From the painting desk #27 – Knifehead
May 3, 2014After painting two jaegers, it was time to tackle a kaiju – they obviously need someone to fight. The first mini in my monster queue was Knifehead, a kaiju from the Pacific Rim movie.
Click for a larger version
The miniature for it is a Pacific Rim Heroclix one. I forgot to photograph it before painting, but here’s a catalog image:
Painting Knifehead was very different from painting the jaegers. The machines are all straight lines, flat surfaces and clean, bright colours, whereas the kaiju has plenty of texture and organic shapes. This was sort of reflected in my painting of him, as I went for a more irregular layering (read: not as neat), did some drybrushing and used several washes. The end result is very different from the jaegers both stylistically and in feel, and I think it was a good call as it accentuates the whole organic vs. mechanical setup. It also had the benefit of being super fast – the whole mini probably took me a few hours from start to finish.
While I liked the colour scheme of Knifehead and the rest of the kaiju in Pacific Rim, I wasn’t too fond of all the bioluminescent markings, so I did away with them. Instead I went for a blue-green scheme, almost looking like verdigris. In fact, in it’s early stages the model looked a lot like a statue. Again, the tones are very different from the jaegers’. While obviously straying far and white from the canon (schmanon), the end result was worth in my opinion.
As you may know, I like my bases very simple. This time, however, I added a little extra touch in the form of a tiny tank. Instead of completely flipping it over, I just positioned it at an angle that suggests its toylike insignificance compared to the kaiju.
You might have noticed that I seem pretty happy with Knifehead. I am! I was very sceptical of it at first, it being a clix repaint, but I was happily surprised with the end result. There are some awful, awful mould lines there, which I didn’t clean (“Come on, it’s a vinyl clix mini, not worth the hassle, let’s just get it on the table”) but even those don’t show up too badly.
Dawn of the Lead 
Looks awesome! Love the tank for scale.
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Thanks Barks!
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It looks great. Unsurprisingly considering its name, the kaijus head is very recognisable (even though it does look a little like Gyaos from the Hesei Gamera) plonking this entire project definitively in the Pacific Rim setting , which is cool.
The bioluminescence in PR was a bit odd. I think that I know what they were trying to do and why they did it, but it didnt quite work, for me anyway.
Its always of benefit to add something to figures like this to suggest scale. It matters slightly less with the Jaegers due to certain tell tales, but on an organic monster its definitely a good move.
Where does the tank come from?
The clix is a decent miniature and very recognisable. I might have to pick up some of those…
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Thanks Paul!
Agree on the bioluminescence. It worked to a degree in the movie – the mouth and eyes etc – but it wasn’t something I wanted to replicate.
The tank is an O8 (Oddzial Osmy) one from http://www.picoarmor.com/index.cfm, some lovely stuff there!
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I love the repaint. Looks much better than the original clix scheme.
Can’t wait for a bat rep showing off the figs in combat!
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Thanks! There will be a game, eventually 😀
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That is a terrifying beast. The clix people should kidnap you and force you to work in a painting sweat shop.
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Ahahaha 😀 This is probably one of the best compliments I’ve ever received – thanks!
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