Hindsight is 20/20

[lederhosen]

So, I bought a "bear and dwarven rider" for our D&D game. The bear, with a different figure riding, will represent Kanaye the Wonder Wolverine. (And no, the dwarf will not go to waste. I have special plans for him. More on that later.)

I decided to get out the putty and try my hand at making armour for said wolverine, to reflect the spiked hide armour Kanaye wears. (Side benefit being that it conceals much of the non-wolverine-shaped hindsection.)

Thought about having a sheet of 'hide' covering the creature's belly, but realised that this would be very tricky to model (cramped space in there) and probably wouldn't work well for a relatively flexible creature like a wolverine - I didn't want the armour to look too restrictive. Instead I went for a 'hanging skirts' approach: flaps of hide hang down on either side, giving the legs some protection and making it very hard to reach the belly, without actually covering it. Flattening the putty with my fingertips gave it a nice texture - I don't know what allosaurus hide really looks like, but this is a reasonable substitute. Then I added toothpick tips for the spikes, and an ogre skull as the pommel.

Putty hardened, it was painting time...

Oops. I'd designed the armour to protect the creature's vulnerable sections - eyes, underbelly, etc. And this, indeed, it does.

Especially from paintbrushes.

Note to self: next time, consider doing some of the painting before armouring...

Comments

[drzero.livejournal.com]

My first big time painting project was two blood bowl teams, using normal undercoat, i discovered, somewhat...umm.. smoothed out the features of the miniatures. :/ To the point of almost removing faces.

[(Anonymous)]

Impressed with Google
Search for Wolverine; first hit
Is not X-men site

(Now I know what a wolverine looks like)
lonecat.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Yes, Wolverine Foundation is a good site :-) There are a couple more wolverine pics in Calair's usericons too.

[(Anonymous)]

They look quite cuddly. This is not a hypothesis I would want to test in real life.
lonecat.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

I'm told they're noticeably more bad-tempered than weasels. In RL, the males grow to about 25 kg (50 pounds), and there are stories of them driving grizzlies away from food.

Kanaye, being a dire wolverine, has a similar disposition but weighs nearly a ton. So far, most of the things that have tried to cuddle him have ended up regretting it. Very briefly. ;-)

[turnberryknkn.livejournal.com]

Ooops.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Learning experiences everywhere ;-).