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2018/10/27 03:31:46
Subject: Gwyn's Table: Bringing Up to Snuff, Throwing Pinecones, and Negative Space
I started painting almost 3 years ago, but like many new painters, made many mistakes. Not watering my paints, not priming or washing my models, only using single layers and block colours, and so-on. The height of my ability was to use a dark wash on my weapon-metal and a light drybrush on my body-metal. My best model was my Overlord.
Well, I decided to start getting a little more serious about my painting. I bought a pile more paints, enough for me to work with layers and edge highlighting. I built myself a wet palette. I'm keeping almost the same basic scheme as with my overlord above, with the main exception being that I'm going to experiment with bone-coloured heads. The Overlord probably is a poor example of the scheme, as normally the ribcages are silver with only the shoulderpads and some extra armour pads being purple, but anyhow.
My first test is on a Heavy Destroyer I picked up, below. It came rather poorly primed, but I was too excited to try out my new paints and techniques to strip it and re-prime it.
Some things worked better than others. The bone head looks fantastic, as does the shinier metal body. The purple edge highlighting got a little sloppy in places: I need a thinner brush than my current thinnest one, and simply a steadier hand! The green power glow I underestimated how dark it would end up. Part of that is my lightest green I think dried up since I last used it a year or so ago, but also I need to use more white and yellow to really get it to look like it's glowing, way before I try my hand at anything complicated like OSL.
I also need to set up a lightbox and ask nicely to borrow my girlfriend's camera, but I'd be content with this as my new tabletop standard.
Next after this I have 5 lychguard to do, after which I'll need to start stripping models to redo them.
Index, in order completed (and not counting unfinished minis):
Progress is slow, Law School takes priority. Sucks, but well, it's responsible. I've gotten a little bit of painting done though: I've almost finished base-coating the 5 un-painted Lychguard w/ warscythes I picked up off ebay a while ago. The other 5 are very simply painted and washed, I might just keep the level of paint that's already on them and just to highlighting and updates, it seems light enough.
Spoiler:
I've been working on paint-stripping, I bought a jug of Simple Green which works well on layer coats, but even after days and days soaking and a vigorous scrub, barely removes the blue undercoat of a bunch of ebay Warriors I used as my test case. Might have to go get something better.
And I need to do this because a pile of Kromlech Space Egyptian Weaponry arrived yesterday!
Spoiler:
This stuff is gonna be used mainly for various HQ mods. I have an older Overlord in need of stripping, and a Cryptek I made out of the new Overlord that you get in literally every box that both require new weapons, posted below. The Cryptek is gonna get one of the Technostaves, and the Overlord will get a Khopesh. The status on that Overlord is how my poor warriors were painted before stripping, hopefully I'll have a before/after for you guys up soon.
Spoiler:
The red on the Cryptek ties them in to the colours I use on my Canopteks. I have a second official Cryptek from ebay that needs stripping and painting to join his brother, but first things first.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/11/22 02:37:07
Not too much to show here: mostly just did the last bit of base coating: the red that I use for jewels (and also to mark Canoptek and Cryptek stuff, but that's not what this bit is doing).
Been doing tiny bits of painting in between studying. I managed to miss one model on the red pass (because it was the one who I had to finish up the green first), and then gave each model a wash of Nuln Oil. Eventually I intend on getting some more varied washes so I can match better to the purpose, but for now my one wash will have to do.
Spoiler:
That was technically a few days ago. Today I had a much more productive painting session. Fixed up the blade-up guy who was missing his red basecoat, and got most of my next layers down. All the purple went up to the next shade lighter, gold got highlighted, green got the next layer up (pretty happy with the coils on the warscythes), brown got some edge highlighting (I need a smaller brush though, I had such trouble controlling this one, I felt like I was painting the centre of each section of the staff instead of the edge each time), and the guy on the far right got the next layer of silver done as well. Just need to do silver all the way across, but keeping any joints darker like before, do the next layer of bone (keeping the space between the 'teeth' darker), and figure out how to start that 'gem' effect with the next layer of red, and then it's just edge highlighting left on this batch!
Finally finished up those Lychguard! I learned a lot doing them. In the end I'm actually pretty happy with them! The green glow turned out fantastic, although I'm not comfortable enough to have them actually shed light or do any OSL techniques yet. The red gem effect also came out OK.
