The dog days of Summer have passed and it's been quiet in the paint-cave. Too quiet. There's not a lot to show except this month's Helping Hand Challenge subject: The Mule. (To see the work of the other HHC participants, check out Duke of the Blood Keep and Deviant Design Deeds.)
The mini is from Otherworld; a fine piece with two peculiarities that bear mentioning. The first is the shield which on my example was badly concave (an issue with the casting as opposed to the sculpt, no doubt). I feared that this would stick out like the proverbial sore thumb but once painted it's barely noticeable.
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| Green & white checks are all the rage this season. |
Also, his left legs are a bit shorter than his right. Without addressing this, he'd either wind up listing to one side or standing up straight with a couple hooves off the ground. Two poor options IMHO. I built the base from cork and after much shimming and test-fitting all was put right.
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| The base on the left required special attention for the mule to stand properly. |
After a little web-searching I was pleased to learn that mules come in a variety of colors. I passed on the typical Bay or Sorrel and went with the Palomino option.
The base-color for the coat was Vallejo Brown Sand with some grey added. This was highlighted with Reaper Stained Ivory and a mix of Stained Ivory and Vallejo Ivory. The white markings are Reaper Polished Bone. Shading was achieved through repeated glazing with AP Strong Tone, GW Seraphim Sepia, and a touch of black.
The shading technique (not to mention the NMM) reflects the fact that I recently received (and viewed... mostly) my DVDs from James Wappel's Discover the Painting Pyramid Kickstarter. Only five disks for yours truly but a lot of very useful stuff nonetheless.
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| A first for me... NMM steel that doesn't suck |
