EDIT: PLEASE NOTE THAT MOST OF THE PHOTOS IN THIS BLOG HAVE BROKEN. I'M SLOWLY GOING THROUGH AND FIXING THEM WHEN I HAVE THE TIME. IF YOU WISH TO SEE ALL OF THEM RIGHT NOW PLEASE LOOK THOUGH MY FLICKR PAGE, THE LINK IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST. THANKS ^_^


Hi everyone,

I've been painting stuff for close to two years now. I don't play to many games, but I do enjoy the painting aspect. I have an ongoing blog over at 40k forums, but am looking for more critical feedback of my stuff and so thought a larger audience might be beneficial. I'm going to put up some of previous stuff so people have an indication of my current level and then put up what I'm working on...

I'm aware that I'm not that stellar, but I enjoy what I do, which is important ^_^





My latest minis are for my Mordheim witch-hunter warband, which consists of twelve minis I need to complete in 20 days. I've done four in four days so far...


I have a Flickr page with all my stuff located here if you want to check everything out... If anyone has any feedback, comments or constructive criticism on how to improve I'd love to hear from you

Nice work! The red-brown palette is great for the Witch Hunters, and all your other paints are quite nice. The master scout's definitely the most striking, though. That Pig Iron head works so well with the scout body- I think I've just found my Naval Armsmen combo. Thanks!

Awsome witch-hunters!

Don't be down on yourself, you're stuff looks pretty stellar to me! (and better than mine at closeup range) : )

If you don't mind, Id like to know how you get your closeup shots so clear and professional, thanks!
Also, these are all great. My faves would have to be Brother Claudio and the Kroxigor, though the Witch hunters are also really nice!

Awesome stuff man!

@Trilobite: you can get the nice close ups with the super macro setting most modern digital cameras have the setting and some of the more up market phones.

Most of the pictures in my blog (linked in my signature) are either taken with my 8mp camera which was about £70 or my phone.

Your master scout chappy is pretty damned awesome man ! Consider that idea stolen.

Your painting skills are very good as well so don't worry, would love to see some more soon

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time to comment ^_^

To Trilobite:

There's a few things I use to take my photos. The first is a photo box, the second is a tripod and the third is either the remote my camera came with or the timer button and lastly a background.
As SONS of ORAR said, most of the time the macro feature of your camera is all you'll need, but there's a few other things you can do:
1) Always take your photos in the highest resolution your camera can handle. You can either crop or shrink them later, but the larger the photo is taken the better the details will be.
2) Ensure the macro button is set. The macro button looks like this: . It may seem silly to state this, but I've had to explain to my friends that just because your camera has a macro feature doesn't mean it'll always be on...
3) Stability. The downside of using a macro is that it picks up on your hands shaking, and even when you press the shutter button. This is why I use the timer or the remote. No hands on the camera means it's rock steady and your photos will respond to this.
3) Using the macro feature and your zoom feature. Most Cameras won't be able to handle a totally zoomed in macro shot, in fact most macro features are designed to be used really close to the subject, not zoomed in. However there is a balance which can be achieved between the two. My camera comes with a x15 zoom, but if I try and use the macro feature with a zoom beyond x2.5 the shots will always be blurred and unusable. I've found that my macro function and a x2 zoom results in the best shots.
4) Backgrounds. I first tried to use white and that didn't work, made everything the wrong color. Then I tried blue and while it does work it is very dependent on the light you use. My latest shots have used the cloud background and it works really nicely. It is still a touch to dark, but I didn't use any lights, just natural light on my photobox. So I am happy with the result.

This might seem like a bit of work, but the minis respond well to good set-up. Above all trial and error is what I used to discover all this. I'm sure when / if I buy a new Camera I'll have to re-learn a whole bunch of things... ^_^

Alrighty, yet another finished figure. The pace is starting to show on this one... My exceptionally quick Elf Ranger. Three hours from start to finish and it really shows... Normally I would of taken a lot more care with the brown, but it's such a pain in the ass color to properly highlight. I am happy how the green came out though, I normally don't get a chance to paint large areas of green and the speed highlighting worked quite well... The red was the last addition. When it was just brown and green it seemed to miss something, and then it occurred to me that red will both tie him into Witch-Hunters and give him a little zing... Likewise there are meant to be little leaf clumps in parts I've just painted them an off-green and given them a wash... I normally don't like to complain about a miniature being responsible for painting short-comings but this was a bitch, lots of little fiddly bits to get in the way and overlapping bits of cloak / armor / leather make it quite hard to pick apart whats meant to be what color...


After some play-testing my warband underwent a revision. New count; nine figures. That's five painted, four to go, ten days till competition... And I have to get some terrain painted... In a really half assed manner...

This pace is slowly killing me... What's worse is the fact that my painting chair is NOT comfortable for looooong periods of time. Two hours? Fine. Four hours? Heeeeell no. Longer? You'll be in pain for the night... *sigh*

Anyway, my finished Witch Hunter Captain. Took me a full afternoon from say 1pm till 5pm, and then some little bits of extra time as I was doing the base... Four days left. Two Figures to go... Gonna be tight, especially if I want to get some scenery done as well...

Notes:

- Some people said my metals were to bright so I've given the metal a wash of Sepia after the black to take most of the shine off. Must say I kind of like the look for Fantasy-type armor...

- I've had a few people ask for various color recipes; when I'm finished I'll sit down and try and remember how I did them, most are simply foundation colors with a little bit of bleached bone added to lighten them and a crap load of washes.

- The face may look little black, had a splotch of Black wash land there, not quite sure how but had to do some rescue work...

Enough talk, photos:



As always I appreciate comments and constructive criticism on what I should work on with my stuff, so please don't be shy...

Well... Despite not getting any feedback I'll continue putting up my stuff...

WARBAND COMPLETE!

Stick a fork in me, I am done... Got a little bit of scenery to finish painting and I'll be all done and ready to go for Saturday. *phew*

These last two I did at the same time, made for a quicker but more frustrating process as my paint kept drying on my palette. I like the way these two came out. They have a lot more zing than the first Crossbowman I did. I think it's the yellow... I'd initially thought to do all three with a different color (Grey, yellow and possibly blue), but seeing that yellow sold me...

Photos:


And here is the final Warband. If the scenery is dry before tomorrow night I may try and get some photos of my guys on it. Otherwise it'll have to wait till Saturday during the tourney...


Thanks for taking a look...

Intersting. you are a really good painter and that wich hunter warband looks cool. I think the wood on the crossbows could use some kind of distinction between them and the leather, but i am in way over my head here since i am a walking memo of what nots on painting

Psycho_Mantis wrote:Intersting. you are a really good painter and that wich hunter warband looks cool. I think the wood on the crossbows could use some kind of distinction between them and the leather, but i am in way over my head here since i am a walking memo of what nots on painting

Thanks Mantis. I appreciate you taking the time... While I was under rush to finish I agree with you. I want to try the grain pattern that I've seen others use for doing wood. I might give it a go after the tourney this weekend...

These are superb, how did you get the background for the photos?

Nice stuff here, I agree with the above on the crossbows. When you have time add the wood grain, it will look tons better. Other than that I really like everything you have here, nice clean lines, shading looks great. Are you going to throw up some pics of the terrain too? Keep up the good work!

Thanks guys

Young_Logan wrote:These are superb, how did you get the background for the photos?

My backgrounds come from Corvus over at Corvus miniatures. He was nice enough to host them as well so they should still be there to grab. Just get them printed out and blamo, instant background.

Stretch wrote:Are you going to throw up some pics of the terrain too?

If I have time. They're not scratch built though, they're just GW prefab stuff. A lot of drybrushing and inks involved... ^_^

Great stuff, really digging the Witchhunters.

Thanks a1steaks ^_^

Scenery!

While the club has a crapload of terrain there's a lot of games this weekend so we all decided to get some more. I got these two sets really cheap and while they don't have much height, they're good enough... PHOTOS ARE TERRIBLE, scenery was rushed... Sorry... ^_^

Skull Temple:


LotR Ruins set:

For a rushed piece they look very good

Your warband looks beautiful! clear up the detail work after the tournament on the minis and they will be perfect

that are awesome models. Love the paint job. Big up.

After mucking around for a very long time I finally finished a test mini for the small chaos force a friend has asked me to paint. I've never done anything chaos before, so it was interesting. I initally did two different miniatures. This one in purple and then another with a very tan skin. The reds were the same, but the armor and weapon was painted in silver. While I did like the look of the second one I decided that this one stood out more, and it had more of a demon feel to it... Especially the bone armor and weapon.

Anyway, as long as my friend likes the colors I guess that's all that matters, it was a little rushed and in places more than one color has been used without cleanup. Shocking I know. Anywho, the figure is a little rough, but I needed to check the colors with my friend ^_^

Anyway, another test Daemon, this time a Bloodletter; My second foray at using inks rather than paints. As a method of speed painting through a few units using inks for basecoats over a white undercoat works very well... I'm trying to decide whether I like the horns as they are or if I should go all black... The sword requires multiple layers of the same colors to get the right brightness, as the one here is far to dull to be a flaming sword... I might ink the sword next time as well and then touch it up and see how that works...

Not quite sure what I want to do with the base, more lava / orange might be redundant... If anyone has any ideas shout out...


And that's that. Old School Daemonettes start tomorrow...

Wow, first things first let me just say that Batch painting is truly a sucky thing, it takes all the fun out of watching a miniature come alive before your eyes and distorts it so that you feel you're getting nothing done, plus you slack off and don't take as much care as you should. That being said, I don't know if painting in ones and twos would be any easier... Just longer...

These came out OK, I've missed bits and pieces and they still need to be sealed. For these guys it's going to be gloss, (shocking I know). I think the slight sheen will give them a little more zing, especially the lava, which I think has turned out OK... Ink is fun, but it can be sticky and messy so if you choose to use it make sure you have some paper towels handy... and old clothes on...

Couldn't get all of them to fit against my backgrounds so I had to use a white drop sheet instead, sucks all the light out of the shot... Oh well... Can't win them all... I think I'm going to treat myself to painting a single figure next. Maybe RP's Space Marine... I think that would be a good break from batch painting stuff...




As always I appreciate you taking the time to leave a comment or constructive criticism.

The huge gaps at the bloodletter joints are murdering me. Do they come fitted that badly?

Other than that? Amazing stuff.

A suggestion, if I may? The rocks they're standing on? Paint the lower edges, where they go into the lava, like orange or yellow or something, like the ground is going to melt away beneath them at any moment, such is their unnaturalness in this realm. As it is, they look like some sort of fire-proof rocks tossed into lava.

Nightbringer's Chosen wrote:The huge gaps at the bloodletter joints are murdering me. Do they come fitted that badly?

Other than that? Amazing stuff.

A suggestion, if I may? The rocks they're standing on? Paint the lower edges, where they go into the lava, like orange or yellow or something, like the ground is going to melt away beneath them at any moment, such is their unnaturalness in this realm. As it is, they look like some sort of fire-proof rocks tossed into lava.

Holy crap, a comment! First off, thanks for taking the time Nightbringer ^_^

As for the gaps; yeah, I'm told that this is how they were when put together. I'm painting all the daemons for a friend at my local gaming club and I haven't put anything together. I would of used a different glue and some putty over the gaps, but he told me not to worry about it...

Thanks for the suggestion about the rocks and the lava, it was my first time trying to do the lava in this manner, and I wasn't sure how high to bring the colors into the rock. Much obliged ^_^

I love your bloodletters, and I really want to know how you painted the blood on the banner.

poipo32 wrote:I love your bloodletters, and I really want to know how you painted the blood on the banner.

Thanks Poipo; as for the Blood on the banner it's very simple:

White undercoat
1:1 mix of red ink (Not wash, ink) and Foundation Mechanite Red.
Once dry a thin wash it with straight red ink
Orgyn Flesh for shadowing.

I use Winsor & Newton Calligraphy Ink, comes in a good range of colors, and mixes very well with paint.

Very quick and simple.

The warband looks ace, and I really like those bloodletters, think the horns look better in black, makes them stand out a bit more.

Thanks Monkeytroll ^_^

I've decided to start putting up more of my WiP pics. Whether I take one at the end of each day or certain phases is still up in the air... My next figure is going to be a Space Marine Master of the Chapter. It's a trade miniature between Roleplayer and I. He has my two year old Gamesday Marine (With the big ass hammer), and I'm doing this guy...

Anyway, day one

Cleaned the miniature of excess flak, removed the mold lines, cleaned it with a little bit of toothpaste and given it an acid bath. While he was soaking I cleaned the head off, and put the base together. I made the decision to remove the funny little ear things and make the helmet more flat. With the face panel it looks slightly older, or it does to me. All of RP's minis are helmeted. So I wanted one that had a little more character.

