Ok, here is what I was fooling around with this weekend. For the base, I used the kit supplied groundwork but, used Magic Sculpt to build the groundwork up a little giving my knight the appearence he's sitting on a small hill. As far as what I did, it can be found HERE. Of course I did a few minor thing different but for the most part, I pretty much followed what I did before. You know the saying about lighting striking in the same place twice? Well, I went into this thinking, "If I screwed up and did something right, maybe I can screw up again". :lol: As far as painting the groundwork, the only part that has been touched by a brush so far has been the flowers. Everything else has been done with an airbrush. Including the stone wall section. I'll go back and do some very LIGHT drybrushing and probably some minor shading just to get all the rocks to "pop". Wooops, I forgot one thing. The deep shadows in the rocks are pastels. The knight is primered except for the metal plate pieces. I painted these with ALCLAD II Dark Aluminum. These paints are already ready to be airbrushed straight out of the bottle. This is a tip I picked up from a friend of mine named Greg Chillar. I went back and painted some very faint shadows with Vallejo Smoke. Again, with the airbrush. The head you see is the head I will use on my figure. Yes, the picture with the figure is a little out of focus but I went ahead and included it because I was trying to show what the groundwork looks like with the figure on it. Of course they will be in focus once I start painting the figure. Well, enough already. See anything blatant I need to fix? Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

That's looking good Jim, very realistic. That figure has a terrific relaxed standing pose.

What is the material opposite the wall from the figure? It looks very convincing.

Hey Jimbo!

Looking good Man!

Now where is my figure.....??? I bet you sent it to your brother as well didnt you!

Great work. I agree with John, the ground work looks very realistic. Please post photos as you come along with it.

Very nice scenery you got there Jim, i really like your idea. Now the painting of the figure is left and we will have another great piece of work to enjoy.

Hi Jim

Realy great groundwork, can’t wait to see the figure in progress, glad to see you are using the head that seems more in scale to the figure.

Dave

Jim,

Looks Terrific! I really like it when more is added to the base to set off the figure. I cant wait to watch you paint this one. As I have been deliberating wether to buy this one.

Brad Spelts

Nice placement and overall feel is very good. Look forward to seeing this from you, Jim!

Keith

Great groundwork and presentation. Should be a stunning piece.

Thanks for all the replies guys. This project is still young and I still have plenty of time to mess up.

John, the "bushes" are from Woodland Scenics. It comes in a clear plastic box labled "Fine-Leaf Foliage". I used the light green but it comes in a variety of colors to include Autumn colors. I painted it with the airbrush using several shades of green then added the "flowers" with dry floral "things" (not sure what they were). I just cut off the buds, then glued them in place with white glue around the grass and bush. Then painted them with different pastel colors.

Anders, no your figure didn't go to my brother's house. :lol:

Thanks again guys,
Jim Patrick

Ok, it's only been forever since I posted any progress on this or any progress on ANYTHING for that matter . Well, actually, I have been working on this. Just keep stripping everything I do off of it. Then I ventured over to Joe Hudson's house a few weeks ago, and he finally pushed me over the edge when it comes to painting white. Not that this is very good, just the opposite in my opinion. But it is better than anything Iv'e done to date. It's still not done. I went in and painted the heladry (yes I painted it like the box art) so I could better judge how much more I needed to do. Like I said, still a lot of tweaking lies ahead of me. But it's mine none the less and I'm "satisfied" with it. Here goes my first "in progress" in forever!

All comments are welcome! (and needed)
Jim Patrick

Looks great Jim.....white is not an easy color.....but you nailed it.

I don't EVER want to hear you bitch about that you can't paint whites again, nuff said!

Hey Jim,

I would have to say that it is looking really nice! I really like what you have done so far and the heraldry is looking really nice too.

Joe

This looks fantastic. I did this figure myself, and wound up sellng it, but I liked it so much I ordered myself a new one. I am watching your progress with great interest to pick up a few pointers on how to improve on my last effort, and your ground work! Well, I think I found some inspiration. Well done.

Hi Jim

Just picked up on this one and have to say you are making a first class job of it. I agree the whites look very good, and the groundwork sets the whole thing off nicely. Leather work is good too.

I bought this piece when it first came out but I haven't even opened the box yet. I've seen so many good examples of it I don't want to go there until I'm happy I can do it justice.

Watching developments with interest!

Regards

Phil

Hi Jim

I love this figure, and you realy are doing a brilliant job, the heradlry on the chest area is realy good as it is a very hard one to paint... Brilliantly done...

Dave



Hi Phil cant help but say this, just get the figure out the box and have a look, You wont be able to put it down..... :lol: :lol:

You will be fitting the parts together and cleaning it up within minuites

Dave

Thanks to everyone. It's really almost funny. Every time I think I screwed up, I do something right. Every time I think Iv'e done something right, Iv'e screwed up. Ok Anders, no more &^%$#*! :lol: . Honestly though, I still don't like it as I see everyone's work on here (just look at Jaume's thread ) and like their's sooooooo much better than my own. Phil, listen to what Dave and Glenn have said. This is a GORGEOUS figure that's just begging to be painted (and it doesn't have to be done in whites). Glenn liked it so much he got another and I can see me doing the same thing. It's just that nice and for the price v.s. the ton of metal you get, you can't go wrong. Before I do anymore tweaking of the whites, I'm going to paint the fur liner of his cloak. I'm going to have this done in time for World Expo. At least that's the plan. Joe, 2 things. First, if you think that herladry came off well, just wait, I'll mess up the rest! Second, a BIG "thankyou" for helping me out. It seems so simple now but believe me, before I went to your house, there was nothing simple about what I was trying to do.

Thanks again to all of you,
Jim Patrick

OK, here's the latest. No, I haven't finished the heraldry yet. I was too lazy to finish it . But(!!!!!!!!!!), being as how I'm busting my rear end to have this at World Expo, I gotta get my rear end in gear! It's almost there. Looking at the last photos and these, it doesn't look like I have been doing that much but I have. Mostly detail painting that I can't do once everything is completely assembled. Boy, this figure takes a lot of planning. You really have to think about painting before you glue anything together. Lots and lots of detail painting. I did the flesh tones and beard. Wanted to do something "older" but what the heck. I'm having fun. Sorry about not having anything closer on the flesh. It was the photography. If I get the skintones to look ok, the white looks yellow. If I get the whites looking ok, the flesh looks yellow. Couldn't win. I'll take some more later on with some close ups of the flesh. Anything you see I need to fix?

Thanks,
Jim Patrick

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He looks great Jim......I will have to study it for awhile to see anything to critique.