STS Model Painting Month 2022 - post your FINISHED works here

Hi everyone
When you finish your STS Model Painting month project, please post the photos here
I'll create a collage of all our finished works early in June.

Rather surprisingly, as someone with serious long-term issues over deadlines, I've managed to finish my project first out of anyone, for the second year running!
I think I'm getting done early in the month so the pressure doesn't build as the time runs out; once I've done my own bit I can sit back and enjoy everyone else painting with no guilt or worry about not getting anything completed

So here he is, the Papo Megaloceros I've had in my body box since last autumn, now with a new coat of paint...

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I'm so pleased with how he turned out, I really like him and will enjoy having him in my collection, even if he is my only prehistoric mammal and has no friends to stand with yet

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

The shade makes his dark markings stand out more, but he looks prettier in the sun, so most of the other photos I've chosen do favour bright light.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

There's a couple of areas which don't fully match my drawn design (see page 1 of the Works in Progress thread), but as that's also just an interpretation and not an authentic image of the real animal like when we can work from photographs of modern species, I'm not too annoyed with myself for going accidentally off-plan

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I may have gone a bit overboard on the number of pics, but this sculpt looks great from so many angles!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Do not sneak up on the megaloceros from behind.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Those antlers are just amazing, they'd look impossibly impractical and unrealistic, if we didn't have so many examples as proof in real life, from peat bogs and the like

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

You know that feeling when a Red deer stag stares you down, and you don't know whether to feel intimidated cos he's massive and potentially dangerous, or safe cos you're such a small insignificant creature in comparison that he'd not even waste the energy to come at you? This one has the same look about him!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

SUCH a handsome head! I took his face markings from Fallow deer; the little pale rings around the eye which help exaggerate it, and the way the profile of the nose shades to dark, but with white just around the nose and mouth.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I took a couple of different headshots without the miniature background, his outline contrasting nicely against my nice dark hedge.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

A close-up portrait

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

And one more full photo to finish on. All done. Phew!

Stunning!

Gorgeous work george! Those last head shots are stunning! I'd love to take such a realistic model out on a photo shoot in the woods. Congrats on finishing the model!

Oh my heavens he is too handsome! Great work.

I had to comment, this is so amazing! Your painting has made this model look real, so alive! The colours, the details, everything about it and it really makes me realise how much of a worthy winner this sculpt was- but only because of your beautiful painting!

A nice, rather dull deer has evolved into the magnificent , majestic, king

(Ps : Is there a comma between majestic and king ? I am never sure how to put commas in English )

When we see such an impressive sculpt with a top quality paintjob like this one, it is impossible to not get impressed!
It is also great to see you painting again a non horse figure. Not a buckskin again. Your talent seems to work masterfully for all kind of figures.

I don't know what to say!!!
This is just amazing George!!! Wonderful, wonderful work!! Congratulations on finishing him and finishing the first model of our contest this year!!
And love the photos!!

thebritfarmer wrote:

Stunning!

Thanks!

Joliezac wrote:

Gorgeous work george! Those last head shots are stunning! I'd love to take such a realistic model out on a photo shoot in the woods. Congrats on finishing the model!

He looks so alive, it's a well-done sculpt with that slight twist in the neck cos the headshots really do come across like he's just turning to look at something.

A woodland photoshoot would really be interesting, but not easy for me. I've never done that kind of outdoor photography before (well, all my model photos are taken outdoors, but with mini fake scenery) so it'd take a long while to find any nice locations with to-scale moss or dirt underfoot. And also because don't actually live near any woodland - my local landscape is all flat open land with water drains and crop fields - so it would take quite a bit of planning and getting my mum to give me a lift there, cos I can't drive

Saarlooswolfhound wrote:

Oh my heavens he is too handsome! Great work.

I think I made the right choice in picking this model to paint, there's something inherently handsome about deer, especially big ones, he really does look good in all his pictures!

Bonnie wrote:

I had to comment, this is so amazing! Your painting has made this model look real, so alive! The colours, the details, everything about it and it really makes me realise how much of a worthy winner this sculpt was- but only because of your beautiful painting!

Thanks so much! I think a lighter colour would perhaps have flattered the mould more, the dark colour gives him the impact of a big dramatic outline but the finer detail like the hair texturing is a bit lost when there's no paint effect to pick it out. I don't know why they chose such a brown paintjob, perhaps just because red deer look similar in build so they decided to take inspiration from them.

SUSANNE wrote:

A nice, rather dull deer has evolved into the magnificent , majestic, king

(Ps : Is there a comma between majestic and king ? I am never sure how to put commas in English )

Thank you! It was a really fun project to transform him, but I'm also glad other people are enjoying seeing him now he's done

I just googled your comma query cos I don't know all that much grammar either (went to a very bad school, we were never told any rules, or corrected if there were errors in our work - the poor teachers were too busy trying to stop all the disruptive and destructive behaviour to have time to explain commas to a quiet student who'd have bothered to listen). Apparently the right way is to use a comma between each of the descriptive words, but not one afterwards.

