Knight Models The Hulk [Completed]

With two main parts of the Knight Models The Hulk 1/28th scale miniature already completed earlier - namely his skin tone and denim jeans - finishing this green superhero's overall paint job was pretty easy. The base was done up with dry brushing and washes while The Hulk's face required more detailed brush work, especially to help define the pupils as well as each individual tooth (of which the lower row was better defined than the upper one due to my own missteps but I was too darn lazy to rectify seeing that they were not truly visible to the naked eye - only a macro lens can show this up).  

Closeup of the Knight Models The Hulk 1/28th scale miniature

Working on this Knight Model figure primarily allowed me to improve my skin tone wet blending and layering skills as well as try to perfect my take on painted denim texture. As The Hulk was practically all skin and pants, I could fully concentrate on both techniques without worrying too much about keeping neat lines amongst many small details as is the case for most of my other miniatures.  

Knight Models The Hulk [Completed]

Nicely sculpted musculature made it easier to define shadows and highlights on The Hulk's skin

An exposed rusty pipes added some variety to an otherwise humdrum base

All in all I found Hulk an easy miniature to paint with the main challenges arising from trying to get smooth transitions on his skin tone and a realistic denim texture on his jeans. Easy to paint but doing it well is another matter entirely, something I do not lay claim to in my finished piece you see here.  

Base comprises three different layers of asphalt which didn't show up clearly in the photo  

Back view of the Knight Models The Hulk [Completed]

Hulk's pants were painted to resemble denim texture

Hulk's base was dry brushed with varying shades of grey before brown hues were added to show the different layers present in a cracked asphalt road. An exposed pipe below Hulk's right leg was painted to resemble a rusted bronze pipe. Finally some black and brown washes were applied to tie the whole thing together. All of it was pretty humdrum stuff as bases is my Achilles heel in miniature painting. 

The Hulk didn't require a lot of head scratching to determine its colour scheme

360 view of Knight Models The Hulk
To view The Hulk in 360 degrees, please check out the YouTube video below. For videos of other selected miniatures I have painted, please visit my YouTube channel FourEyedMonster Miniatures. Please remember to choose high definition (HD) for the best video viewing option.

Thus far, all the figures in my Marvel Universe miniature painting project have been superheroes namely Iron Man, Logan, Spider-Man and The Hulk. I suppose it's about time I started work on a supervillain instead. To kick off the darker half of this project, I plan to prep Loki (infamous step brother of Thor) as soon as I finish painting some other miniatures that are in their final stages.

Meanwhile, in keeping with my continuing reading binge I picked up a more serious novel this time by Haruki Murakami titled Sputnik Sweetheart, a dark novel with loneliness as its main theme. While not everyone's cup of tea, Murakami's works are enjoyable for the characters that he brings to life via words. Thus far, this being his second book I have read after Norwegian Wood, I have found myself eagerly turning the pages of his work, driven by curiosity as to what is going to happen next to his characters. Only negative to all this reading is less time for my miniatures. Oh well ... c'est la vie!

Knight Models The Hulk [WIP - Denim Jeans]

On my third attempt at painting a denim texture, I finally managed to get fairly close to the specific shade of blue on my favourite pair of jeans. My previous two attempts, namely on the Knight Models Logan and Last Night on Earth Hikaru Sulu remake, had turned out too dark. This time around, the difference lay in the amount of blue wash used as less-to-none was applied on The Hulk's jeans during the latter stages. At this point in time, the Knight Models miniature is about 65% complete. 

Knight Models The Hulk, work-in-progress on denim jeans

In this instance, The Hulk has on blue jeans instead of his trademark purple pants

A question long contemplated by philosophers throughout the ages, why doesn't his pants rip apart?

Although The Hulk is usually clothed in bright purple pants in the movies and comics, I was never a fan of this particular feature of his. For me, The Hulk looks much better in blue denim jeans. Funnily enough, the one thing that makes The Hulk unbelievable as a comic book hero, to me anyway, is the fact that his pants doesn't rip apart when Bruce Banner morphs into the green monster. That being said, I finally loved how The Hulk was portrayed in a movie when The Avengers hit the screens. At last, they managed to bring him to life in a realistic manner and mould him into a likeable character.

