Started painting on this chap today. Just a bit of base work on the face and a quick spray and coat of skull white for undercoat but enjoying it so far:




Using this as a warm up for some upcoming pieces so will be trialing oils for blending on him too.

Also, did my first ever pumpkin carving with my girlfriend Ioana tonight. Think I was maybe a little ambitious with my design given it's my first go, but pretty pleased! (Mine on the right, Ioana's on the left)



More soon!

Cheers,

Dante

Knew this would be good as soon as I saw CMDante had made the thread. Love that model as I told you in the thread you were building it in - can't wait to see it painted up. One thing I would say is that he doesn't look like he has enough webbing. Obviously I can't see the back of the model, but from those front-on pics he looks like he's travelling a little bit light to be fighting a war.

Solid effort on the pumpkin as well .

Autobots, transform.........into pumpkins. But on another note, the spray paint seems to have come out a bit to thick but the miniature seems still great. Can we have a photo of the back?

The detail is simply amazing. great job

Nice work. Great sculpting.

Thanks guys!

get to the chopper! wrote:Knew this would be good as soon as I saw CMDante had made the thread. Love that model as I told you in the thread you were building it in - can't wait to see it painted up. One thing I would say is that he doesn't look like he has enough webbing. Obviously I can't see the back of the model, but from those front-on pics he looks like he's travelling a little bit light to be fighting a war.

Solid effort on the pumpkin as well .

Cheers mate, big fan of your own IG log too (sorry haven't had the time to properly comment on it yet, will get round to it today!). He has a fair few pouches on him but they are mostly at the sides (hidden by the arms) and at the back.

The pumpkin was a blast to do, already thinking of more ambitious designs for next year!

General Stubbs wrote:Autobots, transform.........into pumpkins. But on another note, the spray paint seems to have come out a bit to thick but the miniature seems still great. Can we have a photo of the back?

Lol, exactly! It's not really the undercoat, its actually a very thin layer. What you are seeing is the residue of a milliput wash making it look thick and detail clogging, but actually it's not at all.

Will get a pic of the back later, nothing too interesting to see there though.

randyrohring wrote:The detail is simply amazing. great job

Cheers mate .

Shattered Soul wrote:Nice work. Great sculpting.

Thanks! I think there are things I would do different sculpting wise if I were to do him again, but I just wanted to get a practice model on the go so I could warm up for future projects.

More soon!

Also, if anyone is using Twitter, feel free to follow me on there (link in my sig).

Cheers,

Dante

TRANSFORM AND ROLL OUT

anyways, thats looking ace so far, but his skins a little pinkish for my tastes.

i really like th body. howd you make him?

General Stubbs wrote:Autobots, transform.........into pumpkins. But on another note, the spray paint seems to have come out a bit to thick but the miniature seems still great. Can we have a photo of the back?

Nerd fail. That's the decpticon symbol

Very nicely done, the face looks phenominal

@ ghosty - It's pinkish for the reasons stated below. The torso was from a FW cadian tank commander, head from plastic cadian command set with a neck sculpted, arms from the same with conversion on the helmet. The rest is sculpted (legs, boots, puch on the back etc).

Done a little more work on the stormtrooper's face this afternoon:




It's actually been really fun to do too! Haven't painted (properly) in a few months but don't feel too rusty for it.

Excuse the brown/grey on the fatigues etc, it's just an early, rough bit of shading to make the details easier to see when I come to paint it.

I'm thinking a nice, cool wintery setting, hence the pinkish tone of the skin on the cheeks. Still debating camo schemes etc for the fatigues though.

More soon.

Cheers,

Dante

Nice, that head is looking awesome. The webbing looks about perfect actually, now I've seen the back too.

You mentioned that you have him a milliput wash - what is the purpose of this exactly?

Looks to be a really cool start. I really like the way you have done the scarring. Quick stupid question, how do you achieve the stubble affect on his head, is it multiple glazes of grey(sorry for the stupid question, was just wondering)?

get to the chopper! wrote:Nice, that head is looking awesome. The webbing looks about perfect actually, now I've seen the back too.

You mentioned that you have him a milliput wash - what is the purpose of this exactly?