The base is a simple cork and sand job. Roleplayer buys his bases, but I think this one should work so long as I use similar colors. I like to have a bit of height for character minis...

toothpaste I tend to use a dab of liquid soap, although actually I do seem to remember toothpaste being recomended way back in the day, what's the reasoning there?

monkeytroll wrote:toothpaste I tend to use a dab of liquid soap, although actually I do seem to remember toothpaste being recomended way back in the day, what's the reasoning there?

Toothpaste is designed to be every so slightly abrasive. When used over metal models it removes all the left over residue from pressing... Leaves it smelling minty fresh too... Just remember to wash away the TP thoroughly after. Then leave to dry in the sun

Amazing work vent. I love the smell of minty fresh metals!

Day Two: before undercoating I needed to fill in some of the gaps in the back cape of the Miniature. Some of you may remember the Ultramarine Master of the Chapter I did for Ricky Chang awhile ago which had terrible pock marks in some of the recesses in the cape and above the left knee. In the end I went with black in the recesses of the cloak, but was never happy with it.

As this guy is from the same set I thought he might and indeed he did have similiar problems. I didn't take any photos of it, but it was just really watered down green stuff smoothed over with a rubber-headed sculpting tool... I dunno if I got everything, but it'll start showing when I add some color... I then Undercoated in Black.


All parts have been undercoated separately. As with all characters I start with the head.

The head is basecoated with P3 Menoth base. Roleplayer uses quite extensive black lining in his miniatures, but I prefer using darker colors of the one used as base. Hence I've started to line using washes. I'm going to go ahead with all three GW washes, this is just the Sepia, I might use a touch of black if the Devlan Mud wash doesn't cut it...


Next for the head: More lining and then the eyes...

Next for the Body: Red stuff!

More work on the helmet.

There's darker brown washes in the lines. I'm undecided whether I want to add a touch of black and have another line... I think I'll do another thinner line with Devlan mud rather than black. I'm not totally sure what I want to do with the head rivets yet. I thought maybe a very dark grey... But maybe they'll stay cream... Not sure, not sure, not sure...

The eyes came out quite nicely on this guy, which is a hoot, because I've had a couple of coffees and I thought my hands would be shaking like a banshee. My eye recipe for green eyes:
Black Undercoat
Dark Angels Green. Over 75%
Goblin Green. Over 50% moving towards the front
Scorpion Green. Thin line along the bottom
1:1 mix of Scorpion Green and Sunburst Yellow. Over the thin line of Pure Scorpion Green.

Working on the red of the armor as I took these shots. It's raining and cold which doesn't make for good drying... ^_^




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Small addition to the update; just the base red and some starting lining on the armor. It's all I can be bothered doing today... Lazy I know, but I'm tired...

Awww my third post in a row with no responses... I feel so unloved... It's a good thing I'm shallow enough not to take it personally

I have started to highlight the red. It's a little hard to see but I'm using a technique that is meant to be like blending... I haven't quite perfected it yet, but it's getting there. I think it needs a lighter color to help it out. So far all I've used is pure Scab Red and a Scab Red with a touch of Dwarf Flesh to lighten it up... Maybe tomorrow a touch more Dwarf Flesh... ^_^

Started on the cream for the body as well. P3 paint is bloody good. Even watered down to a good thin consistency it only took three coats to cover the black. Much better than the Scab Red did yesterday... I'm slowing going to be replacing a lot of my GW version paints...

I'm going to start the lining for the cream later this afternoon. Tomorrow is more red work and possibly the first layer for metallics. Still not sure what I want to do for the weapon... Green might look nice; like Thomas from Minivault uses for his Blood Ravens...

I would have posted a response sooner but you have me at a loss sir. Your painting is great and it is a blast seeing it come together. I just wish I could paint as well as you do. No worries though I will still be watching closely!

tony_nids_10 wrote:I would have posted a response sooner but you have me at a loss sir. Your painting is great and it is a blast seeing it come together. I just wish I could paint as well as you do. No worries though I will still be watching closely!

Aww thanks Tony, I like your stuff too, and one day I hope to be able to do more with GS than fill gaps with it

I have no doubt you will Vent! Just do some overly elaborate side projects that waste a ton of time that should have been spent on your army Thats what I do

tony_nids_10 wrote:I have no doubt you will Vent! Just do some overly elaborate side projects that waste a ton of time that should have been spent on your army Thats what I do

lol, you make it sound so appealing... ^_^

---

I'm at the point where I'm not totally sure how this miniature is going to come together. I have questions about the shield colors, the weapon colors, how the red is working, the cape, etc... Experience says these problems will go away when I keep working on the miniature but it's still annoying... The lack of good light for taking photos has exacerbated this too... *grumble grumble*

Done today:

More red work; had an issue with the weapon arm front and needed to fix it, but has left the blend a little stagnant. The breastplate is looking a little weird as well, might have to have a closer look at that...

The first coat of metallics are on. Nearly everything that is silver will soon be gold, or bronze. Only thing that won't get another pigment color is the key, but that will be weathered with washes. I've also made the flexi-armour joints silver with heavy black in the recesses. I know Roleplayer leaves them black, but they'd be voids in this guy...


Yes, I know the right knees pad icon still has a touch of black in it... But it's all going to be gold... And there's gonna be a big ass shield in front of it ^_^

I really think that once you get more painted up it will really bring it all together. I think whats happening is all the black is leaving you with not enough contrast and that looks off. Maybe?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I would have no problem letting you paint anything of mine

Thanks Tony. Soon as I started on the gold I felt better...

I hope to get a chance to paint tomorrow, but I might not. I'm going to watch some provincial Rugby in the afternoon before I watch the All-Blacks beat Australia; winning the Bledisloe cup and the Tri-nations... ^_^

Very small update today... Actually all this was done after yesterdays update, but I'm going to the rugby and won't get a chance to work on stuff today... I wanted the gold to look quite old and worn so I've used applied washes to darken parts and only given the edges very light washes...

Recipe:

Andrea Base Gold over the Base Silver of yesterday
Sepia Wash all over
Flesh Wash over 90% leaving edges
Another Flesh Wash over 80%
Devlan Wash in the recesses
Black Wash in the recesses, but over less of them.
All washes were 1:1 water / mix (In fact everything I do is watered down...)

After the Washing I touched up the very edges and raised bits with Andrea Light Gold...

Not much of an update, but the real world comes first... Occasionally ^_^

Omg day Seven... Kill me now! Hehehe, nah it's not to bad really... Rainy Sunday afternoons were designed for painting me thinks; especially in winter... Anyway, he's finally starting to come together; adding more color always seems to help.

Worked on today:

Armor: Did a few touch ups on the red armor; hopefully lifting the brightness in places and correcting a few blends in others. I don't think I can risk adding anymore paint to the red, it's already pretty thick so this might be the final red, except for touch ups... ^_^

Seals and Parchment: Green for the seals was a no-brainer. Connects with the eyes, and gives a change from the browns and creams. I'm not totally sold on the color of the parchment yet. Looks a little to similar to the cream. Maybe another layer of sepia to tone it down a little. Maybe even a slightly watered Flesh wash over it...

Leather: I'm really bad at leather. Like Catastrophic bad. I have a lot of trouble with it. I've tried blending it, I've tried drybrushing it. Hated them all... Hence I usually cop out with the wash heavy method you can see.

Sweet Zombie Jesus... I'm a slow painter

RECIPES:
Green Recipe:
Dark Angels Green Base
Goblin Green touch ups
3:1 water / Scorpion Green touches.
Green wash
1:1 Water / Sepia wash to darken the recesses.

Parchment Recipe:
Bleached Bone. Many layers.
x2 Sepia washes (Maybe another)

Leather Recipe:
P3 Knacksack brown
Devlan Mud x2
Highlight with thinned Knacksack brown (You'll be able to see wear it goes as the wash will be lighter)
Sepia wash to tie the highlight down.

Now I'm at a real loss of what color to do the cloak and the waist buckle thing. The Buckle needs to a light color. Either Gold or Cream. The cape I'm thinking purple... So help me pick! Tell me what you think it should be! Chances are I'll just do what you tell me... I'm weak like that... ^_^



Oh, and there's extra photos... What can I say, I'm a camera whore! ^_^

Looks sweet so far. For the buckle I'd say either bone or gold for the actual skull with green laurels. A bit obvious maybe but ties with the purity seals. As for the cloak I'd tend towards black, but that's probably just out of the bad habit of mine of going for black/red clour schemes. Purple would probably be a nice touch though, maybe a very dark,almost black shading with quite a bright highlight, a kind of velvety look if you get what I mean.

This is educational. Normally I don't like clogging nice threads with arb posts, but I guess we all need a bit of ego stroking.

Hurrah Hurrah for fine brushwork!

Oh wow.....

You know vent, Im going to have to try ant adapt some of your technique for myself... especially the eyes!!
Man they look amazing!

Im seriously in awe of your painting xD Ive nearly been painting as long as you, and mine cant hold a candle to yours!

As far as the buckle and cape go, I agree with monkeytroll. gold/cream buckle, green laurels, and a deep purple for the cloak!

All the details really do make the difference. I really like it alot vent. Thanks for the recipes too!

OMG... Green Laurels!?! I didn't even think of that as a possibility! Excellent stuff! Thanks guys! Ahhh forums rock ^_^

It continues! Small steps seem to be the way for right now... Silly work getting in the way... What do I need money for... Silly rent, food and lifestyle... Bah ^_^

Today:

Cloak started. Took some advice and made the inside cream. I think it frames the front of him quite well. The back has the basecoat and some washes on it. Still need to highlight it and probably add some gold trim in there somewhere. Cream might of looked nice, but I am partial to purple...

Buckle thing done. Gold and Green. Still can't believe I didn't think of green for the Laurels!? Looks good too. It's a shame the shield will cover 95% of it ^_^

Weapon started. I wanted the weapon to look like a relic and went with this very light grey. Going to rim it with a watered down blue wash and probably feather some white onto the sharp points. I don't know if I like the silver of the mechanical part with the white blade parts. They're very similar, maybe redo them in gold?

I've been playing around with maybe leaving the shield off as well... Going through my bitz box I found a nice storm bolter that might work... and there's a few other things I could try... I might have to model some choices...

ooooh wow. That cape is turnin out awesome

Wow vent... just wow! Feel like giving lessons

Thanks guys, I appreciate your comments.

As for feeling like lessons; hopefully the good ones rather than the ones which made you feel like time was standing still ^_^

That all depends on how the paintin tutorial you should be working on comes out

I like the updates Vent. Great painting as well! I am a huge fan of that helmet design. I look forward to seeing what it looks like completed.

^ Agreed! Love that helmet.

Thanks guys

I've been waiting for it to happen. With every miniature I do there is a moment of disaster. Sometimes it is a minor thing easily correctable, other times it is catastrophic and deserving of a Simple Green Bath and stiff toothbrush. Today was a middle of the road affair with the cloak encountering the side of a paint pot which had spilled leaving a massive coat of green all over the purple. Acting quickly (And modestly... HA!) I used needle nose Q-Tips to soak up as much of the excess as I could with blotting (never wipe a paint spill, always blot). Then I used an eye-dropper to dilute what was left and blot it again. I did that a couple more times. Then I left it to dry. The result wasn't that bad. most of the green was gone, but there were flecks running throughout so I decided to recoat and start again... I went super thin with the paint and did three coats. The turnout is OK, slightly darker than the original, and slightly raised surface in places... Despite the setback I continued with doing detail work over the entire figure (I would normally go and destroy things...). Anyway, here is today's breakdown...

Gems: I use to have massive trouble with gems, I'm talking shockingly bad; and while I'm not perfect at them, I've gotten better... I've never painted a green Blackstone gem before. But figured using the same basic principles as my red ones with mostly the same colors as doing the eyes would work, thankfully it did. ^_^ The trick with doing Blackstone gems of any color is to let the black do the job for you. Small lines of paint, with ever lighter and smaller lines over the same bit. Finally you need to do two dots, one the highpoint of the color (in this case pure yellow) and then a tiny dot of off-white on the other side of the gem in the black. The result is something that fools the eye into thinking you've got a full gem, when in reality you've done this tiny work... Requires a little but of practice, but I like them. OH! And after 72-hours a touch of hi-gloss sealer over the entire gem. Really makes it sparkle. These ones done have the gloss yet, but you get the idea...

Weapon: Finished it off. I wanted an off-focal point which wouldn't detract from the face, so the light grey with blue trim works well enough for that. It's the only thing which has that color on the figure, but it isn't a striking color... I'm not that good at power weapon effects so this was a cowards way out... Tee hee hee... ^_^

Cloak: As you can see I've also added some rather rough highlighting. Alot of people use white for raising a color, but I've found that all it does it sap color. I've used the same cream as the helmet to lighten and it seems to have worked quite well... I am unsure whether I wish to now risk a pattern over the purple. It already has so many coats of paint... Plus there's still a pack to go on there... I might wait and see how it looks with a pack before deciding...

