Rotpatch: The Rotting Pumpkin Golem

Throwback post #2: When the 2015 Thanksgiving holidays were upon me, I decided it was time to work on another pumpkin/scarecrow type miniature.

The previous Christmas, my son had gotten me Reaper's Rotpatch, a golem made of decomposing pumpkins and vines.

To keep a bright orange look, I primed the figure white and used black wash for separation.

Rotpatch Color Scheme

• Outer Pumpkin shell - Main Base: Heavy Glaze of Reaper HD Fireball Orange, Highlights: Reaper HD Yellow
• Vines -  Main Base: Reaper HD Meadow Green, Shadow (Wash):  Reaper Christmas Green, Highlights: FolkArt Bayberry
• Inner Pumpkin - Base: Reaper Tanned Highlight, Highlight: Reaper HD Caucasian Flesh 
• Scythe - Base: FolkArt Medium Grey Shadow (Wash): Black and Charcoal Grey, Highlights: FolkArt Light Grey and Dover Grey
• Moldy Bits - Base: Heavy Glaze of Reaper Ghoul Flesh, Highlights: FolkArt Linen

Below are the first coats using Reaper HD Fireball Orange for the pumpkins.  On the Vines seeing the transition from Reaper HD Meadow Green with Reaper Christmas Green as a wash, and FolkArt Bayberry as a highlight.

Apparently to get a good inner pumpkin color you should use flesh colors -- according to Reaper's (now defunct) Palette Resource anyway. So I used Reaper Tanned Highlight as a base and Caucasian Flesh as a highlight.

In researching what pumpkins in a decaying state should look like, I discovered it's a little scary how many websites are out there showing rotting pumpkins.  Apparently post-Halloween pumpkins are a thing...?

Anyway... I decided if the pumpkins had any brown, they had no structure to keep them up.  So the gourds that make up Rotpatch's body were in that state before collapse (ie, overripe). Overripe pumpkins should get a deeper orange color, leaning towards the red tone. But on figures this small, it's probably too subtle to pick up. 

So the mold will be the visual cue for rot.  I didn't want to go straight for black or dirty grey as a mold color - either.  It looked too lazy. So Reaper Ghoul Flesh as a heavy glaze worked. White mold areas got a final touch was a heavy glaze of Linen.  

Here he is mounted on the base. Also spotted in a few dark brown speckles to indicate the rot is growing.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  I love this figure - but mostly because of the sculpt, not necessarily my paint job.  

This is a great example where overthinking things interfered.  I should have just used a little brown or brownish purple to deliver the rotting look.

  

The figure could have used a cool tone somewhere to offset the warm-centric palette. That would have given it a little more pop... but I cannot think of where I would have put that here (the vines maybe?).

One note on the base - it looks a bit messy here because he actually fits in a pumpkin patch setting I created.

One of these days I'll have to post all my scarecrows and pumpkin nightmares in the pumpkin patch, but here's a group photo I did while getting them ready.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Carver, part 2 & 3

So for Halloween this year, I'm going to finally post two older entries I started several autumns ago on some of my favorite figures... Pumpkinheaded scarecrows.

First up is Malifuax's The Carver.  I started this entry back when I discovered the triple prime threat of grey primer / black wash / white drybrush.

The Carver became a centerpiece for pumpkin patch terrain I used in a Pathfinder campaign I ran.  The Carver and other pumkpin based scarecrows all got used as Jack-o'-Lanterns - which turned out to be formidable foes for the early levels.  I nearly wiped out the party.  Good times.

As to painting, I didn't take a lot of pics for my 1st coats, so I'm going to show most of the end results.

