Rogue Hunter, WiP

Justin1

Well-Known Member
Well... This is starting to seem like familiar territory... This build is going a lot more quickly now that the painting is underway, although it started off a LOT more slowly. This kit required a pretty substantial amount of cleanup when I'd first gotten it. Almost ALL of the crests/horns had been broken off, one of the tusks was missing altogether, and one of the teeth in the mouth had snapped off and was missing. In addition to all that, it was riddled with pinholes, airbubbles, and FINGERPRINTS! all of which seemed to take forever to try and clean up. The painting, however, as been relatively painless.

I'm giving enamel paints a go this time around to see if I can get a better finish than with the acryllic metallics I was using before. Let me know what you guys think! The gold looks especially nice so far, so I'll be interested to see how it looks after it's all dirtied up. I also tried my hand at adding veins under the final layers of mottling on the skin. I'm not sure how well you can see them in the pics, but whatever. Let me know if you like it or not.

I've had to link you my Flickr page because apparently I've used up all the attachment space I'm allowed on here.

Thanks for looking, guys.

My Flickr Page
 
Justin

Great work so far my friend! its cool to see you experimenting with some different mediums, and trying new techniques.
I'm a huge fan of your work and this piece is really shaping up.


John
 
excellent work!! what color's you use for skin, and metal color (gold)

PD = Way did you say This kit required a pretty substantial amount of cleanup?? Narin kits usually have nice shape and and almost no defect

Many thanks
Rick
 
Thanks a lot for the kind words, guys! Hearing from fellow painters like John and Mauro is pretty humbling and also very encouraging. I couldn't say thanks enough to you fellas!

Rick, the skin is many layers of different colors, mottled loosely over one another, but I'll try to sum it up as best as I can:

-Primed with a light grey, as you can see on the armor and unpainted bits
-Stained with Createx Transparent (TP) Dark Brown, which was VERY thinned down and just brushed messily over all the skin (except for a couple of bits I'll have to go back and fix... ****!) You can see where it sloshed over onto his left leg's armor, so it doesn't matter how careful you are.
-Misted VERY lightly with LifeTone KB Flesh
-Mottled with LifeTone Tie-In-Brown
-Mottled with LifeTone Pure White
-Veins were then brushed in with Cerulean Blue and Cadmium Red watercolors, I think (too lazy to go check). It's actually quite important to use watercolors for this step, I found, as the acryllics I first tried with were simply too opaque and too dark for me to properly "sink down" into the skin
-Mottled with LifeTone KB Flesh
-Mottled with LifeTone Bone White
-Final mottling of LifeTone Pure White because I really like the way a greyish/whitish skin tone looks as opposed to something more yellow or human looking. Just what I prefer. I also find going over lighter colors with darker ones (I.E. mottling with bone/pure white then mottling with a flesh color) loses some of the white mottle work. I also think darker colors look better "deeper" in the skin layers. Again, just what I prefer and how I operate.

WHEW! And we're only half done! For the darker areas, I skipped the final pure white mottling in favor of a heavy misting of Golden TP Shading Grey, mottling VERY FAINTLY to "blend" a bit into the lighter skin areas. I then handbrushed on a jagged line with Createx TP Dark Grey, then went back in with Shading Grey to darken the... well... dark parts. I use the Sotar 20/20, so it was easy to stay inside the lines. I also knew from the beginning of this paintup I wanted to do something similar to what I did on the Bad Blood with black/white dots, but hoped to execute it a little better. Once I started brushing in the black dots and filling them with white inner dots, though, I began thinking there was just too much grey/white going on and not enough color contrast to the skin.

I had initially wanted to use Mars Red or even Payne's Grey for color variance, but worried they would be too stark against the other colors, so I opted to simply mist LifeTone Chestnut over the dark areas and out onto the slightly blended areas between the lighter and darker areas. Now I had another problem: it was just TOO orange, and I struggle sometimes with keeping things from looking like Power Rangers, because my eyes are very naturally drawn to bright, gaudy colors. This was remedied by very lightly mottling Golden TP Raw Umber Hue over the chestnut, which both darkened and blended it beautifuly. I'm VERY happy with the results so far. Everything else (hands, head) are the same colors already used, just misted here and there to give depth and contrast.

For the metallics, like I said I'm using all enamels, and all Testors (Silver, Copper) with the exception of the gold, which is something I found at Walmart, oddly enough. It's something that I believe is called, "Liquid Leaf," which is basically gold leaf just... liquidized! It gives the best metallica finish I've ever seen on a kit, and cleans up with the same Testor's thinner/cleaner I use for the other enamels, but it's not without drawbacks: until it's cured, it's VERY delicate to the touch, which I found out the hard way. Even just touching the uncured/mostly dried paint will cause it to wrinkle and ruin the finish.