Detailing / Writing: In case you can't tell it says Valor on his leg... I like the word Valor as it has go sharp points... I get a lot of people asking me how I do my writing. Short answer? I cheat! Mwahaha! I use a Steadtler Professional Pen 0.5 size... Is that cheap? Maybe. Does it get the job done? You bet!

Oh! I also attached the head! Just in case you didn't see that ^_^

I would say for a mid level disaster you managed like a pro! The cape still looks great and I am happy to see that head on!

Thanks Tony. I like him with his head on too... ^_^

No update tonight. Took some time to go see Scott Pilgrim Vs the World. Excellent film filled with nerdy gaming references which greatly appealed... Go see it...

Painting will resume tomorrow ^_^

Hi,

I am really enjoying your work so far mate, it is quite obvious you love painting these miniatures and you have a passion for the hobby. The space marine character with the axe is amazing! Thanks heaps for sharing this process with us!

(I actually registered an account so I could post this ).

Thanks very much Krizit

Where abouts in New Zealand are you? If you're in Auckland, you should come on down to the City Guard club! We're there nearly every single Sunday

I was late finishing today and the sun had gone down, so I pulled out my light rig, but alas all but one bulb was gone... The color is a touch washed out. Especially the red. So I just took a single photo of the shield work I've done today.

I know I said I was going to look for different options instead of the shield, but he was designed for a shield and everything else I tried there just looked funny... I was a little unsure about the color make up, and whether the cream was to much, but at the end of the day I am quite happy with the turnout. The red rim of the shields cream and gold is the opposite of the cream cloak framing the red armor.

There's no new colors on it. Gold is the gold, red is the red and cream is the cream...

Just the base to go... and maybe some freehand... OMG and the backpack... Gah... I hate Space Marine Backpacks... They're so boring...

*phew* Done... That backpack nearly did me in... I was so unsure what to do color-wise that getting my head around it to actually paint it was something of an accomplishment unto itself... I'm sure everyone has days like that... And I'm sure the two coffee's and a red bull didn't help my painting out today... But at least I painted it mwahahaha… I have taken ten photos from all angles, but only five are posted (Really? duh...). If you want to see all ten my flicker photostream is located here.

Wow! I also just realized that I have now been doing this hobby for two whole years!! WooHoo! Go me! ^_^

Done today:

Backpack: The backpack comes from the Death Company box. I filed away some of the markings, but felt the tear-drop gem was ok left, especially since I was going to paint it green... (And with the amount of caffeine in my system painting it was a feat...) The colors are all found on other parts of him. Nothing knew used here. “Faith” seemed to be a Blood Raven word. I was tempted to try “Knowledge”, but that space was pretty small… The ‘H’ looks a little funny… I might redo it… But I doubt it…

Base: Base was quite simple when I found what colors Roleplayer uses. Basecoated, then layers of drybrushing. The cork gives lots of good little ridges to for the brush to catch, so it has that good stone effect.

Colors:
Stone:
Battle Grey Foundation as base
Black wash
Battle Grey for first drybrush
Codex grey for second drybrush
fortress gray for third drybrush
White for final.

Earth:
Calthan brown for base
Devlan mud wash
Calthan Brown for first Drybrush
Snakebite Leather for Second Drybrush
Bleached bone for Third Drybrush
Each drybrush should be lighter, building on the colors that come before it.

Freehand? What’s that you ask? Where’s the freehand? Truth be told, my freehand skills are abysmal, and I’m rather happy with this guy. If I can think of a pattern which might be easily done I may attempt it… Especially on the cream part of his cloak on his bottom right, that space looks little flat… I was thinking maybe some small purple swirl thing… But that’s something to ponder in the next few days…

As always I would love to hear some feedback and constructive criticism. What you do like, what you think I need to work on… It all helps me when I start something new, so please help me improve. Oh, and if you like / don’t like the constant updates where I go into detail of how I do things please tell me. I’m trying to decide if I should keep doing them ^_^

Congrats Vent, its looks fantastic. The cloak is beautiful I may have to go back and pinch that recipe for my Evocati. Also what colours exactly did you use on the blood drop on the back pack?

You have inspired me to really nail your model for you now, vent

Congrats mate, even after that 'green paint' incident you came out a winner !

Lennysmash wrote:Congrats Vent, its looks fantastic. The cloak is beautiful I may have to go back and pinch that recipe for my Evocati. Also what colours exactly did you use on the blood drop on the back pack?

Thanks Lennysmash

Gem colors:

Black Undercoat - I usually use a black ink mixed with Vallejo flat black. Gives a good shiny black rather than a matt black.
Dark Angels Green.
Goblin Green.
Scorpion Green.
1:1 mix of Scorpion Green and Sunburst Yellow.
Sunburst yellow for the dot
Menoth White highlight for the glare on the black. It's like an egg shell kind of white.

Roleplayer wrote:You have inspired me to really nail your model for you now, vent

Oh no! My cunning plan has been found out

Armorum Ferrum wrote:Congrats mate, even after that 'green paint' incident you came out a winner !

Thanks Armorum; I think I like the second, darker, cloak a little better ^_^

Nice job vent Finished piece looks excellent.

Personally I enjoy the detailed updates, keep posting as you have been. I feel it helps to fuel others creativity and also allows a greater degree of feedback from the peeps keeping watch.

Looking forward to your next piece.

It really does look great Vent! I'll be shipping out a marine for you to paint

Vent, thanks so much for posting this up step by step, it has been really enlightening

Thanks very much guys

Marry me.

Well you dont see that everyday

Amazing work vent! I hope the obj marker you start for our swap looks half as good!

Muppas wrote:Marry me.

High praise indeed!

Seriously though - awesome stuff here!

Muppas wrote:Marry me.

lol thanks for the offer ^_^

tony_nids_10 wrote:Well you dont see that everyday

Amazing work vent! I hope the obj marker you start for our swap looks half as good!

Me too! I've got these mini statue things which I'm thinking of using. Plus some sheathed swords...

Alpharius wrote:

Muppas wrote:Marry me.

High praise indeed!

Seriously though - awesome stuff here!

Thanks Alpharius ^_^

--

I have three projects to work on next; and chances are I'll do them all at the same time. In no particular order they are:
a) A trade marine for Ice-Angel. This will be a Shadow Sanctus Veteran. I'm quite tempted to buy a box of the older marine veterans which come with all the funky weapon combos and paint one of them up, but a Kit-Bash might be nice too...
b) Another Trade Marine for Gitsplitta. He wants a Sanctus Death Watch Marine, which should be quite fun ^_^
c) A box of Lizardmen Temple Guard. Awhile back at a local tourney I put my painting services forward to paint a unit for a raffle prize to make some money for the club. The lucky (Or unlucky if you don't like my painting :p) winner finally got around to giving me his temple guard to paint... I'm going to be using inks quite heavily for them which means a white undercoat... He's got quite an unusual color scheme, going with Green and orange, so it should be fun to paint. The only problem was that the minis he gave me were all pre-owned and painted, and the stripping job wasn't perfect. Even after a week in a simple green bath this thick black undercoat wasn't moving, and worse it's obscured details, and lizardmen have such lovely scales. Hence I've decided to just buy a brand new box of plastic ones and do those... Normally I wouldn't go the extra distance but it was a raffle prize... And at the end of the day I get to paint something new... Which for me is what it's all about... I will return all his old temple guards, hope he doesn't mind... I never really got why commission painters said no to stripping and repainting old miniatures, but I do now, the loss of detail is really annoying... I've only stripped a few miniatures before this, and even then I wasn't 100% happy...

As people don't seem to mind the constant updates, there's going to be more of them... Mwahahaha... haha... ha...*ahem*

--

OH! And people I'm writing a small tutorial on how I did my gems (It even had pretty pictures! Well, not pretty, but they do the job). So if I haven't replied to your PM about how I did them, the tutorial will be up in a couple of days... ^_^

Thanks Vent, Oh and you can put me down for a trade too, lol. Though I know you're v.busy. As for more updates, they are always welcome, trust me.

Cool! Gem tutorials! Let me know when that gets thrown up on the forum.

Just saw your thread for the first time, beautiful work vent and great to see your process it always helps to see how others paint.

I saw you are in Aucks, have you ever come up to Whangarei to play in any tournaments?

BLACKHAND wrote:Just saw your thread for the first time, beautiful work vent and great to see your process it always helps to see how others paint.

I saw you are in Aucks, have you ever come up to Whangarei to play in any tournaments?

Gah, I knew someone was going to ask about my gaming experience eventually. Alas, my dirty little secret is about to be exposed. While I have been 'in the hobby', so to speak, for two years now I have never actually played a game of 40k. My only gaming experience comes from playing Mordheim & a little bit of Space Hulk... Not very well either... I know I should play a game, and I do know most of the rules, but the guys at the gaming club are so good / fast with the rules, I feel like I'd destroy a game with my newbness...

So to answer your Question Blackhand, no, never made it up north for some gaming...

I've been in the hobby quite a while too vent and I'm still painfully noobish at the rules. Thankfully I have a friend at my FLGS that helps me out with rules and such. Plus I'm pretty sure he keeps letting me beat him too

Same here Vent, not really played a game of 40k since I was younger and that was when 2nd edition was new-ish. As for 5th edition the only rule book I have is the one that came with AoBR.

We are all exposed!! If you lived around here Vent or Lennysmash (nice name btw) I would say lets play! But sadly I can afford to fly across the pond or across the world!

We could play it through the post, the same way some people play chess, lol

Oh btw thanks about the name, its a amalgamation of a character from a John Steinbeck novel and the Incredible Hulk's catchphrase.

I got the second part for sure! I actually work in my FLGS and they sell comics too.

We could play e-hammer 40k

Heh, I haven't played since Rogue Trader, think you'll find there's a fair few P&M guys who don't/rarely play.
You are not alone

Lol, sorry for exposing your secret!

If it helps I usually play all my games at the local club against the same two opponents as we have similar abysmal dice throwing skills

I always find it disheartening to watch my painstakingly painted and converted soldiers get their backsides kicked!

Hey Vent! Just found your blog... wow, this is great stuff! Glad I found it!

@Blackhand: You must be my long lost New Zealand twin...

Wow these models are amazing, I love your highlighting and shading skills, your newest marine is really good and your cloaks are really good as well.

Thanks guys. Good to know that I'm not alone in the gaming aspect ^_^

Objective markers! I'm taking part in the Objective marker swap and figured that since I've had a wicked headache for two days that painting was out, but sniffing glue while I make things would be fine... I might as well get a start on them today... Heh, seems funny for me to make these as I don't play that much, but hey it's all in good fun.

The barrel & jerry cans come from a WW2 set. Thought they give a good look to one of them. The 'rock' is a broken up wine cork... I think I should be concerned with how many wine corks I have floating around my house... If I look at it to closely it might indicate I have a problem... But I'm not into self-introspection that much

The second one is just a dead marine, and I'm thinking it's lacking something, Maybe height... Might add something to it later...

Vent, I like the barrel objective but I would agree that the third one needs some height. Maybe a sword stuck in the ground or an xenos knife would do the trick.

I am not sure this would work with the angle of the backpack, but you could add one of those backpack flag things.

Cheers IceAngel. Gonna have to try something there. ^_^

In other news I spent the last hour fighting with the Article maker to do the Blackstone Gem Tutorial. Hope it helps someone

That's a great tutorial vent, you'll be seeing those on my models from now on (or at least my attempt at them).

For the marine marker, I think if you were to hollow out the helmet and add a bare head that would add a bit to its realism. As for height how about a small standard. Not the big banners but something similar to the US cavalry banners in all those old westerns, is it a pennant? Hope that helps and cheers for the tutorial.

subscribed

Brilliant stuff there Vent, just the ticket for my new box of BA DC. Ta very much.

Hi,

I love that finished Space Marine, you are quite talented! Do you have a gallery where I can see more of your work?





Off-topic reply to Vent:
To be honest I stopped having anything to do with 40k 2 years ago when I packed my models and put them in my wardrobe for storage. For some reason I forgot about them until about a month ago when I found the box of stuff collecting dust. I pulled it out and have become somewhat interested in starting to play again, interested enough to purchase models to create a deathwing army lol. I also focus more on the non-gaming aspects of 40k, and the few games I have played I have lost . I live in Howick and when I did play I used to go the Sylvia Park GW. Where is your club?

Not sure how I have previously missed this blog, but that mistake is now fixed. Your painting is crazy crisp. Im glad someone of your level is taking part in the swaps too, its nice to see all levels comming out for it.
OT - Maybe a bit of vehicle debris, like a rhino door proped up on some rocks or some foliage sprouting up. The real trick will be to add something at this point without starting over.

