TOYBIZ THOR/CONAN
THE MAKING OF THE BASE
 
UPDATED 06/07/05
 

Thanks to Kitman for the box pic

Now for all the fun I had with the base.
As you can see from the pictures below, there were a lot of seams to deal with on the monster.
Especially on the top piece that connected the two large side pieces of the head.




It took a lot of putty and sanding to get all those worked out.
Too bad the monster couldn't have been as well engineered as the Thor figure was.
The horns were primered gray, then base coated a flat white.
Then I used several washes of yellow / brown watercolors to build the depth and detail.
 
The main part of the monster was primered gray. Then a wash coat of dark purple watercolor.
When I say wash coat, what I mean is a very thin coat that lets a lot of the layer below show through.
I have found the really cheap kids watercolor trays work great for this.
Then I went back in and used light green watercolors for the highlights on the back side.
Then a wash coat of orange watercolors, and a wash coat of blue watercolors.
Then I depened the eye cavities with dark purple watercolors.
Then a final wash coat of light purple watercolors.


Somewhere in there, I threw in a little veining for detail as well.
Time to work on the mouth.
If you notice in the pics above, the tongue was redone. Originally it hung out of it's mouth and across part of the base. I didn't add that piece to the kit, I puttied in a bit of tongue to fill out the details already there.
I used an off-white for the teeth. A redish brown for the inside of the mouth, and a dark red for the tongue.
Then a pinkish watercolor for around the lip area of the mouth.
A dark green watercolor wash in the creases between the teeth.
Then a yellow-brown watercolor around the roots of the teeth.
The base itself was pretty simple.
Brown primer. Cinnamon brown over that. Drybrushed a few murky tans and light browns, then a coat of brown antiquing gel.
There was one interesting problem presented with this kit and how I went about it.
Attaching the horns.
If you notice, they were painted separately.
I had to attach them to the monster without using any putty.
The joints were tight, but not perfect, so I needed a way to fill the gaps without ruining my paint job.
I had an idea that actually worked.
I took some water and dirtied it up with some brown watercolors.
Then I mixed in some white glue.
As you probably know, white glue dries clear. With the brown in the water though it turned out really hazy brown.
I laid it in place with a Q-tip. A little at a time, and dried it with a hairdryer.
Slowely filling in the gaps and tying it all together.
Actually worked better than I had hoped.
 


 

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