SilentSurfer's Laboratory: Come up to the Lab & See What's on the Slab.

[Gary23]

wow

 

[SilentSurfer]

Took some time to work on my Sano Alien kit this weekend.

I've got all the mold lines scraped off. I blended the dorsal fin and hip joint gaps, and I've got the skull detail penciled in.

I added a bit of detail under the fin to bridge the gap in the spinal detail between sections so that it looks more continuous.

I don't think even the pre-painted Sano pieces have the hip joint line blended, but mine now does.

The skull detail is only penciled on for now using the following pics as reference.

I will go over the skull with a haze of bone white base color, and then go over and refine the lines with black paint. Then I will make the bone white heavier and retouch the black lines as needed. This will blend the lines in well without having to stress about airbrushing them perfectly. Finally I will tint the bone with tan and brown before attaching the dome to blend the dome joining line.

 

[marker2037]

Cool. Is this the kind of project that suits well to mainly airbrushing?

 

[Cheungkinmen]

I can't wait to see this finished!

 

[Reinhardt]

Very nice!!! I'll be watching this closely!

 

[agonistes86]

Now this is a thing of beauty.

 

[elar]

I really wish to have this piece! You will make magic things with it!!!

 

[MarfMaster]

Going to be mind-blowing when you're done with it....

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Wow.

That thing is already stunning and you haven't even dipped your brushes in any paint yet!

This is going to be epic ...

 

[SilentSurfer]

Cool. Is this the kind of project that suits well to mainly airbrushing?

Most of the detail work I will be doing by hand for more control. For detail as fine as what I've penciled onto the head, I prefer the feel of drawing it with a paint brush. Overall colors and tints will be done with airbrush though.

 

[DarthMagnus]

Cant wait to see this Alien completed Nate! Then I can stare at my Ht Big Chap in shame!

 

[SilentSurfer]

I suck today.

I'm having a horrible fail day. I hate having to figure something out by screwing it up first. I need to rethink my approach to doing the Alien skull. So not loving it.

 

[MarfMaster]

I suck today.

I'm having a horrible fail day. I hate having to figure something out by screwing it up first. I need to rethink my approach to doing the Alien skull. So not loving it.

Well I know, and you know, that you will ultimately crush it. So that should be ample motivation to turn that frown upside down

 

[Bucky Underbelly]

Hey man, the harder it is, the more satisfying and rewarding it will be when you finally conquer it.

 

[marker2037]

Most of the detail work I will be doing by hand for more control. For detail as fine as what I've penciled onto the head, I prefer the feel of drawing it with a paint brush. Overall colors and tints will be done with airbrush though.

Cool

 

[stshammgod]

I suck today.

I'm having a horrible fail day. I hate having to figure something out by screwing it up first. I need to rethink my approach to doing the Alien skull. So not loving it.

You have those too? You just said though that you figured it out, so that's a positive...

 

[galactiboy]

Sorry to hear your'e having a set-back on the ALIEN... but I have to say I'm super pumped to see the final product as I really think you'll do an amazing job on this one!

And amazing Evil Superman, I swear some of the shots are so real looking that if I didn't know better I'd suspect Photoshop shenanigans

 

[EarthwormJimmy]

Loving all your work Nathan, looks amazing! Keep it up mate! Loving the regular updates.

 

[SilentSurfer]

Thank you.

This is far from finished, and I think this looks like absolute crap as is, but...

...these are just work in progress pics anyway. The hardest part of this project is over. The skull paint is basically in place. This is where I thought I'd be done, but my original approach wasn't effective enough.

Each reference pic of the prop heads from the movie shows a slightly different style and layout of detail painted on the skull, and that makes it hard to achieve a look that marries the best of each variation, which is how I ended up with this cluster____ in progress. Plus, and this might surprise many of you, but I actually don't have a very steady airbrushing hand (at least by my own standards), especially with detail this fine and small.

I will now be going back over every detail with my finest brushes to refine it all by hand, including reshaping the rib patterns along the sides. It will be tedious, but fun (oxymoron).

After that will be washes and tinting to get a nice smooth bone look, and then I will have to set this project aside again until I knock out some more commission work.

 

[Reinhardt]

Agreed, it looks like absolute crap.

Please send to me.