Blast From the Past (Man o’War)

I rarely do artsy stuff and consider myself more of a craftsman rather than an artist. This is because, as a commission painter, I spend most of my time ‘producing’ paint jobs on entire collections in a very organized, grounded way. From point A to point B and onwards, I work around the clock with clear goals in mind. Still, every now and then the inspiration stirs inside and I ‘can feel the butterflies in my belly’ so to speak…

This was the case with “Blast From the Past” as I was working on a small Man o’War commission and carried on a wave of nostalgia fell in love with an alternative sculpt for Skaven Doombringer created by the talented Benoît Dumeaux. I’ve immediately ‘seen’ the piece in my mind’s eye and created a draft to then contact Benoît, proposing a small collaboration between us.

Soon after two Man o’War ships arrived at my ‘base of operations’ and I have built the base for this project. Then, even though I was super hyped, I had to save the project for a better time – too much work, too many obligations…

Once I finally got time to go back to the project I went all in. the scene was divided between three elements: Miniatures, background and the frame. I used a dollar store clock for the latter, removing the inside and setting everything within the plastic frame. Usually I prefer wood, but I just couldn’t find a proper wooden frame online.

The initial scene was set up using both miniatures and I have modeled a beam coming from the Skaven Doombringre’s barrel towards the Imperial ship, with a piece of a toothpick. I used another toothpick to build a broken mast for the Imperial ship and a few jagged splits of the blast. Finally I built the blast/smoke volume following my own simple tutorial for modeling smoke available here. Once all was properly set in place I was ready to start the painting process…

The ships I’ve painted individually (I mean, like a duo, but aside from the rest of the project). Painting miniatures is something I’m used to. The background though, this was quite a challenge. I used special paints that I got for a method called “pouring” that I am super hyped about, but do not get great results with. Done only two successful projects with it before and neither is anything spectacular…

This time I was working within a closed frame, which allowed me to move the painting around more comfortably when pouring. I’ve definitely got a massively different feel to the way the paint shaped out. On top of that, to better ground the scene within the background, I have experimented with airbrushing on top of the initial poured paint.

The final result was quite satisfactory, although I felt like it’s still missing something vital. The upper part of the background took up too much space. Even though visually interesting it felt empty and hollow.

I’ve decided to double down on pouring paints and test using them on plastic. It took a lot of work, first covering a bunch of old Citadel Trees foliage with a mix of Super Glue and PVA Glue, to make them look more like ‘angry clouds’ and then treat each individual piece like a small canvas, pouring just a little bit of paint, one layer at a time to build volume and color mix. Finally I’ve built the thing, added a few lightning bolts made of dried sticks and… the deed was done.

After months of waiting and a few evenings of inspired painting the “Blast From the Past” is now completed. Below a few pictures of the finished thingy.

Full project gallery with more pictures, close-ups and alike: https://scarhandpainting.com/blast-from-the-past/

The amazing alternative Man o’War miniatures available at: https://dreadaxe-corp.fr/produit/grand-barque-a-malfoudre/

I hope you like the end result of my labor. I look forward to another one ‘artsy’ project in the future. Cheers!