Week 16 (27 Oct - 2 Nov 2002)
Zombie arm
"So, what are you supposed to be? The Incredible Hulk?"
"Nope. I don't think the Incredible Hulk has suppurating wounds. I actually don't have a costume. . . this is a spider bite or something. I'm sure it'll clear right up."
"Umm. . . OK. Stop grabbing my ass."
"Sorry, can't seem to control it. Say, where's the brains. . . beer! Where's the beer?"
This week's miniature is a 1:1 scale arm. I started out by giving the surface a bit of texture with a mixture of white glue and very fine beach sand. This gave things a nice wrinkly ragged look, particularly when the wrist or elbow articulated. I also glued on a few pieces of scrap foam rubber and let everything dry and encouraging it along with a hair dryer. I then primed things with black (naturally) and started in painting. I drybrushed on progressively lighter shades of Apple Barrel paint with a large piece of foam rubber, mixing in just a bit of light gray into the final highlight. For the sores, I started with purple, then moved up to red and a little white mixed in for the final highlight. I used my largest brush and wet-blended the sores.
I used a hairdryer to dry each layer, particularly around the inside of the elbow where things got a little messy. When everything was dry, I figured it was time to show it off.
Unfortunately, everybody seemed to think the arm belonged to the Incredible Hulk. I tried demonstrating its complete lack of control by grabbing anything than came nearby and stealing beer, but this just resulted in more heartbreak. Even frequent references to sweet sweet brain juice didn't help any. Discouraged, I returned home and stripped off the paint -- it took about a half-hour's soaking in hot soapy water. I plan to leave things stock for the moment.
Since things turned out so badly, I'm going to post another mini later on this week.
Back to week 15 (20 Oct - 26 Oct 2002)