Thursday 3 May 2012

Surf's Up!




May is shaping up to be demanding month and I'm already concerned that the life/work balance might be unavoidably skewed to the detriment of hobby related 'fluff'.  That said I did find time to paint up this chap form the wonderful 'Hasslefree Miniatures'.  He arrived on the painting table by the spurious 'Literary Link' route which allows me to go completely off task, provided that there is a link to a recently read book!  That book would be the wonderful Max Brooks' 'Closure Limited' - review appearing here soon!

Buoyed, as I was, by the very positive feedback that so many of you were kind enough to leave about the 'Indian Hill Tribesmen' I can't help feel a little deflated about this chap.  I'd been looking forward to starting him for a while, it being such a wonderfully original sculpt, but just felt that I didn't quite get the shading as I had envisaged in my mind's eye.  I did have some fun with the base, banking up the sand at the front thus allowing me to add some clear resin to represent the sea and a little shell that I had lying around.  If I have a little time over the Bank Holiday weekend, I'll see if I can take another photograph from a slightly higher angle so that this can be seen more clearly.

On the subject of photographs you will notice I've got a little carried away with an on-line photo editor.  I was a great fan of 'picnik', but sadly it has been sold to Google+.  'Picmonkey' looks promising (founded by some of the same team that were responsible for 'picnik') but the following were 'tinkered' with using Pixlr express; be warned it is a huge time sink, but great fun!

So once again '28mm Victorian Warfare' enters the,




UPDATE:

just added a couple more photographs from a slightly different angle showing a little more clearly the resin used to give the effect of the sea.  I painted the sand 'in the water' a touch darker to help the illusion.  





23 comments:

  1. I have this surfing dude myself but yours is really well done especially the monkey pics!

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  2. Predicting the future I see...:-)
    Nice work!!!

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  3. Hey Doode, great painting!!! I'll check out Pic monkey, those are some cool effects. Cheers!!

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    1. Thank Ray, picmonkey looks good but these were actually done with pixlr express.

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  4. Michael, it's funny you saying that you are disappointed with this surfer guy, as I really like him!

    Is it the shading generally that you're unhappy with or particular bits?

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    1. Thanks DT; I felt the application of paint seemed a bit heavy handed. The technique seems to work on other figures where there is perhaps less flesh but on this one it felt a little too Impressionistic. That and I know that I rushed it as I was desperate to post something in May!

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  5. Great looking figure. That shark bite through the board is a nice touch.

    Regards,
    Matt

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  6. Ha...very nice sculpt and paint job! You will see lots of these guys stumbling about on the SoCal's beaches this summer.

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  7. I really like the flesh effect, looks like he has been in the water for some time so really works for me. The board being so bright in colour as well really contrasts well. If you don't like it..............


    Seariously it's a good looking figure that's been painted well.

    Ian

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    1. Thanks Ian, I appreciate the encouragement.

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  8. Looks great to me. Really nice skin tones for undead flesh

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    1. Cheers my good man, I appreciate that. Love the new avatar!

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  9. That is a fun mini :) The effect is nice- though I can understand- I often feel dissatisfied with a mini when I'm done with it.

    One thing you might consider- I'm pretty sure surfboards are just white in the center, that the fiberglass isn't dyed, so you could paint the inside of the bite in white, which would make the bite look ..more bitey? must be a better way to say that, but you probably know what I mean.

    -Just when you thought it was safe again to come out of the water-

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    1. Ultimately I'm pretty happy with the consistency of my painting, but there is always room for improvement and always something new to learn!

      Cheers for the tip on the board but I must have subconsciously known this as I have in fact painted the used white, it is just not very clear in the photograph!

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  10. He looks absolutely fine to me!

    Well as fine as you can be when you are a zombie.

    But the paint job is spot on. I would to meet him coming out of the surf that's for sure!

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  11. Dude, that's one gnarly zombie!

    Did he get turned by a zombie shark? :)

    I think you've nailed the water-logged rotting flesh look.

    Duuuuuuude.......braaaaiiiiinsss!

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  12. Well thats quite a change to your usual subject matter! Very well done too!

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  13. Very very nice painting Michael!

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  14. I say Michael old bean that is rather good. I love the paintjob and the colours used. Bravo

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  15. Oh neat. I do like surfing Zombies. Shame there aint no saurians or nazis involved. :-)

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  16. Looks like he's lost something on the beach! Ah his eye! He didn't notice his children are playing "petanque" with it. :-D

    Great painted miniature Michael!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.com/

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