Bartella and the Neanderthals, Part 4.5

OK - last time, we finished up the skins. Now on to the "Gas Mask Thingie."

With the mask, the first thing to do is mix up a gas-mask-green colour. (I want to move away from a black mask, because I want it to be prominent on the figure.)

I mixed a toxic-goop-coloured green with good ol' Baby Poo Yellow, until I got this colour:

I then proceeded to paint the mask and the 'lower portions' this colour.

OK - time out for a sec...

Is it a piece of drug paraphernalia?

Yes.

Am I promoting drug use?

NO!

I'm doing a Workbench report where I'm taking eight of the same Neanderthal, and turning them into eight different drug gangers from the near future. When I made the mask that's all it was - but then in a moment of divine inspiration, I figured turning it into a bong would really work for this fig...and look good, too! Not to mention make the fact it's hanging in space make sense.

In retrospect, maybe not such a good move, though.Why didn't Bill give me the dancing elves to do!? If you are a concerned parent or suchlike, pipe up and let me know, and we will sort it out. If I don't know you're chucking an Ivan Jellical about it, I will just assume no one has issue with it and move on.

Then mix a little more Baby Poo Yellow into the mix, until you get a sandy-green colour like so:

Wet brush it into the areas marked with the blue arrows. Then - taking it a slight shade lighter, using a bit more BPY - highlight the raised edges (marked by the red arrows) like so:

My highlights look a little dark in these pics, but in reality look fine. If you want your highlights to stand out a little more, mix a skerrick of yellow into the highlight mix. If it is bugging me at the finish of painting, I will bring it up a shade lighter in the clean-up stage.

(As you have figured out by now, I don't paint those brighter 'n bright figs. I prefer more "muted" tones in my figs. It's a result of playing "bad guys" lots, and working in more sombre colours most of the time.)

If you do want more brightness and contrast, just mix in a little more of each colour that makes that paint mix lighter, and it will all be apples. General pearl of painting knowledge is - the more gradual the transition of shades and the tinier the spacing between each one, the more seamless the blend. So if you are going lighter and brighter here, try a more gradual blend with 4 shades instead of 2. It will avoid that WOW! HERE I AM, I'M A HIGHLIGHT! look. (Though some of you like that look, so just do whatever makes you happy.)

Then - using a light wash of brown ink and your fine-work brush - carefully paint fine lines around the mask and bong (as marked by the arrows). The ink will flow into the "gutters" at the base of each rise, and give it an instant shaded effect. Green ink would work just fine here as well, but I used brown as I will be highlighting in a yellowish green, and it will tie in better 'n dark green, I think.

The exhaust valve on the mask was simply silver mixed with a bit of black until I got a gunmetal colour - though to be honest, any sort of dark silver colour will do fine. Then a 50/50 mix of black ink and water, to fill the holes and give it a smoke-blackened look. Then pure silver highlights around the edges.

Jumping off track a little now - using the same silver colours, we will do the knife. (To use up the rest of the gunmetal colour we made.) The knife blade was done using a gunmetal from the exhaust tube colour, and brushed across the entire blade. The jagged blade part around the bolts on the handle was then given a wash of black ink, done to about 1-to-5 water. When that had dried, a soft wetbrush of pure silver brought out a gleam on the edge of the blade, as well as the edges of the back of the blade. (Don't worry about the handle, as I'm not using one of those painting sticks. So I'm handling the fig, and that bit is getting worn on its edge - so we will do that last.)

Here is the blade:

Finishing off the mask - brush the straps of the gas mask black, and edge them with a mid-grey as shown. Gently run a wetish brush of black paint over the centre of the strap, and this will bring the grey highlights down to very fine lines.

To do the pipe, mix some generic dark brown into your toxic green until this colour appears (a very dark military green):

Brush it over your pipe. More is less here - you don't want to drown your detail. So keep the coats thin, and do a few if you have to. Don't forget to let it dry each time, too.

Then give this a good wash with a quite-dark ink (black-coffee coloured), to stain all the gaps in the tubing. This should run into the gaps, leaving the upper peaks bare of its stain.

Then mix a little white into your military green, and use this to very gently drybrush the breather tube to get a weathered look on the pipe.

Now just for kicks here is the fig to scale:

That will have to be all for now...

...because it's pouring rain, and I shoot in natural sunlight so the pics are coming out too dark.