Ramos Asura wrote: These are all destined for House Taranis- Knights of Mars!! So bright reds with black and white accents.
Might want to look into some D-weapons, Solar.... These are all going to Gitsplitta
Will 3 Wraithknights do? or... I have 3 knights as well! They just won't be as pretty as Gits or his knights. Still I be interested in playing against him with my Cult Mechanicus robot army. Mechanicus vs Mechanicus. ( like 2 leftys fighting each other - inside humor for Gits)
His Mechanicum list will look good with these brawlers.
Ill have to put that down as another challenge for the Gits and I to do list. Right after our "Whose da big boss Ork vs. Ork battle"
Definitely look forward to seeing the eventual bat-reps, SL!
Progress!!
Put color to the Assassin bodysuits- The client wants to use them as more-so game pieces, so he wanted the suits to have a different tinge of color on each of them. These are all a bit on the glossy side due to the paints I used. Looks near black until you hit it with bright light. Then the colors pop right out!
Also starting to pick out the detail colors on the infinity figs. Always impressed with the level of detail on these, though I just as often fret that I cant paint as well as their studio guy(s)!! Seriously on the mini some of the details are damn well near invisible!!
Iirc, According to the fluff Taranis has the most knights of any house, as well as larger numbers of the rarer variants like the Castigator. Fitting for the Knights of Mars.
Anywho... Assassins have more colors on them! Nearly finished. Just a couple details to go then the bases.
I really like them, the more muted look makes me feel like they could be actual assassins. Maybe some more details on the Vindicaire's rifle is the only thing that stands out to me?
@RiTides: Well, they did have a ways to go detail-wise in that shot, so theyre understandably muted-looking.
Now they're all wrapped up and done, but I think they still have a bit more of a muted tone to them than my normal stock. Most of the minis are black (or a close shade thereof), and the strapping is kept very dull and dark brown- I even tried to keep the metal areas darker. I think the most jarring change in these is after adding the gold that all 40k minis need to have on them!
So ok. These are the first shots with the new camera, and its nice to be able to take pictures without having to charge the battery every 2 minutes. Still need to work out the focus, though...
Just dealing with stuff around here and it took some time- sorry for the silence!
Infinity guys are done, all painted up to it with the Sisters I painted recently.
Still working with the focus, but in playing around with the settings, I think I got a workable mode. Moved to F3.5 and a 1/20s shutter speed and upped the ISO to 400. Using autofocus, but this camera has a touchscreen that lets me (in theory) move it around to where I want it. Final result is improved, more or less.
And a few random bases he sent me. Lets me play with the SWM kits I've had sitting around here:
In other news, Knights are prepped and ready to prime as soon as I get the final kit on Saturday.
I've also started to mess with some of RiTides gators- a massive group of little undead things that just need a quick job on them. Its sort of an experriment with painting to tabletop/above tabletop quickly. We'll see how it goes.
The Infinity models look sharp, but those bases are actually my favorite - very nice!! I think your camera also focused on them the best, too
The gator experiment sounds great! I think you're referring to the shamblers (which are literally just a bunch of little undead guys to a lower standard than the rest, very wash-heavy). The only thing to remember with those is I'm hoping you can do them in 3 different "shades" since there are so many similar sculpts, to break them up a bit (like a yellowish tinged set, a greenish tinged set, and a more muted or almost brownish tinged set).
Also the rock painting on your basing above might work well for the bases they're on! It's just the rock with some branches and then the oozing slime:
(The whole army are on the same style bases, so will likely be done the same)
Very much looking forward to these, and seeing Gits stuff finished, of course!!
Ahhh wouldn't that be nice, Solar?
Alas, no. My issues were far less interesting xD
@RiTides: Yeah the bases photographed perfectly... just need to figure out what exactly I did different! Have a feeling its a case of how far I take the photo from... needs more practice.