Back view of The Hulk, work-in-progress on denim jeans

Brightest highlights was reserved for the creases and torn edges 

With his pants intact, I guess gamma rays doesn't affect his pelvic area

To paint the denim jean's texture, I mainly used Citadel acrylic paints and its blue wash. I found that a combination of Mordian Blue, Regal Blue, Shadow Grey, Russ Grey paints and the Asurmen Blue wash gives me the necessary tools to recreate the denim texture. I suppose Fenrisian Grey could be added if you want to make the jeans a lighter shade of blue. Conversely, if you prefer a darker blue on your jeans, then you should be more liberal with your use of the blue wash in the latter stages.     

Jeans were painted using various blue/blue-grey Citadel paints and a blue wash

Any denim clothing company tagging their brand onto The Hulk's pants in future Marvel movies could see an upturn in sales

Some light crisscross patterns was painted on the jeans to simulate denim texture 

Possible improvements I could make in future attempts at painting denim texture would be to try painting finer crisscross patterns on the jeans. A higher level of patience will be needed for that - a trait I frequently lose a grip on when working too long without a break. When mistakes start piling up, that's usually a sign for us painters to take a step back and walk away before more harm is done.  

Hmm ... I wonder what happened to the jean's belt loops

Crisscross lines could have been finer, something I need to work on for future attempts at denim texture

Jeans was well sculpted in my humble opinion

All that is left to do for this Knight Models miniature is the base, boulder, hair, eyes and mouth. Not sure what I can do to make the first two 'exciting' while the last three items could make or break the entire piece's 'believability'. Lighting for the photos above were actually a tad on the dark side because I had used a higher F-Stop value when shooting with my DSLR camera - a loss in light in exchange for higher depth of field. Hopefully I will have that sorted out in the next set of photos. Until then, thanks for keeping track of my progress on The Hulk and have a great weekend.

Knight Models The Hulk [WIP - Skin Tone]

Painting The Hulk's skin tones has been strangely cathartic for me as the simple repetitive act of blending and layering of shadows, midtones, highlights and the many half-tones in between put me in a calm state of mind amidst the troubles of everyday life. There have been times when I have just peacefully sat blending and layering paints and have hours pass by without even realising it. For this Knight Model piece, most of the time I didn't even have any music playing in the background. My mind was empty save for these thoughts ... blend, blend, layer, mix, blend, blend ... you get the idea.

Knight Models The Hulk, work-in-progress on skin tone

Wonderfully sculpted piece made painting the skin tones very easy

Veins were painted using a mixture of purplish blue and dark green

Finding the right hue of green for the 1/28th scale Knight Models The Hulk miniature wasn't easy as there are a lot of versions out there, sourced either from the cartoons, comics or movies. Initially, I had  wanted to use The Hulk in the Avenger movie as reference for the skin tone but that hue was bordering on flesh colours which I felt may not be appropriate for the comic-book feel I was going for (I used a similar comic-book feel for Knight Models Spiderman). In the end, I settled for colours which ranged from a dark purplish green all the way to a bright yellowish green. This was inspired by a comic cover art by Gary Frank for Issue #110 of The Incredible Hulk (see last picture of this post).

Hulk's pants will likely be painted to simulate denim

Back view of the Knight Models The Hulk, work-in-progress skin tone

Muscle tone in The Hulk's legs were equally well sculpted

As my Vallejo Model Color collection is still pitifully small, I mostly used the old Citadel colours to paint The Hulk. Shadows comprised Vallejo Model Color Oxford Blue mixed in with Orkshide Shade and Knarloc Green while the basecoat was just Knarloc Green alone. From mid-tones to highlights, a mixture of Knarloc Green and Gretchin Green was used with an ever increasing ratio of the latter.

