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"What Spring Brings" - The Mad Scientist

When I was a kid I always wanted to be a mad scientist.
I don’t know, a regular scientist just was no fun.

Tim Burton


Happy Friday one and all, it’s that time of the week again: The Art of Caesura!

Whether you prescribe to humans or rodents for your weather predictions, it sounds like they’re all in agreement this week. The word from Gobbler’s Knob (I know, right!?) is that neither Punxsutawney Phil, nor his northern cousin, Shubenacadie Sam saw their shadows and thus winter is over, long live spring! I guess the Irish groundhogs didn’t get the memo…

Thanks for taking a peek at last week’s Colonel Steel. This week I managed to complete my second miniature from The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service. This time I painted up one of the baddies: An Agent of the Shadow Master, The Mad Scientist.


World of Smog, Victorian steampunk


"Once a pioneer in automaton cutting tools for Skeford Arms’ slaughterhouses, the Mekasylum struck the Mad Scientist’s name from their registers when Scotland Yard investigated him for the disappearance of some corpulent people in his neighbourhood. To avoid the gallows, he disappeared from the surface and continued his experiments in the comfortable darkness of the Shadow Market. Down there, nobody cares about the disappearance of an unwary few and even less about the frightening modifications he has made to his own body. The Mad Scientist has become an infernal machine that surgically grinds, drills and slices…"

                The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service

World of Smog, Victorian steampunk

What a crazy model; a top-hatted, monocled head, attached to a buzz saw via iron halo, with a “body” comprised of a drill on a metal tentacle bursting through the chest of a woman à la Alien. Yeah, you read that right. Another great and characterful miniature albeit a bit “back heavy” I’ll have to weigh down the base I reckon.

World of Smog, Victorian steampunk

World of Smog, Victorian steampunk

World of Smog, Victorian steampunk

I’m decently happy with how he turned out, although in retrospect I think I could go a bit heavier with the highlights on the (many) metal sections. It felt like enough at the time, but you know how pictures sometimes ‘highlight’ things you don’t notice. Please let me know what you think in the comments section below.

World of Smog, Victorian steampunk

A brief recipe-guide:

Skin: Doombull base coat over black undercoat, mixed with increasing portions of Cadian Fleshtone (deeply diluted with Lahmian Medium) finally with Scar White mixed with Cadian Fleshtone.
Dress: Doombull base, Evil Sunz Scarlet mixed with a touch of Altdorf Guard Blue and increasing portions of Ushabti Bone and Scar White for highlights.
Finally, Blood for the Blood God flicked off a stippling brush. God, I love this stuff, and the hardest part of using it is showing restraint!


Why not just use Screamer Pink, or Druchii Violet for her dress? Because real men don’t own pink paint! Naw, it’s just not a colour I’d often use, so sometimes it’s a fun challenge to limit your pallet and mix it up. I really like starting from brown base-coats and highlighting with Ushabti Bone, I feel it looks more organic. I used to use the old Bestial Brown to base-coat (a more yellowy brown, where as Doombull is more of a Red-brown), but now Steel Legion Drab sees quite a lot of action on my "pallet" as a neutral grey-brown.

Thanks, as always, for joining me and I hope you’re enjoying The Art of Caesura.


Listening: Say What - Cut Capers
Excited For: Cinema Purgatorio - Alan Moore


Next Week:

We’re going to change things up and talk about another great Irish pastime: Beer! Sláinte!

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