Ann's Immaterium

Mostly physical culture but also writing, gaming, and other dark procrastinations

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Bugbear with Mace & Shield Finished

I finished my first Etsy Bugbear with a mace and shield last night and took some pictures this morning.  I’m fairly happy with him because whatever shortcomings he has paint-wise I do think he does look suitably powerful and brutal.  I can’t help but think that my new friend here would be at home in a Robert E. Howard Weird Tales story.

Of the three miniatures this one is my favorite pose.

For the flesh I base coated with Doombull Brown, washed the whole miniature with Agrax Earthshade, then painted the muscles with Tuskor Fur.  Then I highlighted with about a 50/50 mix of Tuskor Fur and Kislev Flesh, and washed the whole thing (optionally, I think now) with a glaze of Contrast Medium and Reikland Fleshshade.  I finished the flesh with some very small highlights of Kislev, and some Bugman’s Glow along the upper part of his lip.

I haven’t tried to do much with flesh in the past, so this is the beginning of a learning curve for me.  One thing I’m discovering is that once I get past the Doombull stage it is good to dilute my paints on the palette so they are translucent and work on building up color on the muscles.  I will try to keep this in mind for the next two bugbears and going forward in general.*

Tusks and teeth were Dawnstone, Agrax, then highlights.

I painted the leather tunic with Vallejo Russian Green (70.894), washed with Agrax Earthshade and then highlighted with Nurgling Green.

I also experimented with some patches of Nurgling Green to try and make the leather look somewhat old and worn in places.  I’m going to play around with that some more with the next bugbear, which will be good practice trying to develop that technique.  Also, next time I think I might do the highlights of the raised folds with a slightly darker color than I used here to see if I like the results better.

Bracers: Rakarth, Skeletal Horde Contrast, Ushabti dry brush.

I wanted to do something other than my usual “glue on some sand and maybe a rock and bush and call it a day” basing method that I’ve been doing for the last five or six years.**  So out tried out the Slyvaneth Base from Warhammer TV.  Turned out to be simple, which I liked.  The base was primed with Rhinox Hide like the rest of the miniature.  I covered the base with Vallejo Dark Earth (26.218) Texture and glued down a little rock that wanted to come home with me during one of my early morning Social Distancing in the Darkness Hikes up in the hills.***

From there I dabbed Death World Forest all over the base so that the brown texture still showed through.  After that, I washed the base with Athonian Camoshade and dry brushed with Nurgling Green.  Then a light dry brush in patches (not the whole base) with Averland Sunset and finished it off by adding the flowers and brush.  (Chose tan brush over green because his tunic was green.)

Hair: Rhinox, Slyvaneth Bark dry brush

So this fellow with enter the painted ranks for my own contribution to the April painting challenge, which ends on May 3rd.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do for a painting challenge for May yet.  I have a day or two because in keeping with tradition the May challenge won’t end until June 3rd.  I don’t find myself tired of doing challenges yet or feeling like I need a break, so I’ll come up with something.  Not surprisingly it’ll be something that will feed in to what I hope to accomplish myself this month.

In the meantime, I’m looking forward to getting started on the April challenge round-up.  It is going to be a large one with lots of great models from many different artists!

This is how bugbears look in real life!

* In addition to the trio of mace bears, I also have three more Etsy bugbears with halberds who are anxiously anticipating any artistic attention that might come their way hopefully (for them) sooner rather than later.

** I’ve been continuing with this “desert basing” method with my poxwalkers because I want the mob to be uniform.  Once they are done, I think I’m going to try some desert texture products on future Nurgle forces.

*** I know the rock wanted to come home with me because I had to shake it out of my shoe and it was a sharp little bugger too.  Ouch!

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35 responses to “Bugbear with Mace & Shield Finished”

  2. Well done Ann, I do find it very helpful when you and the others explain your painting methods as it has helped improve my skills over the years. your flower look particularly good ,I thought of purchasing them like IMP advised but when I got my static grass guns I found it easier to make them myself ,they are basic but on my scale the do the trick. Oh and don’t you just love it when pebbles are very persistent I can see why you had to include it, it certainly makes the figure !!!

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    • Thank you, Pat. I try to explain what I do in some detail because I want other people to know if they are curious (I know I often am when I’m reading other peoples’ blogs) and because if in a year I go back, then I want to remind myself of how I did something. More than once I’ve painted something that I thought came out ok and then when I try to do it again I realize I have forgotten how I did it the first time and of course I didn’t write down any instructions. So now I do.

      I can see where the static grass gun would be very good to have, especially doing those dioramas for which you are famous. I would imagine that doing them with tufts could get very expensive after awhile.