The Hulk has a physique any Mr.Universe would kill for

Flow of paint strokes were done to mimic actual human muscle fibre

Looks like Bruce Banner keeps a regular appointment with his manicurist

For The Hulk's nails, I went for an ochre-green look. Sadly, I forgot to record the paints I used but I believe I added some flesh colours to the general skin tone mix to achieve the results you see above. 

Cover art by Gary Frank was my inspiration for The Hulk's skin tone

Next up for The Hulk should be his pants which I plan to paint to resemble a denim texture. Although I had achieved pretty good results with Knight Models Logan when painting his jeans, I had - similar to the case with The Hulk's nails - completely forgotten what colours I had used to achieve the denim texture. So it will be like starting from zero again with the exception that I can at least remember the technique I used to paint Logan's jeans. Or at least I think I do ... I guess we'll find out soon enough.  

Whole lotta prepping: superhero, heroine and anti-hero

With most of my current miniature projects nearing completion, the cycle starts again with a massive amount of prepping for a whole new set of miniatures to replace those nearing the end of the current project pipeline. Although prep work is satisfying in its own way, I can't help but wish that more miniatures would come at least 90% to 100% semi-assembled to make life easier. But I would still prefer to retain control of the priming stage (vs pre-primed minis) as I have gained enough experience to be able to lay on a nice even thin coat of primer in most times when humidity isn't a bear.  

Knight Models Hulk, Nocturna Models Enchantment and Ax Faction Zombie Hunter

It has become a norm or habit for me to concurrently work with miniatures of differing sizes so in my work table now I have the Knight Models The Hulk and Nocturna Models Enchantment which are both 1:28 (or around 70-mm) scale and the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter which is in 32-mm scale.

Knight Models The Hulk, assembled and ready for priming

Although both The Hulk (see above) and Enchantment (see below) resin miniatures are of the same scale, the former superhero is obviously larger in size next to the latter heroine so I will still be working with miniatures of differing sizes. While The Hulk is well known and needs no explanation on how I will be going about its paintjob, that really isn't the case with Enchantment. The latter figure has been tackled very well by a fellow blogger Adam and having seen his version, the official version as well as other colour schemes attempted by other painters online I have a rough idea of what I plan to do with her. More of this in future posts but my inspiration will be the lovely Daenerys Targaryen.

Nocturna Models Enchantment, semi-assembled (head straps unattached) and ready for priming

And then there is the Ax Faction Zombie Hunter which I believe is at 'true' 32-mm scale which means it's small and will be a challenge for my painting skills. Working on sizes big and small is the only way to improve on your painting in my honest opinion. Miniatures of differing scales allow you to better understand the intricacies of blending and layering acrylic paints, and practice doing them.

Ax Faction Zombie Hunter, semi-assembled, dry-fitted and yes, ready for priming

For size comparison, I also prepped and assembled two 'heroic' 28-mm scale Games Workshop resin miniatures namely the Ork Painboy and his grot orderly, both of which I also plan to work on concurrently to the three shown above. As you can see from the immediate photo below, in terms of actual size both W40K characters allow me to work with even more differently sized miniatures.  

An Ork Painboy and Grot Orderly adds to the to-do list as well as offers a size comparison

All the miniatures above have yet to be primed. Five would have been plenty seeing that I still have some projects still in early stages of painting (there is a half-painted dragon, Westeros knight and two wood elf goddesses to name a few) but noooo ... I just had to be a smart ass and add yet two more primed miniatures to the immediate to-do list in what would have induced the below reaction from Lily Aldrin (a character in the TV sitcom How I Met Your Mother) if she were a miniature painter.

So this means the Super Dungeon Explore Hexcast Sorceress and the Dark Sword Female Bard now has the dubious honour of being in my immediate (but still unpainted) to-do list. I will clarify on what I intend to do with these two as I start painting them so more on them on later blog posts.

