[ Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3]

There is nothing quite so joyful as finally getting the first coat of paint on a horse!

Mind you, it’s also nerve-wracking, since all the mistakes that were hidden by the lack of contrast are now going to be glaringly obvious. But at least that means they’re easier to fix…

This little guy is based off the Troll Druid bear and cat forms as shown here. These colors are only a starting point, since I tend to wander off on tangents– but the horses should end up looking like it belongs in the set.

Stage 4.0

So, we start off with the two primary colors in this little guy’s palette – light blue and yellow.

The yellow is a mix of Liquitex Gesso (primer white) and Liquitex Cadmium Yellow Medium Hue/Brilliant Yellow, and the blue is a mix of the Gesso and FolkArt 720 Cobalt Blue.

Since the light blue is hand-mixed, you’ll see some variation in color– which I was aiming for. Once the strips are on, it will look downright nifty!

Stage 4.2

In the middle of painting the first coat I broke off the tip of the braid, so you may see a slightly irregularity in it. I’m going to be fixing that with a high tech method of ‘painting it so you don’t notice’ as opposed to trying to fix it seamlessly.

(Which means this little guy won’t be for sale, since I can’t guarantee I can pack him well enough not to break again, darnit).

Now that I had the base color down, I could go back and start cleaning up some of the problem areas (like the small divot in his nose). I also added some orange shading to the yellow areas with this stage, to make them pop a little more, and colored his breastplate in with Delta Ceramcoat 02604 Metallic 14K Gold.

The Delta was a bit annoying, since it requires multiple coats to cover– but it had a darker gold coloring than the Liquitex I had in the bin. I’m going to go back and add the dark green decorations as shown on the bear model, but I’m still trying to pick an image for the centerpiece.

I also went back in and overpainted the edge of the yellow areas, since it’s easier to cover it with blue than the other way around. Then I went over it with glossy sealer as a temporary smudge-proofing.

Yellow is a pain in the neck to keep clean otherwise and the acrylics go on over the sealer without any problems.

You can also just see the hint of a tusk in the angle shot (better pic in Stage 4.5). Since I couldn’t get sculpted tusks to work, I’m very carefully building up small ones using gesso.

Building details with gesso takes forever and isn’t as sturdy if something hits them, but since I’m keeping this guy for the Home Herd I’m not worried about it. I just thought he looked so naked without them…

The temporary base is made of a chunk of uncooked Super Sculpy. I used it to hold him upright for the photos, but I may not keep it in the long run. It will depend on if I feel like making a real themed base or if I’m just looking for a way to prop him up.

Stage 4.5

As you can see there are still a lot of rough spots that need to be worked out, but on the whole he’s got a nice base color on. I just need to spend some time cleaning up the edges and carefully smoothing out the spots I’ve missed.

Now it’s just a matter of refining the details. I’m continuing to build up the color variation within the blue, using the dark points from bay horses as a reference (dark nose, ears, and lower legs). I’m also working in the normal coat color variations found in horses, so hopefully it will look right to the model horse folks as well as the Warcrafting crowd.

I’m also adding in darker blue along the edges of the yellow in order to increase the color contrast. This will help delineate the change between the two color areas as well as make the yellow seem brighter in comparison to the light blue coat.

I’ve added a gold band to the braid and will go back in stage 5 to add pop the edges and shading to the braiding pattern. I’m actually quite happy with the way it came out, even if I did manage to break it.

So there we are– the base coat is in place and most of the basic shading is done. Now I just have to go back and do a few more touchups before I can begin the detailing stage and add some stripes!

Hopefully I will have him done in time for next week’s fantasy post. *crosses fingers*

Onto : By Your Hobbies Combined— (Part 4)