Warploque: Bayourk Witchdokta

Happy Friday!

I should start by saying I love Warploque Alex's approach to building a brand new world, how he runs Kickstarters, and interacts with the community in general. But I haven't backed any of the projects or bought any of the figures in the Arcworlde because it was complicated by one huge point - I don't actually like most of his sculpts.

Everything's quite craggy, not the big clean surfaces I'm used to, and prefer - they have a rustic quality that didn't appeal to me. But, when he released the Bayourk models, the Witchdokta was a mandatory purchase as it's perfect for this approach - so I picked this up at Salute 2016 and then ... completely forgot about it.

So he had a few minor major changes in the last day and while he's painted in roughly similar leather colours to how my Shadespire Orruks are coming together, there's been a lot of change to the skin.

The mushrooms were the starting point and allowed me to think on how to convey the magical properties of this witch doctor.  Then I watched a video on adding iridescence (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhVmU8gfp1I) which pushed me to do a little more on the skin. Mine is a rougher take, but I like how it turned out - would be nice to try this on a larger, smoother surface to see what happens.

For me the sculpt lacked a focal point, as everything's craggy and runs in to the other pieces, and his left hand didn't have anything in there, so I added a bead with some OSL and swirly lines as an orb of power. Job done.

Still working on the photography, but a lot happier with this after some experimentation in the last few days.

2017 Goals - End of Year Review

Well that year drifted by quickly, didn't it? The progress in the last six months from the original list written up at the beginning of 2017 hasn't been a pretty read for progress I'm afraid. But let's look at progress across the year.

The Bad

• Infamy [3] - No progress.
• Guild Ball Fishermen [5] - No progress.

Whoops. These just dropped down the list when new projects present themselves. I'd sorely love to wrap up the Guild Ball figures just to tick another one off the list.

The Inbetween

• Hasslefree Miniatures [12] - Completed 4.
• Heresy Miniatures [1] - Completed 2.
• Warhammer 40,000 Space Wolves [28] - Completed 9.
• Warhammer 40,000 Death Guard [16] - One test model done, but will pause this as I plan to swap to Word Bearers.
• Shadespire [4] - Started.
• Guild Ball Morticians [3] - Completed 1.
• Willy Miniatures [1] - Started the vampire, but not finished.

Hit and miss here. Some forward steps made but then a few steps back. Space Wolves were complicated by buying the Dark Imperium box set and Shadespire, so they've taken precedence. I did manage to complete the Inceptors, Ancient and five Wolves from the original box.

The Good

• Colony 87 - Completed all 9.
• Blood Rage - Completed 1 wolf.
• Conan - Completed 10 wolves.
• Zombicide: Black Plague - Completed 22 wolves.
• Terrain - 6 pieces from Crooked Dice, 3 containers from TTcombat, 3 armoured containers, 9 barrels, 12 crates from Games Workshop, and a few other odds and ends.
• Human Interface - Completed 3 characters.
• Arcworlde - Completed 1 Ork.
• The Walking Dead - Completed 1 zombie.

 A few really small projects were completed at the last minute (Human Interface, Arcworlde & The Walking Dead) which was nice to clear off the backlog. Small projects hanging around start to irk after a while, so these quick wins please me.

The Summary
The total number of distinct things completed, not including tiddlers like crates and barrels, is over 100. Which is honestly about 40-50 better than I thought it would be, despite my optimistic goals at the beginning of the year.

I'll think on what I want from 2018 before posting goals. Some quick ones come to mind, but let's make it a challenging one again too.

Warploque: Bayourk Witchdokta WIP

It's New Year's Eve, so here I am painting. Here's to a 2018 filled with whatever you want it to be.

Back into the habit of posting my WIP work. For this figure, I'm trying to do Things That Are Different at the moment. You don't build muscles without stretching them. Painting is the same.

This was my first attempt at trying to create an iridescent effect on skin.

So on the right lines but not quite right. Okay, not everything can be a success first time but that's okay.

Back to the drawing board, and I've started with a lighter blue, defined everything better and started into the first highlights. Shadows will see other colours added to achieve the effect better. Same for the final highlights too.

Next up is reworking the leather. My original colour choice was far too light and adding shadow didn't help. He's old and weathered, so the coat should reflect that.

Much happier with this, and reading David Soper's article on old leather (https://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.co.uk/2017/12/c-girl-akito-painting-worn-leather.html) has helped me think about colour choices and pushing up the contrast.

Next up will be the super-definitely-positively-probably the last highlight, then adding colour interest into the shadows with glazes.