Marumba Marumba! Jungle jungle jungle!

So I thought that this wasn’t going to be a playing piece. There is absolutely no game that I have played that would require the amount of effort that I would put into the basing I desired to do. As I am now so I have become only in seeing the lack of detail and care for the place I’ve seen minis put. No Lloyd, there will be plinths. Unlike other things this I think has earned the right to be built up as there’s character as a base to be made for the character mini. I’ve started this project long ago before moving and I finally decided to log what I’ve done.

Here I start off with the figure being cut from its original base and pinned. I’ve only thought about starting to do this for use in the cork top of my Ratchcore rig that I got when it first came out as a Kickstarter. For the display I set down cork layers in order to build irregular rocky shapes. I’ve glued small twigs on for logs. To fill in space I built irregular topsoil in greenstuff. I thought there was more needed to make it visually interesting so I threw some wire down to draw the eye to more projecting elements from the solid mass.

I added textures to the logs with pumice aggregate to make sure there were noticeable lumps of moss growth which would register at scale so you don’t get lost in the color without defining shapes. It will get much busier later with paint and foliage.

So after the initial layer of primer I decided that going back and laying down a fine black primer with the airbrush would be best and then build up with a zenithal. This really is crucial for later work and I believe that the foliage can go one of two ways here.

• zenithal prime without ferns to build contrast on the base that might ‘pop’ the plants out for a potentially cartoony look
• zenithal prime with ferns that would integrate the lighting values of shadows being cast and falling over elements in the environment

The second option seems like it’d be more natural but getting the alignment of the shadows for extreme contrast just right on the base might be too much trouble. I really don’t know at the moment so I’ll run some experimenting on some ideas I have running in my head.

I got around to repriming the base and making sure it wasn’t gloss around the plinth. Zenithal for the figure is out. There’s enough “light” with the light grey to allow colors layered on top to shine. I threw on a couple of coats of Reikland Fleshshade to start the soil coloration. The second was definitely needed since the first dried too light over the white primer. I did pick up Darkoath Brown as a contrast but its somewhere in storage so there isn’t much use out of that presently. Ugh, the joy of moving.

Seeing the spots where the Vallejo mud effect will go later really makes me happy to know that the sculpting didn’t go to waste. I’ll be putting down more green than shades of brown and it will pop so much. Its being built and there’ll be more fun/frustration to be had.

I looked at the wash basecoat and decided to drybrush with VGA Barbarian Flesh for the rocks.
The fallen branches were covered with VGA Charred Brown with VGA Desert Yellow drybrished gradually toward the ends. I think the Vallejo Thick Mud (Russian Mud) weathering effect added to the base makes it all come together with the contrasting hues.

The vegetation on the branches got touched with VGA Vile Green and then highlighted with VGA Goblin Green. A touch of airbrushed green pigment probably will give it a nice mossy feel and seem more real. I’m might just be talking out of my ass on this but it just looks neat and I hope to keep building good stuff.

….

After sitting and thinking about how much of a pain in the butt airbrushing pigment is I grabbed my drybrush to hit the mossy areas with a punched up VGA Escorpina Green and then a final highlight of the damn near neon VGA Light Livery Green.

As much as I’ve commented on the Unofficial Weekender to others to kick up the contrast I didn’t want to do the same for a moment. I committed to it here and followed my own advice. Hopefully its served me here on the small scale we work in.

So there I was, knee deep in communists…  er… wrong story. So there I was, sitting with my thumb up my butt waiting for miniature ferns to arrive from back order and slightly frustrated that I was unable to make any headway.

I’ve got the O scale ferns from JTT but none of the HO scale. Its quite a difference when you look at a 1″ radius plastic plant versus one that is 5/8″. I tried using knock off plastic palms that were akin to the ones I saw in a video from Luke’s APS on YouTube at my local hobby shop (not to be confused with my FLGS) but to no avail.  After cutting off the tops and trying to sort out the scale issue they were just too big for the piece. Eventhough they are snipped a bit I can salvage them for another project I have planned in a jungle setting.

I’ll set about with applying the primer and base color soon. This is all experimental with the same thrill of freeclimbing. It may be nowhere near as detrimental to my physical health but I would be more than a little crushed if anything happened to my work thus far.

I couldn’t wait and drove an hour from my home to try and get a package of HO scale ferns from JTT at a train hobby store. That mission was a failure but I made the executive decision to buy some other flowering plants to add color and variety as well as ground dead leaves online. Its summer in my neck of the woods so not the right season to just go get dried leaves outside.

Its an impulse buy admittedly but the project must go on and be absolutely entrancing. Ok, that may be a little over the top but I do think that the “bases and faces” statement by our resident Squirrelmaster (avernos) on the XLBS was on point for attention grabbing. I suck at the latter so I’ll beat face and takes people’s lunches with the former.

