SALUTE 2014 - a brief report.

Salute felt like a much bigger event in every way this year (not that it wasn’t big last year!). I thought the painting comp was tougher with more entries in general and more entrants coming over from other countries.  The judges really had their hands full with what looked like a huge number of finalist to sort in a relatively short time.

Just like last year the day seemed to go in a flash! There was loads to see and a ton of cool people to meet and chat about minis with.  Getting to meet up with fellow enthusiasts at these events is one of the best things about them!  Despite all of the opportunities I resisted the inevitable urge to spend too much money but I found it pretty frustrating. I saw so many beautiful minis that I would love to paint but I’ve got to be realistic. There’s no point buying a load of stuff I’ll never get round to painting. Having said that I did get my hands on a couple of very nice pieces from Infamy and Twisted that I'm quite excited about painting so expect more steam punk from me in the future.

To cap off what was already a very good day both Jason and Chee-Chee got first in their respective categories.

My promised write-up on Jason has been a bit delayed by preparations for Salute  but now that’s all over I‘ll be posting it as soon as I can.

Chee-Chee - Finished

Well that was a struggle! I've come down with a heavy cold this week and I'm really not firing on all cylinders. It's taken me longer than planned, but Chee-Chee is finally done!

You can see high res versions over at Putty & Paint here. 

Chee-Chee Part 12a - Finishing touches

Chee-Chee is very nearly complete and I'm in the final stages and adding a few finishing touches to the overal piece. Heres a little tease untill the final reveal.

A step-by-step guide to painting rusty iron.

I've always intended to paint up the lamppost on Chee-Chee's base as though it were heavily corroded. Having found some good reference online I decided to add on real texture rather than just going for a painted effect as I think this will give a bit more realism. 

Step 1. 

I wanted to create the look of heavy paint that's being popped off by the rust forming underneath it so I daubed some brown crackle paint onto the base of the lamppost. I then left it to dry out and do its thing. Once dry the crackle effect wasn't brilliant but it did mean that the paint chipped off in a very pleasing way when I scraped at it with a metal sculpting tool. 

Step 2. 

I base coated the rusty areas in a mix of Mournfang Brown and blazing orange. 

Step 3. 

I first dry brushed Vallejo Dark Sea Blue over the base colour and then a lighter mix of Dark Sea Blue, Hawk Turquoise and a mid grey over that. This gives me the paint colour for the lamppost and begins to define the textures. 

Step 4. 

This step is achieved with washes of Blazing Orange, Iyaden Darksun and Mournfang Brown. I worked in lots of stages sometimes letting the paint dry completely and sometimes adding a little more colour to already wet areas. Working wet on wet enables the colours to bleed together. Once I was happy with the effect I added a layer of paint splatters (Rhinox Hide) and glazed over a little dilute Agrax Earthshade. 

Chee-Chee Part 12 - Painting The base

My painting style is for the most part very tightly controlled and that can be both good and bad. You need to know when to relax and let the paint do it's thing. Painting a bases is often the time to do exactly that so I've been pushing paint around and having a lot of fun in the process.

I've been dirtying up Chee-Chee's base and to do that I've employed washes, glazes, dry brushing, stippling, splattering and sponging. It's all been very satisfying and I'm beginning to get a pleasing depth and richness to the textures by layering all these effects.

Chee-Chee Part 11a - Getting messy all over again!

I've had a lot of feedback about the blood effect on cool mini and as a result I've had a rethink about how to tackle it.
To that purpose I've removed most of the old blood (that was fun!) and reworked the effect. I may add a bit more gore to the arm (I think it can take it) but I'll give it some thought as I don't want the gore to dominate the mini.

I've also started to paint the base. It's all too clean looking at the moment but that will change.

Chee-Chee Part 11 - Getting messy!

Some painting projects call for taste and subtlety but I'm probably on safe ground when I say that a giant, mutant, cyborg gorilla isn't one of them!

I've always intended to add a few extra gruesom touches to Chee-Chee once the painting was done but I wasn't sure how far to go. Right from when I first saw the mini I've seen Chee-Cee as being in a rabid fury quite literally tearing his victims apart. I've decided to go all the way with my initial ideas and turn the horror right up.

I've used a similar method to how the one I used for the slime on my Hellion's whip to add drool to Chee-Chee's mouth.

I cut each hair to size and glued it in place with a dot of PVA wood glue. That's the really fiddly bit!
I then built up the drool with a 50/50 mix of GW and vallejo water effects mixed with a dot of ivory paint. It's just a matter of taking your time to build up the layers and letting each one dry before you add the next.

I wanted Chee-Chee to be bloody handed and I decided to go for full on gore with a meaty bloody mess clinging to his fingers. Once again this method makes good use of water effects but this time I've also used UHU glue. I mixed the glue up with some blood coloured paint and then stretched out the resultant gloopy mess and let it set up a little. I pulled off small pieces and stretched them out further. This gave me translucent rubbery lumps and strips that I could combine with my blood mix to build up the gore.

Chee-Chee Part 10

The past week has seen some positive painting action and as a result I've managed to achieve significant progress on Chee-Chee. I've continued to make some (admittedly subtle) tweaks to the details but the major development has been in painting the fur. I've now pretty much finished the bulk of the painting with little more than some adjustment and refining of the details left to do. Of course the minute I declare Chee-Chee finished I'll spot (or have pointed out to me) something that needs attention but at least the end is in sight. Then I can turn my attention to painting the plinth.