Ta mate. The milliput wash smoothes the seam lines where putty meets resin etc, it also fills in any small imperfections in the resin such as small air bubbles etc. A quick sand down with some fine grit wet/dry (I use 1200 grit I got off ebay) and its ready for paint.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Looks to be a really cool start. I really like the way you have done the scarring. Quick stupid question, how do you achieve the stubble affect on his head, is it multiple glazes of grey(sorry for the stupid question, was just wondering)?

Pretty much spot on mate. I mix a little black or dark grey in with one of my lighter flesh highlights and then thin it down heavily, dab the sides of my brush on my drying cloth/tissue until most of the moisture is removed, then paint on. You can blend it back in better by putting some of your top flesh highlight over the top in a thin layer.

Hope that helps.

Cheers,

Dante

CMDante wrote:

get to the chopper! wrote:Nice, that head is looking awesome. The webbing looks about perfect actually, now I've seen the back too.

You mentioned that you have him a milliput wash - what is the purpose of this exactly?

Ta mate. The milliput wash smoothes the seam lines where putty meets resin etc, it also fills in any small imperfections in the resin such as small air bubbles etc. A quick sand down with some fine grit wet/dry (I use 1200 grit I got off ebay) and its ready for paint.

Ah right I do that anyway, just not washing all over - only in the seams.

That tip about the buzz cut is excellent btw, never knew that was how you did them. I'll have to give it a try at some point.

Looking good so far! I was about to say: OMG NOOOO IT'S A DECEPTICON! Then I say the eyes
Where's the main body from

Cheers guys!

@ get to the chopper! - Yeah, it takes a bit of back and forth mucking about to get it smooth but it looks pretty good when done.

@ karimabuseer - Said above but the main body is from the FW cadian tank commander set and the legs are sculpted.

WIP

Cheers,

Dante

Thanks for the confirmation on the technique, always wanted to try it but never too sure how to go about it.

On a side note, is he still part of your rogue traders retinue or is he going to be some sort of show piece on his own?

gorgeous models deserve gorgeous painting

you failed

DC


p.s. JOKING!!! you are my god.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:On a side note, is he still part of your rogue traders retinue or is he going to be some sort of show piece on his own?

I think he's going to be more of a show piece on his own. The new look doesn't really fit anymore with what I originally planned.

deadly chicken wrote:gorgeous models deserve gorgeous painting
you failed
DC
p.s. JOKING!!! you are my god.

Lol, thanks!

Very pleased with the face actually, the eyes were a total pain to do (if you have the kit go take a look, they're tiny!) and took a bit of back and forth to get right, but in the end it was worth it. None of it would have been possible without Acrylic Flow Improver, it really helps with fine control on small areas like this.

Bit knackered tonight after doing a 10km run (29 mins 30 seconds for 10.3km) so no painting, hopefully get back to him tomorrow.

Cheers,

Dante

HA!!!

it would take my dad an hour to do that!

DC

Did a little painting today, not a lot as was quite tired after another 10km run (and tasty squid dinner my amazing gf made! - http://twitpic.com/o9fpo).

Managed to get some base work on the fatigues painted. Going for a sort of WW2 US airborne style with them. Early days yet but you can see where its going.



Also, on a polar opposite in terms of setting, thought I'd post a pic of a Tallarn trooper I converted up a few weeks back. He was originally intended for the base of a sentinel conversion I was putting together but I rapidly lost motivation with the large vehicle so might base him up on his own.



Cheers,

Dante

I've always loved seeing your conversions, particularly the WIP shots. It's helpful for a few snippets of technique, a dab of motivation, and lots of 'I'll never be able to do that! O.O'.

On a semi-unrelated note: I've always found twitter odd. Especially doing things like photographing your dinner. That baby squid looks like it's about to crawl away.

ha.

Love the update.

I would like to know what technique you use on the armour plates.

oh and if its not too much bother can you post how you did tose kick-ass fatigues??

DC

Morgrim wrote:I've always loved seeing your conversions, particularly the WIP shots. It's helpful for a few snippets of technique, a dab of motivation, and lots of 'I'll never be able to do that! O.O'.

On a semi-unrelated note: I've always found twitter odd. Especially doing things like photographing your dinner. That baby squid looks like it's about to crawl away.

Thanks for the kind words. As for twitter, maybe it is odd but at the same time, my friends and family check my twitter regularly (though oddly don't use it themselves!) so I talk about the kind of things I would with them on there. The CMDante account is really just an experiment to see what kind of usage the platform gets from the warhammer/40k community.

