rock colors

Painting the Reaper BONES Giant Earth Elemental: 2 of 264

     For my second figure to paint I selected the large Earth Elemental from the BONES "Forces of Nature" optional add-on set. This was one of the figures I was most anticipating, because I really needed it to supply a "heavy weapon" unit for my GASLIGHT Rockmen of Mars force.
     The figure comes in four pieces: body, two arms, and head.  They all fit together really easily and snugly. I just needed to do a little trimming to reduce the length of the pin on the head that fit into the body. The joints were tight enough that no putty work was needed.  I gave the figure a bath in some water with a drop of dish soap in it, and rinsed it well, before assembling using Gorilla brand super glue. Finally I glued the figure to a 1.5 inch fender washer with Aleene's Tacky glue

     For my color selection I was greatly influenced by the look of the rock monster called Gorignak in the sci-fi comedy  movie, "Galaxy Quest". It is a yellowish sandstone looking color. So, to start with I painted the whole thing with Ceramcoat Maple Sugar Tan.

     When this was dry I gave the entire figure a wash with Iron Wind Metals (Ral Partha) Chestnut Brown Ink. Then I set it aside to let it dry.  This helped give the figure a slightly reddish brown cast.

The next step was to give it a second wash, this time with Games Workshop Devlan Mud (now called Agrax Earthshade).  This helped darken the crevices between the rocks nicely.

     My final step when the washes had dried, was to drybrush the whole thing with a light coat of Americana Buttermilk. This helped really bring out the details. The last thing was adding two small black dots for eyes. Then, when all this had dried overnight, I gave the figure a coat of Ceramcoat brush-on matte varnish.

     Next up was the base.  I first coated the washer with white glue and then coated it with a layer of sand mixture.  When it was dried, I painted it black, and then drybrushed it with reds and oranges to match my mars ground cloth.  When ll this dried, the final step was a coat of Testor's Dullcote.

      It wasn't a particularly hard figure to paint, as it used just one color and a couple of washes.  But I think it turned out well.