In addition to my ongoing work on Iron Man, I plan to start painting the Knight Models The Hulk white metal model kit soon. But before a single drop of paint is applied to The Hulk, I will need to figure out the proper green skin tone to use. To help me with that will be four little gretchins, half of which is primed in white while the other half is in black. In theory, these gretchins should allow me to try painting slight variations of The Hulk's skin tone on both a dark and bright undercoat.
Gretchins primed in white and black
One Hulk skin tone version that I am considering can be described as pastel-like pale green, akin to what can be seen in 'The Avengers' movie's version of The Hulk. In this version, the greens are much more subdued compared to the traditional bright green colours one tends to associate The Hulk with.
The Hulk from the recent Avengers movie
Another slightly paler skin version is that of The Hulk figure from Sideshows Collectibles which seems to have more flesh colours mixed in with the green skin, or more flesh undertones to be precise. Not what one would call the traditional Hulk skin colour but it looks kinda cool to me and much more realistic in a way. However, pulling this version off would be much harder.
The Hulk from Sideshow Collectibles
With work on The Hulk at the 'guinea pig stage' another Knight Models miniature from its Marvel Universe line will likely take centre stage. To commemorate the recent release of 'The Wolverine' in Blu-ray and DVD, I will be painting Logan. It has been a while since I tackled human flesh skin tones so I will need brush off the rustiness that has set in. Also the Logan miniature will require me to paint textures to simulate the fabric found in jeans. That's going to be a big ask for me.
Hugh Jackman in the latest 2013 Wolverine movie
Knight Models Logan aka The Wolverine
Logan unoboxed - it looks to be a fairly simple model to put together
So the gretchins mean I will be working with W40K miniatures again after a very long hiatus. Should be a fun little diversion from my current painting projects. With the new year just around the corner, the paint jobs of Iron Man, a House Baratheon knight, a Nocturna Models figure as a proxy for Ser Gregor Clegane and Abbadon the Despoiler remain at various stages of completion. Meawnhile, Other stuff include the use of an Ax Faction miniature (Giant Hunter) as a proxy for a wilding in the Game of Thrones (GoT) universe as well as Nocturna Models miniatures for GoT, Marvel and other movie character paint job conversions. So much to paint and so little time. It's going to be a fun 2014.
In a blink of an eye, a new year is upon us. As we wind down in preparation for 2014, I would like to take this opportunity to wish one and all a Merry Christmas as well as Happy Holidays for those of you fortunate enough to get time off to spend with your family. May you and your loved ones enjoy good health, peace and happiness during the seasonal holidays.
Many thanks too for reading my blog and for your encouraging comments. Stay safe and take care!
Anyway you look at it, girls with weapons is a marriage made in heaven for painters and sculptors alike. I find the concept of associating weapons with girls most appealing. Why? Because it challenges many a society's prejudiced view of women as the subservient and weaker sex ... the very same segment of society that discriminates against you based on the colour of your skin or personal believes. Putting weapons in the hands of the feminine half of humanity is to me, a symbolic gesture of flipping the bird at prejudiced views. And what a better way to start off than Bonnie Parker.
Bonnie Parker as played by Holliday Grainger
Although the movie about the infamous 1930's outlaw duo of Bonnie and Clyde by The History Channel has been slated by critics for taking considerable liberties with historical accuracy, I think they missed the point. The show was meant to be entertaining, which for me it was, and it provides a take on how a person ends up in a life of crime which reinforces the notion that life is coloured in many shades of grey. Moreover, this latest TV movie remake makes you want to read more about life during the years of the Great Depression in America as any good historical show should do.
Bonnie and Clyde as envisioned by The History Channel movie
Bonnie would make an excellent subject for a sculptor and painter, something I have been more actively aware of ever since my interest in sculpting was sparked. Weapons and 1930's style of clothing on a sculptor of Bonnie Parker makes for a unique and interesting combination that differs greatly from your regular sci-fi and fantasy stuff. On that note, there is a much more modern version of Bonnie in Roxy as played by Tara Lynne Bar in the movie 'God Bless America'.