The basecoat of VMC Green RLM72 (71.263) for the fern has been a success and has been built up with RMP Christmas Wreath (09658 – a seasonal promo I think), VMC Deep Green (70970) and then VMA Escorpina Green to highlight. I think it came out pretty well

The way it stands out made me aware of what kind of other space needed to be filled under the work to be done. I’ll sacrifice a few of the leaves from another plant to give a sense of realism with some dead fallen fronds.

I watched the Weekender and thought to myself as I saw the Spring Clean competition “Hey, I could do that” and then “Oh shit! It ends the 22nd!!”. So here I put it forth for official entry in competition.

More mini insanity ensues in the depths if this jungle scene. I set about with doing the fleshtones with VGA Flesh and then a glaze of GW Reikland Fleshshade before a final thinned layer of VGA Flesh. I found a few mold lines that I hadn’t seen before and grumbled as I went back and cleared them up. I’m not pleased that they passed by me before but I was glad to be rid of the imperfections I’m sure would come up on camera later. I sprayed it with glosscoat and breathed a sigh of relief.

After the varnish dried I went to work on the crotch curtain. I put down a layer of VMC Turquoise (966) with a bit of Reaper’s drying retarder. I touched a few spots where there were to be highlights with VMC Blue Green (808) and then wet blended slightly. Because the retarder made it quite fluid I drew highlights by just wicking the paint away from what I wanted “brighter”. I decided to added some freehand pattern to the material and dotted about with VMA Ultramarine Blue (72.722). That may or may not get more work in future depending on how much I hate myself and want to busy up the figure.

I’ve got more plans for the figure but I’m not sure I want to drive myself nuts with NMM on her Princess Leia garb. I’ll make it a warm yellow orange as if it were a polished brass to compliment the blues/green hues. I don’t know how much of a glutton for punishment I am but this sure shows me new levels of masochism for effort and time crunch. In that spirit I laid down VGA Charred Brown (72.745) and then some VMA Pure Red (70.726).

More work for the base was done on the decision to add the dead fronds, painting them with a base of VMA Leather Brown (72.740), dip with AP Strong Tone, drybrush the same brown, then once with VMA Desert Yellow (72.763) and a final highlight with VMA Elf Skintone (72.704).
This all comes together as I’ve now got two large O scale ferns done and I’m waiting on a delivery of the smaller HO scale ones next week.

Honestly this is normally where I hate my skills as everything looks so damn messy.

I figured to make things more difficult on myself and added the smaller ferns that turned out to be paper instead of plastic as the others. These got the same VMA Green RLM72 as the others, though this time as the sole color before touches of VMC Pale Sand (70.837) and a coat of brush on gloss varnish. This was, of course, when I made the genius decision to glue all the plants in place.

The NMM brass took longer than I thought and looks more like gold. With work as it has been I’ve failed to meet the challenge. Here I’ll keep tooling around and finish as I’m already close to the end so no use getting frazzled over missing a deadline. The metal I started with a base of VGA Barbarian Flesh (72.771) and then outlining shapes with a black panel liner from Tamiya. I then worked in with VMC 70.860 Medium Flesh, RMS Buckskin Pale, VMC Pale Sand (70.836) and a final highlight of RMS Linen White to show off the luster. I know my eyes are going and my hands aren’t as steady as they could be so there is much to be done yet.

Other detailing to do is the dino which has been hit with VGA Bloody Res (72.710) and his claws with the same Barbarian Flesh with Elf Skintone (72.704) as the soft underbelly. The claws got definition with Reikland Fleshshade and will likely be hit with Pale Sand. The leash is still being worked for now and I’ll post more again soon.

As I said in the Unofficial Weekender, “Goosfraba”. I am at peace with the world for a moment of zen. The Tao has acted and I am serene. I do not want to go and lift heavy objects to build muscle mass until I end up crushing myself with the very same weight when I become exhausted. I will not set things on fire for the mere fact that my mini landed right on the area where I had been diligently trying to put in detail. I will allow that this thing happened and regain my sense of composure as I am the one in control of how I react to this thing. Amor Fatis

Ok, so all this was coming along and I dropped the damn thing. I need to retouch the tiara and the jewel. Thankfully I logged what colors I used instead of just winging it as usual which I am grateful for right now.

Things I will also return to are skirt patterning, dino skin pebbles and add light catches on the turquoise jewelry. Now to get back to losing my mind on these small details again.

I finished up the jewel and decided to call it quits. I’m tired of going back to a mini that keep looking like its got more and more wrong with it. I sealed it with Testor’s Dullcote from my airbrush and did my best with the lighting (the lack of controlling it) and cellphone photo settings (aperture and time whatever… screw that noise). I am absolutely upset to think that I might pick this up again. I want nothing more to do with it as the flaws just scream at me. Onto a shelf it goes and I will be glad for that