Monday Miniatures: The Owlbear
This week’s subject was well received by the painters among us, who took time out of their busy holiday plans to get some beautiful painting done. Take a look.
Given that it was the week of Christmas, I am not really surprised to see that there were no mini related Kickstarters put up.
I was pleased at the response my questions got though. It would seem that everyone painting for our weekly post feels that they we’re painting as much as they should have been until these little posts spurred them on. I am deeply flattered to be blamed for such a marked uptick; one couple even went out and purchased the vampire set so they could keep on participating.
As should be made clear by the to-do list below, I do plan on continuing this little exercise, but I am considering making some additions. I know that I’m not the only one working on an army in one system or another; currently my Warmachine army (mercenaries) is almost half done, and my 40k army (imperial guard) is nearly one tenth done.
I would like to add themed free paint weeks into the rotation for larger projects and scenery and the like. What do the rest of you think about that idea?
Through the use of several layers of washes and drybrushes I was very satisfied with how the plumage came out on this one. I wish I had more time to focus on the beak and claws, but alas, you can’t win them all.
That being said, Clint’s plumage is still better than my own with the judicious use of freehanded highlights. Way to go Clint.
David went for a tawny color scheme with contrasting eyes.
Antonia made one hell of a base to go with her mini. She chose a barn/screeching owl to pattern her color scheme after, and it came out fabulously.
Kylie went with a more classic color scheme, and found some really amazing leaf flock for her base. Care to share your source?
Magnus’s mini looks great this week as well, falling generally in line with the rest of color choices.
Jessica went with a stripped color scheme that shows some killer freehand work. This one my favorite this week, before we even get to the base. Did you go with greenstuff for those roots? Nicely done!
Update:
Milla sends a late image of their Owlbear. They also chose about the same color scheme, but did a great job.
Goblin War Chanter – Send your pictures to Caffeineforge@gmail.com before 2100 MST on 1/6!
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I love Owlbears! Such an underrated, but majestic creature.
Kudos to every one! Jessica’s base rocks. And mad props to Antonia’s Barnowlbear… amazing eyes!
There are so many great minis this week! This was a really fun model to paint.
Clint – How did you do your fur? I couldnt really find any good tutorials on fur or feathers (this was a first for me) Id love some tips!
Antonia – your Owlbear is the scariest one I think, I would hate to come across that on the gaming table. I love the colour scheme
Jessica – another amazing mini, I really love your work. Id like to hear more about your base too.
As for the source of my flock – the kitchen cupboard! I used Oregano for the leaves on the base, covered it with PVA glue to seal it and then painted the colours myself.
Hope everyone has great New Year celebrations!!!
Antonia did an awesome job of making this figure’s wacky pose somewhat sensible (in this case, vaulting over the fallen tree). I *really* don’t care for this miniature, and I’m sure it would have been one of the last to be painted were it not for the Monday Miniature challenge!
Fur is a three step process for me:
1 – Paint everything a dark base; in this case a custom brown I mixed up years ago.
2- Drybrush uber light highlights. I used Citadel’s new drybrush paint, Hexos Palesun on the ‘bear. I also don’t do long strokes when drybrushing, more like little circles, if that makes a difference.
3. Wash it all with really thinned brown ink, to tie it all together. Second, heavier coat in the shadows and recesses.
Thanks! I will keep that in mind next time!
I’ll have to try the “little circle” technique with drybrushing. I usually use the standard back-and-forth strokes, but that requires going over an area from multiple directions depending on the effect I’m going for (which can result in too much highlight).
I thought about trying a pattern on the bear fur, but I didn’t think there were any bears with patterns to speak of. I like how some of the entries used an owl pattern across the entire figure.
Did anyone else reinforce the standing leg so the figure wouldn’t be as droopy? I pinned a couple of sections of the leg to reinforce the figure, so it didn’t look like it was getting bowled over.
Really nice job this week, everyone. I started, but didn’t quite get there in time, what with the holiday and traveling and all. At some point, I’ll need to take a week and finish knocking out the paintjobs on my “almost-dones” for Monday Miniatures 🙂
David, I’d be all about some free-paint weeks in the coming year. I’ve got an army or two in progress, minis for my D&D campaign, and a competition entry or two coming up, all in the first quarter of 2014!
Thanks for the compliments everyone! I really enjoyed painting this one, I think the sculpt is a lot of fun, and I have a particular fondness for owl bears. I love the different interpretations of the model.
Antonia – My initial reaction to your Barn-Owl Bear was “that’s really cute”, then I realized it was covered in blood, and cute no longer felt like the correct descriptor. You did an excellent job with the color scheme as well as the blood, it looks really realistic.
Magnus – I pinned mine, but that was pretty much just to attach it to the base. With its size and only one contact point I really figured a pin was a good idea.
David – I would also be up for some themed free-paint weeks, I have some pieces left of my husband’s Eldar army, a Drake army that is supposed to be shipping soon, and plenty of other random painting to do.
The roots on the base were made with Magic Sculpt and the Happy Seppuku Swamp Things Accent stamp (from their kickstarter). I started out with a wooden disc as the base, and stamped out the roots, then after it dried, did some additional work making the roots wrap around the side – a combination of using the stamp, and a tiny bit of sculpting on my own. It was a really fun base to create, I had a particular look in mind for it (thanks to google I had a photo for inspiration), and I really feel like I was able to pull it off the realistic look I was going for.
Hey, Jessica, would you mind sending us over a copy of that pic over at Happy Seppuku for our gallery? (feedback@happyseppuku.com) Thanks
I’d be happy to, its on its way!
I have plenty of older non-Bones figures to paint, so I could be interested in an “add-on” as long as the one-Bones-a-week challenge continues! I’m curious what you had in mind; would it be something like “get one regiment of troops done this month” or “paint one piece of terrain within these two weeks”?
I was thinking every fourth or fifth week of having something a bit more freeform, “show us your army,” “make some terrain,” and toward the end of the year, “go play with your army and/or terrain.” The bones will still dominate the line up, but mixing some other stuff in too would be fun.
I would also like to try painting some of the bigger bones, but I’m not sure how many people picked up the addons.
Well, I’m not currently playing any wargames, but those “freeform” challenges could serve just as well for non-Vampire Bones. I’ve been trying to toss a bit of paint on Cthulhu between Monday Miniatures entries… 😉
Hello everyone!
Once again a great mini-monday, I had some fun with painting the owlbear, and I’m happy to read that my unconventional color scheme was appreciated 😉 Thanks for your kind words and I really enjoyed all the different approaches on this mini!
I did a painting of a barn owl once and loved the pale colors and pattern, so I tried it on the owlbear – but of course it would look very bright and clean, so I added a dark base, dirt and blood for contrast. And skulls. Nearly every base can have a nice skull or two 😉
One thing I found really strange was the pose of the mini – mine looked as if it was falling over. Or is it doing a backflip? I tried some heating & bending, but the bonesium more or less kept returning to its original position, so I had to fit the environment around – thus the tree the beast is leaping over.
@Kylie: Funny, my flocking is thyme and marjoram – our bases together could make a great spaghetti sauce! After this I’m constantly checking spices for their use as flocking… I think rosemary and perhaps dill would make great pine needles…!
@David: I like the idea of different projects, but I think this “A Bones A Week” thing is a great rhythm to keep. And don’t worry if extra projects would be too much to manage in time – you (or we) don’t have to take part every single time, there are enough people around here to keep up the flow, aren’t we? 🙂
(And since me & my husband recently got the KS Vampire package 😛 we’ll defintely stick around)