Photographing Chee-Chee has made me very aware of how much of a difference the angle of view make to a minis appearance. This is something I'm going to have to consider very carefully when it comes to gluing Chee-Chee onto the plinth. I want to get the most interesting and dynamic composition out of the mini that I can.

Chee-Chee Part 9 - With a little help from my friends!

I've had some really useful feedback on Chee-Chee and his base over at Platoon Britannica so I spent my weekend painting time making a few tweaks and adjustments. 

The first thing I did was to rework the dip in the cobblestones. I had one of those nagging feelings that it wasn't 100% there but couldn't put my finger on what felt wrong. It's now clear (after it's been pointed out to me) that the dip was just too smooth and soft looking so that the overal effect was like a matress being pressed down. Rather than reworking all of the cobbles I've cut out a few along the leading edge and second rank. I then glued then back with small wedges of plasticard underneath to raise them up. I think the result is both more realistic and pleasing to the eye.

 

Once that was sorted I went ahead and put some primer onto the base as it was time to get a proper look at the finished surfaces. 

I've also spent a bit of time refining the paint work on Chee-Chee. There's nothing too dramatic going on here. I've worked up some of the detail on the pipework  and work some more red into the face. The face was (as usual) the first part of Chee-Chee I painted and it was starting to look a bit dull in comparisome to the rest of the mini as the overal scheme came together. I might well put a little more work into the face to make it 'pop' as the mini comes to completion.

Chee-Chee Part 8 - Assembling the base.

There's nothing too complicated involved in assembling Chee-Chee's base but the trick was always going to be achieving a seamless finish. To make life a little simpler I cut a back plate from 2mm plasticard. This helped to hide a multitude of sins and gave me a stable foundation for the wall. I popped the polymer clay cobblestones off of the wooden cube and carved out an indent where Chee-Chee's fist makes contact with the ground. I then used Extra thick superglue to fix the elements together making sure the cobblestones were pressed down into the indentation. Next I set the base aside so the glue could set overnight

The next day I used milliput to fill in all the gaps and seams and left it to set (once again overnight). Then came the start of what turned into a Christmas sanding marathon. First I used flat files and then increasingly fine grades of emery paper to level off the surfaces. Even after sanding there were a lot of little dinks and dents and the wooden cube would required a lot of work to get the smooth seamless surfaces I wanted.

To help achieve this I've used Mr. Dissolved Putty. This is a thick liquid putty that can be painted on with a brush and, once dry, sanded to a smooth finish. I've never used this product before but I'm now really impressed with it. I built up a few solid coats on the wooden plinth and spot applied over the dinks and dents. Sanding needs a light touch but results in a very pleasing satin smooth finish. The only drawback is that the putty dries slightly translucent so it can be tricky to see the surface clearly.

With the base assembled it was time to drill the holes for pinning Chee-Chee and the lampost in position.

Chee-Chee Part 7 - Sculpting a base from Polymer clay.

Seasons Greetings!

Having figured out what I'm doing for Chee-Chee's base it's time to start putting it all together. I've decided to sculpt the road and pavement/kerb out of polymer clay. I'd considered using plaster but that can be a messy business and although epoxy clay would also have been a good option I'm allergic to it. I avoid using it too often especially as I will need to use milliput later in the project.

The next issue was the condition of the polymer clay. My super sculpey firm is stored in an airtight container in a cool place but after a couple of years neglect it was woefully dried out and crumbly! A few drops of sculpey softener and a lot of passes through a pasta machine (only ever used for polymer clay of course!) returned the clay to a workable condition but the crumbly clay gave me an idea. I kept back a small quantity of this to use as the top surface of the road. The cracked & crumbly surface helps to give some interest and texture. I then rolled out another, smoother, layer of smoother clay and cut it to shape for the pavement. 

To create a cobble stone texture I first cut a series of lines with a scapel and then set about adding some character and deffenition with a fine point sculpting tool. After that I rounded off the hard edges by working over the sculpted surface with a paintbrush dipped in a little isoproplyl alchohol.

With the sculpting done I cut away the clay where the wall will go so that it won't simply sit flush on the ground surface. I also carved out an indentation ready for an eched brass drain cover. With an oven nicely preheated from roasting the Christmas ham (I kid you not) I then baked the clay to set it hard.

Next I will have to attach the wall and set about ensuring a seamless transition between all the base elements but for the time being I've photographed the first test fitting of the wall and lamp to the new base.

Painting Chee-Chee Part 6

Well November has come and gone and I've managed to get far less painting done than I'd hoped but it's been a busy month so I've had to go with the flow. I'm hoping to get a lot of work done over the Christmas holiday (it's approaching at an alarming speed) and I'll steal whatever painting time I can in the meantime.
I have managed to get some painting done and I've finished Chee-Chee's big mecha arm. So with the exception of a few rods & cables I've mostly only got fur left to paint. Mind you that's quite a lot of only!
I've begun to resolve those areas of fur by working on the back & arms. These areas cover the extremes of the colour range in Chee-Chee's fur with the arms being almost pure black and the back being silver-grey. Both areas need a bit more work but the overall effect is becoming apparent and I'm very pleased with how it's looking.

 

 

I've also been spending a bit of time working out my designs for Chee-Chee's base. My earlier plans were for something far bigger but as time has gone on I've decided to literally scale it back. I'm still having a cobbled street, lamp post & the zoo walls but the whole thing will be a smaller & tighter composition. I think this will show off Chee-Chee to far better advantage. He will now be the dominant element of the composition as only seems right. The pics below are of a very rough test fit but they give the general idea.