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Painting is coming on nicely, but the damn sword keeps warping...

He's looking really nice winterdyne, the way you've painted the black is very well done. Did you come up from a dark grey or a mix with black?

Looking very nice so far. How the heck are you going to stabilize the sword? Trade the model in for a metal one?

I usually work black in a rough-forward, blend-back method - starting from black course highlights in VMC Black-grey, then Line/edging in codex grey. Then work back the the VMC Black-grey to tone in the edges, then forward again layering black over the black-grey to blend everything in.

I'll have to give that a try next time I've got black to do, thanks!.

Good luck getting the sword to stay straight too.

And I think done:

Sweet! I always wonder how you do that tile or whatever you want to call it like on his shoulder paid. It always looks crazy awesome.

Thin lines of codex grey with thin white lines underneath. You need a good point on your brush.

More like a steady hand =P

Don't look at me for that! I find shaking the mini at the same rate as my hand cancels it out...

Wow, I am in awe. That is just incredible.

Could you elaborate on the "rough forward, blend back" technique?

Sure - it's basically a case of laying on the highlights just for coverage's sake - so here I put on a course highlight of VMC Black-Grey, then a line highlight of Codex Grey. This is the 'rough forward' bit.

Now, I get the VMC Black grey and water it down a bit, to blend back the codex grey a little, and freshen the surface of the dark grey. I then use pure VMC Black to layer over the dark grey and soften that in, bringing the highlights tighter by shading back.

This lets you work generally away from the edge (handy when you want the highlight to be tightened by your work rather than softened). It's also pretty quick as you're working back with darker colours which usually provide smoother coverage. A bit of flow improver or glaze medium also helps to have a nice soft layer for working back with.

Thanks for the clarification. It's what I thought, but way fewer steps that I imagined. I'll have to try that technique tonight when I try and rescue the cloak on my inquisitor

It has to be said, VMC Black and Black Grey are AWESOME for blending. More steps may be necessary with other brands, or stronger contrasts.

I've started switching over to VMC whenever I run out of something as the paints do seem to be nicer to work with. Thankfully the black and black grey were two of the first ones I bought.

Thanks for the explation Winterdyne that's quite a cool method I must try it. If you have the time/inclination would you be able to do a few step by step photos. I think I understand what you're explanation, but a few piccies would really help.

Nice job on the Champion, I honestly thought you'd done some moulding on the shoulder pad.

winterdyne wrote:Don't look at me for that! I find shaking the mini at the same rate as my hand cancels it out...

I'm not sure why and I apologize if it's offensive, but I laughed nearly uncontrollably at this.

Beautiful mini. Aboslutely love the tile effect on the floor and shoulder pads.

Starting to feel this is done.