Behemoth WIP - Flawless Victory

That's right, I'm excited enough to use Zelda sounds. My charity project is done!

I promised you guys I'd try to capture the effects of the preshading, but I just can't grab it in an entire picture. So here is a look at the highlighting on his left shoulder. I love how smoothly it transitions from the brightest part down to the darker area.

With a lower PSI my airbrush was even able to put highlights on these small pistons, which is one of those subtle effects you might not notice, but it was really neat to see it take on a more realistic coloring.

I'm so pleased at how his pose on the rock turned out. I was nervous about how awkward he might look, since I was basically pretending his pose wasn't meant to look awful. But even though he's on the edge instead of the middle, I think it still looks like it was posed that way on purpose.

His bent leg gets a bit lost from the front, but there's just so much going on with this model that I couldn't figure out a good way to capture it all in one shot. I was so lucky that I didn't get any of this foam glue on Behemoth, because apparently "Dries clear" in the world of arts & crafts means "Dries 100% white without a hint of transluscence. Good luck!" All I had to do was add some grass around the rock (which I'd planned to do anyway) and the problem was solved. I did find one mold line while waking pictures, which was incredibly frustrating because I spent an entire evening smoothing him down. C'est la vie.

I'm not sure which photo I want to use for my gallery, so I'd like to hear your thoughts (don't worry, I'll crop the bottom of the final photo). I know each photo is basically the same, but I want to make sure I do justice to the model and the charity. Heck, I might just try again tomorrow with some better lighting. Oh to have a lightbox...

For those of you who have been with me for awhile, you may recall that my first charity project didn't go as well as I'd hoped. I painted a 35 point Menoth list, and things just kept going wrong throughout the entire project. I finished it frustrated and disappointed because I really wanted it to look the way I'd envisioned it, and it was a poor showing of whatever skills I may have.

I learned a lot from that project, and I think that wisdom translated well to my second charity project.

• I was much more careful with assembly.
• I only chose one model so I could better focus my efforts.
• I didn't play it safe with my techniques, while giving myself plenty of time to strip the paint and start again if things went awry.
• I made it relevant to the event, which is my favorite part of the entire piece because I made it my own.
• I focused on my excitement for helping with charity rather than my dread of failing. 

My only real regret is that I didn't become familiar enough with oil washes to really make the metal stand out. Still, I'd rather wish my skills were higher than to regret that my current skills failed me!

Make sure you guys check out Battle for Hope's Facebook page. While I'm a fan of almost any charity, knowing that I'm helping the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention is important to me personally. I know I plan to support them in the future, and since most of us know have someone in our lives who could be impacted by AFSP or Autism Speaks I think supporting the Battle for Hope supports us all.

See you tomorrow!

Remember to follow me on Facebook! I'm doing a blog post every single day for 2013, and Facebook is a great way to stay up-to-date as well as take part in my monthly giveaways. This month you canget a model painted for free!