# Need tips: Mummy bandages...



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Hi gang, I'm working on the Polar Lights Mummy. Finishing up the main part of the base now. Letting it dry a bit. I was going to start the sarcophagus tonight. I primer coated it flat black. Was going to hit it with a first coat of dry-brushed Italian Dark Brown, and realized I am out of that bottle, from painting all the wooden parts on my Monster Scenes. So, I was going to start the Mummy figure itself. He is primer coated flat black as well. I am going to start dry-brushing his fleshy parts with a British Crimson.......but, what I am curious about, is painting his bandages. I don't want to just paint them grayish, and dry-brush them white. I want them to look old, dirty, and dingy. I have only painted one Mummy, and that was the Aurora kit, and it was my very first monster model as an adult, and I did not know what I was doing when I painted him. I want this Mummy to look much better.

Any tips for painting Mummy bandages? Pics would help as well.
I'm also having a hard time figuring out what is guts and what is bandages on this model. It's so "blobby".
Thanks!

I'm really liking the way SOTA painted their Imhotep...


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

rats,

In _The Mummy_ (1999), the bandages on most of the monsters were indeed shades of gray, going into dirty white.

What you might try is, drybrush with the lighter grays and then stain the bandages with washes of water based paints. I like water colors for this, but even the dreaded craft acrylics would work well for this purpose. If you keep the stains subtle, you can control them by adding more on top of the dried paint until you get the depth of color you want. If you overdo the stains, you can tone them down by drybrushing more light gray over them.

What color stains? Your choice; maybe some sickly ambers, to suggest the icky wet mummy rot. Some mouldy greens here and there would look good. Even if you foul up, paint over the stains and try again, the various levels of color will add complexity to your final finish.

Good luck and don't forget to post those pics!


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Thanks, Mark. You know what I find difficult? Say, on his leg...where the bandages are wrapping around his flesh, I'm dry-brushing the fleshy areas now, and then dry-brushing the bandages right next to it later on with light gray...it's so hard to get definition between the two without painting one a "solid", and then maybe washing over top. Would it be best to dry-brush the fleshy stuff, come back later and maybe "solid" paint the bandages and dirty "wash" them? I have always wondered how other artists handle the dilemma of dry-brushing two opposing colors right next to each other without going over into the other color. Sometimes masking something is near impossible. I've noticed most people "solid" paint the bandages on this model. Ugh, the choices we must make when building models.


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

rats',

In general it's best to paint from the inside out, that is, the most recessed areas first and the outermost areas last. So I'd want to start with all the interior parts of the mummy: the inside of his skull, body cavities, etc. Then I'd do his flesh(?) and finish with the bandages. Any of the loose pieces of his body or bandages I would paint separately and then attach to the figure.

It sounds as though you may be using too large a brush for your drybrushing. When my brushes get worn out, I use them for this purpose, which means I have several that are fairly small. For the mummy, I'd likely choose an 1/8 inch brush to color the flesh areas. Then I'd just try to be real careful when I did the adjoining bandages.

Trying to drybrush British Crimson over a flat black base base means you're going to have an uphill battle. I'd have applied the red color first, then gone over that with a black wash. Then I'd do one of two things: let it dry some and then remove the wash from the upper surfaces by rubbing it with a clean cloth. Or, let the wash dry completely and drybrush the Crimson to restore the base color while leaving the black in the recesses.

Finally, I'd drybrush highlights on the mummy, then repeat the process with the bandages, using a black wash over gray. Obviously, I could save a step by painting the British Crimson on the flesh and gray on the bandages; then I'd slap a black wash over the entire figure. The wash could then be followed with drybrushing of the appropriate colors. If I was planning to apply a flat black was to the base elements also, I could do the entire model at one time.

The point is, it's difficult to cover flat black using the drybrush technique with anything other than metallics or light colors. I only do it when I paint features like rocks or very dark wood or black clothing. The less work you have to do might mean more control as you paint your mummy and his wrappings.

Have at it! :thumbsup:


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Mark McGovern said:


> The point is, it's difficult to cover flat black using the drybrush technique with anything other than metallics or light colors.


LOL, that's why it takes me forever to paint a model. I use enamels, so I am really use to waiting between dry brush coats and building the colors up on black. I've only done one pass at dry-brushing this Crimson. I'll let it dry a day or two and hit it again. Then some fleshy highlights, some yellow, and some brown washing with maybe some purpley/bluish shadows. I'm going to have to come back in and clean up where the red is hitting the bandages...or not. I'm not sure where I'm going with this yet, but I'll succeed.


