In my humble opinion, Curacao was made for skinks. I have done a few solo skinks in the past. However, I have been entranced for some time with the armored biological tank known as the Bastiladon. I love the skinks hanging on for dear life, ready to go into battle. One of the other things that fascinated me was the number of ways that I saw that folks paint the shell of the beast.
So for this blog I dug out the model and chose to do the Solar Engine option because I wanted to show off various shades of yellow. I then used the primed left over bits from the Ark of Sotek version for testing out color schemes. In the end, this is my version along with descriptions of what Turbo Dork colors I used.
Skinks:
Of course, I had to start with the figure's three skinks, all of which carry spears. The figures were primed with matte black and then given a base coat with (you guessed it) Curacao. The spears were based with Black Ice.
Skinks are short and skinny. Therefore, they only needed a bit of Nuln Oil Gloss followed by Da Ba De and Maguro to bring out the highlights. The spear tips are Silver Fox with Tin Star, jewelry Gold Rush, eyes Redrum with a dot of Bees Knees, and teeth Pearly Gates.
Solar Engine:
This impressive, if mystifying weapon was primed over all with matte black and then the crystal parts were painted white. The main body of the engine is Cartridge Family with Bullion highlighting and Cryptek Armourshade Gloss shading. The edges were then dry brushed with Gold Rush. Lastly, the decorations were done in Redrum and Cool Ranch.
The crystals were based with four thin coats of Pucker in order to get good coverage. Then Bees Knees was applied to the bottom half and covered with a touch of Multi Pass on the very bottom edge. The top portion of the two crystals were lightly brushed with Yuzu.
Bastiladon:
Now for the lumbering reptile itself. It was undercoated with black matte primer and based with Dark Net on top over and Grave Digger on the bottom. Both of these colors are green/brown shifts but Dark Net has a medium brown with a lighter shade of green, while Grave Digger is a darker green with a golden brown.
I then randomly highlighted the top scales with Gordian Knot, Matcha, and Twin Sons which shows green over a dark base. Lastly I added some light accents with Death By. The bottom part of the Bastiladon was dry brushed with Gordian Knot, Electrum, and Death By.
The figure was finished off in the following manner:
- Black Ice/Six Shooter/Silver Fox - bases under the feet
- GoldRush/Redrum/CoolRanch - "crown"
- Pearly Gates - teeth
- Redrum/Bees Knees - eyes
- Death By/Black Ice - claws
Assembly:
Lastly, I put together the three pieces along with the bars on which the skinks hang off from and on which the engine rests. The actual base was added and decorated with flock grass, plastic plants, and snakes left over from the Ark of Sotek variation.
Conclusions:
This Bastiladon shows you my love of skinks and my take on highlighting green/brown shifts. What's yours?