First of all, thanks to all of you who view this WIP and give me insight in to how I can better myself into a Master Modeller. I have built models since I was a young child and later on during high school my focus went towards WWII diaromas though I never got into much depth. This will be the first time in 10 years that I have picked up a brush to work on a figure and I am very excited! Anyways if you want my background check out my profile; onto the figure!

Andrea Warrior Monk circa 1250 A.D. 90mm:
painted with Reaper Master Series paint (Ive used craft paint until know)

I chose this figure because it has a simple design and I figured it would be a good piece to start learning how to model. Later I found out during my research stage that painting white is actually quite challenging so we will see how it goes My research on this era takes me to the 7th Crusade led my King Louis IX to a city called Al Mansurah in Egypt. The month is February and the year 1250. This conquest of Egypt was meant to supply the troops and open a road to Jerusalem in another attempt at regaining control of the Holy Lands. King John of England (most likely from Robin Hood's time) refused to send troops so this was mostly a French Crusade with a spattering number of soldiers from other countries. This knight would have most likely been a French Templar Knight and by the sculpting scheme he would have been in this position after the battle. This conquest failed at Al Mansurah and the troops retreated; leaving King Louis IX captured for ransom.

I am sculpting this figure to be placed upon a custom sculpted base that will resemble a long ridge that overlooks Al Mansurah. This knight would have been devastated at this loss and he stands upon the ridge, looking one last time at the ruin from a battle he wishes to forget...


First pieces sanded and polished


I used epoxy and a heavy CA glue to put the pieces together


Primed


First coat using unthinned 'tanned shadow' as a base and then ran washes of 'tanned highlight and shadow' to get contrast. Then used 'blushing rose' to get a sunburnt color and left it at that until I add more stark contrast.


base coat for scarf is Breonne blue, unthinned.


thinned wash of highlights with Snow Shadow


Another angle of the highlight wash on the scarf


Added an overall wash of Sky Blue to brighten and even things a touch (maybe too much!)


Started working the lowlights with Templar Blue.


Another angle,

And that's where Im at! I hope to add the good contrast of color tonight now that I have some better reference material for the scarf. Also the pics kinda suck and Im sure Ya'll dont want to click links all the time so I will find a better way!

Great start Ethan with some great background info

Don't sweat the pics, if you are inclined, you can upload pics directly here at planetFigure here is a FAQ on the process : http://www.planetfigure.com/wiki/Category:PlanetFigure_FAQs#How_do_I_post_pictures.3F

Great start Ethan. I have this figure in the works as well. I am looking forward to seeing your next progress steps.

Thanks Gordy! I will try it for this post.

Im really digging this character Guy, though as you will see in this next post, I think I over though some contrast points on the face and I will have to go back and re smooth everything out.

Ok so the scarf is done as far as I can tell. I may add to it towards the end but Im moving on.

I worked the face some more because I wasnt satisfied with all the tones being smooth. I really want a sunburnt, torn up and very dissappointed face so I will work for that.


I started with highlights again using the Snow Shadow (wash) (a couple layers)


Added Breonne Blue as the shadow color (unthinned)


Started added very light washes of Templar blue (very thinned)


Everything evened out and I added extremely thin strokes of Snow Shadow to accent the hightlights and washed the whole thing in True Blue and then mixed True Blue with Snow Shadow and blended the edges. DONE!


My possible mistake. Added a really bright Rosy highlight in an attempt to get some sun on the complexion and ended up in a blending nightmare. Added Blushing rose to redden and blend and Tanned Shadow to the edges to soften the Highlights. Will probably blend more tomorrow before moving on to the tunic.

Thanks for Looking!

So far, so good! He looks worried. You'll find - if you haven't already - that the Reaper acrylics are outstanding paints. I use them almost exclusively.

PM sent.

Cheers,

Glen

Great progress.
The cool fresh tone!

Mitsutaka.

Nice start, coincidence, I am doing the same figurine, worked a little on his face this morning.

Regards

Looks very good so far.
Cheers
John

Thanks Hikaru, Debrito, and John for your awesome comments. I hope you are as pleased as I am with the final results!

Alright today I started working on his outer garment, a white tunic. this is the part I knew was goint to be one of the hardest from some research I have done so I was prepared for a slow start. I believe the bottom half is now just about complete but your critique's and help in painting white are greatly appreciated because I just went with my instincts and winged it!


