Speed Painting a Blood Bowl Ogre Tutorial – Finished!

The Ogre is complete and I am pleased how he turned out. In part one I showed him primed and basecoated. In part two Agrax Earthshade was applied and a few colors were reapplied to brighten up the model. Here are the final results.

The picture above shows the model right before the last green flock was applied. Everything is highlighted and the decals were applied. The blue armor received a final line-highlight around the prominent edges. This was done with my thinnest brush: an Escoda Reserva #2.

Escoda Reserva – My favorite line-highlighting brush

It is much easier to make a line highlight when the body of the brush isn't too fat. The Reserva is perfect for thin lines and dotting eyes.

The cloth received a single highlight of it's initial base color reapplied. The skin on the face has three highlights applied as it is a focal point on the model. The metal has a bright silver dotted onto all of the rivets and a few edges done here and there.

The above photo shows the model moving toward completion. Look at how the simple addition of the highlighted cloth really makes the miniature pop. It is only a single highlight after the wash, and it takes no skill whatsoever as you don't have to get near other colors of paint, but it drastically improves the model.

As a figure painter, if you only wash your models and call it done, this should be your next step toward putting nicer models on the table. Pick two or three colors that take up the majority of the model surface and quickly reapply the base color. You'll love the results.

Disaster Averted

I must confess that this model gave me a ton of headaches... most of which were my own doing. After the mess of the Bluetac and paper towel debacle that I chronicled in part two, I thought that I was free and clear of any evil spirits. Not so! During the decal process things went sideways when the transfers started to ignore my efforts to move them about and decided to affix themselves in all sorts of odd places. They ripped, folded up on themselves. tore apart, and made a mess of things.

As far as I can tell, I think I didn't let the Vallejo gloss set long enough before applying the transfers. That's my only theory that holds water. I was able to salvage the situation by getting most into place, piecing together parts from other decals, and strategically applying battle damage.

The moral: never give up!