My group finally made it to Jabba's Realm so i think the Rancor will be my next project. I've really been looking forward to this especially the base. So far the bigger models have been among my favourite to paint, just did Weiss a few weeks ago and really enjoyed myself. My goal is to get better as I go so I think the Rancor and it's rather intricate base is the next logical step anyway. I fully intend to follow the Sorastro guide as I always do, best on the net! But figured I would come here first for some advice.

I want to take my time with this one and do it right, really enjoy myself. I've dry fit my model to take a look at it and noticed that it really does fit quite horribly. I noticed in @Sorastro video he had some green molding to do but I notice mine needs even more. Including along the belly/right side of the stomach, jaw line on both sides, right shoulder is quite bad and the left arm doesn't even fit totally in the socket. I think that side I might have to try and file down first before I even try green stuff. I used the liquid green stuff before but i don't really like it, I find it really hard to work with. I think I might pick up some of the original puddy like stuff instead.

Just curious if anyone else ran into these problems or has any extra tips for tackling such a big project. My work with the green stuff is really limited, just the Bantha mainly and that was a while ago now and I generally don't do any filing as I am nervous to ruin the figures.. so any refreshers or suggestions are more than appreciated. Thanks for your time.

I had to cut in the arms as well, the part that goes into the socket that is. Didn't touch any visible part. After that, it fitted very well. It was easier to cut it down and have it slide in easily. You can use glue to make it stick instead of relying on the tight fit. Did some regular greenstuff on the arms and jaw. Jaw is probably most important here as the head is a focal point.

I removed a part of the base as well. Feet didn't fit and the base would curl. So cut one part (careful with that, I had a very deep cut in my finger because of Mr rancor). And glued the feet on instead.

The rancor is easily my favorite miniature to paint. Not hard to get an impressive result out of this one. In fact, I'd love to do one again some time.

If the gaps aren’t super big, you could fill them with something like Vallejo’s Matt Varnish as opposed to using green stuff. I think Sorastro does this in his tutorial for the Legion version of Luke Skywalker, actually. Might be worth checking that out to see what I mean.

The Rancor is actually super, super easy to make look good, I think. The model has tons of detail so it takes to washes or dry brushing well. There’s a lot of “obscured” areas, so there are places where you can hide your wet blending shame (not like that happened to me...), the base has a lot of space for texture paints, shrubs, effects, etc. Even a quick prime, base, dry brush, then wash would have the figure looking pretty good. Highlights from there are just gravy.

I just need to do some saliva strands and gloss up her face, and my Randi will finally be done. She’s been 95% there for a while.

I too am looking forward to this animal. I will pull out the stops and go Rancorpalooza when I paint it. I will paint up the IA one, my long postponed WEG lead one, and finally buy a Hasbro pre-painted one all in a row. I hope to post comparison pics of the three Rancors at the end. But I am in a painting quagmire right now.

Thanks for the tips, I got him filled and primed black so far, going to do his grey Zenitel tonight, white tomorrow then start on the base painting Wednesday. I am assuming for zenithal highlights you need to wait for each layer to dry?

i used the citadel green stuff and it went pretty well. I messed up a few spots that showed through surprisingly well through the black primer already, more than I expected, but not enough to ruin the look. The jaw/head/shoulder lines look great, the stomach/back could have been better. Working with that stuff is definitely an art.

Looking forward to getting moving on this paint job I want to have him done for our next session in a few weeks.

Yeah, I’d wait for each zenithal layer to dry. I don’t have an airbrush, so I just use Citadel or Tamiya rattlecans, which work well. If I go right from black to white with the Citadel cans, I normally don’t wait more than 20 minutes between colors and I’ve never had any issues.

2 hours ago, KalEl814 said:

Yeah, I’d wait for each zenithal layer to dry. I don’t have an airbrush, so I just use Citadel or Tamiya rattlecans, which work well. If I go right from black to white with the Citadel cans, I normally don’t wait more than 20 minutes between colors and I’ve never had any issues.

Good tip thank you.

Just curious, when you guys are wet blending do you still water or thin the paints? I found that with the Snow Troopers when I wet blended their capes it could be a bit thin or transparent in spots, and fixing that up with wet blending is tough. if it was just a normal paint layer, just add another and get that depth you want.

Little update, Rancor is done. Didn't take me as long as I thought it would, he is actually a pretty easy and fun figure to paint. As always the finishing details are the biggest time sink, for instance the teeth did not go as planned and are much to sharp of a contrast, but it is what it is, overall I am happy with how it turned out.

The E6000 for drool worked great it is a little more thin and less user friendly, but the effect was still right, so keep that in mind for us North Americans.

The base was super fun to work on, I had a blast and took my time with it. The water on the back side turned out great, the front is a bit off though. Something happened when I did the Nurgling Green glaze, I think maybe the water wasn't quite totally dry yet as it turned out a little funny and blocky looking. I tried to wipe it off but it was to late it instantly dried so I just left it for fear of making it worse. From table top it looks good, up close it is noticeable though. Once again big thanks to @Sorastro for walking me through it with his great tutorials: https://www.patreon.com/Sorastros

I really need to start my own thread I've painted quite a few figures now and haven't shown them all off yet. I also need to get better at taking pictures .. but anywhere here is the:

Great work. Love the play in the darker and lighter tones.