And that squid crawled into my mouth and was consumed whole shortly after the pic was taken! Delicious!

deadly chicken wrote:ha.

Love the update.

I would like to know what technique you use on the armour plates.

oh and if its not too much bother can you post how you did tose kick-ass fatigues??

DC

The armour plates haven't had any work on them yet, just the fatigues. The fatigues were done by first applying a couple of thin (super thin, controlled wash like) coats of charadon granite to pre-shade the surface. Then they were given a couple of thin coats of vallejo field grey followed by a shade wash mix of badab black and devlan mud. The whole lot was then given another super thin coat of field grey to bring the shades together. Next up is the highlighting. Not much of this done yet in the pics, just some small testing using a mix of field grey and dheneb stone.

Cheers,

Dante

Great.

How do you control the wash?

every time I try it just flows out of the area.

thanks,

DC

Really starting to shape up, waiting eagerly to see what you will do with the converted tallarn trooper most of all. I have always liked their fluff. Keep up the good work, your conversions are giving me IG ideas. Can't wait to see more.

Hi awesome looking! I was hoping to see this one painted! Great sculpting and painting!

As ever, I'm massively hyped seeing your work again. I remember this dude from ages ago, and you sorta left him. I'm glad he's getting more love now

I really should look into undercoating in white, the tones seem to be much more subtle with a few muddy washes. The armour looks brilliant, I want to know how you're gonna mash it up (if at all.)

sA

deadly chicken wrote:How do you control the wash?

Paint and brush control comes down to two factors -

1. The amount of paint on the brush.
2. The consistency of the paint.

When the paint is thin, slowly and gently dab the edge of your brush against a tissue to remove most of the moisture. This will allow you to control the thin paint while still getting super thin, translucent layers.

Your brush should never have a visible layer of paint on it. By this I mean that the bristles shape should never be altered or obscured by the amount of paint on the brush (unless your specifically doing messy splodgy areas etc).

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Really starting to shape up, waiting eagerly to see what you will do with the converted tallarn trooper most of all. I have always liked their fluff. Keep up the good work, your conversions are giving me IG ideas. Can't wait to see more.

Cheers mate, glad to inspire and looking forward to seeing what you come up with! The tallarn was actually going to be part of my entry for the current Dakka painting challenge (a tallarn sentinel broken down on a sand dune in the middle of the desert, the pilot abandoning it and beginning the long walk home in the baking sun), but after converting up the vehicle and doing the base, I lost interest. Now the figure will be based on his own as a small vignette.

Hans_posthumus wrote:Hi awesome looking! I was hoping to see this one painted! Great sculpting and painting!

smiling Assassin wrote:As ever, I'm massively hyped seeing your work again. I remember this dude from ages ago, and you sorta left him. I'm glad he's getting more love now

I really should look into undercoating in white, the tones seem to be much more subtle with a few muddy washes. The armour looks brilliant, I want to know how you're gonna mash it up (if at all.)

Thanks and thank you for following my progress guys!

Can't recommend white undercoating enough! It makes everything much easier!

Cheers,

Dante

I FREAKIN' LOVE IT!

Great, thanks

I will be trying that on my traitors....



DC

Just added a post to my blog on painting flesh - http://cmdante.blogspot.com/2009/11/fleshing-things-out.html

It goes into a bit more detail about the process than has been covered here. Hopefully you all will find something useful from it.

I intend to use my blog more in the coming weeks and months to add tutorials, project logs etc so feel free to chime in.

Cheers,

Dante

Cool I have to admit I'd be fascinated to see you converting and modelling an Imperial Guardsman from a wide variety of regiments in the typical pose or activity they are associated with (Like a disciplined Cadian Marksman, a Catachan about to start a knife fight, a Mordian marching in formation lock step etc). They just seem made for utter personalisation something you are hugely adept at.

Thanks mate.

Not a bad idea that actually! Some would be easier than others but it would be fun trying to characterise the regiments in one model.

Will give it some thought!

Cheers,

Dante

Glad you like the idea!

Been ill lately so no painting. Still not back in action, however yesterday I helped (read - watched) my wonderful girlfriend kit out the second bedroom (read - painting room!) in the flat with some new furniture and storage to organise all my books, mags and GW stuff:

Wardrobe Storage (the drawers on the left are all full of models and GW games)


Painting and Modelling Desk (tidy for the first time in months! new storage drawers underneath)


Display Cabinet (not much to show really!)


