"Aesthetics are All" - The Dandy

A man who can dominate a London dinner table
can dominate the world.
The future belongs to the dandy.
It is the exquisites who are going to rule.

- Oscar Wilde

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

Before we get started, just a few exciting things to share...well, I guess first off it's my birthday tomorrow!! So Happy Birthday to me! And secondly, the 100th post of The Art of Caesura is fast approaching as are Christmas, New Years, and the 2nd Anniversary of this blog! So fasten your seatbelt over the coming weeks, because we've got a lot in store!

It's been a while since we've had some World of Smog action on The Art of Caesura. The last post was the full-body sculpt of Colonel Steel, back in March! While we await the completion of the next game, it's time to set our sights back on the busts from the original. 

The Dandy:

"The man once called 'the gentleman burglar' by The Times brought about his downfall the night he attempted to rob the mausoleum of Imothep II in Trinity Square. Caught by the minions of the Black Pharaoh and skinned alive, the thief was then revived by the necromancers of the Cult and sent to the Shadow Market."

                The World of Smog: On Her Majesty’s Service

As I mentioned in the intro, it's been quite a long time since I delved into The World of Smog and even longer (well over a year) since I worked on the busts. 

While painting these busts, I always think "Ahhh this is a nice way to paint", it's basically the opposite of army painting. Instead of painting many multiples of the same model you get to paint one really characterful piece.

It's a nice excursion before I head back to finish off Silver Tower or before Necromunda arrives...Anyway, back to the dapper chap at hand!

I like skulls. Not in a weird way, I just think they're cool looking. I used to always be the Grim Reaper for Hallowe'en as a kid. And when I found glow-in-the-dark facepaint to use for my skull face, I knew I had made it! I'm also fond of top hats and monocles so this guy is ticking all the boxes!

Another nice thing about these models, is they seem to be relatively scarce. There aren't hoards of them on the internet to (consciously or subconsciously) influence my colour schemes. That being said, I did look at the CMoN's official paint job (black jacket and hat with white detailing). I kind of felt that the white of the tie-thing and hat band were too similar to colour of the skull so changed it to blue and red.

I am also challenging myself to paint each of these World of Smog busts with quite a different colour scheme to make them even more visually distinct. I didn't want him to look too much like the Shadow Master if I kept him in blacks.

In addition to the monocle and cloudy dead eyeball, this mini has some other nice details like his moustache and pointy beard, the cigarillo in his mouth and the centipede (which I gave a nice gloss varnish) on his hat!

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

Watching: Faulty Towers 
Reading: Londonstani

Next Week:

The good Doctor is in...