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Haven't painted for a long time so doing a blog might keep me going more. Not to mention all the feedback (good & bad).

Colors First.

I needed to figure out a color scheme and after looking at IA:5 I went with a Black/Blue theme.
Trench coat: Cool deep blue/grey/black. Hight lights will be a cool gray chosen at a later time. This MUST be interesting since this will be what people see the most, across the whole army.
Armor: Flat black
Gloves, boots, mask: Warm tans/brown. These should really stand out next to the cools of the great coat.
Metal parts and bits: Warm brass. Again creating areas that pop.
Base: Magnetic base and resin bits from the first OOP Cities of Death terrain set.




To do this I picked up the Grey Primer Duplicoat. This is pure awesome in a can. Not only that, the color matches P3's paint "Greatcoat Grey".
Mediums: Liquitex's Matte Medium and Flow-Aid. These do well with any paint I've used.
Warms: P3's Molten Bronze, Menoth White Base & White Highlight. I will also use Bootstrap Brown.
Cools: P3's Umber Brown, Greatcoat Grey and Coal Black. Reaper's Blue-Black (a MUST to own!).

The first mini was a Jr Officer because of all the extra things to paint. I chose to make his colors a little more blatant which is militarily stupid (hello! Shoot ME!) but stands out really nicely on the table.



(Note- the picture seems to have compressed badly: too much specks that look like the brass ran. I will have to fix this next time around)

Primed with the Duplicoat and base colors put on. Looking at the picture I can see it's still pretty sloppy and I need to tighten up the areas. Need more lights!

Red cuffs and collar were done with Citadel's Mechandrite Red Foundation and Mordian Blue for the Sword. The mud on the base was painted in P3's Umber Brown, and Menoth White Base for the bones.

All armor was done with the Bronze including the shoulders. My idea will be to make all JR officiers Bronze, Midlevel will be Silver and Sr Officiers will be Gold. Very easy for everyone to tell the rank. Not sure if there is too much Bronze right now, that will be determined after the shading is put in to help mute it. Maybe a different color for the body of the pistol.

The tans did look good next to the greys! However, the tubing for the rebreather, doesn't look that good, so it's going to be repainted black.

The legs were pretty safe to try some experimentation so I tried washing them with with the new black wash from Citadel. Disappointing results as the result looked really harsh and unnatural. I'm going to use the Reaper Blue-Black to create the shadows and build up. Ah well.

Next up:
1. Tighten up the basic color areas.
2. Add darks
3. Add highlights
4. Add interest points spot colors/dirt

This looks like a neat thread to watch grow. I'll try and be constructive here, and maybe I can learn a thing or two! First, if it's a blog, maybe place it in the P&M Blog forum? Looking forward to more in this thread. I like the organization of your paint desk, that won't last long. Love the pants on your IG, maybe add a little mud and dust to his boots, dirty him up.

I really like that white base, P3 you say? They might stand out more with a super watered down brown ink to shade em up a bit more.

Doh! yes. P3 not P4. Will have to edit it. Menoth colors come in a set so you'll get all the base, highlight and boostrap.

Ebullient: There's A P&M blog? Woops. And yes, All dust and dirt comes on the end after all colors are added/worked up.

Ooops, of course, my bad. The P&M Blogs is the Forum right below this one.

Onward!

Camera update: I've found that the camera likes to push anything that's really shiny. The ink wash left several surfaces glossy and that gave me the little pin pricks of light all over the place. I'm going to have to mix it with matte medium if I do further work.

I tightened up the Jr Officer's Basic color areas with some better results



As I go through the figure I keep finding areas that I didn't think about in my original planning. Most specifically: Straps. These things hide all over the place (chin strap for helmet, etc) and I find myself looking at areas I wasn't ready for. After consulting with IA:5, I've chosen to go with P3's Bootstrap Brown color that I was using for the boots. This is good since it drags the color through the figure. More about this later. Even though the rebreather chest box is depected as being in a leather case, I'm going to paint it Bronze to help push that color on the basic troops. All buttons will also be bronze.

Next up was prepping the next group to work on. I've chosen 3 lascannons and their crew.



Guns were placed on the base and flocking attached with empty spaces for the crew. I want to paint the crew separate since it will be impossible to reach certain areas if I assemble it all together. The exception is the LC team with the running figures. I'm not a fan of these as they're hard to assemble and confusing on the table- team faces one way but gun faces another. I try to avoid stuff like this to make for smoother games. The model themselves are also very fragile, connecting to the tripod on a single small U piece. One of these broke already.



I made the choice to fill that area with glue to reinfoce it. It's going to be very hard to see it, and if I paint it uniformly, it will look like a gray block. Don't tell anyone.

