Stormcaste to Stormlord

Well – this will be my final instalment to the least comprehensive stage by stage project on Beasts of War!

One point I would like to highlight and its usually applicable to all my painting……the art of the blag.

Can’t get one of the eyes right? No drama – paint a scar instead.

Made various mistakes along the way? Ok – WEATHERING. Cover it up.

Can’t get the face right on a model? Well actually he wears a metal mask in the shape of a human face…….(This is a true story).

On Bobby you will notice I filled a rectangular shape with green stuff (I circled this in a previous image). I had no idea what to do with this, it looked odd and messed with the balance of various complementary colours. In the end I painted it to be like a pouch. I didn’t sculpt it, I simply painted the flap and button etc. B-L-A-G.

The other circled error with green stuff, I just painted some blood over it. From a narrative stand point Bobby sustained wounds at the Trident that meant he could not march on to Kings Landing…..B-L-A-G.

Anyway I’m done.

Cheers for having a look – maybe I’ll return to Westeros at some point…….

To be honest my sculpting skills leave something to be desired. The general process tends to be; use green stuff to cover undesirable cuts/details, use spare bits (shields/weapons) to cover undesirable sculpting mistakes…..then everything undesirable, just pray to the god’s that my paint job covers it…..

These days I work with the 70% rule to stay sane. Basically this entails, anything from 70-99% of my ability is a win – put it to the side and move to the next model/project.

Stage one: Firstly I endeavoured to reach the hard to reach places, this included the kings undercarriage, the inner surfaces of cloth and armour that sits under areas, such as the head/armpits. I forget this stage sometimes and this makes life more difficult in the long run.

Stage two: I lied about stage one. I sprayed with grey primer first – like A Song of Ice and Fire I weave an intricate web of lies and intrigue….ahem.

Stage 3: The Stormcaste, as with many such models in these times has his foot elevated, probably due to some injury…..I decided this would make a nice narrative element. Usurper Bobby B’s first steps into the Trident. I simply used green stuff for the banks of the river, stuck some battle damaged weapons down and used some gloss varnish for the wet look…..note that the base was completed before the painting had begone (This step by step is going well huh?)

Stage 4: I have done a very basic basecoat and wash on all the various aspects. Nothing especially complex. I have highlighted areas of green stuff I will later try and hide with the paint job. I generally just built up to the highlights adding white to the base colour.

I was in Asda the other day and saw a copy of Mortal Realms with a Stormcaste for 7.99. Why not?  To be honest this isn’t really my jam, bit too much going on, so I worked at simplifying and converting until….

At this point I thought he would be a good candidate for Bobby….you know king Bobby….and the scale worked considering there are some tanks in Ice and fire…..