I’m not normally a figure builder, but I got a nice Star Trek Mugato conversion kit for the
Moebius Kogar kit. The build thread is in the science fiction area.
Mugato:
I’m almost ready to paint the Mugato, here is where I’m at:
The hands/horns/face/spine should be fine with a sand color, but the fur has me stumped.
It’s a dirty white as you can see, should I go with a very light grey/tan base coat and then dry brush clean white over it? Or go with a clean white base coat and wash it with a light grey/white?
Well, how I’d do this- it may not be the best way.
Paint the whole thing a light grey and then spray white down on him from the top hitting the highlights and leaving the shadowed areas darker.
Hit him with a good solid coat of gloss.
Add a wash of light grey over all.
This should give you a good amount of defination to the fur detail.
If you want more you can wet-brush the fur. Take a brush with white paint on it, wipe off the excess but leave it wet- not like you’re dry-brushing and stroke the fur at about a 45 degree angle.
If that comes out too much you can always mix a very thin wash of white paint and spray over the whole model to knock down the contrast.
Hi. Its a large beastie and I don’t usually work in this scale, but if it was me I would use a layering technique. If you look at the photos there’s a lot of colour in there. I would probably start with a dark tan working to a light tan and then some greys to dirty white and finally some dry brushing in white. I would keep the layers thin and build them up gradually. It would be useful if you had something to practice on like some Milliput. Roughly mold a piece into a body shape, score it to resemble the surface you are trying to paint, let it dry and cover it with the same undercoat and practice away. Make sure to let each layer dry properley before starting the next. If all this fails there’s always fishing …
I would avoid using pure white except for the very highest of your highlights, and use an off-white for the most of those areas where you want to use white. But otherwise, either Gamera’s or Dodgy’s technique will work. Both help give the molded details the depth that a fur coat shows.
Falling back on my Commercial Art training, my reflex would be to to start very close to the darkest shadow/hair root color. Then build up a “middle” layer of color thorugh a “wet” sort of dry brushing. Then highlight with the fur tip color through dry brushing.
An argument could be made to use a medium tone base, and build up through nearly-clear washes to get the depth of color desired.
I’ve used oil washes to try and get horses to look right–if never quite to my satisfaction.
Just so I understand, my next step should be to re spray the darkest color. Then “wet” dry brush the next lighter color over most of the mugato, enamel paint?. Let that dry. Then dry brush some almost pure white (enamel again) over the high areas of the fur?
With the flat white and then the raceing white coats I lost some of the contrast of the tan/grey layer. I went too heavy with the raceing white I think.
Rather than start over I decided to try a wash.
I went with Model Master light rust, its a tan/yellow color. I figured the enamel paint would not dissolve the Tamiya lacquer.
I thined it down a lot and put it on with a thick/loose brush and wiped off excess.
So here is where I stand now:
I let him sit overnight, today or tomorrow I’ll dry brush on some very light grey, let dry, and then just a bit of pure white.
Oh, the unicorn lizard monkey thing . . . I was thinking it was time for a cat dip!
That is a procedure similar to giving a cat a bath - you place the cat in the toilet, close the lid, sit down and flush. Then, after the water stop splashing out from under the lid, you stand up while holding the lid closed. Then when sufficiently out of the path between the toilet and the bathroom door, you lift the lid.
The cat will drip dry; trust me.
The cat painting process is similar; just a bit messier. Again, trust me.