Spoiler:
I wouldn't have been able to do it without new Christmas brushes and paints! I also got a pile new models for Christmas that will be joining us soon, one of which has already hit the painting table. You can see the two big models in the background of the photo above: a night/doom scythe that I intend to magnetize, and a Monolith that I intend to play with green stuff to make it look hewn out of stone. In addition to those, I got a new box of immortals, a new Szeras, and a beautiful Zahndrekh that, being already primed, I couldn't resist throwing on to the painting table!
Spoiler:
He should be very striking: that gold chest plate will really make him stand out, it really looks like early Roman pectoral armour painted up like this.
I did another coat of paint all around on Zahndrekh, just highlights, gems and glows left!
Spoiler:
Not a huge visible difference on much of him, but it brightens up a lot of him across the board, most notable in the purple and bone.
I also realized I forgot on the previous models that I only wanted the front face-plate of the models to be bone and keep the back of their skull in steel-silver. So Zahndrekh will reflect that, and I may return to the Lychguard to fix that on them.
I also did a little modelling; I had bought a while ago a damaged Overlord without any weapons, so I stuck one of my Kromlech khopesh's on him. I think it looks great in the pose! Just a shame about the damaged cape.
Had a very productive day! I finished Zahndrekh a few days ago, but forgot to put the white line edge on his Staff of Light, and the glue smudged off the paint on his elbow. Everything has been fixed now! He stands triumphant and far superior to his Lordly brethren!
Spoiler:
I bought some of the GW texture paints to experiment on bases. I don't have many shades, so this is Agrellan Badlands, Nuln Oil, and then drybrushed with Karak Stone and Screaming Skull. Wish I had Agrax Earthshade instead, or Lahmian Medium for my own washes but alas. I don't think simply watering down the paint would have the same effect.
Spoiler:
Lastly, got Szeras and a custom Heroforge miniature for my D&D character. I haven't decided on cape, shield or cloth colours for the D&D miniature, but Szeras is all base coated. I'm doing his staff, second vestigial arm, and head separately, so I can get his chest properly painted first.
Szeras and Blaze
Finished the Heroforge mini. The character is named Blaze, and is a Hexblade Warlock, imbuing his weapons with powers bargained from mysterious figures.
Spoiler:
I'm not as happy with this mini as with my Zahndrekh. It's smaller scale I think (possibly 25mm not 28mm?), or is just a smaller person, and requires a more naturalistic approach than my sci-fi death skeleton robots. The cloak came out perfect at least! But the face and clothes... ugh. Oh well, learn for next time!
Got all the second coats on and edge highlighted the red and purple, and began building up the green glow. Just need to spot highlight the metal, finish off the skull, yellow-green and yellow to the green glow, and then start working on his flashlight and staff!
Question for y'all: what would be the most appropriate colour to have the flashlight shine? Green would be an obvious answer, but something feels off with it to me. I've had some things like computer interfaces and Canoptek creature lenses in blue, so perhaps a pale blue light would work. Alternatively I could just have it shine a more realistic yellow-y light? What do you guys think!
G'day mate! This blog is ticking along quite nicely - I know how life can get in the way sometimes, but any progress is good progress on the hobbying front.
I actually really like the effect you've got going with the bases, I love the visual of a tide of pitiless robotic humanoids crawling across a moonscape.
Your edge highlighting is really coming along - you can especially notice this on your heroforge hexblade, where you've really picked out some solid places to bring contrast. I bet he looks great on the table.
Green lights always seem appropriate for Necrons, but might get lost in the other green details on your Szeras - I personally think a Tron-style electric blue would look ace. Thanks for sharing your work, hope you keep it up in future!
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/02/09 07:58:10
Thanks for the feedback! I'm leaning the same way on the flashlight. Will start working on it soon. First, I built 5 Tesla Immortals yesterday after I finished the readings for my 11 hours of class today (Law is fun!), so I'm going to do a batch of priming soon; the other Szeras parts, 5 immortals, and 1 or 2 more D&D Heroforge minis, for my girlfriend's character and potentially an old character of hers.
I primed my Night/Doom Scythe a while ago, and I've started painting the interchangeable portal/gun, but I'm waiting on the main part until I can get access to the university 3d printer to print of a cockpit that somebody on Dakka iirc kindly made public.
Szeras' body is almost all finished! Quite happy with the spine especially of the head: a mix of Mephiston Red, Abaddon Black to darken it, and Reikland Fleshshade to thin it out and give it a more body-fluid tone did wonder as a wash over my usual bone.
