Shameless self-plug I suppose, but if not here to my favourite Pokémon lovers, then where?
Inspired by @lyleberr’s QotD about hypothetical Pokémon Warhammer crossover, I decided to repaint a TOMY figure from my collection! And I thought maybe you guys would like the results (or it might encourage someone else to have a go.)
It all starts with the innocent yet battered childhood Onix. Missing his stand, and with a few battle wounds (I think a dog chewed him), he needs some TLC!
Find a suitable base, drill a hole, and some basing materials. I imagine him in Mt Moon charging around through the ground, creating rubble and a trench in his wake.
Add some colour interest. In the thread the suggestion was made that Pokémon would be a bit boring to paint because their simple style doesn’t lend itself to the complexity we usually associate with wargaming miniatures. I wanted to see if I could challenge that. Prussian blue, brick red and purple make a good ‘base’ for something like this.
I then did what I always do and got too stuck in to remember to take any photos. About an hour later, Onix is looking much more rocky… Next is the finalé.
Once again, the rest is undocumented, but about another hour of work, some resin to create a water pool, some detail features like mushrooms (a la Paras/ect) and a blue crystal (an homage to Crystal Onix, which I did toy with, but it would have been easier to make interesting) and our Mt Moon inspired base is complete. Onix looks much happier!
Thanks for the inspiration @lyleberr and I hope you all like him!
I love the detailing on the Onix. It really looks amazing. I am not competent enough to appreciate the technique and skill displayed here. Really great work and thanks for showcasing it. Maybe you can keep updating this thread as and when paint more Pokemon.
This is amazing looking and that you were so quick in doing it ! It would have taken me a solid week of researching and then like 6hrs for the painting.
Ive never painted figures so some questions. What brushes do you use for it? Techniques to prevent strokes showing through? Was there sanding involved? The base also is impressive, when you say screwed to it, do you mean from the bottom?
I think that each individual pokemon could be very unique to the person doing it so i agree that it would not necessarily lead to boring armies. I would have considered giving onix a more battlescarred look with a face scar or small painted cracks from between the rock segments.
I think you did an awesome job and while it still looks like an onix it also has a lot of mood to the shadows because the colors you used, which is so cool to see since i havent seen that much in official sculpts.
Hey! Awesome questions. Apologies for the ensuing geek out.
I had a lot of ideas about what I could have done with this one, including battle damage, or alternate colours, including maybe going with Crystal Onix theme. But in the end I decided it would be more challenging to make a plain grey Onix look exciting, so that’s what I went for.
I’m about to out myself here by showing you the brushes because even my detail brush doesn’t have a good tip on it.
The bigger brush I use for the things like the basic painting at the start, setting the colours up etc. The battered Size 2 one I used for all of the grey work up to the lightest. Having no discernible tip to it isn’t the biggest deal, just got to work with the angles and understand how you’re pushing paint around. The small one is for details and this requires a light touch and the right paint consistency.
The lack of strokes (ironic considering I think I’m very lazy and can see 100s of strokes) is mainly due to paint dilution, and this is aided by using something called a wet palette. It’s basically a wet sponge with a semi-permeable sheet over it, like baking parchment. This allows minute amounts of water to wick through into the paint whilst the paint itself remains on the paper. It also helps paint last a few days, so I could come back for touch ups tomorrow with no issue.
I drilled out a small hole on the base (these are just plastic discs basically common throughout all wargames) and then stuck Onix’ peg into it and glue in place!
I am definitely gonna do more, so thanks for the idea! I’ve thought about how good it would be to make a “battle” set piece with slots for the bases, so it would look like the battles in the games and the Pokémon could be swapped out.
Still very impressive! A second looks shows me a few brushstrokes but overall it looks really good for what you were going for. I think a battle scene or even 6 mon teams would be fun to make but my skills are nowhere near yours.
Hope you can have some fun with it. Never know what a group of interested parties can come up with for a homebrew game centered around this.
! It would have taken me a solid week of researching and then like 6hrs for the painting.
