Another project on the bench at the moment is this rather interesting white metal Zerg Hydralisk which will be familiar to StarCraft fans. The piece was found on Etsy and is approximately 54mm scale, well cast in two parts, and quite heavy. This is not my usual fare, but a commission piece for a friend. In any event, this should be a fun little project and a chance at trying out some different painting techniques which we will get into as things progress. The piece is a standalone so a base had to be made. I ended up using an MDF hex as a template and then cut up blocks of blue foam which had been textured with a piece of bark to get a nice rough stone feel.










I gave the stones a light coat of thinned putty and filled in the seams, then primed with Vallejo.



A fairly quick and easy way to make a simple stone base.

Kimmo

A bit of progress the last few days. The base has been painted up and the highlighting and washes are almost done.



A final dry brush and a small surprise await. You can already see how the detail is starting to pop out.

Our Hydralisk has been base coated









And given a couple of heavy dry brush passes with various shades of brown, highlights edged and a couple of purple-brown washes to start defining shapes and shadows.








And a test fit to see how the overall colours work and if there is enough contrast.







Things are coming along nicely, the stones will probably be lightened up a bit, or edged. I'll have to have a think on that.


Kimmo

More progress. The Hydralisk is almost complete, I need to do a few minor things here and there and maybe change the tone of the brown a little. The base has been worked on as well. I'm trying to get a plasma effect in the cracks and is very much a work in progress. I'm hoping to get a pulsing feel, so that the glow isn't constant or everywhere.


















I have one other thing up my sleeve that may or may not happen...

Kimmo

Boy, time flies...finally got to finishing up our hydralisk. An interesting little project, got to try some different techniques and work on something a little out of my usual subject matter.

First up is the base. This was my first attempt at doing a plasma glow. I was sort o fhappy with how it looked after the first session, but it needed something a bit more. I went back and added some highlights, and a bit of gloss varnish and gloss gel. I also lightened the stones a little being careful not get too close to the edges, this helped with the contrast.




I did some refining with the hydralisk and added some muscle/vein detail on the arms to give it some more life. I played around with sheens, going glossier on the purple flesh areas, then semi-gloss for the head working out to a satin for the lower torso and tail. The photos don't really show it though, maybe when I shoot against a dark background.



























Pending approval from my friend, I'm calling this one done.

Kimmo