Thanks guys

Lennysmash wrote:For the marine marker, I think if you were to hollow out the helmet and add a bare head that would add a bit to its realism. As for height how about a small standard. Not the big banners but something similar to the US cavalry banners in all those old westerns, is it a pennant? Hope that helps and cheers for the tutorial.

Actually the helmet is hollow, I hollowed it with my dremmel. Do you think It would look better if the crack went all the through on the front? I can do that with a scalpel... I could see if someone has a skelly skull to stick in there... Heh, this is getting more and more diorama-like ^_^

krizit wrote:Hi,

I love that finished Space Marine, you are quite talented! Do you have a gallery where I can see more of your work?
... Where is your club?

All of my stuff is uploaded on my flickr page and my Blog, Schola Progenium. I belong to the City Guard club which meets down in Freemans bay community center every Sunday afternoon. Check the forums, I'm Vent on there as well

whalemusic360 wrote:OT - Maybe a bit of vehicle debris, like a rhino door proped up on some rocks or some foliage sprouting up. The real trick will be to add something at this point without starting over.

Hmmm I might be able to do something like that... Maybe with the door crushing the marine slightly... Hmmm Have to try some things... ^_^

Thanks guys. Good critical opinions always help me out ^_^

Beautiful work on the SM Master - especially loved the gemwork!!

Very nice models vent! looking forward to your next update!

If you were to add a skull Vent I would put it on the marine, that way you don't have to sculpt the neck joint in the top of the torso. but add the crack to the helmet to I think that would look great too.

Ok, reworked the dead marine and made a new objective. Weather is raining and windy so still haven't undercoated anything:

Made the cut in the helmet and moved the bolter, cut it in half too. Replaced the bolter place with a cork rock with the sword placed in the middle. Gives it a little height. I think it looks much better.


The new one is a simple radar station hooked up to a Auspex reader on the sandbags. The connecting hose actually does connect to the Auspex under the bags...

The sword makes it look much better! Did you make those bags? They are quite spiffy sir.

The sandbags are from a WW2 set. I got zero green Stuffing skills... ^_^

OK, conundrum time... I need some assistance from someone who actually plays the game... Go figure... ^_^

I'm making an assault marine (without the jump-pack) for IceAngel, but am at a loss for what I'm legally allowed to give him? Can I give him a melta-gun or a plasma-gun? Or does it have to be a bolt-pistol and chainsword?

Quick answer would be better... IE, before the glue dries...

Um I think it may depend what codex he is using but boltpistol and chainsword is pretty much your safest bet...give a few minutes to check the vanilla space marine codex and I will post back..one thing I do know is that a meltagun is an assualt weapon allowing you to shoot and assualt in the same turn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nope sorry , best you can do is plasma pistols, storm shields and thunder hammers, power fists, flamers and lightning claws unfortunately.

still a few modelling opportunities though

BLACKHAND wrote:Um I think it may depend what codex he is using but boltpistol and chainsword is pretty much your safest bet...give a few minutes to check the vanilla space marine codex and I will post back..one thing I do know is that a meltagun is an assualt weapon allowing you to shoot and assualt in the same turn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Nope sorry , best you can do is plasma pistols, storm shields and thunder hammers, power fists, flamers and lightning claws unfortunately.

still a few modelling opportunities though

Thanks Blackhand. I might just start a new miniature for IceAngel... The glue is pretty much set and I designed him around a larger gun... I have other people who need a miniature and should suit... Thanks again ^_^

No worries

Actually Ice Angel plays BA sucessor chapter, and therefore can take a Special Weapon (two actually, in a 10 man squad), so no need to start a new guy!

vent wrote:Leather: I'm really bad at leather. Like Catastrophic bad. I have a lot of trouble with it. I've tried blending it, I've tried drybrushing it. Hated them all... Hence I usually cop out with the wash heavy method you can see.

I feel your pain. I usually cop-out on the leather/devlan mud combo myself. However, I did paint up a pretty nice leather knapsack on a swift claw below about a year back.



If I recall corectly, the work up was Scorched Brown -> Bestial Brown -> Leather -> Scoufulous Brown -> Bleached Bone (as the most extreme highlight).

Cheers

whalemusic360 wrote:Actually Ice Angel plays BA sucessor chapter, and therefore can take a Special Weapon (two actually, in a 10 man squad), so no need to start a new guy!

You can never have enough special weapon guys! I am getting excited vent! Any WIP for that guy or will it be a surprise when he arrives?

No surprise; just wanted to wait till all the glue was dry before taking photos... Plus, me with no updates?! I'm an update whore... We all know it... You guys are just to polite to mention it out loud

So here is the Assault Marine start position.
Base is again a very simple affair. I was going to go for slabs, but I still had all this broken up cork so I figured this would be OK. The chest piece comes from a Black Templar upgrade spur, just scoured off the BT icon. Shoulder pads are Command squad. Everything else is vanilla. There's still a few lines to clear up, and the head is not yet glued in there (Nor will it be till after painting). I think he would of looked neat in a jump-pack but IceAngel is going for ground based assault marines, so it'll be a regular pack.


In other projects, I have made a new objective marker and undercoated all the objectives. I'm using and reviewing a new type of undercoat (Which I might use on The assault Marine as well), so that's why these are undercoated in grey. When I start / finish painting I'll post the review as well...


I've also got a full unit of Temple Guard Lizardmen about to be Undercoated. But I didn't take any photos of them... ^_^

My my have you been a busy little bee, lol. The objectives are looking great vent as is the wip of Ice Angels model. Tell me though how durable cork as a basing material? I always thought it would be a mother to try and fix but I see a lot of guys using it these days.

Lennysmash wrote:My my have you been a busy little bee, lol. The objectives are looking great vent as is the wip of Ice Angels model. Tell me though how durable cork as a basing material? I always thought it would be a mother to try and fix but I see a lot of guys using it these days.

The longer it dries with paint over it the harder it gets. If you're overly concerned about the durability you can first smother the cork in super glue before attaching. Small note though, when using cork you want to use a limited viscosity grade super glue, the pure liquid is great for coating the cork (And thus hardening it), but if you use it for attaching it will simply seep into the cork. Use a gel form ^_^

Hmmm I just read this I don't think it makes perfect sense. I'll stick it in steps. Steps are golden...

1) Attach the cork to the base with Medium or High viscosity super glue.
2) Coat the cork with low viscosity Super Glue. This will harden the cork.
3) Attach the miniature to the cork (If you're standing him on the cork that is) again with Medium or High Viscosity glue.

*phew* that makes better sense... In case you're wondering I use Super Jet Professional Grade Super Glue.

Cool, cheers Vent. That helps a lot.

Looks good, just as expected.

And it's not that we're too polite to call you a forum whore, it's just we're worried if we start calling you names you'll stop posting and we'll have to look elsewhere for our pwetty pictures

onwards...

To ink or not to ink?

I figured for the objectives and temple guard I'd try some more inking techniques, and see what ink does work with and what it doesn't work with.

The green and browns were winners, straight from the bat they worked well, and sunk into recesses. The red however did not. Like painting, a single coating of red seems weak and allows the grey to poke through to easily. I'm going to see if additional layers of washes, both red and maybe a few minor browns makes a difference to the red...

I haven't tried the purple ink yet, but I reckon it's going to be a total winner for doing 'nids and might have to test it on a Space Hulk 'Stealer

Pro's of using inks:
-Time. Very quick to coat an entire miniature.
-Looks good as flesh. Flesh has all these natural recesses, and the inks show them really well on a miniature.
-Thin. If you're like me and paint many layers of something using an ink for a really thin basecoat is ideal.

Con's of using inks:
-Messy! The ink seems to get everywhere...
-Drying time. Much longer than a GW wash.
-Contamination. It's very easy to contaminate an ink with another color if you don't let it totally dry. Even using the same color as the potential to 'wipe' away the first coat unless it's totally dry.

The next step is painting over the inks... which will be happening tomorrow. I got smacked around a little at Kendo last night and I'm sore... :(


EDIT: I use Windsor and Newton Calligraphy inks in case anyone cares ^_^

Cool I never thought to use windsor and newton, plus I was lucky enough to score a crapload of the ancient GW inks in a trademe auction a few years back. I will be watching closely for more tips so I can take them out for a spin.

Do you water the inks down at all? I use some inks as washes with a little water and flow aid.
On a side note, that T guard is one mean looking lizard, the Old Ones would be proud!

Trilobite wrote:Do you water the inks down at all? I use some inks as washes with a little water and flow aid.
On a side note, that T guard is one mean looking lizard, the Old Ones would be proud!

On the lizard no. I used pure green ink as the base coat. If I was going to just use it to shade something though then yeah, I think I would be using a touch of water. A lot of the time I'll actually use an ink to dilute paint as well... Especially black, makes black go on very very smoothly...

More work on the Temple Guard test figure. While it might seems like I'm taking a very long time on this guy, in reality it's only moderately bad. *sob*

It's not really that bad, just using some colors I don't normally play with and it makes things a little slower, once I get into the batch painting *shudder* things should move quicker.

Done today:

Dots - Done in Mechanite Orange first, then blazing orange for the pin-point dots. One layer didn't look right, but the second dot gave them some more depth. I've also done a few dots here and there with P3 Hellfire over the blazing just to give him a little oomph.

Armor: My usual gold recipe with a wash of red thrown in to give it a more bronze look, then a touch of drybrushing to give with base gold and light gold (Andrea color paints) to bring up the spines.

Bone, fangs and claws: Done with Menoth Base and then multiple layers of sepia wash and a highlight with Menoth base again. I think I might have to change up the way I do either the external bone or the lizardmans claws and bone. They look very similar... But it is quick... ^_^

Still got to do the detail work; ie gem & eyes, and probably more work on the green, doesn't quite look right... Oh and the shield... Duh...

I think you could do with lightening the bone a little more, or at least the helm. At the moment it's just getting lost into the gold/bronze. I'll confess to only skimming the thread, but have you painted the body of the club? If so, what? I've been having trouble with mine and poking about to see what others are doing. (It turns out trying to paint something up as obsidian on such a small surface... err, doesn't work.)

Morgrim wrote:I think you could do with lightening the bone a little more, or at least the helm. At the moment it's just getting lost into the gold/bronze. I'll confess to only skimming the thread, but have you painted the body of the club? If so, what? I've been having trouble with mine and poking about to see what others are doing. (It turns out trying to paint something up as obsidian on such a small surface... err, doesn't work.)

It's black ink over white undercoat right now. I haven't decided what I want to do with it... I agree about the helmet, it's not quite finished yet, but it does get a little lost...

I think it looks great vent! I really think youve got more skill than you like to admit

tony_nids_10 wrote:I think it looks great vent! I really think youve got more skill than you like to admit

Thanks Tony. As for any skill I might possess; I'm well aware of my own shortcomings, especially in light of some of the phenomenal painters on these forums... But I do love to paint these little things, and I think that's important ^_^

I agree! I think your painting is great and I like how you explain what you're doing, not just posting a picture and moving on.

Those look really nice man. I had seen those Windsor Newton inks before, and never risked trying them. Next time I am up that way I will have to pick some up to mess around with, especially now that another 60+ marauders are in my future

Thanks for the tech, and keep up the good work!

Thanks guys

@Wehrkind: 60+ Marauders?! I have trouble thinking about doing ten lizards! Make sure you shake the ink pots, they have a greater tendency to separate if they've sat around for awhile... ^_^

Finishing up my Temple Guard Test figure. It's been a slower process than I would of liked, but I have a lot of stuff going on in the real world and haven't really had a lot of time to paint. Hopefully that will change soon.

I've had a few comments that the gold and bone get lost together, so in an effort to separate the two I have made the gold darker by adding a thin black wash around joins and cracks & given the bone another highlight of pure menoth base. The colors look a little more distinct now.

I've attached and started work on the shield. Still need to do the brighter shades of orange on the shield. I'm unsure if I want to do the rim scales in orange, leave them green, or go for another color. I'm leaning towards another color right now. Maybe bone. My reasoning is that the shield doesn't look very distinct otherwise. Almost as if it's part of the body; if you have any opinions shout out. I like help... ^_^

Only things left to do is a little bit of shield work, the eyes and the gemstones. I think that when I'm "batch painting" I'm going to go for a figure a day rather than paint by stage. I've done it both ways and I prefer the figure a day method...

No new recipes today. Everything is pretty much the same colors as I've been using...



As always I appreciate any and all comments and feedback, otherwise I feel like I'm talking to myself... And I always get into an argument when that happens...

I dont know just about anything about lizardmen, but it seems weird to me that the shield is the same as his skin. To me it looks like its a strange growth off his arm or he killed another of his kind and cannibalistically salvaged his brother's scales. anyways if thats how lizardmen are done then shows what i know but i think its a chance you to make a contrasting element. The painting is certainly well executed, just an aesthetic choice.