After priming the bases with the Duplicoat gray primer, I noticed many hairs stuck all over the place. This is because my cat DEMANDS to drink my paint water every time I get a new batch. There is NO stopping this, and leads to extra clean up. : /



Paint water: I like to use rather warm water to get the paint off my brushes. Cold water congeals paint (somewhat) while hot water melts it (somewhat). I've found it makes for cleaner brushes. Drawback is warm water will leach out the oils from your brushes faster as well. So you will have cleaner brushes with a (somewhat) shorter lifespan.

Crew starts to get their paint. Colors look good moving through the figure.



Moving color through the figure: When you repeat a color through an area (through the base if you can), it naturally draws the eye across it, allowing it escape and creates flow. This makes the viewer like the piece, even if they don't know why. Examples of the Tan and Bronze:



Remember in the last post, how I wasn't sure if there was too much Bronze in the Jr. Officier? Looking at this view I can see it's working well. so I'll keep it.



More soon!

Im diggin the furry titan.

Since the weather is finally turning nice, it's time to start painting outside.

Natural Light: This is, hands down, the best thing to use because you get the get the purest colors. Just about all lights distort colors in one way or another. They sell "daylight" bulbs to get around this, and OTT lights are really good white light, but still, if they mimic the real thing, you might as well use the real thing when you can. Direct sunlight is too bright, so find a place that is very close to direct light and paint in the shade.



Since the last post, I've chosen to get rid of the Coal Black since it wasn't giving me anything I couldn't get from the Reaper Blue-Black. I added P3's: Iosan Green, Underbelly Blue and Frostbite to the pallet. Green for the eye glasses, U. Blue to mix with Greatcoat Grey for the highlights and Frostbite to mix with the Mordian Blue on the sword.

After some experiments with the Blue-Black, I found that it wasn't as deep as I wanted but was great for doing the build up. So to get the depths, I added some of the Thamar Black. Grond looks like it might need some more work too.





Most of the shading is in, but from the photos I can see that I need some touch ups. Shadows were done with Citadel's Devlan Mud and Gryphonne Sepia on the tans and ground. Black Scarab wash and a mix off watered down paint. The helmet is a pain in the butt and I'm not sure if the Aquella wings will turn out clean. We will see but it doesn't look good at this point.

Looking good. my first impression of the gold was "Ack!" but its good to see that it was just your camera. Your color scheme is tightening up nicely. Lookign forward to seeing more of these guys as they get finished.

Meph

Wow, you obviously are doing something right. That is a mighty improvement when you compare the first and last pics. Good work so far.

Thank you! The first picts look a bit underwhelming but you have to start somewhere.

I've also found that taking pictures of the minis and looking at them REALLY points out the areas that I've missed. It's weird but great at the same time.

Looks Really good with the Washes....real good.

I'd Picture them being Darker and Gritter IMO.

But great work keep it up.

Could try painting Mortis,Skull's, and death on them.

It's a rough call. Admittedly this guy is very bright- he's got reds and bronzes all over the place on him due to his command. Regular troopers won't have this. Bright points like these makes the army stand out as a whole.

I'm often torn between looking really dark, but that often looks muddy (aka bad- everything looks the same) as a whole. So, I add in things that might not make tactical sense (bright or livid) to make things more visually pleasing.

Then again the real mud should help things but that's the very last step.

Two picture update: Shadows are in and highlighting has begun.

Pictures taken at midnight and don't look that great; I think they would look better in daylight. I'll paint more on Saturday and update again. Some shadows still look too harsh and will have to be blended out. Don't want my highlights to be TOO bright, so we'll see if I can find a nice medium.

I'm totally impressed by the progression this particular model has taken. When I saw the first pic with just the base colors, I was a little scared - that brass really freaked me out. But the detailing, shading and highlighting have smoothed out the colors and the model looks really great now!

Thank you! Every piece of art (drawing or painting) goes through the "awkward teenage years" and for minis, it's the base colors stage.

I also was worried that I had pushed the figure into the "too colorful" range. However, with all the grime, I think I dodged that bullet.

Picture taken during the day. You can see the difference in the quality of color real light gives. White spots are glossy bits caught by the camera. Gloves need to be muddied up a bit as it's confusing if it's flesh or cloth right now. The power cell on his hip looks aweful so I'll have to look into this. : /

Highlights have started with the help of Liquitex Slow Dry medium. I'll post more when they're finished. Krieg transfers have been ordered from Forgeworld.

I love the effects on his mask, helmet, and collar. Very nice. The red contrasts really nicely with the rest of the paintjob and really makes it visually interesting.

Time for another update.

First off, the lascannon squads continue to be worked on. Slowly but surely.





Now, only 90+ more troopers after this. My free time and wallet are crying.

The Commander is almost done. Front picture is a bit blurry so I apologize for that but you get a good feel for the colors.