Books and Mags



Got some bases to be making on commission for a set to be cast and sold too so will be starting on those when I'm fit and well again.

Cheers,

Dante

Ok, I managed to tear myself away from MW2 for long enough after recovering from illness to do some more on this chap.

I've pretty much finished the body now and have built and started painting the base. At the moment the base isn't even a third of the way done so try to imagine it with some foliage and snow!



Next up - the arms and finishing the base!

Cheers,

Dante

My God.

He's gorgeous. I'm impressed, and very very jealous.

Cool stuff.

whats the expression???

oh yeah:

JOYGASM!!!!!

I love that trooper SO... much.

thanks for the tip again

DC

Mmmmm .. those white armor plates look awesome. Anything you would like to teachify us on how to approach that would be awesome.

Love the color of the boots as well.

- Blackbone

Awesome as usual mate, I agree with Blackbone on the boots, I don't know why they just seem to reinforce that cold winter feel. Oh and the more tutorials part.

Kanluwen wrote:My God.

He's gorgeous. I'm impressed, and very very jealous.

Thanks mate.

Death Gear wrote:Cool stuff.

Ta!

deadly chicken wrote:whats the expression???

oh yeah:

JOYGASM!!!!!

I love that trooper SO... much.

thanks for the tip again

DC

Lol, thanks mate. No worries!

Blackbone wrote:Mmmmm .. those white armor plates look awesome. Anything you would like to teachify us on how to approach that would be awesome.

Love the color of the boots as well.

- Blackbone

Thanks mate, yeah will put together a little tutorial on my blog in the not too distant.

Bloodthirster wrote:Awesome as usual mate, I agree with Blackbone on the boots, I don't know why they just seem to reinforce that cold winter feel. Oh and the more tutorials part.

Ta buddy! The scheme has really occured quite organically and has been influenced along the way by US WW2 paratroopers (hence the green BDU and brown boots), even the white armour was inspired by the white washed helmets and tanks of the US forces in the Ardennes.

Cheers,

Dante

Nice work. I think that the tones that you have here will look really good. Its interesting to me that miniatures of this size are starting to look like some of the nicer historical display models. Keep up the goodness! I can't wait to see more.

Really coming along well, I love the overall look of the piece. Thanks for the more in depth look at how you paint skin. It was an interesting little read, hope you don't mind if I steal the idea and give it a try.

Normaly I would not mention something like this, but I know that you seek perfection in your figures. I think that the balance of the legs is wrong, given how he is standing. With one leg up, the rest of his weight should be centered on the foot on the ground. You are showing this with the angle of his shoulders, but not with his hips. Think of the classic "captain morgan" pose, his hips are angled, and his standing foot is centered under his body mass.

I hasten to add that all of this may just be an artifact of the picture angle, and I am not, by any means, an artist, so I could have this totaly wrong.

Lovely work otherwise, and the painting is outstanding.

xenite wrote:Nice work. I think that the tones that you have here will look really good. Its interesting to me that miniatures of this size are starting to look like some of the nicer historical display models. Keep up the goodness! I can't wait to see more.

Thanks a lot. I think the quality of GW sculpts has gone up so much that it is certainly possible to get some great realism in terms of posing and proportions (with some converting) to edge towards historical display pieces for sure.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Really coming along well, I love the overall look of the piece. Thanks for the more in depth look at how you paint skin. It was an interesting little read, hope you don't mind if I steal the idea and give it a try.

No problem, the tut was done for exactly that reason!

lasgunpacker wrote:Normaly I would not mention something like this, but I know that you seek perfection in your figures. I think that the balance of the legs is wrong, given how he is standing. With one leg up, the rest of his weight should be centered on the foot on the ground. You are showing this with the angle of his shoulders, but not with his hips. Think of the classic "captain morgan" pose, his hips are angled, and his standing foot is centered under his body mass.

I hasten to add that all of this may just be an artifact of the picture angle, and I am not, by any means, an artist, so I could have this totaly wrong.

Lovely work otherwise, and the painting is outstanding.

I don't think the pose is 100% perfect, but at the same time I think it is natural enough (or at least appears so) to be passable. I had reached a point with him though where I felt enough time had been spent sculpting that I wanted to slap some paint on him.

Really appreciate your comments though, constructive feedback is always welcome mate.