      The pebble is kind of hard to see at a distance, but I like it as well and think it makes for a nice addition to a close-up picture or an Easter Egg on the tabletop if someone decides to take a closer look. But I figure that any pebble, especially one that sharp, deserves a place in my life given how hard it fought to go home with me. 🙂

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    • Many thanks. I’m satisfied with the leather though I think I might be able to do better. I’m not sure that is true but I’m going to try. 🙂

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  4. He’s great. I call that a successful Bugbear. Great metalwork. He looks capable of giving someone a real sharp headache. I like the contrast between his heavy metal weaponry and the delicate flowers at his feet – it all seems more brutal somehow! 🙂

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    • Hehe, grand! 🙂 Yes, I’m sure our friend the bugbear would very much like to give some interloper into his Valley of the Flowers a “real sharp headache.” I’d say he could make a very pointed argument that trespassers should very much beware!

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    • Thanks, Azazel. You know, when I started painting him and was trying to think about how I wanted to do the skin, I remembered the skin I’d seen on classic WHFB ogres, including the ones a friend of mine painted and fielded when he played a quick demo, introducing me to the game. It seemed a like a brutal-looking skin tone and I thought it might suit the bugbears well enough and be fairly simple to do considering my limited experience painting skin.

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        • That is pretty cool too about the adhesive. Does it stay on good even if you put the tuft on after you’ve put texture/sand on the base? Using them to differentiate units is a great idea. When the entire Aztec empire in metal is charging your opponent(s) you can say, the Eagle Warriors of the Red Flowers are one unit and the Eagle Warriors of the Tangling Vines are a second unit! 🙂

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          • Yeah and that was important for my Frinx and my Star Ducks. They do stay affixed well to flocking – as long as the flocking has been stabilized by glue and dried for example. As for Eagle Warriors, they should be relatively rare versus most units, but yes, I can do that and Shadow’s edge has a wide range of colors too!

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    • Thank you. I’m pretty happy with him though I do see where there is a lot of room for improvement. Still, that room for me is a good thing because getting better at something enjoyable is where a lot of the fun lives.

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    • Thanks, Dave. I thought keeping him muted was the best choice, though I did try and work in some lighter tones with such things as the handle of his mace and of course the base.

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  9. Good work. That pose works really nicely for middle-manager of evil dungeons (bossing around the Kobolds but in thrall to Dragons, Beholders etc) and I bet she’ll do great in games of D&D.

    I have to echo ericritter65’s comments about the basing; they look terrific.

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    • Haha, thinking of my bugbear as a “middle manager,” which is a great way of looking at it since that is what they so often end up being, makes me look at him in a whole different way. 🙂

      Thank you, I like how easy the base was to do. I’m going to use the same scheme for the other five bugbears. One thing I like about painting for RPG’s is that since one isn’t painting an “army” or unified faction, one doesn’t become married to a particular basing style for very long.

      Funny you mentioned kobolds because I do love me the hobbits of the lizardmen/dragonpeople. I’m going to have to get some of those guys once I get my current Fantasy backlog cleared.

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  11. Nicely done Ann and I think your choice of flesh colours worked very well. Another source for static grass tufts and flowers is Ebay. Certainly plenty of choice to be found in the UK. I used to make my own but given the small cost and how long a packet lasts me I no longet bother.

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    • Thank you. I can imagine that it is easier to just buy them these days. A packet of those things isn’t too dear and lasts me a long time as well. I find myself buying them not so much because I’m running out (I’m still working off of packets I’ve had for years) but because I want more variety. I’ll check out Ebay, thank you, in addition to Amazon. I wish my local game store carried more of that sort of thing, but they don’t. I do keep my eyes open there though because everyone once in awhile he’ll get something interesting.

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  12. Nice work on the Bugbear, and it’s amazing how transformative a different basing ‘recipe’ can be! I’m also a fan of Gamers Grass products, and I’ve been looking at their turquoise and neon ‘alien tufts’ range lately and trying to think of a good excuse to buy them!

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    • Yes, those “alien tufts” are quite cool. I don’t think you need an excuse given all of the neat stuff you paint: I’d say Just Do It!

      Thank you, I was hoping the bugbear would come out ok. The next one is in my painting queue, though I’m mainly concentrating on my friend’s pig demon as my main project so I can get it back to him and also put in my May-June painting challenge. (Haven’t gotten the full round-up for the April one done and we’re already into the next one. Madness is Queen!) 🙂

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    • Thanks, Pete. I enjoyed painting him. Looking forward to getting the other two done, but I also want to get the final poxwalker of my Dark Imperium mob finished too. Hope you are well. 🙂

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    • They are a ready made product like the grass tufts. I bought them a long time ago and forgot I had them until I started cleaning up and organizing my hobby room/office. They are “red flowers” from Gamer’s Grass. I bought them years ago at Great Escape Games in Sacramento, CA.

      I did a search on Amazon for “gamer’s grass” and all sorts of lovely basing materials came up, including the red flowers. I think I’m going to take a look at what they have since the local game store I normally go to doesn’t generally have much in the way of basing stuff.

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