Beorn should be hairy all over, and his hair is more appropriate for someone who could transform into a Lion rather than a Bear.

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

Wow, thanks so much guys, means a lot having such great feedback from such great painters! Very motivational!

KnightyKnight wrote:

But using Alfrid? ... You've changed, my friend..

I know, I know, nothing's certain yet, I'm going to try it out against Tom H on Tuesday evening and see how it gets on. You can blame GW, if they'd have released the bear model I would've brought Beorn along but I've been left scratching my head about how to fill a 200 point void. If it's any help it's a fun list I think, defo has some Alfred cheese but I think it'll be fun to play with and against, it certainly won't win any events. Just looking forward to using my shiny new toys to be honest!

Dr Grant · **Joined:** Fri Aug 03, 2012 1:50 pm **Posts:** 1339

And here he is, got the broken cheese-monster finished over the weekend

really happy with how he turned out. I decided to depart from the film version as black shirt, black cloak, black hat and black hair would have been no fun to paint and instead experimented with some dark blues, greys and purples that fit in with the rest of the Laketown colour scheme. Very happy with the results, it took me a while to decide if the thing under his moustache was a top lip or teeth - I went for teeth in the end. Really enjoyed this one, gorgeous model and a lot of fun to paint.

I've also departed from the GW paint job in another respect, the parts of the sculpt they've painted as bottom eye lids I've painted as eyes. I noticed there was a trend for them to do this when I was painting Thorin's Company - I'm not sure who's right (it's probably GW) but I find this newish trend of painting the top and bottom eye-lids and then painting a tiny slit through the middle as an eye makes the models look like they've got really puffy eyes. Not sure what the sculptor intended but I certainly prefer my interpretation of the eye sculpt (although GW's paint job is clearly better). Have a look at what I mean here:

Alfrid
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catal ... od2340112a

Had a minor catastrophe after he was finished when I realised that the whole model was leaning forward when the soles of his feet were glued to the base. Cue a very nerve-wracking 5 minutes trying to cut him off the base without damaging the paint job. Remarkably it went well and I was able to re-glue him on his heels and fill the gaps under his feet with greenstuff.

Gonna try him out in a Thorin's Company list tomorrow night (he may make friends with a certain rotund dwarf) to see just how powerful he is....

Next up is Bard, he's already well underway so I hope to have pics up by the end of the week.

Cheers all.

Rognarr · **Posted:** Mon Feb 03, 2014 10:56 am

Great paintjob.. and you really dont have to hide him from GW's version!

Dr Grant's WIP [Forge World Ogres]

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