Roxy as played by Tara Lynne Bar
Creeping up on me unawares, 'God Bless America' is one movie that
simply stunned and blew me away with its brilliance. A movie in which
closed-minded conservative individuals should shy away from as they will
not be able to see past the violence, the story revolves around Frank
(played by Joel Murray) who is down and out to put it mildly as he has a
broken marriage with a child that hates him, has lost his job and has
terminal illness. As Frank sits on the couch with a gun in his mouth
ready to end it all, he has an epiphany that sees him team up with Roxy
(played by Tara Lynne Bar) and proceed to take out the trash of society -
[Spoiler Alert Begins] including spoiled teenagers, racist and
religious bigots, people who talk in cinemas, and many more idiots of
society [Spoiler Alert Ends].
God Bless America - a superb dark comedy
On the surface there seems to be nothing interesting to sculpt or paint where Roxy is concerned, though I beg to differ. As a sculpture, Roxy is a symbolic miniature that represents a stand against the idiocy that seems to envelope the masses, or a non-conformist figurehead if you will. But not all miniatures need to based on serious themes. There is always the fantastical such as Sucker Punch.
Babydoll, the protagonist in Sucker Punch, as played by Emily Browning
Despite 'Sucker Punch' being almost universally panned by so-called serious film critics, I for one enjoyed this movie while still acknowledging it could have been so much better. Directed by Zack Snyder of '300' and 'Man of Steel' fame, this movie had great fights scenes (choreographed by Damon Caro) and stunning visual effects. One possible ambiguity this film represents is that it treads a fine line between female empowerment and sexploitation of female characters for geeky fanboys. Regardless, the characters in this movie make for cool subjects for both sculptors and painters.
Other girls of Sucker Punch, including Babydoll
Of all the main female characters in 'Sucker Punch', I am most tempted to do some early concept sketches of Babydoll to see how this character can be sculpted by a novice like me. Figures of Sucker Punch characters have been professionally made by companies such as Hot Toys, Sideshow Collectibles and Gentle Giant. My favourite so far is an 18" tall figure of Baby Doll by Gentle Giant.
Babydoll collectible figure by Gentle Giant
But if there is a hint of sexual controversy in the depiction of women in 'Sucker Punch', there is none - in my opinion - of The Bride or Beatrix Kiddo, a character played by Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's 'Kill Bill'. Here, she is purely a mean, lean and lethal killing machine out for revenge. Arguably, the pose of Uma Thurman in a Bruce Lee outfit and holding a samurai sword is possibly the easiest to sculpt and paint. Another cool pose is one in which she is in a wedding outfit.
The Bride as portrayed by Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman was excellent in Quentin Tarantino's no-holds-barred
action movie that pays homage to many film genres (the heroine's costume
is already a dead give away). Though admittedly the violence can be at
times a tad overwhelming, 'Kill Bill' was engrossing and enthralling to
say the least. A simple plot in which Uma Thurman plays an assassin
seeking revenge against her former allies for trying to kill her serves
as the vehicle in which Tarantino unleashes this masterpiece on us.
This
is not a movie for you to analyze the psychological underpinnings of
the main characters, of which nearly all are female, but one to enjoy
for the well executed homage to Hong Kong martial arts films, Japanese
sword fighting movies, revenge and you guessed it ... girls with guns and
swords.
Kill Bill Volume II movie poster
Guns and swords most people get but a girl with a hammer? Two words ... Ramona Flowers. One of the few well made manga influenced comic-to-movie translations, 'Scott Pilgrim vs The World' was a delightful little show that was both outlandish and endearing in a quirky kind of way. Ramona is the love interest for the main protagonist Scott Pilgrim who must defeat her seven evil-exes. Sounds silly when you think of it but the plot works a treat and is acted out well in an over-the-top manner that suits the feel of the comics. Ramona is one character I would consider trying to sculpt and paint.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Ramona as how she looks in the comics (left) vs her movie version (right)
There is certainly no lack of characters to serve as an inspiration to start learning how to sculpt. But I will need to take small baby steps and first start out with concept sketches of some of the characters I mentioned so far, including Katniss Everdeen. Fail or succeed it's shaping up to be one hell of a ride.