Roger wrote:

When we see such an impressive sculpt with a top quality paintjob  like this one, it is impossible to not get impressed!
It is also great to see you painting again a non horse figure. Not a buckskin again. Your talent seems to work masterfully for all kind of figures.

Yes, no buckskins for a while! It's been curious for me, adapting my horse painting techniques to different animals. Mixing and applying the colour is where I have experience, but when you have to alter the application style so much to capture differently textured fur, or even feathers, it's a little bit like starting all over again as a beginner The longer coat, where it's shaggy and tousled on his neck and shoulder, are like nothing I'd done before, and I just had to make it up as I went along!
I've got a dinosaur and a whale to tackle at some point, there's two more very different skin surfaces I have to figure out

It's thanks to this forum I've ventured away from only painting horses, I just don't have room for a full collection of other species but if I can restrict it by only buying the ones I want to repaint, rather than any to keep as they are, I can just about squeeze in this expansion into other animals

Shanti wrote:

I don't know what to say!!!
This is just amazing George!!! Wonderful, wonderful work!! Congratulations on finishing him and finishing the first model of our contest this year!!
And love the photos!!

Thank you so much! I really am delighted that everyone seems to enjoy him so much, it's one thing to be satisfied with your own work and be pleased to have managed something challenging and pleasing, but it's even more special when other people are so complimentary about the finished work.

This year's photos weren't quite as integral to the project as last year's, where I made a new set of base and backdrop just for my Quagga repaint, this was just a matching of two pieces I had already, the ferny base was made for CollectA and 1/12th scale models, and the backdrop was the first one I found in my stack which worked as a prehistoric-looking view, with no fence, wall, or human intervention in the landscape behind!

the megaloceros looks wonderful George !
I like the prehistoric shading and how you've made this wonderful figure look alive, well done !
It's been great to see your concept photos first as well. Thank you for sharing :)

Finished this tiny fox today. Scale about 1/32. It was a lot of fun to do, I never painted a fox before! Thank you Ana for this event!
Now our chickens are in danger!

[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Whata stunning looking fox! (the chickens are nice too)

Thank you!

Stunning fox!!! It came out wonderfully!

Thank you so much!!

what a beautiful (and well fed) fox! I think the chickens are safe

Surely I love it! Foxes and chickens are the best friends. I love the soft color transitions and your pictures are also very beautiful!

Oh my, this makes me so happy! Both the elk and the fox! They are so wonderful and the photos are perfect

The Irish Elk absolutely comes to life in those photographs! Beautiful colors, natural lighting, AND perfect background! Those could be illustrations in a book about the wildlife of the Pleistocene.

I love the fox too. It's so detailed and beautiful, which is especially incredible for such a tiny figure. The soft shading and blending of colors look amazing
The little scene with chickens made me smile, I hope the birds were able to run away

oh, I forgot clicking "watch this topic for replies" and missed the new entries in this thread  (it's clicked now, I won't miss anything else )

Amazing work on the Megaloceros George! The paintwork really does the sculpture justice, or should I say: the sculpture does the paintwork justice , anyway well done for finishing!

And the fox with the little scene is really adorable. I take it that the super-glued stick came off without too much trouble?
The fox seems really chill and friendly, no wonder the chickens aren't afraid. Congrats to you too for finishing

Thank you so much friends!
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] There was little damage, I had to sand down the area and apply new paint but since this was an almost white area with just little shadings it was ok. Next time I would try a much smaller drop of glue...

These are brilliant!

George, he is magnificent! The detail is even more incredible in good lighting. I love your interpretation. His eyes look very alive.

Shanti, what a perfect fox! It still retains the soft watercolor feeling but now with excellent details. Gorgeous colors and such a wonderful face. What fine detail!

Congrats to you both on finishing!

That fox is stunning! And so small!

Every cloud has a silver lining... was off today and expected to have to run my husband around, but we had a terrible fight and he took off in the car. That left me time to (relax!!!) paint the model I had picked out if it wasn't too late to join. And finish it lol. Here is my knockoff Schleich hyena, loosely based off a couple online photos- one looked like it had a king cheetah's markings, another had a light/bright fawn base color that went gingery towards the topline. I didn't do any resculpting on this one.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

I am so sorry to hear about the day that gave you a chance to paint. That sounds really stressful! But wow, I love the artistic end result! Gorgeous colors, it's such an improvement of the original. That burnt orange and cream is just gorgeous. He looks like a van Gogh painting, if he'd ever done a hyena. I hope things calm down for you!