Agreeing with crim here, it does seem a tad odd that they would flay each other for shields, rather than just skinning some poor stegadon.

Thanks guys, I do appreciate your input. I think I might take it on board as well. Stegadon's are red according to GW (yes, I had to look them up), which is perfectly opposite green on the color wheel so it should work quite nicely, yellowish for the ridges/scales... I'll do it tomorrow and post some pics.

Alrighty, finished my Temple Guard test figure. It's quite simple when I look at him now, but it took some redoing of parts over and over again.

The biggest of all is the shield. Going from the green to red seems like such a no brainer now, but if you'd told me to do it before I would never have thought of it. But that's why I like to post WIP's, so people can give me pointers and ideas. Shield is Mechanite Red, then a devlan Mud wash with a blood red for the rim ridges. The cream is menoth base and menoth highlight a little brightness. Also changes the cream from the bone.

I'm kind of tempted to redo some of the bone, but I probably wont...

The eyes are simple yellow dots. I was considering going for something like slits, but this is meant to be speed painted... Which I suck at, but you get that...

Someone else also said the blade looked very dull so I went with black and then granite for a single highlight.

Vent, according to my wife your lizardman is painted great, but looks too clean to be a proper lizardman.

Looks great vent, the progression from green skin to orange scales to red shield is quality

IceAngel wrote:Vent, according to my wife your lizardman is painted great, but looks too clean to be a proper lizardman.

lol, thanks IceAngel, I think? ^_^ BTW I got your Miniature today. Bloody awesome dude. Great color choices, and he looks mean as! What do you use to make the Ice Crystals?

BLACKHAND wrote:Looks great vent, the progression from green skin to orange scales to red shield is quality

Thanks Blackhand. I think the red shield gives it a little bit of Zing, more so than a green shield...

A full unit of those would look amazing Vent, for sure!

My favourite thing about Lizardmen as an army in general is that each unit can be so different when it comes to colouration. I have lots of little skinks around the apartment in varying primary colours

If you want something hilariously fun to paint, try the little chameleon skinks. You can go full out with those. Any colour or pattern you can think of, hah!

vent wrote:lol, thanks IceAngel, I think? ^_^ BTW I got your Miniature today. Bloody awesome dude. Great color choices, and he looks mean as! What do you use to make the Ice Crystals?

I use a product called Decor Glass Mix - Teal. They are tiny little plastic shards that come in every color you can come up with. When I apply them I also use a different glue which I found turns the base or the contact point all frosty. It gives it a nice effect. I am glad my marine made it safe! I wasn't sure what to expect from a cross the globe adventure he just took.

The differentiation between the metal and the bone is much nicer now, and both work really well individually. The gold has more of a bronzish touch which suits lizardmen.

And I have some Windor Newton ink I use for calligraphy. Never thought of using it on models. My black primer has just run out, so maybe I should grab some white and experiment.

Incredible stuff. All of it!

Excellent as always. have to agree with BLACKHAND about the colour progression, quality stuff

Thanks guys ^_^

Geeez, it's been a really long time since I've painted a Shadow Sanctus Marine! The Shadow Sanctus (Or Saints if you don't know your latin) is a Blood Angel Sucessor Chapter whose Gene Seed was mixed with Ultramarines to give it some stability. Well... That's what I say so I get to use some oh so pretty blue for the veterans... I've been putting this guy off for a very long time; for which I owe IceAngel a massive apoligy. I got his marine the other day and that got me off my ass to stop the lizards for a little bit and get this guy done...

There's a whole bunch of things all over him which still need to be done; completing the red is the largest. More highlights required... The gun also needs a lot of work, the pack needs to be started (cringe)

I tried a new eye technique on him, but am not overly happy with the results, they look a little strange...

Egads, I wasn't meant to do the base either... Got a little carried away, so I'm going to have to finish it now... I have some snow features which I'm going to add in there, but I'll leave a space for the ice crystals that IceAngel uses...




Colors:
Armor: Basecoat is a 2:1 of Scab Red and... And... Ummm it's all mixed up already and was done a long time ago... I think it was scorched brown? Not sure...

Gun: Chardon Granite then Black Wash with Highligthing still to come

Helmet: Ultramarine Blue (3x thin coats). Recesses are done with watered down Blue wash. Highlights are done with UM Blue and Menoth Base, the mix of Menoth gets heavier the lighter the highlight.

Robe Front: Foundation Purple color (If someone can tell me what that's called, my label has come off) then Purple Wash. Highlights are done the same way as the helm was. Mixing the base with Menoth.

I think that's everything? Mwahaha Even if it's not I'm stopping here, you've all read enough of me yakking on...

He looks good vent. Like the black on the melta gun. Not overly cartoony (which I like). Colors are bold w/ good contrast, tabbard ties the helmet & body armor together. All in all a very nice fig, looking forward to the next phase.

I like him quite a bit. Not sure on the basing tho, looks like he's on stilts or just showing off the the more balance-impaired Marines. Do you usually file off the little ear things on marines?

whalemusic360 wrote:Do you usually file off the little ear things on marines?

I know I do, I can't stand painting them, I don't know why

I like em vent! I can see what you're talking with the eyes though. Don't worry about the basing. Have you named him yet?

Thanks guys

whalemusic360 wrote:Do you usually file off the little ear things on marines?

Yeah, I've started too. I hate them so very much... ^_^

IceAngel wrote:I like em vent! I can see what you're talking with the eyes though. Don't worry about the basing. Have you named him yet?

A name? Ummm can't say that I have. Should I name him? Or would you like that responsibility?

---

I've gotten a couple of PM's over the last week of people asking me how I take my photos. Should I write a tutorial for this? I don't want to seem preachy since I'm still quite new to both the hobby and this forum. Opinions?

As no one responded I won't be writing a photography tutorial... Saves me the effort...

Finally got around to finishing off this trade marine... I swear I'm getting slower at painting... First off, the photos are not that great. Bad weather, and only two lights equals a slightly washed out red armor. I've really tried to push the blending, and while it's only worked to a certain extent, the photos don't show the true finished color that well.

Done today:
Added Snow. Mix a bit of snow flock up with PVA glue and apply. then dust some more over the top to make it all sparkly.

Back Pack: The very bane of my existence is a SM Back Pack, I stab thee in thine eye... Standard colors, just annoying...

Writing: I was thinking of making this a ribbon thing and having it be all different colors. Then I realised I was painting a SPACE MARINE, not an eldar...

Knee Pad. Nothing shocking. Just made it Blue. *GASP!*

Music listened to: Wicked Original Cast Soundtrack... Showtunes ftw!

Thought for the day: Why does 'watching paint dry' get a bad wrap? Water leaches from the paint into the air and leaves behind a solidified form! That's bitching! And I've been drinking to much coffee... Weeeeee... Pictures!

Oh, before that I named him IceAngel. As I've just finished reading 'Name of the Wind' He can be called "Kvothe" ^_^

Vent, as always it looks amazing and as always you are entirely too hard on yourself! Oh and I will be waiting for the picture tutorial. I would have responded sooner but work has me away from my precious dakka!

Great stuff as always, If I could take a pic as "bad" as you I would be a very happy man.

By the way how fricken cool is "name of the wind" I did throw the book against the wall when I realized it was the start of the trilogy and he hadn't even finished the second!

Looking good Vent, now you can start mine .

And sorry to have to say this, but it looks like a picture tutorial may be in order. I agree with nids a tute on good photos would be great.... sorry, only if you have time.

Can't wait to see you next project as well, keep up the good work chap.

Hey vent... actually I'd missed your comment on the photo tutorial. I would definitely be interested... at the very least on your camera settings. I have decent equipment and a little photo booth, but I struggle with things like white balance & ISO/shutter settings.

Oh yeah.... and the mini looks tremendous! *grin*

First off, I really got a kick out the side notes before the picture. The note about you listening to show tunes while painting was fantastic. I often listen to Fiddler on the Roof while painting, lol.

Any ways, he looks great and I can't wait to see him in person. I like the name too!

Thanks guys

As for a photography tutorial. I'll see what I can get together this weekend. While a lot is dependent on your camera there are things which make it easier...

@Blackhand: Name of the Wind is phenomenal. Easily one of my favorite books. I've read it several times now. As for the length of time since the first till the second (March 1, 2011 baby!), I share your pain immensely. Considering how the first night only set things up for the true story this second book better be bloody stunning.

@IceAngel: Showtunes are a must for any serious painter... My neighbours must be getting a little sick of hearing me sing a harmony with Idina Menzel... HA!

Working on:

- Lizardmen! They're all around me! Nooooo!
- Shadow Sanctus Deathwatch Marine. Which considering he's mostly black, won't take me to long... <insert laughter here>
- My Broadway Career... <Insert greater laughter here>
- Oh and I'm also thinking making a knight titan built around the base structure of an exoskelly from the Matrix films... But this is my rainy day project...
- I have been instructed to mention that I also have many, many boxes of marines, predators, rhinos and dreadnoughts, many with the plastic still on, scattered around the house... Sorry honey...

In an effort to put off painting even more I wrote the photo tutorial today. It's over in the Tutorial section... *sigh* I guess this means I have to paint now... ^_^

That's fantastic vent... just what I needed. Thanks!

Gitsplitta wrote:That's fantastic vent... just what I needed. Thanks!

No worries. Hope it helps ^_^

Vent that tutorial is amazing! Also you sir are the leonardo DaVinci of procrastination! Teach me master

Pretty sure Im gonna make one of those later today, then steal desklights from people's rooms ;p Thankyou, this will be the second piece of advice I have got from you concerning photoing.

Hey vent, the one thing you don't mention is where you got the design for the circle backgrounds... I can do the simple gradient in Photoshop, but are the lighted circles Photoshop creations as well?

Gitsplitta wrote:Hey vent, the one thing you don't mention is where you got the design for the circle backgrounds... I can do the simple gradient in Photoshop, but are the lighted circles Photoshop creations as well?

I can't accept credit for the Cloud Backgrounds. Like I say in the Tutorial, and earlier in this thread, they're from Corvus over at Corvus miniatures. He does good work ^_^

Whoops... sorry, I saw that & visited his site, but couldn't find anything on the backgrounds so I thought I'd misunderstood.

Gitsplitta wrote:Whoops... sorry, I saw that & visited his site, but couldn't find anything on the backgrounds so I thought I'd misunderstood.

Sorry, they're still there. Just a few pages back now. I should of linked them rather than just the corvus site.

I think I need to make/get a light box for photos... for some reason I want to find some of those terrible backgrounds they used for school pictures back in the day. I can just imagine a space marine in front of a bright, 90's style lazer beam background

Hey Vent,

Have you seen these?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/319726.page

vent wrote:Hi everyone,

I've been painting stuff for close to two years now. I don't play to many games, but I do enjoy the painting aspect. I have an ongoing blog over at 40k forums, but am looking for more critical feedback of my stuff and so thought a larger audience might be beneficial. I'm going to put up some of previous stuff so people have an indication of my current level and then put up what I'm working on...

I'm aware that I'm not that stellar, but I enjoy what I do, which is important ^_^




My latest minis are for my Mordheim witch-hunter warband, which consists of twelve minis I need to complete in 20 days. I've done four in four days so far...


I have a Flickr page with all my stuff located here if you want to check everything out... If anyone has any feedback, comments or constructive criticism on how to improve I'd love to hear from you

Fantastic work mate, one question though where did you get the helmet on that scout?

BLACKHAND wrote:Hey Vent,

Have you seen these?

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/319726.page

Wowsers! No, I hadn't Blackhand. Very nice. While the Lizardmen I'm painting are not mine I think I might buy and paint this for myself. Thanks Blackhand.

Santobell wrote:
Fantastic work mate, one question though where did you get the helmet on that scout?

They're from Pig Iron Productions. They make some really nice stuff. Great for customizing imperial guard units (Or anything without a helemt). Especially fallen imperial guard units. You could make one hell of an excellent army... ^_^

Very interesting style you have, really subdued and more realistic highlights, which usually makes models look flat but you have pulled it off really well!

MajorTom11 wrote:Very interesting style you have, really subdued and more realistic highlights, which usually makes models look flat but you have pulled it off really well!

Thanks Tom. I really love your stuff too

Just a quick update for the few people who read this:

While it may seem I have dropped off the face of the earth, in reality I am in the process of changing jobs and homes. One of these alone are stressful enough, but doing both at the same time seems to kick it up a few extra notches. I haven't been painting anything, and I've only just got around to sending out some marines to people. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I can return to painting...

Worth the wait bud

Yeah, no problem vent... real life comes first.

really like the Krox. Is that model plastic or metal? may have some ideas for him.

Glad to hear you are still alive mate. I guess I can put the defibs away. As BH and Git said, your work is worth the wait and real life comes first wether you like it or not

I hope things get better and god willing more relaxed for you bud.