Settling on a lopsided ratio of the types of House Baratheon heraldry on the warhorse, i.e. one stag head to three stags rearing on its hindquarters, I managed to finish painting the stag designs freehand over a period of two days. Although the stag head was easier to paint freehand, it didn't looks as impressive as the other heraldry depicting a rearing stag hence the lopsided ratio.
House Baratheon heraldry in Renly's colours, the stag head
For the rearing stag, I had to change the positioning of its antlers because the original heraldry design wouldn't have translated well into miniature paint form, especially with my limited skills. To make things easier, I positioned one of the antlers as how it would have been seen if the stag had turned its head slightly more towards your or my viewpoint/direction. End result is a more stylized rather than realistic design which was much easier to paint freehand on the warhorse.
House Baratheon heraldry in Renly's colours, the rearing stag
To make the House Baratheon heraldry (Renly version) stand out, I used bright yellow colours as opposed to the pastel ochre shades found in the original designs. Another difference was that my versions were painted in flat colours versus the original's more shaded colours. This was to ensure that this miniature would not look out of place with the general design of all the other Bretonnian Knight conversions I have done so far and will do in the future for my Game of Thrones project.
House Baratheon warhorse complete with Renly's heraldry, side view (left)
House Baratheon warhorse complete with Renly's heraldry, side view (left)
Work now shifts to the knight to be seated on the warhorse, so do stayed tuned for further updates.
Continuing with my non-metallic metal (NMM) work on the Knight Models Iron Man miniature, I was now faced the task of trying to paint the gold portions of the armour. Referencing the same triad of light sources as described in an earlier post, I proceeded to tackle painting non-metallic gold. My main challenge was trying to maintain a fine balance between having a smooth transition and having a stark contrast between the colours. A task complicated by the many angled surfaces of Iron Man's suit which made predicting how light reflects off the armour extremely difficult.
Knight Models Iron Man - Work-in-Progress (WIP) on gold armour
Using only four Citadel colours namely Scorched Brown, Bubonic Brown, Snakebite Leather and Skull White, I tried to achieve non-metallic gold to somewhat mixed success. To say that NMM is a very difficult technique is a huge understatement. It not only requires a painter to have good blending skills (something I am working on) but also know where to put the highlights and shadows which is basically a good understanding how light reflects off metal (my knowledge is rudimentary at best).
Colours for non-metallic gold
If you Googled for images of 'Iron Man Mark 3', you would have been bombarded with loads of pictures showing how light reflects off the armour. But rather than helping it actually makes things more confusing as you can only roughly guess at where the actual light source is coming from. Nonetheless, it did provide some surprising images that showed light reflecting in ways that I did not anticipate. That was something I consciously tried to incorporate when painting NMM for Iron Man.
Knight Model Iron Man's thigh gold armour
As with the red armour, the brightest highlight had to be pure white to simulate metal. Of the two colours - red and gold - the latter is much easier to paint as NMM. There are perhaps still some sections of the armour - both red and gold - that I could revisit to improve the NMM effect. Some parts may need a higher contrast gradient between the highlights and shadows but more research on my part is needed to determine for sure or I would just make things worse than it already is.
Back view of Iron Man's armour, with the gold portions painted
Angled sideways view of Iron Man's armour, with the gold portions painted
To get a good idea of whether the NMM has achieved its desired effect, it's best to see how both the red and gold armour look together as a whole - in terms of the much sought-after metallic effect (see last photo below). While I am generally happy with the results so far, I am under no illusions that I should do much better to get a more realistic NMM effect. The solution to that is more practice.
Right side of the right thigh gold armour received the least highlights based on light sources
Overall shot of how the gold and red metallic armour interplays with each other
Other than touching up the NMM effect, work remains to be done on the base, arc reactor, hand repulsors and some minor object source lighting. It feels good to be making further progress on my Marvel Universe project, and I hope to post more updates on Iron Man in the coming weeks.
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