I’ve been tackling two new skills with the Barbatos this past fortnight: 1. the scratch built mace, and 2. painting the eyes and forehead gem.
The Mace
Last we left off the mace head was simply two pieces that slot together. Don’t these remind you of those old slot together wooden models?
Since then I’ve cut a slot in one of the pieces for the shaft, and, glued 4 lengths of 5mm triangular rods to the slotted together flanges. These four triangles hold everything in place and give the mace a solid base from which the flanges extend.
The triangle rods extend past the bottom of the mace head so I cut off most of the excess and file the remainder down.
I’d normally do the same with the top but the shape of the flanges block my file; for now I’m leaving this as is.
Looking at the mace now, the flanges come across too thin, like, how is that supposed to survive getting smashed into the enemy? So I’m cutting out eight new pieces of plastic that attach to the center of the mace and bulk up the base of the flanges.
This is very tedious to do but, bit by bit, it’s getting there. Once they are ready I will glue them to the base, and fill in any gaps with putty, which I’ll shape to look like a weld joint.
I’ve also started the mace shaft by measuring the dimensions of the Barbatos’s katana,
but there is a problem:
The heavy mace head is too heavy for the thin shaft and I’m not too sure how to solve this. My current thought is to glue strips along sections of the shaft to stiffen it, but I must ensure it doesn’t become too thick to grip. While I could file down the inside of the hands to hold a thicker shaft, I want Barbatos to still be able to hold its sword firmly.
Gem & Eye Painting
The second skill is painting the large gem in the center of the v fin. Now I’m aware that in the anime it isn’t a gem, and it doesn’t really make sense for it to be a gem, but, it would look AWESOME!
I’m using a guide from Cool Mini or Not’s “Ultimate Miniature Painting Guide”.
As you can see it involves painting the gem black and then painting progressively lighter shades of the gem’s colour onto smaller and smaller areas, culminating in almost white. These colours are blended together to show a smooth transition.
Finally, a spot of white is added to the darkest area of the gem to simulate reflected light.
Using some generic, non-model, acrylic paint I’ve collected over the years I’ve done a few practice runs on a plaplate scrap, but I’m not yet happy with the result. Practice practice practice!
Once I’m happy with the result I’ll do the same for the eyes. Being able to paint these kinds of light effects is a skill I’ve wanted for some time, but like any skill worth having, it only comes after a lot of ugly and failed practice attempts. I’m looking forward to getting this one under my belt.
Hope you’re enjoying this WIP, leave me a comment and let me know if you want to see more of these.
Thanks for reading.