Sunday, September 28, 2014

Nurgle Chaos Champion - Completed (thanks to the help of Matte Medium)

Prostrate thyself and behold - Frankenberry, Chaos Champion: Harbinger of Doom and Tooth Decay.
My prior post highlighted a first attempt at free-handing an old school shield design.   I was so geeked out over the shield that I rushed to post the pictures, but I wasn't really happy with the rest of the mini.  For years, I've been using a magic wash (distilled water, future floor polish and usually a payne's grey artist's acrylic) for finishing my models.  However, I wanted to experiment a bit with matte medium for and glazes and ink washes.  My chalky, over-highlited Chaos Nurgle Champion was just the justification I needed to use the ubiquitous 30% off coupon at Michael's . . .

Here's Frankenberry, standing in front of a foam core building I made a few years ago.  You'd think the Ultramarines would be able to come up with a better construction material than foam.

I mixed matte medium with distilled water at a 1:1 ratio, then added a dark army green to tone down the highlights and bring together the colors.  I also mixed a more watery version and added blood red instead of green, with just a touch of brown, to pool blood in the holes in his armor.  Then, as it dried and thickened, I used a very fine brush to draw down the blood to make it appear to be dripping.  I applied a bunch of layers of blood on the sword as well.
I quite liked how his bare hand turned out.  I used a very watery purple and, while it was still wet, I dabbed in pink highlights.  Once dried, I applied an ink wash I made with a mix of matte medium and water at about 1:10 and then a drop or two of black ink.  You can see it really separated out the fingers.  I also applied the wash sparingly in various nooks and crannies elsewhere.  The final result was much, much less glossy than the magic wash I've been using and the more viscous fluid is less runny too.
Whatcha gonna do with a big fat butt?  Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle . . . 

And one last side by side of the pre-glazed and ink washed version:

1 comment:

  1. He's a real beauty. I really enjoyed the in-depth description of your painting technique. The blending effect from the inks really is remarkable.

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