4 October 2021

Gug

It's back to huge metal monsters today as I'm waiting on more zombies and survivors to show up in the mail for this month's double challenge of Zombtober and Apocalypse Me. So strap in and enjoy.

I painted a Gug back in 2019. It's the plastic Reaper Bones model and was fun, if frustrating, to paint thanks to squillions of tiny teeth. I actually didn't like the four-armed look and snipped off two of that sculpt's arms.

This Gug, on the other hand, is a whopping metal figure that I got in an RBJ Games Kickstarter I alluded to in my mean little zombie post back in August. He needed to be assembled before painting, with his two extra forearms being separate as well as his head being in two pieces. With a lot of superglue and swearing I managed to get him stuck together and then it was just a case of filling the gaps using Vallejo Plastic Putty as I couldn't face mixing greenstuff (and in my defence, I couldn't actually find it). It was the first time I'd used the putty, and it was really easy to apply with toothpicks and an old worn-out brush.

Gug was sprayed with cheap grey primer and then painted with Frozen Flesh, which is a dark purple-grey colour. After leaving him to thoroughly dry, he got a solid shading with Citadel's Druchii Violet, which I picked up in Bennington last week as my bottle of Army Painter Purple Tone is on its last legs after more than three years' dedicated service. I like the Citadel shade, although to be honest there's bugger all difference between it and the Army Painter version.

I used my hairdryer to speed up the wash's drying time, then hit the highlights. I just mixed larger amounts of Ghost Grey into the Frozen Flesh and overbrushed the first couple of passes before switching to drybrushing the final two highlights on. 

It dried a bit chalky so to tie it all together I took a deep breath and gave Gug another once-over with more Druchii Violet. It did help give the skin a better look but on the other hand darkened it more than I'd have liked.

Ooo, details time. I kicked off with his claws, painting them Ivory, washing them with Sepia Wash and highlighting them with Bonewhite. Then it was time for his mouth, for which I used Citadel Barak-Nar Burgundy. As it's a base coat it covered really well. I mixed the burgundy with Sunny Skin to highlight it, then shaded it down with Flesh Tone, and used pure Sunny Skin for the ulcers. 

The fur on his arms was the same colour and shading as his skin, which didn't look good. I thought about using purple for it, but then — keeping in mind that this is a monster from another dimension — I decided red would make a good contrast to the violet. A couple of thin coats of Red, a couple of layers of Flat Red, a highlight with Wild Rider Red and a final wash with Red Tone worked well.

His rope belt was painted Khaki, Dark Tone and and the hooks Natural Steel. Then came one part than did worry me: his stiched-together loincloth. It was originally going to be done as different colours of cloth or leather, but then I went for different skin tones to make it more creepy using my flesh mix, Pale Flesh and Deepkin Flesh. All were given a once-over with Flesh Tone to blend them together a bit, then highlighted with their respective colours. The stitches are Ghost Grey.

The final details were his teeth, for which I used Ivory, some thinned Filthy Brown to give them a yellowed look, some Burnt Umber Wash and a touch of White. They didn't come out quite as well as I'd hoped, but they'll do. Lastly I did his boils with more Barak-Nar Burgundy and Sunny Skin Tone, and his eyes with Olive and Scorpy greens.

His base is dead boring: sand painted with Dark Red, washed with homemade black wash, and highlighted with Wild Rider Red and a bit of Lemon Yellow. I couldn't think of anything to put on it, so I didn't.

HAVE FUN, DAKOTA!

12 comments:

  1. Great work Matt, suitably creepy. Would work as a mutant in an apocalypse setting, so will count for my challenge.
    When you want to blend the colours together instead of using a wash, use a glaze. If you have glaze medium I find 1 drop of the medium, to 2 drops of wash works well, if making a glaze from paint, it will take a lot more. You can make glazes with water, but the balance can be tricky, and depending on the brand of paint or wash can separate so be carful mixing the water in, just a drop at a time.

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    1. Cheers, Dave. Yeah, the wash should have been thinned to buggery to get a glaze. I realised that about a third of the way through but by then it was too late. Still, he looks OK and I'm happy he accidentally counts for your challenge :-)

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  2. Awesome work Matt. Love the purple especially. That's an insane amount of teeth and claws you've pigmented too. You must have the patience of a saint, LOL!!

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    1. Thanks! The purple turned out a bit darker than I'd have liked, but it still works. As gugs are supposed to be black, I guess dark purple suits it. The teeth and claws were a pain to paint, but nowhere near as bad as Yog-Sothoth :-)

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  3. Your attention to detail in that gaping maw is excellent and well worth the effort for this fearsome monster. Good chhoic of skin tones and giving an overall evil feeling.
    "We don;t know what it is, but we be afeared of it".

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    1. Thanks, Joe, I appreciate that! According to the official description, gugs are 16 feet tall, so "afeared" doesn't quite cover it LOL!

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  4. Interesting sculpt that I’d not seen prior. Strange design choice I think to have fur on the forearms but I can’t see any more elsewhere on its body, (maybe there’s some appropriately hidden under that skirt? Lol).

    The purple looks really good with lots of depth and double extra points for having the patience to paint all those teeth so well, lots of rubbish angles in that mouth to try to get a brush too.

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    1. Cheers! Gugs are supposed to have furry forearms (fourarms?) apparently. I agree, it does look a bit odd and me painting the fur bright red probably didn't help :-)

      The teeth are all over the place, and the angles did cause some fun and games trying not to get white or yellow on the purple, but I do like how they look. Random jagged teeth are somehow way scarier.

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  5. Well that look's excellent mate, love the purple flesh, very well done on this by the way, and the gapping maw of a mouth is a triumph too.

    When you say have fun Dakota, were you aware that she appears to be shooting him in the crotch?

    😲

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. LOL! Dakota isn't so much shooting him in the crotch as suddenly realising what she's up against and is losing hope :-)

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  6. Gug would look great amongst Lovecraft's other inventions. I really like the colors you chose and my god that is one gaping maw! :) Its always nice to see new sculpts and you seem to have a knack for always painting something I have never seen before!

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    1. He certainly has a whopping mouth and it came out looking better than I'd hoped! I do like finding "different" sculpts, especially the larger ones. Glad I surprise you :-)

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