Super Dungeon Explore Hexcast Sorceress prime with Tamiya Super Fine Light Grey

Dark Sword Female Bard that upon second viewing may need a further light coat of primer

Phew ... that's a lot of miniatures but I have even more ideas running around in my head on what to do with some Dark Angel Space Marines which I plan to paint in super duper bright colours. Why? Well I don't think I am going to ever field a Space Marine army on the wargaming table so I might as well use them as painting practice. But those ideas remain lodged firmly on the sprue because I am experiencing extreme prepping fatigue. If you ask me, someone should start "Preppers Anonymous" and all meetings must start with ... Hello I am so and so and I sniff err hate super glue. ;)

Logan assembled and more work on Hulk's skin tone

As I try out different skin tones for The Hulk, I decided to proceed with my Marvel Universe painting project by completing the assembly of the Knight Models Logan white metal miniature.The pose adopted by this miniature closely resembles Logan as seen in the movie titled 'The Wolverine'.

Knight Models Logan, fully assembled

Assembly of this metal miniature was relatively easy except for the claws on Logan's hands. The thin blade's small surface area made gluing them to the hands a challenge. But that was solved by using a combination of sodium bicarbonate and super glue, a topic I touched upon in an earlier post. 

Logan's pose seems to be based on the movie 'The Wolverine'

After being attached, the joints of some parts needed to be filled in with green stuff to smooth out the flesh sculpture. It wouldn't do to have any gaping holes that would break the illusion of real flesh.

Using green stuff to helped smooth out the flesh sculpture

Figuring out the colour scheme for Logan is a no-brainer as he should be clad in a white singlet and jeans which are either the traditional blue or maybe in black or dark grey colours. But it's the simple colour schemes that are the most difficult to paint because the very nature of its simplicity makes any painting errors more painfully obvious to the naked eye. Moreover, it's tough to make simple colour schemes look interesting. But as Barney Stinson would say ... 'Challenge Accepted'. After all, isn't failure only a six-letter word? Sticks and stones, and all that jazz.    

Cool pose on Logan's right arm as it's in mid-motion

Meanwhile, I have managed to get some work done on the remaining two gretchins to try and get as close as possible to The Hulk skin tone as seen in the Sideshow Collectibles figure. For these two gretchins, I went with a highlight that incorporated a very light flesh colour. Additionally, the gretchins were finished off with a very diluted wash comprising dirty green/flesh mixture. Both the gretchins' pants looked rather flat so I might repaint them if I decide to complete the whole 'Ork Heavy Support' set which would entail painting two Big Gunz - one for each pair of Gretchins. 

Hulk skin tone experiment on Ork Gretchins continues

Grime and verdigris on the shell means it will likely explode in the Big Gunz

Not much contrast work was done on the pants as both minis were skin tone practice pieces

Skin tone on the left figure was smoother because it was prepared with a black undercoat vs white on the right

Resulting colours were still a little too green but the highlights were much closer to the Sideshow Collectibles Hulk figure. This means if I wish to paint skin tone in a similar vein to the Sideshow Collectibles figure, I will have to use the current highlight as a mid-tone and look for a brighter shade for the final highlights. But the increased chalkiness that comes with adding pale flesh-like colours into the final highlights might require me to compromise and settle for a greener skin tone overall.

Sideshow Collectibles Hulk skin tone versus my Gretchin test skin tone

If you look closely enough, a comparison to my earlier gretchin test subjects (located on the extreme right and left of the foursome below) will show you that the latest two gretchins I painted sport a much lighter/paler shade of green. Effects are reasonably subtle but it's there. 

Ork Gretchins stand ready to man the Big Gunz

Gretchins on the extreme left and right are from an earlier Hulk skin tone experiment

As I dabble with assembling Logan and practising Hulk's skin tone, I am also close to finishing the paint jobs of Ser Gregor Clegane and a knight from House Baratheon (Renly version) in my Game of Thrones project. Once completed, I will be able to start on a knight from a yet to be decided Westeros House as well as a paint job conversion of an Ax Faction miniature into a wilding. Additionally, work will begin on a beautiful Nocturna Models miniature called Le Petit Chaperon i.e. either paint her as Red Riding Hood or convert her into Marvel's Black Widow, who is after all the master of disguises. On top of all that, I hope to start painting some W40K stuff again. Phew ... do stay tuned!