The Carver Color Scheme

• Pumpkin Head - Base: Reaper HD Fireball Orange, Shadow (Wash): Reaper HD Burning Orange, Highlights: Reaper HD Golden Yellow, and Saffron Yellow 
• Shirt - Base: Apple Barrel Antique White; Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Light Grey; Highlights: FolkArt Parchment
• Pants -  Main Base: Heavy Glaze of Delta Ceramcoat Denim Jeans Blue; Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Thunder Blue, Highlights: Light Glaze of Delta Ceramcoat Sky Blue
• Flannel Patch - Base: Delta Ceramcoat Cinnamon, Dark lines: FolkArt Charcoal Grey, Highlights: Pink
• Wood -  Base: FolkArt Coffee Bean, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown
• Straw -  Base: FolkArt Honeycomb, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown, Highlights: Reaper HD Mustard Yellow and HD Pale Saffron
• Crows - Base: Charcoal Black , Shadow (Wash): Black, Beaks: FolkArt Ochre Yellow and Reaper HD Pale Saffron Yellow
• Stitching and Wraps - Base: FolkArt Butter Pecan, Shadow (Wash): FolkArt Walnut Brown

This was one of the first times I got to break out my Reaper HD paints I'd gotten as an ace gift from one of my gaming friends.  All the oranges and yellows all went to painting that awesome pumpkin head.  One challenge I had with Reaper's HD yelllow paints - and I've heard reiterated elsewhere - is the paints separate in the bottle easy and require a lot of shaking.

While I went for sort of common farmer white shirt, I really wanted to get a plaid flannel look on the patches.  So here comes the dreaded lines painting.  Actually, I feel like I'm getting pretty good at this.  And I dread this a lot less than polka dots.

I wanted the Carver to look like he's stepping out of the fields and just started the journey towards town.  So for his base, I gave it two sections - one with the dirt and mud of the pumpkin patch, and one where the town's cobblestone begins.  I also wanted the cobblestone path to have an overgrown, not-used-often look - like the urban faded into the rural.  So there will be more patches of earth in between the bricks than I normally do.

Here's the finished base. I used my canned Terraclips Street color scheme on the cobblestone. I used a deep rich brown with a little red hue for the surrounding earth, knowing that static grass would probably go over it. I wanted to distinguish the two earth tones so I made the "crops" side of the earth a little more muddy - like a wet grey brown. Some general Walnut brown washes separate everything up nicely. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Overall happy with the final figure.  The snapped scarecrow post is a fun detail and adds a little bit of drama to the figure -- like he's gotten loose and bringing the terror to the city.

On the denim, this is one of the few times where less is more.  I've looked at several tutorials that give about 5-6 steps to getting a good denim look.  And when I look at what I did here, I don't see much of a difference.  

In retrospect, I could have made him a little dirtier looking.  And I've learned a bit about darkening a figure up to get a good glow since painting him.  If I were to redo the figure again, I would definitely take a more OSL approach with him.  

Bloodwretches: Neverborn Mid-Transformation

My wife is petrified of asylums.  We started watching American Horror Story: Asylum. At the end of the first episode, a reporter writing an expose is admitted involuntarily as a patient. We never saw another, it had tapped a primal fear of hers so strongly: that you would be declared insane and locked away to lose all agency over yourself.

Meanwhile the guards and the doctors get to do whatever they want...

The history of Victorian asylums stoke those fears, and the Malifaux starter set definitely plays upon them.  It takes place in an asylum run by a butcher and filled with orderlies telling you to quiet down with a syringe behind their backs.

That's why I see these bloodwretches as inadvertent rebels, fighting from the inside.  Like a molotov cocktail thrown at prison.  It helps that in M2E, they are some of the best models in the set.

When most people painted these models, they painted them as demons.  But as evidenced from the one that has one horn larger than the other, I see them as in the middle of the Human-to-Neverborn process.  These are the only models in the group I know that show this.  So an interesting challenge.

Having learned from the Swine Cursed I wanted to try the undercoat of darker colors and then do a heavy glaze of flesh color on top.

