Two Thin Coats - Gyzmo
While searching for something to paint I came across this little fella. Originally from the first Two Thin Coats kickstarter he is a companion to Sir Coates. As I was on a roll clearing out various single miniatures I figured I could get him painted in no time at all. I recall there being a video on how to paint Gyzmo but I can’t find it anymore. I suspect it may have been part of Duncan Rhode Painting Academy, but I’ve not had a subscription in a while.
In any case Gyzmo looked like a fairly simple model that I could get done in no time at all. I got started by gluing the two halves of the metal model together with a generous amount of superglue. There was a bit of a gap between the pieces and I needed to practice gap filling anyway. I mixed up some greenstuff and rolled it into thin sausages, which I could then smush into the gaps. In order to make sure I could get to that sweet little belly I let Gyzmo separate from his little slot base, and then primed him with Colour Forge Matt Black.
I started with the fur, giving it a couple coats of Vallejo Khaki, as I didn’t have Two Thin Coats Gyzmo Fur. For the darker fur on the face and ears I gave it a coat of Cygor Brown. I chose a contrast paint as I figured it might be a little easier to blend it into the rest of the coat. The results were… adequate. Not best blending work but that’s what practice is for. The next step was to give the fur a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone to bring out the texture. To highlight the fur I started with Khaki and mixed in progressively more Army Painter Pale Sand for successive highlights. I didn’t go too hard with this, I only did two layers of highlights. For the ears and face, I instead mixed in more Cygor Brown as I moved down the ears. Doing this did unfortunately destaturate the rich Cygor Brown quite a lot so to bring back some vibrancy I glazed Cygor Brown back over the ears and face. As it’s a transparent paint it brought back that richness whilst also keeping my highlights.
Before getting to the armour I did have a few extra details that I needed to take care of. There are a few straps holding the armour together, which are mostly out of sight. So I base coated them with Rhinox Hide and then did some scratchy highlights with Army Painter Buffed Hide. The tongue I basecoated with Two Thin Coats Royal Cloak, layered down the sides with some Two Thin Coats Sword Hilt Burgundy and edge highlighted with Scale75 Pink Flesh. For the eyes I started by giving them a basecoat of Rhinox Hide followed by a fairly large circle of Two Thin Coats Death Reaper to represent the pupil. A dot of Army Painter Matt White in the upper right of eye helps to sell the effect. The tongue and eyes were then given a coat of Army Painter Gloss Varnish to give them a wet effect.
In order to properly match with Sir Coates, Gyzmo was also going to need non-metallic metal steel armour. This is no bad thing, after missing the mark with non-metallic metal on both the White Dwarf and the Tiefling I was keen to do a version of non-metallic metal that I could get at least passable results from. First things first though I gave each piece of armour a coat of Army Painter Matt Black to tidy up any spillage from the fur or otherwise. I then mixed Thousand Sons Blue and Two Thin Coats Death Reaper in roughly equal parts, until it was a desaturated dark blue-grey, and used this for my first layer. I then mixed in progressively more and more Army Painter Matt White for each sequent layer, covering a smaller and smaller area each time with small scratchy strokes of the brush. Until at least, the last layer was effectively just an edge highlight. Once I was happy with it I ran a thin line of Army Painter Matt Black between any armour plates that overlapped, just to help separate them.
After sticking Gyzmo down to his base I kept things simple. I covered the remaining area with Vallejo Thick Brown Mud and once it was dry gave it a wash with Army Painter Strong Tone. I then spread on some PVA glue and sprinkled on some Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready Patchy Plains.
Pretty happy with how he turned out, although putting him next to Sir Coates the armour is a lot darker than his master’s. Not the end of the world but something to bear in mind next time I do non-metallic metal like this.