Odds, Sods n ......Stuffs. A Medley of Mayhem
Dhalya The Faerie I - A Beginning
Dhalya The Faerie from KimeraAnd so another commission begins and this one is a bruiser!!
This is Dhalya from Kimera. A insanely beautiful piece sculpted by Ebroin. Both beautiful and a complete pain in the arse to prep!! There are a lotta lotta pieces and they all interlink and lock.
So after getting all the usual prep of degating, sanding, filing and the like done and then washing her, next up was to get the pins in and she requires quite a few!!
Pins drilled and then long opened paperclips put in to allow for easier primingI first primed her in all her seperate parts with two coats of Stylyrez black. Then came the fun steps……….
With the initial black prime down, I reassembled the model - slotting all the pieces onto their respective pins 'dry' as in no glue used. I use a drill bit which is pretty much exactly the diameter of the standard paperclips I use for pinning so the subassemblies fit on snugly and dont fall off!Once the model was reassembled it was time for the second and third coats of primer.
This seems like a lot of extra work and in some ways it is – However, it is work well spent for a number of reasons.
So the black primer is done to ensure all parts of all pieces get two coats of prime. If assembled for the start, due to the complex nature of the model, some areas would be missed and/or not get a good even coat.
The second and third coats are primer are done in grey and then white respectively:
Using the airbrush again, I reloaded first with grey primer and then gave the assembled model a further and lateral prime: essentially highlighting the model from the sides at a downward point angle. This llightens all the areas with a lighter shade and leaves the deeper shadow areas still black. I then reloaded the airbrush again but this time with Stylynrez White primer and sketched in all the extreme and most exposed highlights on the model. 
With the 3 different shades of primer complete, I then took a series of photos of the assembled model from different angles. This will serve as useful reference and roadmap photos later on when i am painting the now disassembled model. Even disassembled we can still see all the areas that are either in shadow, mid-tone or in exposed highlight and use this to guide and help when painting the model even though in pieces. 
A really interesting bust with the hair and the fairy wings. Looking forward to following the progress with this.
Cheers. She is really quite a beautiful piece. A bit of a departure from what I usually paint so looking forward to the challenge. Will be painting a lot of her live on twitch and then posting WiPs here from time to time.