Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Her Grace The Deaconess Dowager

May I, your humble sculptor of twisted imagenarium of the desolated 40k universe, present to you the third venerable member of the Femmes Imperum series - Her grace The Deaconess Dowager from the Ecclisiarch Hive.

Character once again based of wonderful John Blanche painting. She really challenced me in many ways - The original painting was perfect starting point - Rather tightly cropped image left many details open for the viewer. I started my project using Dark Eldar parts but as you can see, they got pretty much covered under layers and layers of stuff.

I wanted to give her full court dress as I visioned her to be honoured and high ranking official of the Ecclisiarch Hive. So this time I was able to go pretty over the top with the ceremonial dress and the hair peace.

The Deaconess differs from my previous Femmes having more volume around her curves. Total blast to sculpt from start to finish. Hair peace was pain to sculpt but it was totally worth the trouble. OK enough with the words here she comes...











- Mikko

Friday, May 17, 2013

Slow but Steady

It has been pretty challenging to enter into the crafting mode lately due to the hectic life that has been keeping me busy. My new job as a project manager is something that I've been dreamed of ever since I properly entered in the advertising business. It's been immensely rewarding but also very demanding and time-consuming experience so far. The incoming summer also brings the good weather here in Finland so it means more time outside with the family.

Despite these factors I've been able to push the Caterpillar phase forward by putting the brief moments in use. The process is slow but steady...



Thursday, May 09, 2013

The Weeping Walls of the Monastery

It is time to reveal some of the work I've been able to pull out for the Caterpillar phase so far. Without any further words or teasers, here's the first part of the Monastery, beaten by the dust, sand and filth.



As you can see, the yellowish white repeats all around the surfaces of the ruin. Most of the trims have been painted to represent patinated copper. It does give a nice contrast to the dirty white walls, don't you think?

I have also started working on with the taller part of the courthouse and thought to share some WIP shots with you.




The salt weathering effect does work pretty well on the walls. I did learn from the first portion that I need to fix some of the white paint and hide some of the rusty areas to make the walls just a little bit less weathered, as too much rust and weathering effect makes the larger surfaces look too complicated and busy. I think it's a bit more balanced now...

Monday, May 06, 2013

Gloomy Teaser

The first one of the Punk Moth ruins is now almost finished. I still need to add some minor details here and there, but other than that, I'm pretty much finished with it. Here's couple of gloomy teasers...



Sunday, May 05, 2013

Femmes Imperum Deaconess re-posed WIP

Change of plans - decided to give her a cane, something suitable for elderly lady like her =)




Friday, May 03, 2013

Femmes Imperum WIP

Third one emerges -  Graceful, Slender, Sophisticated, Nobel.... Deadly

Yet again based on JB artwork (sorry no pics) An elderly servant of Immortal Emperor this time.



Many things are still searching their places but you get the point.

(290 followers!!! We Are Legion!!! the big 3 is so close =)

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Lets Paint Weathered Walls

The Caterpillar phase of the Punk Moth scenario is rolling on again. All the buildings are now primed and waiting for the painting phase. There's a lot of surface to cover so I need to plan the whole painting process with care...

Before assailing any of my undercoated structures with paint I decided to make a test piece with the colour scheme that I had thought to use in the Punk Moth scenario. My plan is to paint most of the surfaces with dirty and worn white and coat the trims of the walls with beutifully patinated copper. The ground will have the similar tone with the bases of our gangs.

I picked up one of the extra walls and had the test piece undercoated with a nice layer of dark brown paint that I had mixed with various paints. Anxious as I was, I had to speed up the drying process with a hair drier. My wife looked at me with a hint of an amusement in her eye...

When the undercoat was dry, I applied some water here and there with a paintbrush and sprinkled table salt over the wetted areas. When the water had dried off and there was only salt left, I went outside and gave the test piece a nice layer of white paint with an airbrush. Actually my white paint was so low-quality that I had to give it not just one but three thin layers before all the areas were white. This had a dramatic impact on the salt which decided to stick on the surface even though I soaked the testpiece under warm water for over a minute. I had to help it with the paintbrush and finally got the salt off.

Now the wall had a nice weathered surface that needed to be shaded. I gave the surface a thick layer of brown wash and after it had dried, finished the effect with some minor details. Finally I painted the trim with bronze metallics and added some turquoise to make it look like patinated copper.

here's the finished test piece...




Now I just need to repeat the whole process in much larger scale...