Bloodwretches Color Scheme

• Skin:  Reaper Tanned Skin blended into Dusky Skin then blended into Reaper Reaper HD Twilight Purple as a base. Then a heavy glaze of the Reaper Caucasian fleshtones
• Asylum Clothes:  Base: FolkArt Camel 
• Horns:  Base: Reaper Cloudy Grey, Shadow (Wash): Reaper Cloudy Grey, Highlights: FolkArt Mushroom 

I used the Swine-Cursed approach to the transformation: the transformation and palette changes are in the extremities while the torse and core keep the "normal" colors.

• On the left figure, you can see what the pre-glaze looks like.  Dark but strong colors. The transition between the Caucasian flesh tone to the purple looks a little muddy
• On the right figure, I already applied the first glaze of Reaper HD Caucasian Skin to the skin. Those strong colors are now a lot more muted, and the transition looks smoother.

Next was the clothes.  Keeping the clothes in neutral colors helps the focus stay on the skin.

Here's a pic of the "Bloodwretch 1" with the Caucasian Skin glaze

A few wrap up details like buttons and finger nails.

Final notes: I don't think these final pictures get the subtler shifts I got in the skin tones.  And the black hair on the first one looks rougher than I would like.  But I was pleased with the final results.  Proud to put on a table, not in a competition.

Angel Eyes: If your eyes are so angelic...

...then why is your freaking eye socket so small?

Angel Eyes has to have the smallest eyes on a model.  Or maybe it just feels that way because her name is Angel Eyes, so everyone will be looking at the eyes on your model.  That means you have to pay attention to getting her eyes juuuuuuuuust right.  (Or at least decent to look at.)

So before I dig in to the color scheme... I want to share how I learned to paint eyes.  It's the great white whale of mini painting. There was a really great article on Reaper's website about how to paint eyes that I grew to love.  The key approach: start with the eyes first.

Then Reaper took down The Craft section of the forum where the article resided. It's a shame because the article was written in a reassuring way - the author admitted each shot below was preceded by two screw-ups.  

That said, I did manage to find the pictures related to the article. As to the steps, however, I can only really remember the bullet-level basics.

Step 1: After priming, paint the white of the eye.  Use an off-white color.  Don't worry about getting all around the eye.

Step 2: Paint the Eyeball. Move the brush in a straight line up and down.  Again, don't worry if you go outside the perimeter of the eyeball.

Step 3: Black all around the outside of the eyeball area. Cover up any of the mistakes outside the eye area.

Step 4: Paint the face with your basecoat. Start far away from the eye and slowly work towards the eye - essentially shrinking the black area.  Try to leave a black circle / ring around the eyeball.

Most of this post is around the trials of trying to get the eye right.

Angel Eyes Color Scheme 

Shooting for cool color schemes as opposed to warm color schemes

• Skin:  Reapers Dusky Skin with Reaper Gem Purple as a base with an heavy glaze of the Reaper Caucasian fleshtones
• Cloak: FolkArt Thunder Blue - base; FolkArt Night Sky - wash; Reaper Gem Purple - shadow under tones
• Vest: Base - Worn Olive; Wash - Olive Drab; Overtone Shadow - Apple Barrel Wedgewood Green 
• Scarf and Pants:  Base - Reaper Concrete Grey
• Bands: Base - Worn Olive
• Boots:  Base - Vallejo Black with Reaper Cloudy Grey and FolkArt Charcoal Grey highlights

First things first.  The boots on this model are so thin, there's no way you're going to get a pin in there.  So I cheated and did it on the cloak.

So I had the eyes looking just right.  And then I went back for more detail.  I hate when I do that.

So I had to go back and fix it.  Like 3-4 times.  Eventually with my magnifiers on I saw I got the dot in the right place.  You wouldn't think it from this.  You'd think I was trying to paint a muppet.

The red box is where the black dot for the eyeball is, not the green box.

Eventually I got it.  Here she is with the eye inn the right place.

Final thoughts: I didn't post a lot about painting Angel Eye's cloak or boots or even her skin tone (which didn't pop as much as the Scion did because she is clothed so much.  But over all I am very happy with the end result.