Hear ya loud and clear on the colors all around. Think I've got an idea where to go with them.
Speaking of....
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Today I started on the Shamblers. Not too much work on them yet. Just a quick 2-layer airbrush, then a green-black wash. Still needs a few more washes, then some random colors picked out.
Theyre like swamp zombies- All dead-looking and theyve got bits hanging off them all over the place.
I believe they are minis from Privateer... Hordes, to be more specific.
"Thriller" is right . The WIPs are looking great, love those tones!! And yes, the shamblers are one of the few actual Privateer Press models in this army (they are called "Bog Trog Shamblers")
Regarding pics, I do think it's probably how close the camera is. I just clicked on a pic on your webpage and realized it's absolutely humongous! So, you could hold the camera back further and still get a giant image if you crop out the edges. However, there's one other possibility - and that's the Dakka gallery messing with things. I discovered that with the iPhone 6, I have to resize images before uploading them or else they would show up super blurry in the gallery.
I left this image in the gallery of the Shaltari you painted for me as an example of this bug. The first pic I re-sized before uploading, the second I uploaded at full size. It's a pretty stark difference in clarity:
Spoiler:
Resized image prior to uploading (results in a sharper image):
Non-resized image (so despite being larger, it results in a blurrier image in the Dakka gallery):
Just wanted to post that in case it could be part of what is going on / as an FYI in case your camera resolution results in what the gallery does to the iPhone 6 native camera resolution pics.
@ RiTides - yeah - I've noticed that the images I put up come out a little blurry in the gallery. On my computer - supersharp. In the gallery - touch blurry. Drives me nuts. I shoot with a Canon Eos and my ipad for WiP shots. When you say 'resized' - how do you mean - cropping the image or lowering the resolution/file size?
I just opened the image in another program and lowered the resolution. I should check if just selecting "large" instead of "full sized" when sending the pic from my iphone accomplishes the same thing, but I thought that it didn't...
ahhhh - interesting.....I always save at the highest res but maybe dropping the res makes for a sharper image when uploaded.....weird bug eh?!!! Cheers RiTides...will give that a bash when I'm uploading again
Hmmm.... very curious behavior indeed... I'll need to play around with it all and see what works best. Solve one problem, another pops up.... At least I've got all of you to help me iron out the bugs!!
Perhaps if I dropped the resolution of these pictures a bit (currently its at the camera's max 16 megapixels), it would be forward progress in the fight against blur. And of course taking photos from just a little further away. experiments experiments.
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Shamblers have more color.
I think at this point, itll just be a case of painting areas of red flesh then the bases. In theory, theyll be done Monday! Would be tomorrow, but I've a busy weekend this time...
Shamblers are complete! Messed with the settings a bit more and backed the camera away from the subject a bit, and it seems that Im on the right track so far. I think dropping the resolution (something i didnt do yet) might make the photos look a little sharper on this page. It seems that the gallery image drops some of the sharpness because its "zoomed out", so it just makes guesses at certain points in the photo...
Nice job with those infinity models. i might try to search for one of those crouching guys from the third picture (page 101 infinity set) and use it as a proxy vindicate
If you know the official name of those models private message me the name.
Oh man, the green bubbly slime on those bases is everything I dreamed it would be
And I just clicked on the images and zoomed in - it is definitely the Dakka gallery bug that has been getting you, Ramos, likely this whole time - not the camera! If you just click one zoom in in the gallery the sharpness suddenly appears. These look great! Seriously guys, click on this image link and zoom in just one click - the difference is amazing:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/723771-.html
How did you like the speed painting experiment on these? Seems like you were able to crank them out and I am really happy with the results for these shambling undead things.
Edit: I tried re-sizing the image and uploading it, and it looks to me like even after that, if you choose the "medium" size, Dakka's gallery makes it show up blurry. Below is a medium and then full-sized view of the image I re-uploaded... the full-sized looks a lot sharper, and it's not just because it's a little bigger, imo:
Alpharius wrote: This thread - and my own lack of time - has convinced me to eventually send over my True Scale Marines and Vehicles to you for painting.