Was playing around with some of the photos tonight and created a zoomed in version on the face to give a better idea of highlight and shading positions for anyone interested that has read the flesh tutorial I did:



A little rougher looking at this size I know, but bear in mind that pic is almost as big as the entire model!

As you can see, most of the definition, contrast and depth come from the shading and a few well placed highlights to define the features.

Hoping to get the arms done at the weekend if it'd stop raining long enough for me to prime them!

Cheers,

Dante

I'm really amazed at your painting. The tutorial for skin tones on your blog was truly great and I will be trying out some of your techniques on my upcoming models.

The eyes on your models look so realistic, I see your models and I get inspired to paint. I just have to think more about what I'm doing and take my time.

Cant wait to see more. And that's saying something as I don't usually go crazy over IG.


Slappy

The face is looking great, and the sculpted legs are awesome..

Very clean room too.

This is coming along really good, nice to see him coming together finally.

I think he´ll look really good once the base gets done, the color selections are nice and as ever, the use of them is excellent.

Good job so far!

wow nice sculpting all i've ever sculpted was...erm a scarf(ahem) for my traitor ig...lol to the Transformers pumpkin, KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK MATE!!

Thanks a lot guys, really happy to have inspired you. Really hope some of you give more sculpting a go and post some pics of your efforts, thats what the tutorials are aimed at doing after all!

Cheers,

Dante

I was asked by a friend over on Warseer about brushes and how to paint eyes, to which I have responded with a blog post including a short tutorial on painting eyes, and a look at the equipment I use to do so.

I've made this as a blog post tutorial as it is a fairly common question and it's handy to have a reference to point to if it's asked again in future rather than simply leave it as a post lost in a thread -

http://cmdante.blogspot.com/2009/11/eyes-have-it-how-to-paint-eyes-on.html

Hope that helps some folks and answers any questions.

Cheers,

Dante

Another great tut mate

Cheers mate, it's actually of benefit for me doing them too since I put some thought into what I have actually been doing on the fly mostly, therefore it allows me to refine some things etc.

Got a few more in the pipeline but I guess they are better served with some step by step pics so expect some in future.

Cheers,

Dante

Wooo feels like its been a long time since I got anything done on this guy! Finally got the first of the arms done tonight so thought I'd post some pics. Really just want to get him finished now!

Sorry about the quality of the images. Couldn't get the lighting right and was too lazy to dig out my proper background. I'll save the proper pics for when he's finished!






He's not my best of most tidy bit of painting, but I've been trying out some new things on him so he's certainly been fun. The base looks terrible in the pics but the snow looks fine IRL. The light is just bouncing off the varnish on the snow making it look like a big white blob!

Going to try and finish him off this week so stay tuned!

Cheers,

Dante

It looks amazing CMDante. Just one question, how do you do the armour so it look so wellused, I mean how do you do so the metal under the white on the armour, it look so natural. please tell me!!

Thanks!

I used a few different techniques, will put together a tutorial on it for the next arm!

Cheers,

Dante

Brilliant Dante! Just brilliant! The only thing I will say is that I don't think the silver eagle really works with the white on the helmet. I think the gold on the chest-plate pops a lot more and has that much starker contrast, which in this case is good. looking forward to more soon.

Ok, I'll be waiting Dante

I only just found this blog; Awesome work dude.

I am reading your blog post on skin tone now; I've always been lazy at that ,and I'm now starting to take painting pretty seriously.

Also, Pictionary rules, and I like your Classics Prime and Megatron battle-in-a-box.

Keep up the good work buddy, I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Bloodthirster wrote:Brilliant Dante! Just brilliant! The only thing I will say is that I don't think the silver eagle really works with the white on the helmet. I think the gold on the chest-plate pops a lot more and has that much starker contrast, which in this case is good. looking forward to more soon.

Cheers mate. I did contemplate gold, however it didn't really work. It made him look too high ranking and drew too much focus so silver it was in the end! I actually picture the armour having been a dark green too, white washed over for this winter setting, hence the dark green chips etc, so silver isn't totally out of place. Ultimately, it is better lacking pop as it isn't intended as a focal point.

Q0rbin wrote:Ok, I'll be waiting Dante

Hopefully I don't keep you waiting too long! In the meantime, gather a sharp scalpel, some blister foam and some vallejo liquid latex mask!

Tek wrote:I only just found this blog; Awesome work dude.

