Hi all,

I've plucked up the courage to post my first WIP. Aplologies in advance are due for the crappy pictures but I'm not a photographer and only have a point 'n' shoot camera. The figure is also a bit messy at this stage but (hopefully) he'll look a bit neater as I progress. He looks better at normal viewing distance too, macro mode is very unforgiving I think.

Anyhoo, he is called Falkar, Wandering Sword by Andrea in 54mm. I've seen a few versions of this figure on this and other sites so I guess its fairly popular. I decided to give him leather armour because if I gave him mail and plate he'd be up to his armpits in the snow because he's also carrying a fair old burden on his back (not shown in these pics). So in the interests of common sense I ditched the plate and painted it as leather.

A big thanks to Ron Tamburrini for the inspiration for the leather armour in his Verlinden Pilot thread:
http://www.planetfigure.com/threads/verlinden-pilot-update.61852/

Painted in oils and acrylics. Comments very welcome, I'm still learning.



Hope you like it,
Billy

Billy the metals seems to me with a very good looking. Following!!!

Pedro

well Billy it looks like you got the hang of it ,look forward to the finish and setup .

Ron

Looks very nice to me, only real thing I can see worth correcting is the cloth looks a little glossy which might be the light on it ( I'm no photographer either mate ) if not a touch of X21 or your matting agent of choice is the key ( I've noticed purple seems to be a tad glossier than other colours) otherwise looks quality Billy
Steve

Thanks for the comments guys. I'm planning to give the cloth and other areas that need it coat of vallejo matt varnish at a later stage (I always forget to add it at the painting stage). I thin my paint with vallejo thinners and it seems to give most paints a satin sheen. The brown sand on his head is the perfect example, it dries dead flat without the thinner added but add a drop or two of thinner and he looks very shiny.

Billy

Billy, use a drop of Tamiya flesh base in vallejo colours and you will see all colors drying matt.

Cheers

I like the way you have done the leather effect on the armour

Coming back to this I'd be tempted to try a different coloured wash to the metals, a green or red or blue to give it a more "fantasy" feel rather than the normal black/grey
Steve

Nice leather work Billy

A little more progress and more crappy pictures.

After much trial and error I decided to go with the same purple for his undertunic (probably not even a real word) as I have for his cloak, anything else I tried just looked wrong. So the base is on ready for shades and lights.

Also finished his head. I think it could be better but I'm calling it done. This is the point where I usually think "I'll just sort out that wonky right eye" and then I screw everything up with one brush stroke. But not this time, I'm not going to do any more major changes to his head, he's already been in the paint stripper twice before this round. He looks ok at normal viewing distance and thats fine by me for now.

As always, any comments are very welcome.

Billy

Looks well Billy
Steve

Paint used so far (Vallejo acrylics, W&N water mixable oils):

Flesh: Base - Brown Sand 876, highlighted with base + Basic Skintone 815, shaded with base + Burnt Cad. Red 814
Eyes: Basic Skintone 815. Dark Prussian Blue 899
Leather: Burnt Umber oil over Brown Sand 876 base
Purples: Base - Royal Purple 810, highlighted with base + Sunny Skin Tone 845, shaded with base + black (any black will do I s'pose, I've use Vallejo Model Air 057)
Metals: Base - black, highlighted with Gungrey and Chrome (Vallejo Model Air 072 and 064). The VMA metallics are excellent IMHO, it is just the right consistency and the pigment is super fine. The metallic starter set is well worth the investment.

Billy

Nice work, and exhaustive color information. Thanx. Cheers Borek

Hi Billy, he's looking good so far, especially the leatherwork.
Best wishes, Gary.

A bit more progress...

He's coming together now but still far from finished. Still got a bit of work to do on highlights/shades on cloak/pelt. I haven't even started his shield arm or the extras that attach to his back yet. I picked up a snow and ice kit for the base from Deluxe Materials, looking forward to trying that out.

Comments welcome



Cheers,
Billy

p.s. I like the changes to the file upload stuff, its nice to be able to upload multiple pics at same time.

Really looking good.
Best wishes,Gary.