Thanks guys.

Tortured-Robot wrote:really like the Krox. Is that model plastic or metal? may have some ideas for him.

Thanks man. That one there is a metal one. I don't play that many games so am unaware of how many you'd need to fill out a unit, but they're not that cheap. They come one to a blister pack...

Yeah, hope the changes all go through smoothly for you, we'll all just kick back and whittle some till you're ready to post again

yea, just looked them up, metal, and pricey, idea gone!

*sigh*

So it's been 21 days since I sent Roleplayer's Miniature. Unfortunately it has yet to arrive. They consider mail lost at 30 days. Especially from New Zealand to Australia.

IceAngel received his miniature safely in America, but across the ditch it's a problem. I'm all depressed now :(

That's a real downer vent... I thought my local PO was the only one in the world that still hadn't figured out how to deliver the mail properly (small down and all).

VENT!! YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!

I understand your mail woes, I sent a package each to Gravenimage and Gitsplitta on the same day, Graven received his nearly 2 weeks ago Gits still hasn't got his, GRRRR

That's because the US isn't actually part of the "English Speaking World". We speak American... different language entirely.

You should hear some of the kids where I living at the moment Art, it proves that even the England isn't part of the English speaking world anymore.

I heard the police referred to the other day as 'Feds' which I found a little confusing considering we have no federal law enforcement agencies here.

Anyway back on topic nice to have you back Vent.

Lennysmash wrote:
I heard the police referred to the other day as 'Feds' which I found a little confusing considering we have no federal law enforcement agencies here.

Might as well call em mounties

LOL! Now that would be cool. Though I think it'd take, it seems to be the trend here in the UK for kids now to call certain things anything except what they actually are.

Do you know I hate them for it, making me use terms such as "kids these days" and "well it wasn't like that when I was a kid", I'm 26! Little

Heh, me and my mates realised we were talking about 'the kids of today' in our early twenties The 'feds' thing isn't new though, we sometimes used that when we were kids, blame Hollywood for that one methinks

Nice and smooth painting style you have Vent!

Holy crap this took a long time. Not so much the painting, which was time consuming, but rather finding time to actually get some painting done. I've changed jobs, homes, and lifestyles too. All of which have been stressful and annoying as hell...

The biggest problem were the spots. They were exceptionally time intensive and when rushed mistakes were made (And made they were). I also wanted them to look different. To often when I see people playing fantasy the units within the army look like clones and for some reason it irritates me; thus I've striven to change the greens up as much as I could...

Overall I'm happy enough with the final result. Some of the greens could of been highlighted a lot more, and some of the golds are a little lacking. But they are a unit for playing with, rather than displaying... Or so I'm led to believe... I won't be sorry to see them go, as much as I love to paint things these guys have been associated with a period of my life which I'd prefer to forget, and sadly I think the final product reflects this...

A good 'ol fashioned Space Marine next... I feel the need for something simple...

Those are some very well done Lizards.. Very nice indeed. I love the base, and the sheilds especially.

If I ever get into Fantasy again, I'll have to take a look @ Lizardmen. They are some of my favorite fantasy models.

Love the bone theme.. the amber jewels on the standard... all very well done, and yes, unique as well. Don't recall seeing anyone else treat the unit the same way. Nicely done!

I dont think you should feel the need to be overly critical of your craft. The models look fantastic and are definately above average in terms of table top standard. Love the work, keep it up, because what you have here is real nice!

Lennysmash wrote:LOL! Now that would be cool. Though I think it'd take, it seems to be the trend here in the UK for kids now to call certain things anything except what they actually are.

Do you know I hate them for it, making me use terms such as "kids these days" and "well it wasn't like that when I was a kid", I'm 26! Little

Same age, and I do the same thing here in America.

the models are more subdued than i have come to expect from lizard men, but dont take tha as a criticism , the painting standard is exceptional, and i would be very pleased if i could spend as much time and effort on any of my miniatures, and get such a result.

Very cool. They have a voodoo shaman/ witch doctor vibe to em that is very unique.

I love that standard; very subdued and in a hue you rarely see writ large (at least around here) while at the same time being very attention grabbing with those amber eyes that keep following me around. I would be pretty well pleased to field those bad boys myself sir!

Hope everything's settled down for you now Vent. Good job on those lizards - I too find that standard excellent and unique.

Thanks guys! I appreciate you taking the time ^_^

neil101 wrote:the models are more subdued than i have come to expect from lizard men, but dont take tha as a criticism , the painting standard is exceptional, and i would be very pleased if i could spend as much time and effort on any of my miniatures, and get such a result.

I've been told I have quite a muted style, just the way I like to do things I guess... One of these days I'll have to try and do something bright and see what happens ^_^

whalemusic360 wrote:Very cool. They have a voodoo shaman/ witch doctor vibe to em that is very unique.

That is the vibe I wanted from them. They have all the fetishes of tribal voodoo magiks about them, including the drum made from skin so I figured they'd be well suited to the theme

I got two Marines and one wizard in the wings. I'm going back to focus pieces instead of squads. I like doing them much more... ^_^

I have three things going on right now and the first is this wizard. He's actually going to be mine! It's been so long since I've painted anything for myself *sniff* I'm getting all emotional... We're playing through the entire Hero Quest game, plus expansions. I'm the wizard. It was as good an excuse to buy the wizard set as any... I haven't quite got a color scheme sorted for him yet. I was thinking red for his cloak, but I already do a lot of red so maybe something different... Maybe blue... His face is gold plated and his staff head is going to be gold...

Still not super confident about painting Fantasy stuff... See how he goes ^_^

My second of three projects is a Deathwatch Marine. I've always liked the concept of the Deathwatch Marines; IE the best of the best used by the Inquisition for kill teams. Easy to paint too. Black! I wanted him to be a little different so I gave him an auspex and used a kneeling posture marine. I've chosen to give him a plasma gun rather than a bolter. Not sure if it works, especially with the angle he's holding it while looking away. Still it's easily changable later on...

This is a trade marine for Gitspitta from DAKKA DAKKA Forums...

And lastly, a Sanctus Marine! Nothing like a Shadow Sanctus Marine. Good primary colors, and they're mine! So I should know how to paint them... I've given this guy a chainsword arm from the Black Templar upgrade set. I like the idea of chaining things to their weapons... Especially marines! He'll be standard veteran colors. Red armor. Blue Helm, blue left shoulder pad, etc. As with all my marines, backpacks come last...

This is a trade marine for WhaleMusic360 on DAKKA DAKKA Forums.

I'm going to try and do them all at the same general time, but most likely I'll get stuck into one and finish him without realising it... No telling which one that'll be though ^_^

vent wrote: His face is gold plated and his staff head is going to be gold...

Shame, I'd like to see you do multi-coloured planets on that top

The plasma is a little big for the pose, but you know..he's a marine, he can take it As you say, easily changeable if it doesn't look right.

They all look great Vent, excited to see some paint get on them!

I'm not totally sure how I feel about my Wizard. I like him and all, and as I finished him in like three hours I can't complain about the time I've spent on him, but I don't feel he's totally complete yet either... There's something missing...

I was going to go with a whole bunch of colors I don't normally use on him as well, but I woke up this morning and the name Raistlin popped in and I knew the cloak was going to be red, from there is was a simple look at the color wheel to determine the other colors... (If you don't know who Raistlin is then I weep for you ^_^)

As you'll no doubt be able to tell, my freehand is not exactly the greatest. In fact I try and avoid is where-ever possible. However the ribbon / parchment would of looked wrong without some color there and so I used my Blackstone gem coloring, just without the black base and with a much higher yellow mix at the end (And no white glare). It works well enough...

As I look at the images it occurs to me what is wrong. There needs to be something green from his staff too... Maybe some kind of directional lighting effect... Hmmm maybe... Have to think about it...




I appreciate all forms of constructive criticism or feedback, so please tell me what you think ^_^

Oh and the title is a Raistalin quote... I wasn't getting all emo... ^_^

What if you made the central ball on his staff a planetary object? Or a planet with several moons? You might be able to work the green into the land masses on the planet that way.

Gitsplitta wrote:What if you made the central ball on his staff a planetary object? Or a planet with several moons? You might be able to work the green into the land masses on the planet that way.

Hmmm maybe. Or the central orb is a gem of some kind?

Very good... trick will be to pull off the gem illusion from a 360 degree point of view. I really struggled with that trying to make light bulbs that looked right from every angle for my KFF big mek.

Be careful with OSL on the staff Vent, it may just end up looking like he's leaning an ornate lamppost just kidding. How about adding the light effect to the C shaped piece the orb rests within. That way you can wrap the glow around the orb.

Another thing you could try is Sky earth non metallic metal, Alexandra at Girl painting has a great tutorial on youtube if i remember correctly.

The figure looks really good at this point btw and the scroll work is very good. you should add a few small standing stones to separate bases and add the same still of runes to them, could look a nice objective of terrain piece.

Sorry to drag up older posts.... but I love the Jewels on that lizardman standard, awesome.

I say paint the orb as a very light green glowing thingy, if it's to dark it might be mistaken for warpstone

Great looking stuff. I love your master scout. In your into you sounded like you were not confidant in your painting skills... I hope you are kidding. Your skills and your color composition choices are amazing. subd

If you make the globe a glowing green, maybe do the same for his eyes?

Vent, I really admire your painting, it was your photography tutorial that really made me take note of your work.

I think your colour choices are spot on.

I'd like to make one minor critisim on the Wizard. The cloak doesn't look as well highlighted as I think you are capable of, judging by the rest of your work. It kinda says 'I rushed this bit' to me.

Hope you don't mind, and please feel free to critique my painting - i need all the help I can get.

Thanks for posting your work up, I do find it inspirational and right now am itching to go paint some.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! All the comments and ideas really help me learn, which I appreciate more than you know

whalemusic360 wrote:If you make the globe a glowing green, maybe do the same for his eyes?

A good idea! I'll have to see if I can manage it somehow... Although I think we're approaching the 'eyes are bigger than stomach' rule; meaning my painting skills might let down the idea ^_^

Hangfire wrote:I'd like to make one minor critisim on the Wizard. The cloak doesn't look as well highlighted as I think you are capable of, judging by the rest of your work. It kinda says 'I rushed this bit' to me.

Hope you don't mind, and please feel free to critique my painting - i need all the help I can get.

I never mind the critique, it helps me learn. As for the cloak, you're not the only one who has a problem with it so I'm going to re-work it and see what I can manage, maybe add some freehand onto it as well...

Rose_Mountainz wrote:I say paint the orb as a very light green glowing thingy, if it's to dark it might be mistaken for warpstone

Maybe he's a chaos sorcerer! WARPSTONE GOOD! ^_^

Tortured-Robot wrote:Sorry to drag up older posts.... but I love the Jewels on that lizardman standard, awesome.

Thanks Robot. I have a tutorial about how I do my gems located here

Rabid Ferret wrote:Great looking stuff. I love your master scout. In your into you sounded like you were not confidant in your painting skills... I hope you are kidding. Your skills and your color composition choices are amazing. subd

Actually I have great doubt in regards to my skills. Especially when you see some of the phenomenal artwork produced on this site. I think I paint OK for someone who has painted for a couple of years, but nothing spectacular. Improvement is always the name of the game ^_^

After some excellent advice over the finished result I went back to work on Wizard Raislin. I'm much happier with this result, and while he's not perfect I'll be stopping work on him here.




Things done:

Skin - Reworked the skin tone using a 1:1 mix of Beige Brown and basic skin tone. It's not perfect, but the copper looking skin is gone. I could of touched it up with a few more highlights I supose...

Cloak: I went over the cloak again rather than try and save the extreme highlights. This time the result might be to soft, but I think the shadows suit it better than the extreme highlights.

Staff head: Heh, my first attempt at some directional lighting. Mixed results. It works, but with everything I'll only get better with practice. This was done with an airbrush, which I'm going to be playing around with more and more with my miniatures. The method was done in the as described by Eggroll over at Dakka Dakka. If you haven't seen his Blood Angels you should go find them. They're bloody stunning. I decided to add the little ruin thingies in the staff head because the plain orb looked very strange...

At the end of the day I'm happy with the finished result. Now on to a marine ^_^

Nice vent... great resolution on the staff.

Just started playing around with my new airbrush... I think it's going to take a long time to get good with it, but it has a lot of potential.

thats awesome work vent! I really dig the runes.

Whats your secret to painting flesh?
Ive got a couple of guard to paint and im in need of a decent way to do it. Ive tried and tried again, and never gotten nice results. It always looked to red or pinky.

Thanks guys

Gitsplitta wrote:Just started playing around with my new airbrush... I think it's going to take a long time to get good with it, but it has a lot of potential.