First a base coat of Leather White


then a thinned wash of tanned highlight for dirty/sandy highlights


heres where I dont know what to do for lowlights, shadows. etc. I used Yellow with Linen White and Tanned Skin to add some depth and did the shadow lines with thinned Tanned Skin. Oh ya, and I ran a line of Pale Olive through all the nooks and crannys!


Washed over the whole thing with dirty water thinned Linen White


Washed all the middle sections in between the folds with Weathered Stone and used Fair Highlight washed to texturize the highlights again and Tanned Skin with a touch of Leather White to dirty the bottom edges.


Many very thin washes of Leather White and the same with a hairs drop of Tanned Skin. Then added suttle lines of White Linen of the farthest outside edges of the highlighted folds

I have blended a ton but there will probably be more work when you guys get a good look and let me know what I can do to improve! I look forward to your comments!

Ethan

Ethan
It seems to me that you need to deepen the shadows in the white surcoat, otherwise the figure sems to be coming on ok
Just one point regarding your historical research, King John deservedly gets a bad press but he can't be blamed for not sending english troops as he died in 1216.
At the time of the 7th crusade John's son Henry the 3rd was on the English throne
he wasn't much better than his father he was no soldier and not much of an administrator. At the time of the 7th crusade he was heavily in debt at had his hands full with discontented barons this is probably the reason for the lack of english involvement

Petermh: Thanks very much for the amendment to my history of this character. I knew there would be someone who had a real knowledge of that era and could shed some more light on the subject! As for darkening the shadows. I am at a loss as far as color choice to do this. do I do it dirty and use a mix of grey and tan? or use a mix of my white top coat with dark grey? etc. Any advice would be greatly helpful!

Try a darker mix of the Leather White with the Weathered Stone or its darker complement - Stone Grey. The warm LW and WS are already part of your palette, so don't add a cool grey to the mix.

For the most part, the surcoat is overall white, so it's not really going to have deep, dark shadows. Thin the paint out, wick off the excess, and apply the paint in multiple layers. The more layers, the deeper the shadow/shading. You can probably use thinned WS or SG by themselves to do the deepest folds.

Did you get my PM?

Cheers,

Glen

Thanks very much Glen, for the advice! I am going to do just that and I believe it will do perfectly!

looks good so far. The blues on the headgear look very well done from the pics.

Thanks very much Gellso! I like the blue very much as well

This update isnt as detailed as the others, I got into a zone and didnt take as many progress shots but got alot of work done. I will need to go back to the surcoat and even the top and bottom as the bottome is darker than the top but I think its goin pretty good.

Ok, it's been two days... Is it done yet?

Haha! Been busy these past two days..... Ready to get back to it tonight! I plan on refining the surcoat yet again. It still needs more depth. Then the boots get painted and the arms come on!

Alrighty, sorry to all of you who have been waiting for some updates. It has been a long, busy week but now we have some progress!


Before I started working today


Painted the boots with Dark Shadow, Russet Brown, Tanned Leather, Oiled Leather and Bone Shadow


Ran a few more layers of Misty Grey into the crevices. The camera sucks even though its 12.0mp so you can't catch the suttle difference...


Full body of weathering, added dried blood, and used scorched metal with a highlight of blackened steel for the chain mail.

This is the same update with my camera phone as a test to see which takes better pics! im thinking this one!

More to come tonight. I have the arms on but after a coat of paint I see a dramatic need for some reallly fine sanding on the puttied joints. The arms did not come together with the body well in this kit.

Update on the arms. I polished and then primed them. Attached with heavy epoxy. the joints are very rough so I used vallejo putty and filled everything in. After drying I used a light textured sanding stick and a fine round file to try and work the putty to match the scultp. After getting what I thought was a good job smoothing, I painted the arms to see what pops out. Of course they arent even close to smooth enough! What do you guys use to sand the joints especiallly in folds of cloth and quite tiny areas?

Looking nice Ethan.

Depending on the putty, a few scrapes with a hobby knife. I have a home made scraper that I created from a metal tool pictured here:


Fibre pencils are great too for irregular areas:
http://www.air-craft.net/acatalog/4mm-Glass-Fibre-Pencil.html