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Bartella and the Neanderthals, Part 4


Neanderthal Champion
Product #
2400
Manufacturer
Suggested Retail Price
$3.99 USD


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Neotacha writes:

Be sure to take a "before" picture of the 'roo skull. I've never seen one, and I want to know what they look like.


Revision Log
17 November 2004page first published

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Scurvy continues:

OK - so, last part was painting on some infected flesh and doing a paint wash.

I did say we would add a final highlight on the infected flesh. After looking at the fig, I realised it didn't really need it. (I might of done a wee bit like I have explained below, but I can't remember and can't really tell from the pics, therefore it's not critical.) So I think I just made a light flesh colour (same as the highlight flesh from part II), and cleaned up the figure where the infected pink had got onto some non-scar-tissue around the back muscles and the rear of the raised arm. I also mixed a little more white in, and highlighted the eyebrow and a smidgen of the sixpack and pectoral muscle.

If you really, really want to highlight the infected flesh, use a poofteenth of flesh and a poofteenth of white mixed with your infected flesh colour, and highlight the ridges at the base of the pucker (as opposed to the top). This will give it the effect of the scar tissue blending with the flesh - but as you will see from the pics, it's doing that just fine anyway.

(The picture quality should improve from here on, too. As, hopefully, you will see below.)

Improved photo

This is the cleaned-up flesh.

Here is a close up:

Close up

OK - so as you can see it's all good.

Anyways, that's enough on flesh.

Next, let's do the loin cloth and 'gas mask thingie'

Very simple to start with. Get your trusty number one brush. Get some Yellow Oxide (yellow-brown in plain english), and brush the back of the loincloth like thus:

Yellow Oxide on back of the loincloth

Note that we have only done the lower part of the rear of the skin. (Why, you ask?) Main reason is the front is going to be done like a jersey cow, and the upper bit is the inside of the 'pelt' which should be done much paler to represent that inner skin.

To make the inner pelt colour, just mix white with your Yellow Oxide until you get this colour:

Inner pelt colour

Then brush it on the top part of the skins, like so:

Inner pelt colour on the top of the skins

And the back, like this:

Inner pelt colour on the back

Then - as you can see from the above - we have used good old brown ink once again to add a little depth. (Is there anything brown ink can't do!) For this mix I used a very watery consistency. Basically, we are talking a watery tea colour here. Now this consistency will work swell for the inner skin bits, as it won't cut the mustard on the outer pelt.

For that, we went the other end of the spectrum with a 50/50 mix of water and ink.

Now this is going to stain the pelt a very dark brown. That's fine, as we will bring it up to a lighter brown with highlighting.

Pelt is stained a very dark brown

Now to highlight

Get your Yellow Oxide and a light brown, and mix the two to get this colour. (To get it right, start with a little light brown and mix the yellow into it. Until it looks 'right'. To be honest, though, a shade here or there in difference won't hurt a bit, so be chill, grasshopper.)

Mixing up Baby Poo Brown

The reason we are mixing a darker brown into a highlight is because the ink has changed our base colour, and this mix will blend with the dark ink brown better. But as Big Kev would say, "That's not all, folks!" It also gives our 'yellow brown' (darn it, let's just call it baby-poo brown and be done with it!) it's day in the sun, as it will make a neat highlight colour.

Baby-Poo Brown is a neat highlight colour

Now with this one (as shown above): Wet-brush it on. (Wetbrushing - slightly damp brush with a drybrushing amount of paint on it. Which is brushed on slightly harder than a standard drybrushing. If that doesn't help, fall back on the Force to get it 'right.') This will leave the dark ink in the deep creases and holes, and give the 'lowlands' that are the bits above the dark creases a slightly lighter brown..(And yes, some will note I have painted the front bit of the skins white. I don't want you to do that yet, so don't worry about it.)

Then a medium-hard drybrush with our much-esteemed Baby Poo Yellow. A slightly softer drybrush with some BPY and white mixed. Getting softer and softer, with the drybrush working up to a final highlight with a colour that matches our inner pelt colour.

Here is an example of the colours to aim for:

Colours to aim for

Going from far left to far right, you can see the lightening of the mix for the highlights, after the centre dark brown's wetbrush.

Here is a visual look to the process. Note the 'tassels' get a workout each time. Upon finishing, let it dry, then do a stained-water wash with brown ink. Very, very light on the ink here. This will help tie all the colours in together. It somehow blends them just right.

Light wash blends the colours together

Another view of the same thing

Then grab some white and your #1 brush. Paint the front of the pelt white, and follow up with a drybrush of your inner pelt with the last highlight you made of inner pelt colour. This is just the standard drybrush, and will blend in just fine with the ink. If you want, add a little white after this drybrush, and do fine highlights on the ridge-tops of the inner pelt.

Cow pelt again

Then it's time to do the Jersey Cow pelt on the front

Ready to paint the Jersey Cow pelt

First thing we are going to do is make a very fine wash with...black ink! (Brown could do it, but black looks better so we will go with black.)

Now we are talking a very light wash - it should look greyish. If you brush it on paper, it will make a very light grey mark.

Just brush this over the white bits of the pelt, making sure it gets into the creases. Especially in-between the tassels.

After the very light black wash

After this is done, give it a quick drybrush with white. Drybrush medium hard.

Drybrushed with white

To bring it up to this. (This is not the best method of doing large areas of white, but for small bits like this it's quick, easy, and will look just fine.)

Now grabbing the #1 brush, go to work putting some black blobs on. The only real trick here is try to space them out in a pleasing manner, and make sure the edges look nice and neat. Go down to a #0 brush if you need to here, to get the edges right.

Black blobs added

Here is a side view:

Side view

Now, some of you might be saying, "Why a Jersey cow hide?" Well, I'm glad you mentioned it.

Firstly, so we could do something a little bit tricky. Second, so we could use a wash on white (the bane colour of many a painter).

But mainly it's to place the figure. Part of painting a good-looking fig is thinking outside the square. By putting jersey hide on the fig, it says "this is a modern guy trying to look a part." You can just imagine him helping himself to a cow-hide floor rug in some abandoned apartment.

Well, it's real levva innit, and that's wot real cavemen wore innit, 'n anyway since the black rain killed all the cows, it's expensive loike.

Either that, or I just love a touch of the absurd in my figs.

Well, it's time for me to go to work so...

Next lesson we will do the 'gas mask thingie,' the knife, and the cyberware/drug injectors. Then finish off with the gun, sealing, and basing in the final part.

Don't despair, though - there are another seven to be converted after this, and painted to boot!