I am reading your blog post on skin tone now; I've always been lazy at that ,and I'm now starting to take painting pretty seriously.

Also, Pictionary rules, and I like your Classics Prime and Megatron battle-in-a-box.

Keep up the good work buddy, I'm looking forward to seeing more.

Glad you like it, hopefully there will be more to keep you coming back too!

The pictionary box has actually yet to be removed from the celophane!

Cheers,

Dante

For some reason he's starting to feel like a pilot of some sort. Not sure if it's the pose, or the fatigue/armor colors, or both. Looking forward to seeing the other arm too!

Cheers
Dave

Dave, I know what you mean. It really is the pose and the armor color, with that orange stripe I think. Makes him look less like a hardened shock trooper and more like vehicle crew relaxing after the job is done.

Either way, it's characterful

When the other arm is on that should change, it being a gun and all. To be honest I don't see him like that myself. The only thing that could make him look like that is the chest radio but even then I don't really think he looks like crew.

To each their own interpretation though eh?!

Cheers,

Dante

Quite excellent man. The tutorial is really nice, and timely for me, as I have lately been REALLY focusing on skin tone, going so far as to make a color wheel of available paints to compare to pictures I like.

There is one thing that threw me a little on this fellow, and it took a moment to figure: why are his sleeves rolled up while he is standing in the snow? The cold setting sort of jars with the "getting a little warm for my clothing" expressed.

Still, fantastic painting, and I have bookmarked those tutorials for future use! Had I known you had your own blog, I would have spent a lot more time there instead of HOURS comparing the gradients on some nekkid chick's tit to 20 odd Vallejo paint chips

Dante, I'm starting to think it may be the lighting.

When I first clicked away I started wondering more and more about why I thought he looked like a pilot and I realized it was because I thought he had no (or very little) webbing and kit.

I was about to suggest adding more when I took another look. Of course the guy is loaded with webbing etc *facepalm* I think in the most recent shots the tone of the webbing looks very similar to the tone of the fatigues, something I'm sure that is caused by the lighting issues you mentioned.

Anyway, no need to listen to my ramblings. He's looking great!

Cheers
Dave

Wehrkind wrote:Quite excellent man. The tutorial is really nice, and timely for me, as I have lately been REALLY focusing on skin tone, going so far as to make a color wheel of available paints to compare to pictures I like.

There is one thing that threw me a little on this fellow, and it took a moment to figure: why are his sleeves rolled up while he is standing in the snow? The cold setting sort of jars with the "getting a little warm for my clothing" expressed.

Still, fantastic painting, and I have bookmarked those tutorials for future use! Had I known you had your own blog, I would have spent a lot more time there instead of HOURS comparing the gradients on some nekkid chick's tit to 20 odd Vallejo paint chips

See initially I saw that too, but thought back to when I was in combat and thought.. OO well he looks like he just got out of the stuff hance with the helment kinda in a relax holding, and his adrenaline was up. trust me you won't feel a thing after a firefight.

That armor really does look great... props!

Empchild wrote:See initially I saw that too, but thought back to when I was in combat and thought.. OO well he looks like he just got out of the stuff hance with the helment kinda in a relax holding, and his adrenaline was up. trust me you won't feel a thing after a firefight.

I see what you mean, but note that the sleeve is tucked and rolled, not merely pushed up. That implies time and attention, if only a little, so him stopping to roll it up as he got a little warm seems unlikely. Also, the fabric is very light weight, and the thinness of the roll suggests that there is not much to keep him warm in general. In other words, he is not dressed for the weather he was apparently fighting in. Maybe it is advanced thinsulate or something, but it is a little off putting.

At least to an OCD bastard like me

HAHAHa I just sat and thought about it. This is actually props for dante because really we are trynig to break down the realism of the model!!! Almost putting a story to it if you will.

Yeah, thanks guys, pick it apart for every silly little niggle (there are plenty, I know!)....

I think it's a bit difficult to say the clothing looks too thin, this is 28mm afterall. Making it any thicker would probably have looked more out of place than it currently does as it wouldnt sit right with the balance of the rest of the figure.

I've seen plenty of folks roll up sleeves in snow so I don't think it's too out of kilter, especially when the setting is "after the battle".

Ultimately though, it was done to add a little more variation to the figure. It's difficult painting a camo clad figure, trying to make it look relatively realistic while at the same time stand out. A non-winter setting probably would have made it a lot easier but I quite fancied painting some snow and white armour.

