SLINGING FOR JOOPAS

 Continuing on with submissions for Keith's Monster May(hem)  I've made and painted a Joopa, if your not aware of what one of these are, they are an underground creature that appeared in the series Star Wars Rebels.

A group of retired clones spend their days trying to catch these tasty creatures, and apparently they in turn like eating Lasat, which is why I've pictured it stood next to Zeb from the series.

While I've been working on this creature I've also managed to finish another character from the series AP5 who was an Imperial logistics droid who joined the rebel team. I started with one of my RA7 protocol droids as a basis, and then sculpted his larger head over the top.

That's all for this post, got some more monsters I'm working on that I hope to finish before the end of the challenge, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

I THINK WE'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER SKIFF !

 I've managed to finish the Krayt dragon for Keith's Monster May(hem) without having to do too many WIP shots posts.

The tongue was made in a similar fashion to the rest of the model, the basic shape being made of foam, carved and then sanded, but I used liquid greenstuff to add texture, after painting a layer all over the top, I then dabbed it with a scrap piece of sponge, this gave the dots you see on a tongue. most of the head textures were made with magic sculpt, and just a few smaller details done with green stuff.

Because of the size of the piece I used a different method for painting, most areas had a base layer of GW Rakarth flesh, around the mouth and eye I put a layer of Vallejo pale flesh. Once dry I put a layer of GW Agrax Earthsade all over, once this was fully dry, I put a layer of GW Carroburg Crimson around the eye and mouth. Next the main part of the head had a layer of GW Biel Tan Green Shade put over, I also put some over some of the crimson areas as well. Once this was fully dry, I highlighted around the mouth with very watered down GW Cadian Fleshtone. For a highlight on certain areas of the green I used very watered down GW Rakarth Flesh.

The teeth spikes and horns, all had a basecoat of GW Corax White, once dry they had a coat of GW Agrax Earthshade, once this was dry, I highlighted with GW Corax White. On the horns I did two coats of GW Nuln Oil to get the dark tone.

Hope to get another monster done for the challenge but will be a lot smaller than this one. So until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

A MONSTEROUS UNDERTAKING

 As it's Monster May(hem) I've started work on the big project for this challenge, well you didn't think a few Bantha's was going to be my only entry did you ? LOL

The above reference picture is of a Krayt Dragon from an episode of " The Mandolorian", as my games are going to be set on Tatooine I thought I may need one of these creatures to add another element.

Because of the size of the creature I've gone with just the head surfacing, which will give a visual representation, but not take up the entire gaming area.

To start I layered together 2 cm thick insulation board to the size required, and then carved out the basic shape, and smoothed off with sand paper.

Next using Magic Sculpt, I started adding in all the details needed.

For the top of the carapace I used all purpose filler. The small nicks and indentations I'm going to keep as it adds extra detail and interest. You may notice some pecil marks on there, which I will use the Dremel to grind in.

The horn was detailed with green stuff, and once fully dry I will give it a light sand, which should a little more texture.

As you can imagine this is probably going to take most of my time up working on this, so be prepared that most of my posts are going to be progress reports on this project.

That's all for this post so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

MAY THE 4 th BE WITH YOU

 As it is the official Star Wars day, I thought it only appropriate that I did a Star Wars post. Now you may be wondering with my love of Star Wars I haven't done this before, that's easy I'm terrible at remembering to save a post, or get too impatient and post up too early ! LOL So will this become a yearly thing for me, hopefully but will have to see if my mind want's to play along !

First up today is a WOTC repaint of Biggs Darklighter, this was a surprise gift from my good friends at Minaturemen, they know of my passion for this subject ! Originally there was a scene where Biggs and Luke are looking through a set of bino's at the capture of the Tantine IV, but was deleted from the final cut.

Next is another WOTC repaint of a Gamorrean Guard, I got this model recently as apparently there was 8 in Jabba's Palace, and Fantasy Flight Games put 4 in the expansion set, I was hoping it would be larger than the FFG ones but it is the same size, I think I'll try some 3D printed ones to fill in the last 3 spots.

I've also managed to finish the last 2 Nikto greens I needed, this first one is Giran, who can be seen consoling the Rancor Keeper after his pet is killed by Luke.

The next one is Yotts Oren, who was one of the guards on the second skiff when they rode out to the Sarlaac pit.

Keeping with the skiff guards, this is Brock Starsher, who was the first one killed by Luke when he reached the second skiff.

I've also got the pilot of the second skiff done Pote Snitkin.

Speaking of Skiffs I recently purchased this 3D print of one from gamerforge on ebay. The model was a good print, and I didn't bother trying to fill the lines, just painted it, as the worst of the lines was on the underside.

While I was working on the above skiff, I finally got round to finishing the one I started scratch building many years ago. The boarding plank was designed and made to retract, but since painting it, I've been nervous of scratching the paint, so will probably leave it out.

Now I can hear some of you saying " But Dave it's  Monster May(hem) and none of these models count", agreed so here are 2 more Banthas that I've finished this month towards my goal

I thought a cinematic shot of these pieces would be a great way to round off the post today. I'm hoping to get a big Star Wars creature done this month for the challenge, but will have to see how that goes.

So until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

DRAGON EVOLOUTION

 With MONSTER MAY(HEM) only 3 days away, I've been thinking about Dragons. Over the years I've built a few which I will show in the order they were created, with a question at the end.

First up is the South American Coatyl, this was the first dragon I ever sculpted, and was an exercise in showing what I could do while building up the business, it also happens to be my favourite Dragon.

This traditional style Dragon on ruined keep was a commissioned sculpt for Model Display Products, the balance on the model is such that he is only resting on the keep, no glue holding him on.

This was also a commissioned sculpt for Model Display Products, and depicts a Chinese Dragon, the gate has a dip in the roof as was normal in China, the straight topped ones were found in Japan.

The next Dragon is a Sea Dragon, really wanted to look at how a creature would adapt in certain surroundings, so had his wings evolve into a sail on his back, one day I would like to go back and add resin water effect over the base.

Next I tried pushing the boundaries on how few balance points I could get a model on, with the Fire Breathing Dragon. He only has two balance points and the arch holding up all his weight.

This next dragon was a request, the Zombie Dragon, this one was the most intense build, as I had to build it by layers, so all skeleton, then muscle in the places I required, and finally skin and scales to finish off.

I then decided to build an Oriental Dragon for myself, but wanted to break from the norm of lots of coiling. So I had him leaping from a summoning stone, with some undulation along the spine.

The last one I built for myself was the Wyvern, which I wanted in full flight, so the ruin wall has a brass bar running through it, to help support the weight, it had to be very well balanced to secure it from this one point.

I then built two dragon's for Heroes of the Dark Ages, now it is effectively the same dragon but with options, you can have it single headed or twin headed, walking or in flight, this involved a lot of making connection points standard between the two.

Now the question, I'm feeling the itch to build another dragon, but not sure what to do, have had a request for a Hydra, or could do a mutating dragon where the head is becoming two heads, really not sure so would love your input.

That's all for this post and we will now return to our normal broadcast, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave