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With enough dedication, even an iron rod can be ground into a needle. – Chinese Proverb (paraphrased)


So, as someone who lurks more than posts it’s always exciting for me to start a new thread on Dakka. This one, as the title suggests, will be about my efforts to improve my painting and modeling skills by trying new color schemes and techniques on models I haven’t worked on before. I’ve been very grateful for all the comments, complements and constructive criticism I’ve gotten on my other long running P&M Blog, “Mechanicum Jon’s Dark Eldar” (http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/378881.page) and hope that Dakka and I can continue the same mutually motivating relationship in this thread!


Case 1: Myrmidon Officer (Infinity the Game, Corvus Belli)

Nobody plays Infinity here in Hong Kong, but I’ve always been a fan of the miniatures. The Dakka Infinity Painting Challenge finally gave me an excuse to buy some of these miniatures to paint up. Unfortunately, I was a bit pressed for painting time during the month of the Challenge and didn’t think I could pull of a new scheme within that time period. So I fell back on my tried and tested Dark Eldar colors.



However, I didn’t really want to paint up another army in my Dark Eldar scheme and was resolved to repaint the miniature unless I placed in the Challenge (then I would have kept the miniature for sentimental reasons). Since I didn’t win the Challenge, I’ve taken the opportunity to strip the model and do a little conversion work before I try to paint it again. I’m not really a fan of the stock Myrmidon Officer miniature mainly because I don’t know why she’s staring at the hilt of her sword. So I carefully shaved the sword out of her hand and reposed her so that she’s challenging her foe with a “come on, give me your best shot” gesture. The conversion is a little rough, but I think it gives her a lot more character. More importantly, I actually like the way she looks now.



Right now, I’ve mostly settled on painting my Aleph generally according to the Studio scheme since I’m a huge fan of the bone/black/purple combination, but I’m still doing a lot of research on alternatives. Can anyone point me to a good guide to painting the purple-tinged bone color on Studio Aleph miniatures?

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for sticking with me through this first post and hope you’ll decide to stop by again sometime in the future!

Subscribed, can't wait to see what you come up with...

That arm is begging for some sort of holo display I think, maybe paint on clear plastic to give the impression of floating? I saw that on another Infinity miniature and it looked very awesome

Yeah man, she looks a lot better posed like that - good work.

Did the legs need repositioning? Kinda hard to tell from the angle of the original painted shot.

Must've been a bitch to shave that knife off... Kudos to you sir

Glad you decided to repaint her. I like that scheme but thats your DE scheme and don't know a lick about infinity so I excited to see the mech jon studio take. good luck and I'm gonna keep up with this one.

Nice conversion man, it definitely looks better than the original positioning. I look forward to your take on painting her.

I usually make the mistake of testing out new painting techniques on models I have just converted, just bought, or otherwise care a lot about. This has sometimes led to a vicious cycle of doing a poor job, trying to strip the paint off model, breaking some converted bit while scrubbing it, feeling stressed out and then spending a couple hours fixing the model before I can start again. This time I decided to actually learn from my mistakes and work on a throwaway model first ! Remember that my idea for this blog is for me to share the whole process of what does and doesn't work for an "average" painter who isn't spending tens of hours on a miniature.

I also decided to start with one of the colors I've never been able to paint well: black.

Trial 1: Painting Black, Aleph Style

I decided to try starting with the colors used by the artist who paints the studio Infinity miniatures to get a feel for how the color scheme was hung together. I also decided to try out the wet blending method after watching a few video tutorials of how it worked. The store ran out of Vallejo retarder so I went to an art store and picked up another brand.



Here's the color transition I mixed up on a wet palette made out of paper towels and baking paper.



Here's what I had after about three hours of painting:



So not a great success . I was going to take a picture of the very marginal result I had achieved but then I smudged the last layer of paint by accident and stripped the paint of in a fit of annoyance. But I soon experienced the benefits of having a throwaway test model because I didn't feel stressed out or worry that I had ruined a model . As an aside, I chose this model mainly because it's made of metal and so can stand up to a lot of abuse!

I understand that wet-blending is a relatively fiddly technique that needs a lot of practice, so I was probably too quick to judge, but after about 6 hours of effort on several attempts I felt that it was maybe time to try something a bit more familiar. So here's what I managed after about half an hour with the more conventional layering method of painting.



So, a bit better, but still far from acceptable. I've realized that I have a tendency to blend "down" and tone down colors a bit too much. The end result doesn't really "pop" as much as I'd like it to. Next, I'll be trying to start with colors that are further apart to try and compensate for this. Stay tuned to see how that turns out! If I can get this technique to work I'll break it down with lots of step by step photos so that other people can try it out as well!

@Vanq: The holo displays on Infinity models do look amazing, but I always have concerns about botching the application and having them fog up or fall off !

@kitch102: I didn't intentionally re-position the legs but they may have moved a bit when I was trying to get her off the base. I had done such a good job anchoring her in that I actually had to break apart the base to get her out!

@alabamaheretic: I'm just getting into Infinity as well! Well, technically right now I'm still painting a marine so I can't really say I'm working on Infinity models !

@Casey's Law: You might have to wait a while for me to actually paint her since I still need to try out a lot of stuff on the Space Marine "volunteer."

That was a good read. I can tell already that this is going to be a great blog to follow. Sorry I can't offer advice or anything.

Here's the result of me trying to blend while starting from a lighter gray. As you can see I still dulled it down too far.



Here's a rougher attempt at trying to figure out how far the "lighter" gray area needs to extend for it to look good. Seems like about 1mm or 1/25th of an inch is about right. Although the closeup photos make this attempt look pretty rough, I feel that it passes the "2 foot test." Meaning that when I hold it about an arms length away it looks good, which is already better than tabletop quality. However, I'm trying for a bit better than that so I'll continue iterating.



@Casey's Law: Thanks for commenting ! I'm confident in the concept of this blog, but I realize that pictures of indifferently painted Space Marine legs aren't actually the most inspiring subject to comment on !

Mechanicum Jon wrote:I'm confident in the concept of this blog, but I realize that pictures of indifferently painted Space Marine legs aren't actually the most inspiring subject to comment on !

Maybe not, but I am enjoying following it all the same. Perhaps some "real" size pictures to go with the closeups? That edge looks too thick, but as you say - could just be the excessive zoom!

Definately Subscribed. i think the blending is coming along nicely. I really like the new positioning for the Infinity model. I hated that sword before im glad you nixed it.

I just don't have any input because i haven't done much painting to date. As Arakasi said though, "i am enjoying following it all the same."

If i think of something useful i'll pipe up but otherwise i'll just leave you encouraging comments like these along the way.

I like this pose a lot better, Jon. Can't wait to see the new color scheme.