I'm probably looking at December timeframe, maybe slipping into 2016. Should I work up a list this far in advance or what until we're a bit closer?
You won't be disappointed!
Gitsplitta wrote: Wait until he's done with my Knights dagnabbit!!
... and get off my lawn!
Awww....Looks like Ramos is the prettiest girl in the class...
Anyway where are the Knights in the Que.. Do you have a Que?
Yeah Alpharius, you probably want to communicate with him about it now! I sent my gators over just after AdeptiCon, but Gits and Whalemusic were already in ahead of me with their Knights / etc!
I think after Gits' Knights, the rest of my gators are next, and then I've got one final batch I've queued him up with for the September timeframe. (That might come after whalemusic's mystery stuff, not sure). No rest for the wicked
Of course smaller jobs can be worked in between the big ones, as you've seen with the Infinity / Assassins / etc he's gotten done recently. Very prolific lately, which is awesome
Was going to get a Reaver, but the Warlord will get used just as often (ie, almost never) and has an even higher cool factor imo. Just need FW to actually let me order one.
Yes! A Warlord-sized project!!!
Needless to say, Im super excited at the chance to play with the million-ton resin beast! Just waiting on FW to unleash the beastie...
Have a feeling I'll end up closing shop for a few weeks or even months while painting it, but until then assume normal operations!!
I do indeed have a queue, SL- Right now its Gits' knights (SO MANY!!), then RiTides' Gators, then a pair or smaller infantry projects, then more gators, then WMs random assortment!. That should take us into October at least... Maybe even November!
Wild
@Alpharius: December timeframe would definitely be workable, and scheduling you in now is better than later, like RT said! Its a little too early to get into specifics, but I can definitely pencil you in for then. I'll shoot you a PM here in a bit and we can fiddle with the details
@Alf: I've the big flame dude, the metal Candy mini and 3 adventurers. Really sorry they've been in my hands so long. Of those, Ive just got the Candy mini done... Lemme know if you need these back soon- I'm still all for messing around and painting em, but it might be a few weeks/months before I get back to them.
(also, I want that shirt )
@RiTides: Wow, yeah that is a considerable difference. I think re-sizing is going to be the next step in making my pics look better... Thanks for doing all of that work with the re-sizing xD
I noticed that the difference between our photos was massive... 800x600 compared to more than 4000x3000!
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Now for the meat of the update.....
Knights are assembled, gap-filled, and stuck on sticks- Tomorrow we prime!!
From my understanding, they sold quite a few at the WHW Grand Opening (30+). Since they are cast to order, they are still backed up from that. Forge World Open Day is July 5th, so guessing they will have some then and take more orders. Once those are fulfilled we will see it go up for sale. Guessing late July, which will work out ok anyways as I happen to get 3 pays that month. It'll be a nice birthday present to myself.
whalemusic360 wrote: From my understanding, they sold quite a few at the WHW Grand Opening (30+). Since they are cast to order, they are still backed up from that. Forge World Open Day is July 5th, so guessing they will have some then and take more orders. Once those are fulfilled we will see it go up for sale. Guessing late July, which will work out ok anyways as I happen to get 3 pays that month. It'll be a nice birthday present to myself.
Here are a couple pics that hopefully work for scale...
(I like this head more, but I think I remember reading it was an exclusive bit at the show.... )
As far as price, I've heard everywhere from $2000 to $4000. Havent delved into it too far to figure it out though. All I know is that this thing is rather on the large side... I might need to rent a forklift to move it...
@Alf: No pics of Candy yet- Just havent gotten around to it xD So no worries, you havent missed anything. I sorta want to get the whole party done before pics.
PROJECT UPDATE: Weather is being a sod, so rain means no primer yet >< Hopefully it clears up! Till then Im going to be playing with a side project.