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

rat salad said:


> ...I'm going to have to come back in and clean up where the red is hitting the bandages...or not...


Well, think it through, rats' - the guy's oozing all over his bandages, so naturally a little of his icky color is going to show on them. When you drybrush your bandage color, if some of the British Crimson and highlight colors show through, no big deal. You might also consider using ground up artists chalks to stain the bandages (although this guy was a lot gooier than your typical mummy).


----------



## starduster (Feb 12, 2006)

Hi, great job on this model, who sells this model ? thanks. Karl


----------



## Roy Kirchoff (Jan 1, 1970)

It's an old Polar Lights Kit from 1999.










~RK~


----------



## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

starduster said:


> Hi, great job on this model, who sells this model ? thanks. Karl


I think I still have one if you're interested.


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

starduster said:


> Hi, great job on this model, who sells this model ? thanks. Karl


Err, uh, just so you're not confused. The picture in the OP is an action figure, not a model. Yeah, what Roy said.


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Mark McGovern said:


> Well, think it through, rats' - the guy's oozing all over his bandages, so naturally a little of his icky color is going to show on them. When you drybrush your bandage color, if some of the British Crimson and highlight colors show through, no big deal. You might also consider using ground up artists chalks to stain the bandages (although this guy was a lot gooier than your typical mummy).


You're right. I am being anal retentive, but that's what makes me such a good technical illustrator by day...and it carries over into my model building as well, LOL.

Tell me more about the artist chalk thing. I have some pastels around here somewhere, and some Spectracolor pencils too.


----------



## Roy Kirchoff (Jan 1, 1970)

rat salad said:


> Tell me more about the artist chalk thing. I have some pastels around here somewhere, and some Spectracolor pencils too.


Chalk pastels can be used as the poor mans air brush. 
Using a piece of sand paper grind some pastel dust. Use a paint brush to apply the powder to your painted surface.
If you check the pictures of my Dr Jekyll in the "My Photos" section you can see my novice application on the recess areas of the lab coat, right arm hair shading and beard below the jaw line.

~RK~


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Very nice. Thanks, Roy!


----------



## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

This thread makes me want to get my PL Mummy out and do some touch up work on it. I've never been happy with how the bandages turned out. Or the cracks between the blocks in the floor, or... 










ugh...


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

kit-junkie said:


> I've never been happy with how the bandages turned out. Or the cracks between the blocks in the floor, or...


Kit-Junkie, beautiful job. I think you did an excellent paint up. I like the way your bandages turned out. That wood looks great. One of the best I've seen so far. I had trouble finding build-ups of this kit. 

I have been debating about the cracks between the bricking, but right now I am kinda liking the way this looks. I might do some darker washes between the sand and rocks. And I'm thinking of shading some of the bricks with different washes. I haven't dull coated yet, and I haven't painted the scarabus' yet. If I were to paint between the bricks, it would be the same color as the rocks and sand, like it has fallen between the them. 

Did the Egyptians use mortar back then?


----------



## kit-junkie (Apr 8, 2005)

Thank you.  I'm okay with the way the wood turned out. My problem with the blocks was that I didn't do a proper wash and the lines are too dark. I had never done a wash before then. Trying to lighten it didn't work. At the time, all I could think to do was start from scratch. I just left it. I'll make an attempt at fixing it some day. The idea is for it to be more "shadowy" instead of looking like lines. I might have tried using pastel chalk to darken the lines, if I had known about the technique at the time.

In response to your question: I'm not sure if Egyptians used mortar.



rat salad said:


> Kit-Junkie, beautiful job. I think you did an excellent paint up. I like the way your bandages turned out. That wood looks great. One of the best I've seen so far. I had trouble finding build-ups of this kit.
> 
> I have been debating about the cracks between the bricking, but right now I am kinda liking the way this looks. I might do some darker washes between the sand and rocks. And I'm thinking of shading some of the bricks with different washes. I haven't dull coated yet, and I haven't painted the scarabus' yet. If I were to paint between the bricks, it would be the same color as the rocks and sand, like it has fallen between the them.
> 
> Did the Egyptians use mortar back then?


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

rat salad said:


> ...I have been debating about the cracks between the bricking...


rats' and kayjay,

This would be a great opportunity for youse guys to try artists' pastels, the colored chalks. You'll find them at art supply and crafts stores. I would remind you that Michaels and Hobby Lobby frequently have sales on art supplies (here's HL's 40% off coupon - scroll down and click the "Print Coupon" button).