Spoiler:
I couldn't decide on skin tone for the skull, so I went through several versions of ruddy-to-pale. I think I like the splotchy end-look is not bad for a decapitated head though. Alas, the red blood seeping from one eye ended up a bit ABOVE the eye as well, but otherwise I quite like it. Next step is his staff (which I went and snapped in two when trying to bend it straight because Finecast), his head, and his flashlight.
Meanwhile, I got a few other new toys. I now have WAY too much on my painting table! I've started with some of my old ebay Warriors (primed in an unfortunate blue that won't come off in Simple Green), and also have built 5 Tesla Immortals, and a few more fun things:
My girlfriend said she'd consider playing Age of Sigmar, so I started looking into their armies and fell in love with Fish Elves. So I impulse bought an Akhelian King, and boy was it harder to put together than a Necron! Not as annoying as Tomb Blades, but trying to fit the harness on without breaking it... it was the fiddliest model I'd worked with yet.
Spoiler:
Until of course somebody near me sold me Lady Olynder. I'd wanted this model since I first saw it. I don't intend on playing Nighthaunts, but rather intend to use her to proxy a C'tan, painted to complement my Necrons. I have some... fun ideas for how to paint her in a unique way. But oh man is she terrifyingly delicate! I'm surprised the only thing I broke was one of the rose vines for the base! I was terrified for literally every part of her, she's absolutely tiny (except still towering over all my non-vehicular models).
Spoiler:
Lastly, I finally got the Night Scythe canopy, courtesy of Ouze. Not quite as good as his versions (I got them printed cheap) and my first try and green stuff to get it fitted. I thiiiiink it'll work out still?
I really like the idea of using lady olynder as ctan, that is going to be a pretty fun project, i think. But yeah, night haunt are basically held together by the tiniest strands of plastic possible and they stress me out.
Considering I broke Szeras' staff AGAIN while finishing up painting, yeah I'm gonna absolutely destroy Lady Olynder. I just do not have gentle hands.
On that note, Szeras is finally done! Except I forgot to do the white edge to the blades again, but still worth posting. The green glow came out amazing again, and the blue flashlight actually seems to have worked, thank god. First time doing anything like OSL, so that was stressful. Definitely the best-painted model in my army now!
Spoiler:
Next is probably just going to be those handful of warriors, but I've started basing for Olynder and my Immortals as well. Maybe I'll just do it all at once, who knows!
I also ordered a whole pile of more Ebay fun stuff, some which will get some fun and to my knowledge unique conversions. Stay tuned!
Too much on the table at once, put Olynder aside for a while until I finish less interesting pieces. Still putting along with base coats on the Warriors, Immortals, and the Doom/Night Scythe.
No pictures of the Warriors, because they still have ugly blue (I only just glued the arms and heads back on now the chest is base coated), but pics of the Immortals and the Scythe!
Immortals:
Spoiler:
Cut up pieces of sprue became the famed Necron green crystals after I saw one on my eBay Warriors. They work well! Regretting doing the basing before gluing on to the base though, none of my glue seems to hold the immortals very strongly to the texture paint...Just need to base the weapon frame and the head-stripe, then on to washes and layers.
Scythe:
Spoiler:
The canopy looks fantastic! Not quite as smooth as if it were a natural part of the model, but not bad for a first try. Still have to base coat the guns, the gold, and the red front-plate, and do more work on the underslung additions. Decided to switch up how I do my guns. Previously they were simply Leadbelcher + Nuln Oil, but now I'm thinking they'd look better as Black + dulled metallic edges. More contrast with the silver bodies.
Lastly, I picked up what will hopefully be my last big purchase of Necrons for a while.
Spoiler:
Obyron, an old metal Lord, 5 more Teslamortals, 2 destroyers, and a little special something for some conversions in the back.
Ok I say last big purchase. Buuuuuuut my friend is giving me a pile of Glaivewraiths for conversion, and to do that properly I need a Doomsday/Ghost Ark, AND maybe two boxes of Sicarian Ruststalkers, and probably some more claw hands... So stay tuned to see what happens!
Had a battle with my friend's (UNPAINTED! He keeps telling me he's gonna start painting any time soon...) Ultramarines Primaris army. I lost in the end, but it was pretty close call. No good terrain, just played on my table.
Opened up the game by throwing my Olynder-Deceiver into one flank, where she killed an HQ but then died.