Yeah, they're funny things, that's for sure. I went down the 'less is more' category for my first attempt. I think it'll be interesting when I do your marine's plasma weapon... Small steps ^_^

Ramos Asura wrote:Whats your secret to painting flesh?
Ive got a couple of guard to paint and im in need of a decent way to do it. Ive tried and tried again, and never gotten nice results. It always looked to red or pinky.

I still have trouble with flesh, but for a simple base tone I found the Skin Tone tips by Rachel Borthwick over at Iron Halo to be most beneficial. For this guy I just used a 1:1 mix of Beige Brown and Basic Skin tone (Vallejo paints). I've had some success with really watered down tallarn flesh (Citadel Foundation) then glazed with a watered down (50%) gryphon sepia (Citadel Wash). Hope that helps

I really like the Wiz, the green orb is cool, i think it would benefit from some gloss varnish in the orb though? keep up the great work

Staff light effects look good! Feel free to try lighting on the marine for me, though not sure where

Thanks guys

Calibanite Lion wrote:I really like the Wiz, the green orb is cool, i think it would benefit from some gloss varnish in the orb though? keep up the great work

I knew I was missing something!! The Varnish! Thanks Cal!

whalemusic360 wrote:Staff light effects look good! Feel free to try lighting on the marine for me, though not sure where

Maybe his eyes. Maybe ^_^

I'm also going to practice with the airbrush on the chainsword, but it won't be glowing, it'll be yellow hazard lines made with tape...

vent wrote:Thanks guys

Calibanite Lion wrote:I really like the Wiz, the green orb is cool, i think it would benefit from some gloss varnish in the orb though? keep up the great work

I knew I was missing something!! The Varnish! Thanks Cal!

whalemusic360 wrote:Staff light effects look good! Feel free to try lighting on the marine for me, though not sure where

Maybe his eyes. Maybe ^_^

I'm also going to practice with the airbrush on the chainsword, but it won't be glowing, it'll be yellow hazard lines made with tape...

Low tack masking tape is your best friend when you use an airbrush. I think an airbrush will be the next 'big' thing I save up for. A compressor and airbrush run in the multiple hundreds of dollars. Prob 4-500 to get started with a proper airbrush.

Anyhow. Nice work on Raistlin. You need to do his big brother too. :-P Maybe do an Emp. Champion?

Definitely an improvement over the last iteration. The orb really makes for a neat effect and ties the lower bits with the upper.

My favorite skin tone has become Vallejo's Pale Flesh (Carne Clara). It kind of intimidated me at first since it was SO pale, but now I use it all the damn time for highlights or even base coats with a wash to darken a bit, as well as lots of other applications with washes. It seems to hit a really nice spot of just enough pink and brown to not be white, but pale enough that you can really get a lot of good end effects out of it.
Otherwise, I have to admit to finding some of Vallejo's skin tones a tad baffling. GW's are slightly orange, but I find them a little easier to manipulate than V's line like Dark Flesh and all.

wolfshadow wrote:Low tack masking tape is your best friend when you use an airbrush. I think an airbrush will be the next 'big' thing I save up for. A compressor and airbrush run in the multiple hundreds of dollars. Prob 4-500 to get started with a proper airbrush.

Anyhow. Nice work on Raistlin. You need to do his big brother too. :-P Maybe do an Emp. Champion?

Yeah, I already have some masking tape, should be interesting to try. Hmmm... I do need to do a Cameron Figure... In fact I have a hankering to do all the characters now... Heh...



A couple of WiP shots of a Death Watch Marine from the Blood Angel Chapter. I dunno if the blue background was the best to show off the plasma glow, but hey, I always do blue for WiP's... Oh well ^_^

The directional lighting is getting easier to pull off, I was going to go extreme and have it hit more armour, but figured this was good enough... I need to touch up some parts of it, especially the green screen glow over the buttons... I've quickly discovered that what is highly important with lighting is making sure the light only hits what it's meant to...

I'm not that experienced in painting black armor, the highlighting is eluding me right now...

More soon ^_^

Awesome stuff; kinda wish I had a a good airbrush for some of my detailing.

l33tninj4 wrote:Awesome stuff; kinda wish I had a a good airbrush for some of my detailing.

With the amount of money we all spend on our hobby saving up for a new airbrush and compressor should be easy... ^_^

---

Picture-less update:

I dunno what it is about painting miniatures for other people, but I always try new things or attempt to go the extra mile when I do. In Gitsplitta's case I've been trying out battle scratches and some minor damage... some of it looks OK, some of needs a little work. But it's easy easier to correct then I figured it would be. I've also changed the basecoat color to a very very dark grey. I was over at Minivault and Schadle's Black Templars aren't black, and they look good. While mine aren't going to look quite as funky (yet), I did like the feel of them and so decided to try it out ^_^

Photos of said updates will be going up tomorrow...

vent wrote:I dunno what it is about painting miniatures for other people, but I always try new things or attempt to go the extra mile when I do.

You aren't alone vent. Take a look at the early few pages of the great marine swap... where everyone was in their painting and modeling, then look at the later pages... it's amazing how people have developed over time and the effort they put forth on behalf of their fellow Dakkaites. That's the real genius of the Swap (thanks Whalemusic360), it gives us each a reason to really push ourselves to do something special... whether it's painting or building for someone else. The benefit to ourselves (other than the trade of course) is that our skills improve faster than they would normally because we try new things as opposed to just being satisfied with our work as-is.

That's been my experience anyway... hope my effort on your behalf does not come up wanting.

Gits

I think its a 2 fold reason really. 1 part what git said, pushing yourself to give the best work you can, 1 part because if its yours, and you try something new you will either have 1 guy that looks different, or have to go back to the whole army. If your not adding it to your army, then it cant stand out (which doesnt help the going back part, but it slows it down anyways).

Good job on the source lighting on Raislin's staff and on that marines auspex and plasma gun. Somewhere deep in a closet, tucked in a velvet pouch, I have the original Ral Partha Dragonlance Miniatures, unpainted. Except Cameron which I attempted to paint about 16 or 17 years ago. Ahh memories. I may need to bust those out. ...Or find a way to remove them from my mini's-to-do list.
Keep up the good work, Vent!

Thanks guys ^_^

@Gitsplitta: Your mini will be ace. I'm interested to see a yellow painted miniature up close. Never tried yellow on a grand scale before ^_^

@Whalemusic: Hmmm it's a good point, but when I put my army out to have a look you can always see my old work from my new work by the degrees of crapiness you see

@Moltar: Wow! They made Dragonlance Miniatures?! I WANT! ^_^




Some more work on the Death Watch Marine.

I'm going to have to re-touch the plasma gun as I painted the front end and now the glow just stops. No biggie there, shouldn't be to much of a problem.

The scratches in the armor have come off OK, they're not perfect, in-fact you can barely see the black in these shots... But with more practice I should get the hang on them...

Still to do:

The base: Dunno colors yet, but they should be in Gitsplitta's blog somewhere...

The pack: <insert grunt here>

Little detail work: Name needs to put put on the pauldron, writing needs to go on the seal, etc...

That's pretty much it. Might finish it tonight...

I use bestial brown as the undercoat for my bases, then mixed flock with sepia wash over that. Since the grit I use is already brown I don't actually paint it at all, just wash over it. You can click on the "basing" link in my sig if you're curious about my method. You can use any, all or none of it... but it would be nice if your marine's base was in the same palate of colors as the rest. Your call entirely though. If the base color is critical to the look and feel of the figure, by all means, base it however you wish.

Looks beautiful vent... I will probably spend many hours staring at it trying to figure out how you do what you do. I recently experimented with combat damage on one of my swaps as well. As WM mentioned... good chance for experimentation. Yours are quite good. I didn't quite have the "feel" of how to naturally shade the cracks, but I mooched a system similar to the one you appear to be using and I think it worked out OK on mine too.

As with everything... practice makes perfect.

Battle damage looks good. Maybe some less liner marks would help break it up? Looks sweet all around though, making me very excited to see what mine looks like, lol.

Imho he's lacking some highlights on the back and backside of his legs.

I think you got the colors right as well as the placement of the highlights, but the battle damage comes off looking a bit more like a camo scheme IMO due to the abundance of large scars and lack of smaller nicks.

Finished off the Death Watch Marine finally. Took me a little while longer than I thought it would, but I like the finished result

Done today:

Retouched the Plasma gun: I went over it with the blue again, the finished result is a little stronger than what it was, but I still think it works. I got some advice to take the blue all the way up to white on the edges and I've taken it to one step below pure white. I think it looks quite good; adds to the glow effect.

Done the pack: Blood Angel pack, couple of gems and a silver chain. Nothing to special there...

Scratches: I've had multiple people comment on the scratches I'd applied. Some said the white was to bright, others said it was fine, and a I got a lot of good advice through it as well. I've done the pack scratches in a slighty darker grey, and tried to add smaller ones to hopefully break up the camo look.

Base: While the base isn't exactly how Gitsplitta does his I hope it looks ok...

That should be it... I hope

It's beautiful vent, thank you!

The OSL on the plasma gun and Auspex are awsome.

Are the DeathWatch bitz still available from GW?
I wouldnt mind a couple of pads for my Sgts and Officers.

Thanks guys, glad you like him Gitsplitta. I'm going to brush on another coat of Matt Varnish tomorrow. I'll send him on Monday. Wolf, parts are packed and ready to go.

OK... In other total randomness, this afternoon I was minding my own business stabbing some poor bastard while playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and a Peacock walked up the path to my front door and then away again and down the road. I thought I'd finally flipped, and had a full mental break, but I gak you not, a peacock, and I have photos:

What the... oO the peacock is a lie! at least it's utterly random haha

It's a sign from God. An omen. Embrace it in your next painting project & see what happens!

Your going to start rainbow marines?

whalemusic360 wrote:Your going to start rainbow marines?

Nothing but the Emperors finest plumage to scare the enemies! Lol.

That's for sharing the peacock pictures. That made my day.

Great work on the deathwatch marine.

Wow... super random! AND Cool!

A peacock?! In New Zealand?! WTF?!

Nice work on the deathwatch marine, I'm no expert at weather but for your red shoulder pad dont use the straight black/silver technique, go for a brown/silver or brown/thin black/silver. The brown ties in the wear/priming on the red more than black does.

The wizard is crazy.. I've literally JUST (read: two hours ago on my lunch break) finished reading descent of angels and short of the staff that is almost identical (colours included) to how I imaged Dusan in my head! That's freaky. I hadnt read through your blog before past the first 3 pages, thought I'd come back and finish it off out of the blue. Random.

vent wrote:Thanks guys, glad you like him Gitsplitta. I'm going to brush on another coat of Matt Varnish tomorrow. I'll send him on Monday. Wolf, parts are packed and ready to go.

OK... In other total randomness, this afternoon I was minding my own business stabbing some poor bastard while playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood and a Peacock walked up the path to my front door and then away again and down the road. I thought I'd finally flipped, and had a full mental break, but I gak you not, a peacock, and I have photos:

DINNER! Get the shotgun! And th e wife will have some nice feathers to braid into here hair.

Peacock update: None today... ^_^

Thanks for all the comments guys, I felt that was worth sharing...

I got a stack of stuff from Maelstrom today... It was one of those 'eyes larger than stomach' things... Considering how slow I paint this should take me through to the end of 2011... It didn't really hit me how much I'd bought till it all arrived... Chances are it's not as much as other peoples orders, but for me, it's bloody huge... ^_^

How do you find the delivery etc from Maelstrom Vent? How long did it take to get here? They're reasonably priced so thought of going through them before but wondered how long shipping etc would take.

Monkeh wrote:How do you find the delivery etc from Maelstrom Vent? How long did it take to get here? They're reasonably priced so thought of going through them before but wondered how long shipping etc would take.

The service was good. Everything arrived as I ordered it, all came neatly in a large box. Absurdly fast too. I made the order last week. Was on my door step yesterday morning. Considering the cheap cost the only thing I could be tempted to go back to GW for would be paint, but even there I'm getting another order or Andrea paint soon...

Seriously monkeh, go with Maelstrom, not only is the standard discount good but the exchange rate at the moment is tops! I f you like I can email you their latest voucher for 16% off.

The most boring update in the world begins:

I got a couple of people asking me what my paint station looks like... I have no idea why... But anyway, here is my exceptionally boring paint station:



In more disturbing new news here's everything which arrived from Maelstrom, *sob* Heh, Maelstrom Games is both a blessing and a curse. Good prices, but you buy too much... This photo of course doesn't show the Space Hulk figures, nor the blister packs I've recently purchased... Considering how slow I actually paint I think this will keep me going for another couple of years:

I feel your pain...

Thats a whack of minis.

Nice to heard that you have someplace cheap to buy minis from.

Cheers!

I thought having more minis to paint then you could possibly do in a reasonable time frame was part of the hobby?

