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Skeleton Warrior

Skeleton Warrior

 

by Bill Wolfe

The Verlinden 150MM Skeleton Warrior was built right from the box. One of the best things about building large-scale figures is that no little Photo-etched parts are needed. I did hollow out the boots as recommended in the brief instructions. This resulted in the need to shorten the lower leg bones to fit down into the opened boots. Using short lengths of brass wire, I secured the ‘bones’ of the figure to one another.

Skeleton Warrior

 

Squadron green putty was used to smooth and strengthen the unions (if you look closely at the figure, you see that he must have had a serious calcium build-up in life to retain those knobby knees!)

 

 

Once cleaned up, built and secured enough to stay standing, the entire model was airbrushed with flat black paint (Humbrol 33). This was followed up with the ground colors. The steps that the figure is standing on were painted a concrete color and the gravel of the base received a gray color.

 

The skulls and bones on the ground were painted off white. The base was then washed with a thinner and Humbrol 33 wash and dry brushed to bring out the details. A metallic color was used on the ‘glove’ laying on the base, while the edge of the base was finished up with a gloss black.

 

 

 

Skeleton WarriorNow it was time to paint the figure itself. The bones of the figure were painted with the same off white color as the bones on the base. I choose an off white color so I could add highlights to it and get some depth to the finished product. There is a reason I choose this figure over any other as a good starting point to begin building large-scale figures – no flesh or eyes to worry about!

 

Once the bones were base coated, I moved on to the clothing, boots, belt, shield, chain mail and the axe. The only one of these steps that really deserves any mention is the axe. It was painted a base color (Humbrol 110 wood) and when this was dry, the handle was painted with burnt sienna artist oils to give it a wood grain look. The entire model was given shadows of a slightly darker color than the parts base color and then later highlighted with a lighter color that the base color that was used. This helped to add life to the figure and give it some dimension.

 

Photos by Bill Wolfe