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Now that the skulls were finished I decided to finish the rest of the base. This includes the granite slabs, rocky dirt, Ultramarine parts and cables.

I decided to tackle the ground dirt first as it was going to be the easiest part of this next stage. When I had based the skulls in Scorched Brown I had also covered the dirt in the same colour. I had decided early on that for a good contrast between the skulls and the ground I would need to keep the ground dark. This would ‘isolate’ the skull groups and individual skulls giving them a sense of ‘loneliness’. This is one of those artistic choices that on the surface looks like a simple fact of defining the focus but the deeper ‘loneliness’ is actually more important to the piece as a whole.

Due to the presence of finished skulls littering the base I was forced to do each piece of earth by brush application instead of dry brush. During the skull work-up I had hit parts of the earth with lighter colours so my first step was to repaint the earth in Scorched Brown. Once this was finished I applied BeB to each piece of earth so as to completely cover the darker colour. Note that, this was done to the pieces of earth and not to the layer under each piece, I left that dark. After each piece was done I applied another layer of BeB at the edge closest to the surface. I then highlighted this with VB and lastly [90/10] VB/BuB. This kept the earth dark but allowed me to add depth to the amazing texture present on base.

Once this was finished I did the granite slabs present under the models right foot and behind the left foot. Since I decided it was to be granite, or building concrete, I base coated these areas in a darkened Shadow Grey [SG]. The base was [80/20] SG/CB. I used the last bit of dry brushing for the entire statue at this stage. I feel that dry brushing has a place even in display and competition pieces. It is an underutilized technique in high end painting because of the feeling that it is a lesser form of painting. In my opinion, if used sparingly, it can yield remarkably lifelike textures and effects.

So after the base I did a controlled dry brush with 100% SG. By controlled I mean that I was especially mindful of the finished skulls and dirt on the base. I then did a series of dry brushes with more and more emphasis at the edges and deep texture areas. This form of dry brush highlighting works especially well on rocks. The work-up consisted of 70/30 SG/Codex Grey [CG], 40/60 SG/CG, 10/90 SG/CG, 100% CG, 80/20 CG/Fortress Grey [FG], 50/50 CG/FG, 20/80 CG/FG, 100% FG. As you can see from the number of blends I can make quite seamless natural looking highlights on any kind of stone work. The trick is to gradually move towards the edges with every blend so that the last blend is tightly concentrated at the hard edge.

After the dry brushing I then apply a thinned down SW to the edges and the larger textured areas. This is done with a fine detail brush in many transparent coats so I can vary the intensity of the white depending on the area I am highlighting. Once I had the white finished I was done with the granite and then tackled the Ultramarine parts of the base.

I decided to do the blue of the Ultramarine armour before the yellow of the omega and the white of the should rim. The reason for this is I wanted to reduce the amount of contact I would have with these colours as they are easily stained. So I started by base coating all the armour plates and helmet bits in a darkened Ultramarine Blue [UB]. I usually work from the darkest colour of a blended area to the lightest by continually lightening the initial colour until I have reached the final highlight. As a result I usually start at a shade that is approx. 3-4 shades removed from the actual colour I want. The darkened UB was a pre-made blend of 5/45/50 Imperial Purple [IP]/Regal Blue [RB]/UB. The purple is barely visible in the blend and is there to enhance the depth of the darkest part of the armour plates.

Since this is the first time I will be doing any smooth brush blending I will describe what I do when I blend so I wont have to go into the details every time. All the paints when I blend, after the base coat, are ultra-thin [consistency of skim milk] to make the seamless effect possible. After a base coat I will apply a slightly lighter shade of the base colour to almost the entire area of area to be blended. The areas I do not apply the lighter shade to are the cracks [if any] and the very center of the area to be blended [if a plate] or the area furthest from the envisioned lightest area [for linear blended areas]. The thinned paint dries as soon as the brush leaves the contact point on the model. This means that for a long brush stroke the paint is drying at the beginning of the stroke while it is still wet where the brush is. If the paint doesn’t display this property then it is likely too thick. I then repeat the application of this shade a fraction from the edge of the first and so on. When I start to be unable to notice even a slight difference in the blend I will add a bit more of the lighter paint to the thinned down paint I am blending with. I then start applying this lighter shade to the area that I stopped applying to with the previous mixture.

It is at these junctions of shade that a slight difference can be observed under strong light. So once an area is about 80-90% blended to the top highlight I go back and blend the blend even further with a water colour like technique. I choose a colour somewhere in the middle of the blend and dilute it even further than what I blend with. It is very thin at this point so that a stroke with it on the blend has absolutely no visible effect. I apply this ‘water paint’ to the surface of the entire blend [darkest areas and lightest areas included] and force an even drying with a blow dryer. The trick of this technique is that it must be done many times for any effect to be observed. After a variable number of applications, depending on how smooth the original blend is, the area will be a smooth seamless blend. I then finish the lightest part of the blend since I don’t want the highest highlight to be dulled by the ‘water paint’. The lighter the blend the more difficult it is to see shade differences so that is why I can get away without ‘water painting’ this part.

This technique works very well on larger models but it must be modified to be used on smaller figures. It is a very time consuming method of blending but the results are consistent and the blends are so smooth that many people have asked if I airbrush parts of my models.

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PART I PART II PART III PART IV PART V