Spoiler:
On my other flank, 10 Scytheguard (mix of my new painted and some unstripped ebay finds) plus Obyron (unstripped ebay find) plus, out of picture, a grey-plastic Cryptek and a painted Zahndrekh, absolutely demolished a Captain, a unit of Intercessors, and then next turn was one wound away from dropping Guilliman and another unit with him. Zahndrekh was MVP, especially when he removed the brutal Guilliman buff.
Spoiler:
In the centre, 10 Teslammortals (half unstripped ebay, half WIP) and 5 Gaussmortals (old paint job) did fantastic against infantry, but couldn't really do any damage to this beast of a tank.
Spoiler:
Ultimately, my first turn destroyed a signficant portion of his army, but his first turn he got no less than 6 VPs in a single turn, and while I ended up only losing by 1 VP, I could never quite make up for that brutal turn.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2019/04/08 18:28:12
Some great work going on in here! Really love how Szeras turned out - the blue OSL compliments the colour palette and it definitely helps that the photos are so clear.
Lady Olynder is coming along really nicely too - I'm the same with breaking minis and would be absolutely terrified of painting her! She works great as a C'tan though - nice thinking.
Nice finds on ebay - I am exactly the same with my collection...this is the last thing I'll need for a while...oh if I add this unit I'll be at an even 2k points...oh this would be great for the start of a new army...it never ends! Can't wait to see more
Oh man it's so hard not to buy things second hand. I'm just starting that Idoneth army, bought the Start Collecting box which I'm slowly putting together, then somebody locally is selling 20 Dark Elf Corsairs as part of a bundle. It's taking all my self control not to get the whole bundle for those Corsairs, swap out some heads and weapons with the ones I'm not using from the Akhelian Guard to pretend they're Akhelian infantry, use them as an arrow-shield ahead of my Namarti... But the bundle comes with a whole pile of other Dark Elves, some of which I don't really have much use for. Some of which I don't even know if they have rules anymore!
Anyhow, here's my very first kit-bash:
Spoiler:
The banner snapped off as I was going to strip the model, so it's gonna have to get reglued after the rest of the model is stripped, and I'm thinking I might reduce the length of the handle of the sword a bit, but otherwise he looks awesome as a Standard Bearer Lord! Luckily the extra hand in the Akhelian King box for the special character is armoured enough to look passably Necron.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/04/09 18:33:34
It's hard to stay focused with so many fun toys! I'm prioritizing the Warriors right now (and I'm gonna touch up my Heavy Destroyer when I do), and then my girlfriend insists that the Monolith go next because it is, she says, hideous, and she doesn't want to have to look at it like that anymore. I concur. No offence nameless previous owner!
It's currently exams, so I get to do some painting as study breaks. Haven't painted in a while due to a whole pile of essays (4 in 7 days!), so here's where I left off before that with the Immortals and Warriors. Both are currently on the shelf until the Idoneth get built, then the Warriors will go back to the table.
Spoiler:
Edit: I lie, I did basing on the Warriors over top of that grass. It came out well, the grass's movement left room for some nice deep cracking.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/04/10 20:10:13
It’s a natural feeling scheme though, I’m surprised more don’t use it. The royal colour for an ancient dynasty! I like your gold Immortal markings, those fit well! I’m experimenting with a plain white mark for mine, we’ll see how good it looks over bone .
Going is still super slow; 2 exams down (Contracts and Criminal Law), 3 to go (Public and Constitutional, Torts, and then Public International Law).
In the meantime, I got a nice snap of how well Olynder fits in with the rest of the army! Considering she's barely started, she looks surprisingly good next to the other units!
Finally got one of those Detolf cases for my models! No more sitting on an over-crowded shelf gathering dust for these robots! Was a bit of a pain to put together, but with my girlfriend's help it went moderately smoothly.
No, it’s the official model. Bad light plus a pretty awful paint job from e-bay. Planning on adding green stuff texture to the panels to make them look like rough stone blocks.
Alright, 3/8 done modelling the stone blocks on the Monolith. Some are coming out better than others, but all in all I think it's coming together! I have to get at least base coats down on a pile of models over the next two days for a game on Thursday so only boring pictures for the next few days.
Finished Forge World Elysian Army 
Finished Tau Sept Cadre 
Finished Ork Waaagh | 
Alaitoc Eldar Warhost 
Finished Order of Our Martyred Lady - Sisters of Battle 
Finished Necromundian Imperial Guard Regiment 
