More Monsters

We've been having more painting hangouts in the last few weeks, and it's been a lot of fun. Over the last three sessions I finished two more monsters from the Witcher boardgame, a harpy and a werewolf, which in retrospect is quite fitting given we are currently in the month of October.

Harpy:
Again I wasn't putting much effort into the Harpy, just threw on some colours real quick and called it a day. I was reminded of images of angels and demons from movies like 2005's Constantine and 2008's Max Paine, so I went for a demonic colour scheme. I wanted to try my new Two Thin Coats purple triad, so I roughly layered up the skin in Two Thin Coats 10016 Amethyst Rayne, 10017 Sorcerer's Cloak, and 10018 Runic Purple.

I used Vallejo colours for the wings, though I'm not 100% sure which ones I used. The basecoat was probably Vallejo 72.010 Game Color Bloody Red. I tried to drybrush orange - most likely Vallejo 72.009 Game Color Hot Orange - but it wasn't drybrushing properly, the result came out more like a smoothly blended transition. Which wasn't what I was after, but I went with it. I got a similar effect with the yellow - probably Vallejo 72.006 Game Color Sun Yellow.

I washed the wings and skin, I think I used Citadel Shade Carroburg Crimson for both. I then picked out the beak in Vallejo 72.763 Game Air Desert Yellow, highlighted with what was probably the same Sun Yellow, then glazed it with Citadel Glaze Lamenters Yellow.

I don't remember exactly what greys and browns I used for the base, but I used different basecolours for the rock, dirt, and rope, but washed them all together, I think I used Citadel Shade Nuln Oil, though it might have been Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade. I drybrushed the rocks in a lighter grey, and I think I drybrushed both the dirt and rope in the same tan.


Werewolf:
After soliciting colour scheme suggestions from the rest of the group, I decided to go for a wintery scheme. I actually made an effort with this guy, mainly because he needed more attention due to the different textures covering the whole model.

I basecoated the skin in The Army Painter WP1432 Warpaints Ice Storm. The fur was Vallejo 70.990 Model Color Light Grey. I think the nose was Vallejo 70.862 Model Color Black Grey. The leather was Green Stuff World 1834 Acrylic Color Quicksand Brown. I mixed Formula P3 Ryn Flesh with a little bit of Citadel Colour Base Mephiston Red to get a pink for the mouth. I picked out the teeth, claws and eyes in Two Thin Coats 10036 Trooper White (or it might have been 10035 Ivory Tusk). I used a darker grey for the stone and a darker brown for the dirt.

I then washed the entire model in Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade, which went on very well (although you can see in the photos that I missed a spot or two), but kinda blended the fur and skin together so that there wasn't much difference between them anymore. I dryrbushed the fur in the Light Grey, but I felt it was too dark so I went over it again with Vallejo 70.989 Model Color Sky Grey then Vallejo 79.993 Model Color White Grey. I lightly dryrbushed the skin with Ice Storm to give it back a little of the blue. I drybrushed the rock in Light Grey, and the dirt in Quicksand Brown.

I glazed over the eyes with Citadel Glaze Lamenters Yellow, clumsily dotted the pupils with Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black, and called it a day.

Speedpainting

Contwrath arranged a hobby day at a game store, bringing a box of Witcher models for people to paint. I had just a day or two earlier watched a video about painting OSL and was eager to try to emulate what I had seen, so I chose a model holding a lamp. I wanted to finish it in a single session so I tried to work very fast and loose. I also took the chance to test a new (cheap) brush and to work with some new paints - and some old paints that I rarely get to use.

I'm sorry for the crappy photos; I couldn't get my phone camera to take photos that weren't either too bright or too dark. I used my new Two Thin Coats' purple triad for the cloth, leaving the black primer in the lower recesses. I applied the highlights using a VERY simplified version of a technique from a Ninjon video I watched recently. I used a bunch of darker, less saturated greens and tans, many from Formula P3, for the skin, leather, and base. The bones on the base were Two Thin Coats Ivory Tusk. The stone was a couple of shades of Vallejo greys. I tried to add verdigris over the copper, but a wash (Agrax Earthshade maybe) seemed to cover it all up; a quick Gehenna's Gold highlight added a bit of shine. The skin was washed in Citadel Athonian Camoshade, the stone in Nuln Oil (before a light grey drybrush) - which I also dabbed onto the dirt to break up the colour before washing the whole base in in Agrax Earthshade. The glow, applied last, was Citadel Sotek Green then Temple Guard Blue, with small spots of Baharroth Blue on just the lamp itself.

It was a quick rough job, but I did finish the model in probably under 3 hours, and the results are not too bad. It was fun to paint in such a loose casual way, not getting hung up on details, and it was very encouraging to know that it's not actually impossible for me to get decent results relatively quickly. And of course it was great to hang out with people while doing it. I'm looking forwards to the next hobby day.