You grind up a couple of different colors to match your paint. Then after you've sealed the painted floor with a clear flat finish, dust the floor liberally with your powdered chalks. You can "sweep" the floor with a large, flat brush; the chalk will stay in the recesses and look just like the dust and dirt of ages had settled there.

The interesting thing about this technique is that it shows you don't always have to make recesses darker. I've seen some really great dinosaurs painted with dark hides and a lighter wash in the crevices, for an effect of dry, leathery hides. Keep the excess pastel dirt in a small container for when you need to touch up the filth.




rat salad said:


> Did the Egyptians use mortar back then?


The answer is yes, but the dirt we're talking about would effectively obscure it.


----------



## rat salad (Oct 18, 2004)

Cool, thanks Mark!
I'll be heading over to Michael's later this week.
After the pastels, do you dull coat again to lock it in?


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

You could mist a little Dullcote on if you feel it necessary. You'll want to be careful if you do, because it can change the appearance of the pastels. Lighter colors may fade - white simply disappears - and darks may get too dark.

When I get around to building this kit, I'll apply the pastels as the very last step. Unless you're storing your Mummy in a really windy area, they'll stay in place just fine. Retaining the leftover dust means you'll always have some if you need it.


----------



## Dyonisis (Nov 11, 2009)

rat salad said:


> Did the Egyptians use mortar back then?





Mark McGovern said:


> The answer is yes, but the dirt we're talking about would effectively obscure it.


 I'm sorry, Mark - usually you know your stuff, but this isn't an attack on you. So please don't take it that way.

Actually, the answer is NO. Mortar was another thousand years away from that time. All the pyramids, and ancient ruins have sand that has built up on the outside giving the appearance of mortar, but when you enter inside them there are cracks all over. This is because the blocks are layered on top of each other unevenly. It's this way as the walls go higher all the way from the floor to the adjoining rooms,and the ceiling above. The weight of the ones on top hold them all in place. As they go further inside you can see tooling marks from chisels that formed each of the "bricks" before being placed. These are HUGE - not small as you see on your model. Each of these blocks weighs over three, and a half tons.

I know a few people from Israel that I got to become friends with, and they gave me an up close, and personal view of these. It would take me hours to explain everything, but in a nutshell all that you see in movies, and T.V. shows isn't accurate - historically, or physically. Shows that go inside the pyramids like the ones in the Valley of the Kings, and the "naked acrhaeologist" on the history channel are the only ones that are right. There are rooms, and vaults with passage ways that were built with pre-cut blocks that were manhandled into place. As each layer was built, you can see a slight path on the outermost side of the Egyptian pyramids where it gradually gets higher on the outside of every layer. This is so that they could roll the blocks on wooden timbers all the way to the top from the first layer on the ground. This means that each layer of the pyramid has a path that inclines all the way around it's perimeter. They left the last row empty for a path to the top as the blocks were placed. These aren't perfectly smooth, or even on the outside as most people think. You can see people standing all over the pyramids when you get close enough to see them. There are thousands of tourists that visit each month to see these in person.

The Myan ruins in south america are very similar to the ones in Egypt. This is how most buildings were made for thousands of years. The outside of the Spinx was made of blocks that were layered, and as each layer was applied they carved the shape into it. This is also how facades were made, as well. The ancient Romans did it this way as too. This is old world achiteture since it was the only way to do it, as they didn't have the luxery of modern machines.

I hope that this more than answers your question.


----------



## Mark McGovern (Apr 25, 1999)

Dyonisis said:


> ...Actually, the answer is NO...


Dyo',

Actually the answer is yes, BUT... The Egyptians did indeed use mortar, but for smaller brick structures like the temporary villages that were built to house the artisans who decorated the elaborate tombs of royalty and the wealthy. However you're right about the monumental structures, and certainly those seen in _The Mummy. _The ancient architects calculated the forces of the immense stone building materials to a nicety, so that the weight of the blocks and columns alone was what held - and is still holding - their buildings together.

We can probably agree that the tiled floor of Polar Light's Mummy base is inaccurate, for all the fine detail molded in it. In the film, the Mummy's sarcophagus was hidden in the base of a statue in a rock-cut tomb. The floor was simply hewn rock covered with sand. So the most authentic thing to do would be to putty it all over and cover it with fine powder to represent scale sand.


----------

