Afternoon all - Hope you are all keeping safe and well and looking forward to a 'special' visitor tomorrow night.

On that theme here's my version of a not so welcome visitor

The figure is one that sort of slipped by me and is produced by Blast Models (I bought mine in the UK from Mezzer's Mini's) I'll be honest in that I was ordering something else and this was cheap so I thought what the heck . . .

It's a nice bit of casting in resin (54mm) and comes well packed in a nifty little wooden box which kept everything safe and sound all the way to me. Of course I managed to break off one of the blades on the hand whilst cleaning up Al;though the figure comes with an alternative pair of arms and a different head I had a bit of a sulk and put it back in the box whilst I got on with something else.
Step forward Mr Chris Seeley who had also just finished his version using the 'other arms' and who quickly dispatched his spares to me gratis - Thank you Chris

So having carefully cleaned it all up I slapped on a coat of black primer and set to work with the brushes. I planned to have him bursting through one of those paper screen doors which I thought would look suitably dramatic. (Remember the night scene from 'The Last Samurai'?)

As I was painting the Osprey book on the subject I'd ordered arrived and my plans changed slightly when I saw the views of Iga Ueno castle. As a climber I just couldn't resist adding this as a backdrop.

So with the figure almost painted I sculpted the section of castle wall onto a piece of 5mm thick plastic sheet using Miliput and pinned it to the back edge of one of Oakwood's finest bases.
Whilst I really liked the overall effect I then decided to try and add a spot of moonlight effect light to the figure so I got the paints out again and really pushed the contrasts even more and reduced the colours in the clothing to bleach it out and then added the blue light to help set the scene.

Anyway another one finished for the cabinet - who says a black figure at night can't be fun to paint

Stay safe and have a good Christmas folks
Paul

Very nice, not an easy thing to do a virtually monochrome figure and setting but you certainly pulled it off with this one.

Cheers Graham - the face didn't take too long on this one for a change

Thanks Steve
My process was exactly as you describe
(I'll be looking at the others in the range to see what else they have based on this one)
Strangely enough the Avanpost figure is still sitting on the shelf - beautiful, but didn't move me in that same way as this when I got the pair of them opened and on the bench

Superb work Paul!

That turned out brilliant, excellent work on a dark coloured subject overall.

Cheer's,
Jeff.

Excellent work and painting

Mobo

Thanks Guys - appreciate the comments
All the best
Paul

ps - What's a stamp Kev?

Superb work as ever Paul.
I find your work inspires me to try to improve. Don't you ever produce a sub standard piece?

Cheers

Bill

I'm very flattered Bill, thank you
Paul

ps-
I've got a window sill with a box of pieces which didn't pass the 'ready to be based test' or even fitted the 'well this one has gone completely pear-shaped' test.
They all help even the ones which don't work quite as well as expected. I'm constantly trying to improve and get closer to what I picture in my head when I start a project, but these days I try not to get too hung up if things start to go off the rails. Occasionally a figure just comes together easily like this one and stuff just works out.

i love the night ambiance. great painting Paul !

Superb Paul. Colours, backdrop, mood. I’d say one of your best!

Adrian

Thanks Frank and Adrian

Next figure will have a bit more colour, but this one was a lot of fun to do and a good challenge.
Great to have a few days off so that I can get a run at a figure for a change - it was very unusual to have one on the bench for such a short time.
Cheer
Paul

Excellent painting and presentation Paul.
You've caught the night effect very well.

Cheers,
Andrew