When Sean came to us and said that CreatureScape was doing a tribute issue to Robb's company Needful Things I was VERY excited. I've been a BIG fan of NT and proud to know the Owner Robb. He's one of the BEST in this hobby and offers GREAT kits and keeps them affordable . Once I got over the excitement , I realized that ALL my NF kits have been built other then The GRRR Bust I've been to scared to do, because of the 1/1 scale.
What to do, Well having been a BIG fan of The Wolf Man 1/1 scale bust sculpted by Robert Ortiz. I thought I can do that one. There's less skin tones and lots of fur to dry brush. So I contacted Robb and sent off my payment and started to plan out my very first 1/1 scale bust.
Then I received the e-mail from Robb, Telling me that the mold has to be retooled and that I would have to choose another kit. To make a long story short, Robb contacted another customer who had one and convinced them to sell it to me. Thanks Robb you are truly a class act in my book!!
So pull up a monitor and sit back and join me me on my first journey into painting a 1/1 scale bust.
After receiving the bust and trying not to be intimidated, I washed it with dish soap and let dry for a day. The casting was beautiful and required very little sanding with most of that being the bottom teeth section which needed some dremeling to fit properly in the mouth. (see photo)
I decided to spray the bust with black and to attempt to build up the colors only using dry brushing and no air brush which I'm still getting used to by the way.(see photo)
All the paints that I'm going to use on this bust except for two colors are from badger's Freak flex line of paints which I love. First up was digging out my Horizon flesh tone number 8 for the skin tones. I dry brushed this over the black over three settings to build up the color slowly and evenly. For the eyes I love to use pink eye Burgundy which was also dry brushed on the lips. The teeth were painted rotten tooth tan.(see photo)
Now for the inside of the eye, Good old bleached bone tan was used for this be careful to leave part of the pink eye Burgundy showing at this point. I also applied a heavier dry brushing to the lips and applied another coat to the teeth.(see photo)
I wanted a brown for the fur and thought that it would better blend with the skin tone I had going on the bust. I picked mummified brown and just like with the flesh tones I build up the color with several light dry brushing sessions.(see photo)
Now time to start shading the face. Most guys at this point would pull out their air brushes and punch up the shadows, I like using chalk pastels. I wanted to seepend the surrounding eye areas so useing a grey I applied it to the lower eye area. Fot he face area I decided on burnt sienna for the areas where the fur meets the face, around the nose area and all the lines in his face. I used a black pastel to further deepen the nose area and to soften up the stark black look. (see photo)
Next t up was to fill in the pupil area of the eye. First using a pencil I created a circle and then painted in the eye using mossy moor brown. I struggled with a shirt color for our furry friend. I looked at all my wolf man kits and surfed the web and finally decided on red. I felt that it blended with my color choices of skin and hair color. Looking through my paints I decided on badgers lehigh valley cornell red. I tried to dry brush it on a first and decided to hand brush it over the black. I did 2 applications and was very satisfied with the result.(see photo)
Now to decide on a eye color? I went with one of my favorite colors from the freak flex line, old wreck rust. I painted in the eye area leaving just a hint of the brown.(see photo)
Now onto one of my LEAST favorite things, dotting the eye with the pupil. This only took me 6 times to get it !! I then used a black pastel to soften the pupil area. At this point is was time to put in his lower teeth. They were base coated black then brushed using rotten tooth tan and shadowed with pastels using burnt sienna and highlighted with bleached bone tan.(see photo)
With all the painting done it was time to seal my work with dullcoat. I usually do 3 light applications for the final sealing to protect the work. After letting dry for a few hours it was time to gloss the eye and lip area. Remember to do light applications with the glossing so not to leave streaks.
Well, I got through my first 1/1 scale bust. Overall I enjoyed working on this size kit but admit that it is very intimidating to me. I still have needfull things awesome Grrr bust of Frankenstein time will tell when I work up enough nerve to tackle that one.
Robb tells me that He plans on retooling the mold on this one and I recommend this one for ALL you wolf man fans out there.
Now this AWESOME bust sits proudly among my collection and displays well and will be one of the highlights of my house of kits!!
Here's the finished bust and now when the moon is full, My basement will now be a scary place to go!!!
Always remember to enjoy this gift that God has given you.