Colors used: P3's Underbelly Blue to build up the highlights on the clothing. Frostburn was used to do the sword. Up a light layer on and if it's no good, wash it with the darker blue- it smooths it all out.

Stuff left to do on him:
1. Fix the shading on his right butt
2. work on the sword.
3. Finish the base. Gotta figure if I want the rocks to be the same color as him.
4. Mat seal the figure.
5. Apply the dirt. If I don't like it I can wash it off thanks to the sealant.

I like the color you highlighted his goggle lenses up to - very bright - makes it pop. I'm continuing to watch this space with interest!

Done done and done! Finally the Jr Officer is done!

Basing was done with some P3 Brown Ink and GW Gryphon Sepia. Follow that with drybrushing on GW Snakebite Leather and P3 Rucksack Brown. Also put on some directional lighting gold on various high points on his armor to really make them stand out. Some strange whitish areas appeared after I hit it with dull coat so I had to paint over them.





Sadly I found that the Armory brushes I had were all beginning to splay out badly after a short period of time so I won't be buying them again.

Here are the next Krieg that are in the works.

I owe you an apology.

I am absolutely sorry.

I just started viewing this thread today. When I saw the image of the commander (Sgt...whatever) that you posted on 6/10, I thought you were wasting your $$ on FW stuff because you were ruining it. The way it looked, I just didn't see how it could be saved.


Oh, me of little faith.

You've done stellar work on him! Kudos.

Eric

Your Junior Officer is tremendous - you've certainly done those FW models the work they deserve!

I agree with MagickalMemories I first thought that you were wasting your money, but you sir have proved me wrong and painted one heck of a beautiful minature.

Thank you! I was someone in the same mind frame when I took the first pictures. "Did I just throw away $40?" ran through my mind more than once.

For the rest of the command squad I'm going to keep the red collar and cuffs, but make the rest of the armor black like a standard trooper. Highlights will make him stand out and will follow the shoulder "C" plate through various parts of the figure.

The armor plates are so small I'm debating on if I want to do weathering on them (paint chips). You can do it with marines or vehicles because the areas are larger, but these little tiny slivers of armor... hmmm... it might just look too busy.

Holy crap!!! thats awesome, compare pic 1 with the final.
Outstanding work,
-Skavenfreak

Holy moly.

I'm feeling nervous if I'm gonna' post my DK on here soon! These live up to a standard I couldn't really think of.

*Sprints off holding half done Command Squad, for fresh highlights.*

I have to admit to being in the 'argh! this guy's ruined them!' camp early on too. You have a rare ability to make a mini look like total cack, then take it right back to ace!

smiling Assassin wrote:Holy moly.

I'm feeling nervous if I'm gonna' post my DK on here soon! These live up to a standard I couldn't really think of.

Thank you! Honestly there are many standards that DK could go for and they would all work. I'm pushing my colors/brights now because for a long long time my figures were way too dull looking, and nothing stood out. Now they do. However subtle also works. Take a look at the DKoK combat engineer colors. Very muted pallet that feels more natural, and (in all honesty) is more realistic. It took me a long time to make the choice between the bold colors or the realistic colors. I went with bold.

@ Greebynog. Every time I post the picts of things I just start working on I think the same thing. Ung!

Now, to get cracking on the command squad so I have some new picts to look at.

More done on the troopers. Works been kicking in so I haven't had as much time.

Lots of missed spots here and there. Kept finding unpainted straps, gun butts, and other what not. This ate a lot of effort since it was never consistent so I had to swap back and forth between paints. Not to mention other miscast skulls that look little more than lumps, etc...

Areas I'm still not sure on:
Bayonets- sliver? Right now they don't look good. Maybe black.
Spade head. Silver still doesn't look that good. We'll see.
Lascannon body. barrel is black, so a black gun may make too it too heavy.
I'm intimidated as hell with vehicles. Soooo many plates, but if you do them all differently, you'll look like a clown show.

Areas I'm still feeling out:
Guns bodies are black. Most gun muzzles will be brass. Gun stocks and hand grips will be brown.

On to the other mildly inspiring pictures!

In the grim future, pointing is serious business. Some inks have been applied. Areas still need to be cleaned up.





Heavy weapons team in the ink phase. The handle back is only partly painted because that's where I'll be gluing it to the main weapon. Don't want the glue to be attached to only the paint.



Heavy weapons operator that I put inks on. This was slowed since I didn't finish the base coat in some areas. Got too quick and now I'll have to be extra careful when touching up those areas. Don't make this mistake.



Command Squad base coating is about finished. Still have to work on the small areas on the radio operator.



Special weapons. Still have to work on the extra details on the weapons. I would really like to get some black and bronze around their feet since both colors just stop half way through the figure.