THE PLAN: I started off with a different approach with this kit.  My intent was to create or enhance lighting effects through paint. [update: this totally didn't work, so I just let the light from the cauldron do its job!]
 
 
 

I really hate lighting kits, my last attempt being a complete waste of time. However, this kit came with a clear cast cauldron which would be a crime not to light.

 
 


The BASE:  I decided to add a wall to the base that came with the kit.  I really suck at making bases or dioramas, but I thought now would be a good time to try again.  It was brought to my attention that when lighting kits, you need a "scene" or something similar to make it look right, rather than the figure just standing out in the open.  Okay, I'll bite.  I used almost a whole roll of aluminum foil, paper towel rolls, and some thin pieces of wood to create the general shape.  I covered this with a thin layer of super sculpty.  I started sculpting in some stone blocks in the arch, with no success.  I went to the front yard, gathered up a bowl of lava rock, and imbedded these into the arch.  Baked it.  Looked at it and scrapped it.  Waaaaaay to big.
 
 
 
 


    My second attempt was much simpler.  I covered the round base with aluminum foil, went to the front yard (this was about 2am and it was raining) to gather up more lava rock, and got out the Durahm's water putty.  I mixed up some Durahm's, thicker than usual, laid it down around the curve of the base.  Oh yeah, I had all this on plastic wrap.  Picking out stones that matched up horizontally the best I could, I laid them down on the putty.  See where I'm going with this?  Adding consecutive layers of putty and rock, I built up the wall.  This was kind of fun, like a puzzle.  Getting stones to line up went better than I thought, and the whole thing was surprisingly durable.


Let there be light!

I attached the cauldron to the pedestal, and puttied between so no light would bleed out.  I then dremeled out the inside of the pedestal to accommodate the reflector from an old flashlight I had laying around.  I attached this inside the pedestal and under the cauldron with plumbers putty.  The plug where the flashlight bulb would go already had a slit in the bottom of it, just big enough to run the wires from a couple of 6 volt micro lamps through.  The bare ends of these were attached to some alligator clips which were attached to a ac-dc voltage adapter.  This ran under the base and through the back wall.  Don't have to worry about batteries...I had planned on entering this in the ReznHedz contest.
 
 
 
  

The above pictures show the steps I 
took on painting the face.  The arms were given the same 
treatment. 
    Picture 
1 (yawn) is the basecoat.  I mix my flesh tones 
with various colors, including some Ceramicoat flesh medium flesh, Liquitex 
white and burnt sienna... I don't know the exact formula.  I usually get a 
big baby food jar and just start mixing until I get something close.  Flesh 
tones only look right once you get a LOT of colors in them. 

    Picture 2 shows some shading I did with 
the airbrush and watercolors.  I've gone away from using these as I gained 
confidence in my airbrushing, but went back because I love the colors they 
produce and the "softness" and sometimes texture they give.  I go at it 
with some burnt sienna, or sometimes indian red, around the cheeks, under the 
eyes, here and there on the forehead, tip and side of the nose... I usually add 
the reddish tones wherever the skin is closet to the bone, where it would be 
thin.  I then spray some burnt umber in the shaddows. 

    Picture 3 is where I misted over the 
last stage (after dullcoating of course) and added some highlights by mixing 
Liquitex transparent mixing white. 
    Picture 
4 is where I darken my shaddows, and add any more 
colors with pastels.  I have about 4 shades of burnt umber, tons of reddish 
browns, and I use as many different variations of colors that I can.  I use 
a lighter shade around the edge of the face than I would under the cheeks, more 
red under the eyes than on the cheek, etc.  (I went heavy under the eyes on 
this one to give him that 3 days without sleep look we all know too 
well...) 
  
  

 

  
  
  

Here I've masked off the face after 
dullcoating with liquid latex mold building compound.  I airbrushed his hat 
with ceramicoat pure black (shoes as well which you can't see), cowel (and 
leggings) with ceramicoat concrete gray, and his cloak with liquitex mars 
black. 
  

  
  
  

I lost my place! 
I had lost my webpage, so this kit was finished 
awhile ago, and all of what I was trying to do here got messed up.  I'll 
just take what pictues I have and try to explain what's going on in them. 
:) 
  

  

 
Here I've added the details to 
the face.  I'll put a detailed explanation of how I paint eyes soon, but 
for now I'll say after putting your eye color down, do the rest in 
WATERCOLORS.  Save yourself the headache.  Once the basecoat has been 
dullcoated, you can re-do them as many times as you like by wiping off mistakes 
with a wet q-tip.  I painted the eyebrows and mustache with vandyke brown 
watercolor, and eyelashes with sepia watercolors.  Crimson red watercolor 
was used for the inside of his cloak.  Didn't even want to risk messing up 
the face at this point.  The vest or inside whatever thingy was painted 
Freak Flex deep-wound maroon and drybrushed with liquitex cadium red.  You 
can kind of tell here where I also started repainting the gown with some 
iridescent purple and blues, to add some color to him.  I get tired of 
painting everything BLACK.  In the movie, the images are either shown in 
blues to represent a flashback, or its so dark you just cant tell for sure, so I 
used a little artistic licensee.  Anyway, his outfit is not ENTIRELY 
accurate to the movie...I know...I'm getting too picky! 
  
  

This was painted with enamel bronze, and washed and 
blotted with black ink. 
  
  
  
  
  
  

I started off with the stone with krylon gray 
primer, then misted over that with white primer, to get that "speckled" look 
right away.  Lots of dark gray and brown washes.  Fluorescent red was 
washed in-between the coals, and these were dry brushed with a dark gray, to a 
lighter gray, almost white.   Touched up the inside with a black and 
silver ink mix. 
Outside of 
the cauldron was sprayed with Model Masters  titanium plate, and misted 
with  Model Masters aluminum. (Their line of buffing 
metalizers) 

Well, this is getting pointless, as I've 
  forgotten many of the details of what I did, so go check out the finished kit 
  in the gallery... 

    I'll try to make my next 
endeavor better, and I guess I'll just have to add more to the lab to explain 
some of the things I wanted to here. 

    Thanks for checking this 
out! 
  



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