Barbarela Part 6

Happy holidays, everyone!

During the long weekend, I've had some hobby time.  One thing that bugged me about this figure was the sword.  It's got barnacles sculpted onto it (which, as a fantasy figure, is fine), but the rest of the surface is pretty normal.  Seems to me, if it's got barnacles growing on it, there would be a lot more corrosion going on.  I'd prefer either a smooth sword or one really crusty.  So, I decided to give it a little more texture.  I used a technique Sproket (David Soper) has used on Nurgle figures.  Baking soda is mixed with the base color and matte varnish to form a paste, then applied to the figure.  The base color is just there to speed up the painting, but the matte varnish is important to hold on the baking soda.  It gives a pretty secure bond when dry.

With the texture added to the sword, I went in with some stippling to further exaggerate the effect.  I left some exposed portions as still metal.

Since the figure is almost complete, I went back to work on the base.  The main structure was previously built using balsa wood.  To match the sword, I decided to add some texture to the side.  I used pro-create (grey stuff) to create some barnacles there as well.  Then I used the same baking soda + matte varnish technique to fill in the spaces around the barnacles.  I also added some rope and a portion of the rigging.  This was done using string.  I used superglue to coat the strings and lock them in the desired shape.  A bit of regular superglue can be helpful in attaching specific spots, but mostly I used thin super glue.  This quickly soaks into the string and is really useful for fixing large sections.  You've just got to be careful since it can get all over the place and you don't want to touch the strings as they'll be coated in glue.  Needless to say, I got a lot on my hands and there were numerous times I almost glued the myself to the base!