Our Lord and Saviour, Cthulhu

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One of the many figures still lurking in my Reaper Bones pledge box of shame (there's still well over a hundred mini's in it) was one of the biggest items of the original launch:

 

Presently retailing for about £37, I felt like this had gathered dust long enough and needed getting out the way, it also seemed an ideal piece for trying new techniques on.  But first we needed to do some assembly and clean up.

Step one

Lots of superglue and Green stuff was required first off.  I made the decision though to leave the wings and head unattached, this would make painting much easier.  The model as assembled was clearly a bit unstable, so I cut a larger wooden base for it from MDF and used Das Pronto clay to fill and blend the plastic base into the whole.  

I freely admit I rushed and forgot to trim some fairly horrendous mould lines, but hey ho.  Next stop, several layers of green paint through the airbrush.  With this applied I crudely masked off the model for the next stage.

Step Two, note parts on separate painting 'handles'

I wanted the extremities to subtly blend to an uncomfortable fleshy tone, so out with more spray.  Working from the base green with various cream, fleshtones, and ultimately purples added.  The key seems to be light coats starting further back than you think, to leave room for the transitions to be gradual.

Step Three

Now this alone reflects an awful lot of the painting done, but I gave the entire model a good glaze of dark grey-green (almost black) next.

Now I wanted to try something new, and had been inspired by a video on one of my favourite painting channels,, the Freehand wing effects here cried out to be tried:

Once I'd done with that I kinda rushed the last few details, and gave the base a simple - 'Bottom of the Ocean' finish.  With that I called it done, as the main effort was about getting practice with some new approaches.

Here's what I ended up with:

 

 

 

 

I'm ready for my close-up

Above, for those who skipped past the video, the new technique can be seen.  Progressive layers of a white pattern of veins, stretch marks and scar lines, were interleaved with glazes of green and initially violet ink.  The inks pushing each layer into the background for the next layer.  At the end, after I think four passes with white details, a couple of final layers were added to unify the whole.  

On reflection the violet ink was an error, and just green would've looked better, but it is a learning process!

Overall, I'm really happy with how this gigantic model came out, even if I don't really have any use for it!

Stan, the 28mm man, for scale.

The main point here was to try some new things, and even if not perfect, they were all great learning experiences.  Painting in the same old way all the time may hone one style but it will not let you become more rounded.  If you see painting models as a chore that gets in the way of gaming this may not matter to you, but then again you could easily be missing out on the methods to shorten that chore.  And if like me you enjoy painting, you really owe it to yourself to expand your techniques.  Trick and tips can all help, and learning keeps it fresh.

As others have said before, paint bravely!

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