Really appreciate the comments though, it helps build focus on getting everything just right for the next fig, much appreciated guys!

Cheers,

Dante

Yesterday while I was working in the snow I took a layer of and I wasn't working that hard just normal physical labour....

CMDante wrote:Yeah, thanks guys, pick it apart for every silly little niggle (there are plenty, I know!)....

I think it's a bit difficult to say the clothing looks too thin, this is 28mm afterall. Making it any thicker would probably have looked more out of place than it currently does as it wouldnt sit right with the balance of the rest of the figure.

I've seen plenty of folks roll up sleeves in snow so I don't think it's too out of kilter, especially when the setting is "after the battle".

Ultimately though, it was done to add a little more variation to the figure. It's difficult painting a camo clad figure, trying to make it look relatively realistic while at the same time stand out. A non-winter setting probably would have made it a lot easier but I quite fancied painting some snow and white armour.

Really appreciate the comments though, it helps build focus on getting everything just right for the next fig, much appreciated guys!

Cheers,

Dante

Dante I got you coverd you see James(his name) was a special young man. He joined the militaqry to make his papa happy and to see the galaxy when he was only 17 solar years. When he was 18 a tyranid sliced part of his face, and his comrades called him slugger. He became depressed as such and sought comfort in the local brothel, but sadly since he was so ugly the women didnt want him. You see james started to lose his sanity after this and as such began spending all his money on booz and ihlo sticks. He spent so much he sold off his uniform and was reduced to wearing hand me downs as a punishment form the local commissar. James may be cold in both spirit and mind but gosh dang it he's got bawls!

You know, what might be the thing to do (and also moderately insane) would be to add some perspiration to his forehead with dots of gloss varnish. A few beads of sweat and maybe one running down his face would emphasise the "wow, I am overheated" aspect, and nail down the story more. As opposed to having 2 differing visual cues and having to decide which matters more.

A little steam coming off of him would be perfect too

Still, just to remphasise, awesome work.

Wehrkind wrote:You know, what might be the thing to do (and also moderately insane) would be to add some perspiration to his forehead with dots of gloss varnish. A few beads of sweat and maybe one running down his face would emphasise the "wow, I am overheated" aspect, and nail down the story more. As opposed to having 2 differing visual cues and having to decide which matters more.

A little steam coming off of him would be perfect too

Still, just to remphasise, awesome work.

Honestly that would be awsome, but the downside is that can go so horribly wrong as well.

I think that the result would be even more explanation required of what it is than he needs now. The reflection would just look odd and as if varnish was splashed on him by accident rather than painted on IMHO.

Just about finished with the second arm now, hopefully get it done and dusted tonight so pics maybe later.

Cheers,

Dante


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Right, finished at last!






Correct set up for the pics this time too so hopefully they are better than the last lot! The snow even looks better in these pics which makes a change.

Normally I find painting arms quite tedious, but these were actually a lot of fun and really quick (for me!) to do.

I also tend to try to avoid freehand work as much as possible, both for a fear of wrecking the area beneath, and because normally I struggle with it. The freehands here were kept very simple for exactly that reason. I had originally thought about going completely over the top and attempting some kind of extravagant personal heraldry on the left pad to practice, but decided it really didn't fit with the theme or image of the rest of the fig so it got scrapped in the end.

The gun might get some markings added to it at some point, though for now I'm happy enough with him. He was only a test piece after-all so don't want to keep going back and tweaking him too much.

Something Empire related up next I think. Assassins, in particular a remake of Vesperro's vendetta is looking particularly appealing at the moment....

Tutorial on the chipped armour coming soon on my blog (as soon as I finish writing the accompanying text!).

Cheers,

Dante



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How to Paint Chipped Armour Tutorial no up on my blog.

Any comments much appreciated.

Cheers,

Dante

Dante, I hate you and your artistic ability. Really. I do.

And now I'm going to have to steal your chipped armor method for all hundred and something Guardsman I'm doing, and a far more intricate scheme/method will be required for my Kasrkin.

Thanks for setting the bar

PS:
Empire related project? Assassin? Does not compute!
Why not a Middenheim Huntsman or a Reiksguard Champion? Something that could be used for a two part diorama maybe?

Nice tutorial, Dante - might give it a go on the Kasrkin I'm going to be repainting.