As for the quality of the kit, the sculpt itself is very good, but from what I understand, Narin doesn't distribute this kit himself. He sold the sculpture/molds to someone else for distribution... At least I think so? Feel free to correct me on that.

Sorry for it being so long-winded, but I hope it helps. Thanks again, guys!
 
Thanks for take your time in large nice explanation!, post the next steps to see how looks finally kit
I have kit direct from Narin but never buy from diferent distribution. How is your opinion (on your experience) from other distributors produce. ??
Many thanks for tips…
Rick
 
Well, I've had very little experience with anyone but Narin, and had the misfortune of starting out in the hobby by buying recasts off eBay, all of which were horrible. I WILL say, however, that despite my limited dealings with other sculptors/distributors, Narin has easily been head and shoulders above everyone else when it comes to satisfaction and service. He's always been very polite and thoughtful to deal with, and the quality of his castings is noticeable better than most others I've seen, aside from this kit. I ordered mine through Predatorstuff.com a while back, and I wouldn't blame Dan for anything that was wrong with it, as it looked like the damage had occured during shipping since most the broken off bits were rolling around the bottom of the packing. They were too small or broken to be glued back on so I had to resculpt all the crowns, the right tusk, and the small inner right tooth. On top of that, the base had a number of fingerprints on it which had to be sanded out. Again, bearing all of that in mind, none of it is normal for a Narin kit, whcih made me think I didn't get it directly from him.

The only complaint I have with Narin kits is that I've been spoiled on them, and anything else will look 2nd rate at this point,
 
Hey, guys! Thanks for all the kind words. Quick update for you, as I've been steadily plugging along on this kit, on hopes of proving I can finish something in less time than 2 years (that's for you, Bensin!)

Just a few quick shots from my cell phone of the armor, which is basically all done being weathered. The last 6 shots are the new ones. I'm also pretty happy with the eyes, but I feel they may be missing something. Any suggestions? I also decided to have a ago at giving the copper accents a bit of an oxidized, patina type finish. How do you think it turned out? As far as what's left, just got just a bit of detailing to do (skull bandolier, sandals, finishing the wearpon), the mouth and some touch ups on the base. Let me know how it's turning out. Thanks again, fellas!

And for anyone too lazy to scroll up and click the Flickr link up top:

My Flickr Account
 
Hey, guys! Thanks for all the kind words. Quick update for you, as I've been steadily plugging along on this kit, on hopes of proving I can finish something in less time than 2 years (that's for you, Bensin!)

Just a few quick shots from my cell phone of the armor, which is basically all done being weathered. The last 6 shots are the new ones. I'm also pretty happy with the eyes, but I feel they may be missing something. Any suggestions? I also decided to have a ago at giving the copper accents a bit of an oxidized, patina type finish. How do you think it turned out? As far as what's left, just got just a bit of detailing to do (skull bandolier, sandals, finishing the wearpon), the mouth and some touch ups on the base. Let me know how it's turning out. Thanks again, fellas!

And for anyone too lazy to scroll up and click the Flickr link up top:

My Flickr Account

:) :)

Dude, that looks absolutely stunning and it's not even done yet! Now I have to ask...when are you going to start doing commissions?
 
ha HA! Well, I figure if I can impress you, Bensin, then I can impress just about anyone! Thanks a lot for the compliment.

As for commissions, well... I'm going to work on my Alternative Hunter as soon as I'm done with the Rogue Hunter, and depending on how quickly THAT build goes, I'll consider doing commissions. I would really love to be doing commissions, as I feel it's both a great compliment that people enjoy my work enough that they'd want my paintjob done on one of their pieces, as well as a great oppurtunity both artistically and financially... The only thing I'm really worried about is taking on a few commissions, and having them go as slowly as my other builds have, taking months and months to complete. If I can polish off both of these builds pretty quickly, I'll be confident that the turnaround time on a commission wouldn't have anyone ripping out their hair, lol

Why, Bensin? You interested? :)
 
ha HA! Well, I figure if I can impress you, Bensin, then I can impress just about anyone! Thanks a lot for the compliment.

As for commissions, well... I'm going to work on my Alternative Hunter as soon as I'm done with the Rogue Hunter, and depending on how quickly THAT build goes, I'll consider doing commissions. I would really love to be doing commissions, as I feel it's both a great compliment that people enjoy my work enough that they'd want my paintjob done on one of their pieces, as well as a great oppurtunity both artistically and financially... The only thing I'm really worried about is taking on a few commissions, and having them go as slowly as my other builds have, taking months and months to complete. If I can polish off both of these builds pretty quickly, I'll be confident that the turnaround time on a commission wouldn't have anyone ripping out their hair, lol

Why, Bensin? You interested? :)

Hey man, props where they are due. Your work is absolutely top notch, you work gets better with each kit you work on. I was blown away by the oxidized copper effects on this latest piece.

Am I interested? haha, well...you just let me know once you're comfortable with doing commissions and I guess we'll go on from there. :)
 
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