Yay! I finally finished something new! I have had a bunch of projects bogging down my painting, but I was able to find some quiet time to finish these sharks this week. They might be my favorite project of the year so far. It has been ages since I finished an extant animal, and I feel a little invigorated returning to real world critters as a subject. I had thought they would be a fast project, being fairly monotone, but I sorely underestimated how much surface area I needed to cover for these large sized models.
The sharks themselves are really great Bullshark sculpts from Wundervale Games - I was impressed with how anatomically accurate they are, and I was happy to get a set of four. In the same spirit, I based the paint-jobs on real pictures of bullsharks to keep them as realistic as I could. My son said the paint was "basic" - LOL. Sometimes you can't beat the real deal - I like 'em!
I'm not really a fan of "flight stands" for models, and fortunately creatively basing undersea creatures is forgiving. I remixed these bases with elements from scatter terrain by "Fantastic Plants and Rocks" and some sand bases by "Cobra Mode" I reshaped. The kelp was perfect for creating an elevated look. The execution wasn't flawless, but definitely captures the idea.
Same could be said of the whole project, I suppose. I'm pleased, so I included a lot of pics.
A note about bullsharks: they are a really fascinating species of large shark capable of living in fresh water (they may even rely on fresh water to breed). This often puts them in conflict with humans - we both occupy the near shore environment and estuaries. They are probably responsible for more shark attacks than the usual suspects, but their populations are in decline. Bullsharks are fierce predators, but they are also vulnerable to overfishing (they mature slowly). Take a moment to learn more about these amazing creatures!
