OWAC V - The Canus Gigas

As promised last time, my dwarf mercenaries welcome the Canus Gigas ("Grey Giant" in Classical), distant cousin of the Helvetus Gigas discovered in the canton of Lucerne (depicted below on one of the paintings of Lucerne's wooden bridges). 

The model is a Citadel C28 giant, holding a slightly converted trunk from the Gargant plastic kit. End of June, I was not satisfied with the result submitted to the OWAC. The fact that I've used an old pot of Reikland Fleshshade didn't help (for some reasons, it became very glossy), and but the main reason is my painting job, definitely lacking contrasts. When you look at the giant using a greyscale conversion, the flesh, the trunk and the clothes have very close values. Not good.

I have therefore decided to touch up the giant after June's entry. Essentially, I have tried to emphasize the flesh parts with washes of  black and dark red in the shadows, and more highlights on the shoulders and the forehead of the giant. I've also darkened the trunk a little bit with washes of dark brown, dark green and black, and reworked the tunique by removing the redish and greyish parts, that were distracting the eye of the observer (at least from my point of view).

All in all, I see some improvement, even if I'm well aware that I should spend more time on models like this one.

Now back to the dwarfs. The Gigas often needs some help to find the battlefield, as giants are not famous for their skills in manoeuvring. 

For the giant herders, I have picked 3 spare models of the Marauder Miniatures range and replaced their original weapons with the imperial wagon man-catcher, the fork of a squig herder, and what I was able to sculpt in greenstuff for the whip.

Now go! Right in front of you, stupid giant!

Marauder Giant MB7

At last! Three months and a half to complete this monster. It already fell twice, and I still need to touch up a few things in the back and on the barrel. Anyway... final pictures:

Giant WIP III

The endless story...

Since the last post, I've been able to paint the sword and the arms of the giant. First pictures show the shield and the sword glued into place. The sun is perfect to indicate the giant's allegiance to the Sudenland.
 

The following picture shows the left arm completed and some dirts and bruises added on the legs, below the knees (not sure you can actually see them, though).

The third set of pictures shows the two arms assembled. The trunk and the oddly sculpted moss or foliage was quite hard to paint properly, if you have some piece of advice to improve the look, feel free to post a comment!

Note the blood splatters all over the legs... not my initial intent, as I was only targetting the end of the trunk. In the end, it's not that bad.

Hopefully, the next post will be the final one for this giant!

Giant work in (slow) progress II

Well, that's it, couldn't make it before my holidays. As you can see, still a lot of hours to spend on it before completion...

Giant work in progress

I've been silent for a month now, blame the new model I'm working on! the famous Marauder Miniatures giant sculpted by Aly Morrison.

Despite the size and the fact that it's a good old metal giant, the different parts fit surprisingly well, which makes quite easy the preparation. Still had to fill some gaps here and there with green stuff.

Given the weight of the model, I've decided to glue it to the base, which would allow me to use a painting handle:

First, the 75x50 base:

And then the legs:

Below the references I've used for the skin:

 

And the preparation of the next parts:

Body fixed on the legs:

And the first steps of painting:

The plan is to complete it by the end of the month...