There's nothing wrong with owning more mini's than you could possibly paint in the next decade. Well, maybe there is something wrong with it, but, whalemusic is right, most of us are in the same boat.

Yeah, I'm figuring on still having a bunch of my current stock to finish after I retire And just think how much new stuff I could add in that time (under current govt. guidelines I believe I'm expected to keep working till just after my 108th birthday)

Maybe we should start a Show off thread for your pile of crap you havent even started

At least they're all new vent. Whilst at Uni i'm running a restoration business for extra funds. I have a full battle company and a half of poorly painted, poorly constructed marines that require stripping, disassembly, cleaning of glue and mould lines, reassembly and then priming before i can even sell them.

Sick thing is I actually love doing it, its quite therapeutic

whalemusic360 wrote:Maybe we should start a Show off thread for your pile of crap you havent even started

lol. 'Hey guys look at this, I've got loads more unpainted crap than these guys. Hey...wait a minute...that's not actually good is it?'


edited because good has 2 o's in it, that's not a deity they're pointing at

Lennysmash wrote:At least they're all new vent. Whilst at Uni i'm running a restoration business for extra funds. I have a full battle company and a half of poorly painted, poorly constructed marines that require stripping, disassembly, cleaning of glue and mould lines, reassembly and then priming before i can even sell them.

Sick thing is I actually love doing it, its quite therapeutic

I hear ya, I tend to work on used models before new models as well.

An actual conversation with my brother.
"Check out my new Vindicator!"
"Cool, you finally made it?"
"No, I got it from a guy in the UK off the swap shop"
"Really?"
"Yeah, why?"

In my defense, I bought my 2nd one new (and it was constructed 4th....)

Haha, sounds about right WM. The thing is not only do you get to challenge yourself but if it doesn't go well then it doesn't matter because someone else is going to buy it anyway. I do bits of GS work on the stuff I sell because any practice is good practice. Plus when you spend £12 on a pred and sell it on again for £24 its a sweet feeling

1 - I totally agree that refurbishing old models is just as fun if not more fun then assembling new models

2 - I think it is a sign of how quiet the forums are at the moment that Vent's "most boring update ever TM" can be turn into a discussion about model painting procrastination

Well, in the way of the world my latest (And last for awhile) trade marine has been destroyed. I'd worked on him for a couple of days (Being the slow ass painter that I am) and had left him on my table overnight. My GF, being the lovely lady she is, decided to do some vacuuming and while doing so knocked the miniature from the table. This wouldn't normally be such a problem, but the miniature was then rolled over by the Vacuum cleaner and then stepped on. Suffice to say that this proud warrior of the Shadow Sanctus Chapter wasn't going to be fighting any more battles for the Emperor... I now know exactly what would happen to someone if they were stepped on by a titan... It ain't pretty... Not that I'm calling my GF a titan...

Alas, what is meant to be, will be... So anyway, I've offered Whalemusic the choice of a new miniature or one I've already completed and he's willing to wait for a new one...

Here we go again...



My final trade marine for the year and I'm going out with a bang... After the destruction of the regular Shadow Sanctus Marine I was sending to WhaleMusic I decided to go the extra mile and make a command mini for him instead...

From the Masters of the Chapter boxset, the hammer guy has had his hammer replaced with a chainsword to make a chain halberd. I've also chosen to go the helmeted road as well. The head comes from the Sanguinary Guard Box-set. I was going to give him a death mask for awhile but dunno how it'd look if not done in gold...

Took me ages to get the bloody chainsword on the end of the pole. In the end I drilled out each bit and stuck some bronze tubing in there to make sure it was stable. Same with how he's attached to the base. Still got a bit of prep work to do before painting starts though: The cracks in his cape and above the knee need to be filled and there's a few more mold lines hanging around. Nothing is actually attached except the body to the base. I'm going to do the head separately and attach towards the end. Same with the weapon arm...

Thats f***ing scary looking.

I like it.
Relic Blade?

Man that's sweet vent.... tremendous!

I may have to steal that.

Cheers guys ^_^

wolfshadow wrote:
Relic Blade?

I think so, but it can be whatever it needs to be

Gitsplitta wrote:
I may have to steal that.

Feel free. It's not exactly a ground-breaking conversion, but it's simple, and I like it simple

That fig is one of my favourites, love what you have done with it.

That is freakin sweet! The weapon is very violent looking, perfect for the Shadow Sanctus. Plus it could count as any number of things from simple chainsword to master crafted power weapon.

Finally, I got this pic up to show you. Figured you'd appreciate it. They're a little smaller than the standard 28mm.

From left to right:
The Cameron that I humbly attempted to paint when I was 12, Tasselhoff, Tanis, Flint, Stern, Riverwind(maybe that was his GF's name), Tika and Raistlin, who apparently lost his staff at some point.

That Shadow Sanctus cap is bada$$, such a simple swap but adds a real sense of menace.

Moltar - cool Dragonlance mini's, looking at them i think I may have a Cameron laying around somewhere, didn't know that's who it was.

Holy crap I'm back...

After a small emergency taking me outta the country at the end of last year I have returned in the new year... (Insert jokes about no one knowing I was away here.)

First off apologies to Giltsplitta and Wolfshadow, both have been waiting on things from me and I haven't sent them yet, but they'll be in the mail tomorrow!

Whalemusic, I'll be starting your Sanctus Command mini pretty soon too, sorry for the delay...

No worries, hope everything is ok. It was oddly quite, even for you

Welcome back Vent. I hope everything is okay as well. I for one have missed your amazing pics and witty posts and I look forward to a new year of sweet updates!

Wow, just found your blog right now, it's amazing...

The Mordheim warband is stunning, your Space Marines are really great, and the Imperial Wizard is awesome!!!

I'll be following your thread, for sure!!!

And now for something completely different...

I know I'm meant to be starting on my Shadow Sanctus Captain for Whalemusic, but I've changed that up and gone with a Dark Eldar Mandrake squad instead... Who knows what I'm thinking, but there ya go. Whalemusic, I'll get around to your guy. I promise ^_^



Anyway, here's a test miniature for my Dark Eldar Mandrake squad. I didn't like the brown of the robes on the GW ones, and as I like to use read quite heavily I thought it would be the way to go. I'm keeping the skin a very dark Charcoal and probably will keep Green as the Witch-fire and runes on him as well. Not sure what I'm going to do for the base yet. I'm thinking a snowy base might look interesting with the fire and lack of clothes... But we'll see.

The read was done with my airbrush. The red is from the Andrea Colors Red set. So it was the base followed by the last highlight. I think went with a little bit of Orgyn Flesh wash into the recesses. I'm still figuring out all the intricates with my airbrush, but it's working out well. I did the robes for all five mandrakes in the space of an hour which is pretty quick for me ^_^

Cool Vent! I think the red clothe, green rune combo could work out great. I look forward to seeing more!

And go for the white snowy base, I am a bit partial to snowy bases though.

No worries, should be interesting to see what you do with the 'drakes.

Looks like a promising beginning vent... looking forward to watching them develop!

Very nice!

Everybody is getting airbrushes. :-( I'm jelous.

Thanks guys ^_^

IceAngel wrote:And go for the white snowy base, I am a bit partial to snowy bases though.

I was actually looking at your trade marine when I made the decision to go with Snow

whalemusic360 wrote:No worries, should be interesting to see what you do with the 'drakes.

Thanks for understanding

Gitsplitta wrote:Looks like a promising beginning vent... looking forward to watching them develop!

Cheers. I'm a little nervous about doing the wytch-fire though... It'll be a trial by fire (Pun intended...)

wolfshadow wrote:Everybody is getting airbrushes. :-( I'm jelous.

The biggest bonus about an airbrush as I see it is the time you save. For applying Basecoats there is nothing better than it. Especially where what you're painting is a Space Marine who is predominantly one color it's going to be a huge time saver... ^_^

That and Zenithal higlighting effects and blending effects.

wolfshadow wrote:That and Zenithal higlighting effects and blending effects.

That's true... ^_^

First off please excuse the images. They were taken early evening without my lightbox or any lights. Just couldn't be assed getting it all out...



All the base colors are now on, minus the base. The biggest change since yesterday is the blue Wytch-fire instead of green. The green was ok. But it didn't quite have the impact I was looking for. Then I remembered Roleplayers Jump pack tutorial and the blue he used for that and figured I'd give it a go. I think it looks pretty good, especially in contrast to the red...

The flames have come out quite nicely on his hand. GW goes from dark base to light outer as that "looks better" but fire is hottest, and thus brightest the closer to the source, so I've gone the other way. It's not perfect, but it's the first time I've tried it...

I've started lightning up the hair by picking out a few strands here and there going up the grayscale.

The blade is all boltgun metal with a wash of black followed by a wash of Orgyn Flesh to give it a worn look.

Things to do:
- Highlight the body.
- Highlight touches of the robes.
- Highlight the sword, and apply blood effects.
- Do the base. Since I have gone blue the Base will definitly be Ice...

Really like the way the blue and red work together, especially on the exposed thighs. I agree with the way you've done the flames. Still looks good and is more logical.

Gitsplitta wrote:Really like the way the blue and red work together, especially on the exposed thighs. I agree with the way you've done the flames. Still looks good and is more logical.

Thanks Gitsplitta. The thighs are actually a pain in the ass. The grooves for colors are a lot less defined... Glad the flames look ok to someone else, sometimes it's hard to be critical of your own work...

Have no fears there, the flames are hot (yeah, I went there). The sword needs something to pop, it blends in with the arm a bit much. Thinking of any osl on this one?

Great mandrakes, but you are forgetting one downside to the airbrush, which is having to buy replacement parts.

You dont buy new brushes every once in awhile?

Lookin good! Very nice choice of blues on the flames, especially around the hand!

Thanks for the comments guys



Completed Test Miniature for the Mandrake. The photos are a little dark, but they're viewable. Not really much new today, just more additions to already done stuff.

- Added some white to ice blue and touched up the inside blues...
- Highlighted the Skin with some lighter Gray. I decided to not highlight the skin again because I want the skin to be quite dark, as if it's just a husk for the energy within... Also makes the blue stand out ^_^
- The head needed some kind of color and the single colored eye wasn't quite enough. I wasn't quite sure what to do, but then I saw Major Tom's OSL for his Space Hulk terminators and figured I'd do that, but knowing I couldn't use an airbrush to do it so I tried to do it without. It came out somewhere down the middle. Not in the super great category, nor is it shocking... But again, it's the first time I've tried it without an airbrush... So practice will help me improve.
- Basic Snow base but I think the choice of Black and White helps the colors really take off more...

Very nice! That's all I've got to say about that.
:-)

Wow... He looks evil. Nice work!

I especially like the runes and flame.

Very cool Vent, the contrast of red and blue is great.

Love the blue fire...not so much for the furry snow though.

The mandrake looks great. He really glows. Just radiates menace.

Great stuff.

On another note referring to the airbrush parts; yes I buy new brushes as needed, but most of the time the replacement parts on my airbrush are out of stock, and parts break due to metal fatigue often at the most inoppourtune time.

Thanks guys, I appreciate you taking the time ^_^

wyomingfox wrote:Love the blue fire...not so much for the furry snow though.

Ha! I know, right? Truth be told the first layer of "snow" got stained with some red and I had to add another layer. Hopefully it'll settle a bit more over time. Still you only ever see it in an enlarged macro shot... Or if you put your face within a couple of inches ^_^

The mandrake is looking good, I would think about different base color to the sand though. The dark gray is too close to the skin color and the fig is a bit lost on the base. The snow helps a bit but the feet are completely lost against the base. The cloth and the flames are really great.

Metsuri wrote:The mandrake is looking good, I would think about different base color to the sand though. The dark gray is too close to the skin color and the fig is a bit lost on the base. The snow helps a bit but the feet are completely lost against the base. The cloth and the flames are really great.

Hmmm I was more worried about adding another color into the mix with the Blue and the Red. What color would you suggest? Rebasing is relatively easy... So it wouldn't be a huge job... Just annoying...

Nice mandrake... The red is a nice contrast to the otherwise cold colours...

Yggdrasil wrote:Nice mandrake... The red is a nice contrast to the otherwise cold colours...

Thanks Yggdrasil.

I've nearly finished the other four of Mandrakes, just gotta do the OSL, weapons, bones and bases... What I'm wondering about is whether I should have OSL coming from the mouths of the two with the mouths open and eyes covered by hair? I'm trying to give the impression of warp energy bursting out of them so I figure the mouth thing might be the way to go... Anyone have an opinion?

In other, more disturbingly happy news, my mandrake got a shout out from Ron over at FTW in his top ten list... I really like the Tuesday top ten, and some of the minis he shows is phenomenal. I'm not sure mine is up to those standards, but it's always nice to be noticed ^_^