The subtle attention to detail is what amazes me, like the red cross on the aid pouch.

*rummages through bits to do the same to all his guardsmen*

It looks great Dante, the white is stark enough not to just look like snow, the weathering brings the story to live, and the face, well that is the emphasis on which the whole ST is built in my opinion, he looks quite arragont with a smug grin on his face.

And on the topic of empire, I've got a feeling that wizards just scream for your talents to be enriched on, how about a one for each college, a whole college of the same wizards, a wizard duel. Oh no look what I've done now, I've inspired myself. That's your fault

Fantastic work on the armour.

Kanluwen wrote:Dante, I hate you and your artistic ability. Really. I do.
PS:
Empire related project? Assassin? Does not compute!
Why not a Middenheim Huntsman or a Reiksguard Champion? Something that could be used for a two part diorama maybe?

Thanks mate.

Why not a huntsman or a Reiksguard champion? Because that's what everyone expects of Empire models! I want to do something unique and memorable because it wasn't the norm. The vendetta have a great little story behind them and have all the opportunities for some extremely characterful stuff while maintaining a bit of free reign in style.

These sort of characters are the ones included all the time in Black Library novels, yet never characterised in figure form as their battlefields are the cities and towns of the Empire, dealing with internal conflicts etc.

Dysartes wrote:Nice tutorial, Dante - might give it a go on the Kasrkin I'm going to be repainting.

Glad you liked it mate, hopefully you'll find it helpful for the Kasrkin!

CrashUSAR wrote:The subtle attention to detail is what amazes me, like the red cross on the aid pouch.

*rummages through bits to do the same to all his guardsmen*

Thanks! The little details are actually great fun and pretty easy to do. The hair on the forearm, the guage on the backpack thing, the medical pouch symbol, all only take a matter of minutes to do (with a steady hand and good eye - and good brush!), yet they are the features that catch peoples eyes and build a story and character into the piece, well worth the effort.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with on your own guardsmen.

Bloodthirster wrote:It looks great Dante, the white is stark enough not to just look like snow, the weathering brings the story to live, and the face, well that is the emphasis on which the whole ST is built in my opinion, he looks quite arragont with a smug grin on his face.

And on the topic of empire, I've got a feeling that wizards just scream for your talents to be enriched on, how about a one for each college, a whole college of the same wizards, a wizard duel. Oh no look what I've done now, I've inspired myself. That's your fault

Hmmm, it's not a bad idea, but again, for the reasons I stated above, I'd like to try something that hasn't really been covered before. Though the Eavy Metal competition is some fantastic inspiration for how the wizard kit can be converted to create some really stunning figures. I say go for it!

Cheers,

Dante

The reason I was meaning "not Vendetta" is they're not really Empire! Dogs of War!

Although, you are really tempting me back into making a Dogs of War modelled Empire army.

dante i love this model the most striking thing about it is the base i love it

True, they're not Empire, but I am thinking more along the lines of Empire styled version.

Heck, maybe I'll even keep them Tilean but at the end of the day, the attire isn't exactly much different!

Dogs of War offer a lot of scope for some really fun conversions, I say whats stopping you!

@ Pete - Cheers mate. To be honest I think the base could be a lot better but glad you think it looks ok.

Cheers,

Dante

What's stopping me is nobody plays Fantasy and I hate working with metal models

If I were to actually get into Fantasy, I've got a cool idea for a lost Asrai colony in Lustria. Swamp Elves, if you will. Having things like Dryads and Treemen made from ferns, Waywatchers attired in Salamander skins, Scouts concealing themselves to the hip in woad and bracken, etc.

Who said anything about metal

Oh and if I know Dante he'll be using some plastic kit we would never of thought of using.

Dogs of War are mostly metal models.

Lovely work on the stormtrooper. Can't wait to see what you'll come up with when you begin work on the Empire/dogs of war model/models.

Kanluwen wrote:Dogs of War are mostly metal models.

I know that, that's why i don't like them. I was meaning that Dante will probally cook some up in plastic.

Yeah, but I'm not Dante :(

Probably plastic and putty, yes.

I think rather a lot of sculpting will be involved actually, particularly for the legs due to the poses I have in mind.

Will start a new thread when I have something to show for it. In the meantime, if anyone has any cool tilean artwork, or the blurb from Warhammer Armies Dogs of War on Vespero and the gang it would be much appreciated!

Cheers,

Dante