Cygnaran Hunter
The Cygnar Hunter is one of my favorite ‘jacks. He sports an almost reptilian stance, like a predatory dinosaur on the hunt. His face has a bit of a mean, aggressive look to it, while the top of the chassis has a refined aerodynamic feel.
When it comes to the game one of the biggest distinctions the Hunter has is Pathfinder. I wanted to embrace this as I based him to give it the feel that he wasn’t just out on a flat battlefield, but he was in rough terrain, on the hunt. I decided to have him just coming down a bank and stepping into a forest stream.
On the hunt.
I built up a bank behind him with modeling putty and planted some large kitty-litter rocks on edge. I added two rather tall sprigs of field grass to give a feeling of reeds and clumped some grass flock against the edges of the rocks I kept the soil darker brown to relay a wet feeling, not the sun-dried earth of an open field.
Stepping into the water
The water was done with Valejo Water Effects. I used a bit of modeling putty to support the large rock behind his axe to keep it above the water. The rest of the water area is covered in fine grit which was painted a greenish-brown. Over top of this I used a whittled-down popsicle stick to apply the water effects. The Valejo Water Effects material has a consistency and color of mayonnaise. Each wave crest is sculpted by pulling up the water effects up with the stick. The water effects shrinks quite a bit when it dries so I applied a generous coat and really exaggerated the waves.
Once dry the water effects does have a bit of a glossy appearance, I did a blue wash and a green wash over the water. I then lightly dry brushed with Morrow White. Once the dry brushing was completed the gloss was pretty much gone, though it could be recovered with some well placed gloss varnish.
Tuft of field grass
The field grass was something new I tried for this model as well. It definitely adds some visual interest, but I wonder if I may have gone too tall with it. Time will tell if it gets pulled out or worn off. When applying field grass you definitely want to make sure it has a wide variety of random heights. You don’t want an even clump.
The bank behind
For all my talk of the basing, I’m also very happy with how the paint on the model turned out. I forced myself to use a wider range of contrasts than I typically do, which looks great. Especially on the head and shoulders with the dark blue/brown going up to edge highlights of Frostbite. The gold came out nicely here also. I could still use a wider range of contrasts on my metallics, but the front guard on the stack has a nice brown to gold gradient and the gold tip of the cannon also came out with good shading. Lastly the shoulder patches I used to tie in my Jack Bone color for the rest of my forces. Aside from linking him to my army it also makes for a nice eye-catcher. I did achieve a bit of gradient on the should patches, but I should still strive for more if possible.
For the moment at least, this is probably the model I’m most proud of.