Caffeineforge

Imagine you are wandering in a swampy area, or crossing a river. It’s night, and the full moon casts a bright reflexion on the slowly moving water. You hear a soft, deep rumble, not too distant, that is, and over there, is that just a log? Some submerged tree? Lets have a look… (posting by Antonia)

 

The Bones range has some variety now in were-creatures (or anthropomorphic animals, if you prefer to use them as non-shapeshifters). I’m not too fond of the were-rats (some of them seem very awkwardly positioned) but I really like the Bones 3 ones like the werewolf, the bat and this one, the crocodile. The sculpt is really good and realistic in scales and anatomic details, with one bis drawback – the pose.
Just like with the were-rats you are looking at the beast and wonder – what is it doing with its arms in this position? Jumping? Scratching? Tearing? Or dancing, maybe?
To work with this Dirk and I used different approaches.

 

My croc was obviously flushed down a toilet a loong time ago:

When I saw the mini I wondered – what color scheme could I use beyond the usual? Somehow the idea of an albino reptile popped up in my head, an a more modern setting, something with sewers and pipes.
Therefore I primed the mini in ivory and applied various washes in light brown, red and green to achieve the ghostly pale skin. It doesn’t show too much contrast but that’s how those critters look, and it really does pop in front of the dark base.
Speaking of which: I decided I would work with the strange pose by matching the environment like I did a long time ago with the Bones 1 owl bear: I made a steel beam from scrap plastic and deformed it a bit to make it look like the croc’s claw was bending it while pulling it up.
For the other hand I posed some fly screen as if it was a wire mesh fence ripped apart and flying back. Voila, strange poses explained!

 

Dirk will use his croc for our Necromunda games:

To deal with the strange pose, Dirk’s approach was… to cut off the offending limbs and re-attach them differently! This needed some sculpting and gap filling, of course, but definitely changes the posture.
“Sump crocs” are some critters a gang can buy to fight at their side. Of course they are covered in technical bits and prosthetics, so Dirk sculpted a back canister, a bionic eye and tons of tubes and wires.
The croc is not an albino btw, just unpainted with a brown wash to pick out some details. Dirk didn’t have the time to paint the mini yet, but it’s a great WIP so far, don’t you think?

 

Arjen’s crocodile shows an intense green:

He wrote: “This was a simple mini to paint. rather large, no tricky details. So I am nicely on time this time around. I am not a huge fan of this mini. I experimented with lighting and I chose to present the front and rear with different lighting. The real colors are actually somewhere in between both pictures, but my camera has a tendency to compensate for background color, lighting and such.”
I know that problem, the color often doesn’t come out perfectly on the pictures, especially if it’s a not-quite-standard tone. The “two lightings version” is a good compromise, I guess. So you did mostly use a blue-ish green, right? I really like how you gave the body a pattern, that’s something often overlooked on scales!

 

Jim sent us a very “swampy” one:

He wrote: “My werecroc is pretty basic, but that’s OK I guess! There is some decent blending on the sides which doesn’t show up too well. This mini is well executed but the concept seems a bit goofy. Maybe that’s just me.”
No, you can rest assured it’s not just you, see my comment on the awkward pose. I don’t challenge the idea of a were-crocodile per se, though, because I love those kinds of critters. But just looking at the pose from most angles it just looks a bit silly…
Anyway, I like the muddy, swampy olive you used, and I get a glimpse of the blending, maybe… did you also do some mottling/speckles on the chest area, or is that just my imagination?

 

Mike’s croc also crawled up from dark waters:

He said: “I did the were-crocodile back in January with a bunch of other were-beast types. Like the werewolf, I was trying to be pretty speedy with dry-brushing to get it to a tabletop standard. I did add a little water effect to the base for extra glisten.”
Scales and fur are always perfect textures for drybrushing, but especially scales tend to look a bit “dusty” in times, which yours don’t. Did you use washes too?
I like the lighter belly area and the contrast between the dark skin and the rosy/pink mouth, I really can imagine this one laying hidden, mouth closed tightly until the very last moment….!

 

This week’s gallery:

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Coming next:

04/29/19 Bones III Skara, Female Skoli (B3 Core)

Want to participate in the next post? Email the pictures of your minis until Friday 04/27/19 to

MondayMiniature@fantasymail.de  (It’s a .de domain, in case emails are bouncing)

–> Attention: The submission date for photos is about three days before publishing date, to give us a bit of time to actually write about your pictures  😀

This way you’ll have two weeks/one weekend to paint, and we have one weekend to write (which is the only time of the week where we have some open minutes).

You can of course send in pics later, but to take out a bit of the stress (most pics arrive here rather last minute) please consider the three day deadline. Later pics will still show up in an update  😉

I added tons of miniatures to the schedule now. We might still shuffle them around, do extras (like “Show me your project!”) or add more, just tell us what you think in the comments!

 

05/13/19 Bones – Catch-Up Monday (Your choice of Bones I-III!)

05/27/19 Bones III Eastern encounter part 3 – Kitsune! Female and/or male.

06/10/19 Bones III Gwyddis, Dwarf Valkyrie (B3 Core)

06/24/19 Bones II Sir Conlan (B2 Core)

07/08/19 Bones III Durok, Dwarf Ranger (B3 Core)

07/22/19 Bones III Wraith (B3 Core)

08/05/19 Bones II Alistrilee, Elven Archer (B2 Core)

08/19/19 Bones III Sigurd, Viking (B3 Core)

09/02/19 Bones III Brotherhood of the Seal (B3 Core)

09/16/19 Bones II Mi-Sher, Sword Dancer (B2 Core)

After that Bones 4? Or should we start earlier? Until then everyone should have had the chance to check their shipments or even bought some minis directly from the shop.

We’ll gladly accept your suggestions!

This entry was posted by Antonia & Dirk Vogel.