Journeyman Painting Log # 3

What I did this morning.

Had a reasonably productive day at the painting table.  The morning started with a pair of new (to me) products in liquid greenstuff and gesso.  I read somewhere about using liquid greenstuff on the Legion heavy kit to cover the torso joints, which seems like a good idea, and mere months after getting the kits (mostly) assembled I decided to try it out.  The liquid GS was both thicker and thinner than I expected but it brushed on easily and looked like it worked well enough.  My big concern is that the passage of every bristle has been recorded in the GS and will transfer to the painted model, but I'll reserve final judgement until I take a look in the morning when things have dried.

Now with white(ish) base.

The more intriguing adventure was the gesso.  I've also read about it in various places, though that was a while ago, and the detail that stuck with me the most was to slather it on because gesso contracts as it dries.  Keeping that in mind I didn't thin it at all.  Instead I just attacked the model with the smallest dab of gesso I could squeeze out (still way too much) and a #12 brush that a well-meaning but ill-informed family member got me for Christmas many years ago.  The gesso went on like any other thickish paint does and covered in a single pass.  My concern for this is that the gesso will pull away from tiny raised details like studs, rivets, and spikes.  The bottle recommended a 24 hour drying time which won't be a problem as I won't get back to painting until Sunday at the earliest.

Finished?

On the finished painting front, I got the Seraph done.  At least I think I got it done.  The upperplates got finished as usual and the wings went easy as well.  After some drybrushing yesterday, I took washes to the wings.  Purple went in by the "fingers," both for shading and to echo the purple lining found elsewhere on the model.  A healthy dose of blue then went across the entire wing to finish things off.  I didn't have a good idea how this approach would turn out, but apparently there is a painting god because they came out well.  Texture paint went on the base, and the Raek as well, allowing me to take advantage of a brief break in humidity to varnish the pair of beasts.  By the morning both should be ready to go (barring some base touch-ups and arc markings as usual), which is a decent enough start on the Journeyman league.  I slapped a little more paint of Vayl as well, but nothing of great importance.

Problem areas.

So what's my problem with the Seraph?  The fingertips/nails.  More specifically, what the hell do I do with them?  The obvious answer is to paint them the brown/orange of all the other claws and generally hard armory bits.  This would work just fine for all the green circled bits at left.  The problem is the red circles.  As you can see via my amazing illustration, the wings attach directly to the tips/nails/claws.  This does not jive with a non-fleshy surface.  I'm (mostly) fine with leaving them as they are in the blue/white flesh color, but I feel there has to be a better solution.  While I could look around at examples on these intarwebs, the more interactive (and easier) option is to solicit input from you, the reader.  What approach should I take?  Leave them as they are, paint them orange, or something else?  My palette is pretty set at this point, especially for beasts, so I don't want to introduce any news colors, but I'll entertain any reasonable suggestions.  After all, I have reasonable suggestions to thank for hammering out my scheme in the first place.