Fire Wings w/ mounted Beelphegor Part 1

The MFCA (Model Figure Collectors of America) annual show was last weekend. It was a great show with lots of amazing figures on display. It was a nice day trip with nothing else going on but the hobby, which leads me up to this post.

World Expo is being hosted in Chicago next July and I have been trying to figure out which of my many future project ideas would make the cut for the show project. So here we go...

I picked this up upon its initial release about 4 years ago and it has been a long time coming... Just ask Nicholas from Crown Military Miniatures. He asked me yet again if I had brought it in for the competition. It was at this time that I decided that this would be my primary entry for World Expo, so many thanks to Nicholas for prompting this.

This is the first of many posts on this project that will be featured over the course of the next year, but I decided that I should at least get started on the process of cleaning it up, since Calamara has taken so much more prep work than I initially anticipated (I originally intended to have her ready for Wonderfest, which is next weekend).

This is a beautiful kit and I am really looking forward to it!

Treeman Part 3

I have a pretty good idea how I want the Treeman to turn out, so I spent some time this weekend with the airbrush trying to work out the basecoat colors for the effect that I want. After looking at the figure, I basically broke it down into two main components, the "fleshy" parts and the bark armor that protects it.

I am going for a birch type of effect on the flesh parts which is what is shown in the photo below. The browns were added in mostly to provide some contrast. At this point the flesh is basically done other than glazing in the shadows and final highlights

Treeman Part 2

The base needed a little bit of work to integrate better with the figure. I chose the Durthu pose of the figure which has his left leg resting on a bit of mechanical ruins which I decided to do away with. In its place, I put a small piece of shale rock and used a thin coat of Apoxy putty to give some texture to the ground. Lastly, I took a piece of root ball that I stumbled across and embedded it into the putty.

I coated the root with super glue to give it some strength and stability and this thin layer of super glue basically platicized the root. Once I paint the root and cover up the super glue, the shininess will disappear.

The base is not 100% complete, but it is far enough along now that I don't need  the figure around to complete it.

Calamara Part 1

Here is my other work in progress figure that was started prior to the creation of the blog.  This is actually the first garage kit that I ever purchased, so it is kind of fitting that it is the first one that I am planning on completing. I picked this up at JerseyFest 3 years ago from Monster Dork Studio.

I actually began working on this kit at the beginning of the year and a lot of work has gone into sculpting over the mold lines on the many tentacles. The sculpting work has definitely been a good learning experience. The final product is only ever as good as the prep work that goes into it...

The picture below is the unassembled kit out of the box. This is another example of an old picture that was taken prior to actually figuring out the camera, but since it is just the preliminary photo, I hope you will forgive me for the poor quality. I was in a bit of a rush to get the photo done so that I could continue advancing the project.

More to come...

Treeman Part 1

This is one of my current work in progress figures. I really like the sculpt and I really started working on him in late 2014, before moving to my new house. I did all of the cleanup and minor sub assemblies before packing him away. I pulled him back out earlier this year as I was planning my prospective entries for some of this years painting competitions and he was basically at the top of my list.

The picture below is the final assembly prior to painting. I actually took the picture a while back, so the quality of the picture is a little so/so and I've been working on my picture quality since then, so hopefully future ones will be better.

The following is the base that I have selected to go with this figure:

Well, there you have it,  my first work in progress project has been posted. More to come...