Hrm... Well I might just end up being a pioneer in that field... how exciting!
Unusual to think that such a rare and unique model wouldnt garner some in-depth assembly threads, though.... Weird.
@Wehr: As far as facings, the bases do have a big flat chunk on the "front" that I think he said hes going to make labels for. Assuming that the labels arent black as well, that should make the arcs pretty straight forward.
When you guys DO get a game going, I expect some pictures!
Ramos Asura wrote: Hrm... Well I might just end up being a pioneer in that field... how exciting!
Unusual to think that such a rare and unique model wouldnt garner some in-depth assembly threads, though.... Weird.
@Wehr: As far as facings, the bases do have a big flat chunk on the "front" that I think he said hes going to make labels for. Assuming that the labels arent black as well, that should make the arcs pretty straight forward.
When you guys DO get a game going, I expect some pictures!
Oh I know, I am the one who makes the bases after all I just wanted a cheap dig at Mr. "Wouldn't you assume my model was facing the most advantageous way?" RiTides
Agh that fish-eye lens is driving me nuts on that first vid xD
Very interesting seeing it out of the box and in pieces... have a feeling its going to be a considerable learning experience... Anyone have any clue what this thing weighs? Has to be damn near 50 pounds of resin...
@Wehr: I had thought I remembered Tides saying you had a hand in em Well at least with these he cant cheat any more, and if he does you can smack him with a bag of the bases
Now, I've only heard the legends of the Metal Thunderhawk..... Difficult to assemble? Millions of parts?
Color me curious, Brian
I actually really like that standard head a lot, better than most titan heads. Glad my gators are in front of that beast, though (although airbrushing will make that so much more feasible than it would have been otherwise)
And re: base arcs, yes I'll be making sweet lasercut base labels for the front of the gator bases, which will double as arcs.
Well, resin, but whatever- Whats important is that its AVAILABLE!! Its just so big! So full of gorgeous details... Even has a balcony at the back, which I got a kick out of for some reason
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*ahem*
Anywho! In the mean time, I have some work to do. Specifically Knights!
The weather cleared and has been actually quite pleasant today. This meant it was off to the rattlecans!!
Stick Knights:
The armor panels get a coat of P3 White primer- Helps to bring out the best color.
While the mechanical bits are kit with my favorite black spray- Rustoleum Camo Black. Bonds to the plastic and is ultra flat to boot!
Also wrapped up a random little mini while the rain was still falling yesterday... A samurai! This also gave me a chance to play with the sizing as per RiTides suggestions.
The following has been spoilered for your convenience.
Spoiler:
Unaltered pic- straight from the camera
Medium-size selected from Dakka Gallery
Resized down to 800x600 pixels. Recommended size in gallery.
And Medium size.
Hmm. Weird. Selecting the different sizes didn't seem to do anything, but the re-sizing of the original DEFINITELY had an effect. At least from what Im seeing, the smaller shots have a sharper finish.
Hope you don't mind Ramos, I abused my mods powers and fixed your image tag in the spoilers (the 3rd and 4th pics you had identical to one another, now they are as you described).
The 3rd pic (800x600) is definitely my favorite, and you should totally just paste in "full-sized" 800x600 pics into the thread from now on, rather than the "medium-sized" the gallery recommends (which reduces the width to 600, thereby taking your photo down to 600 x 450 pixels).
The 4th pic, with "medium" chosen in the gallery, is good too, but I think full-sized 800x600 is clearly the winner . If you want to edit a post to change from "medium" to "full-sized" (going from 600x450 to 800x600 in this case) just delete the "_sm" near the end of the image link. If you click on edit in your post you'll see that that's the only difference between the two links
I love it, as I can actually see your details clearly now . Knight priming looks great too, and I love that you primed some of the detail parts of them white and the underparts black, that's genius!
ABUUUUUSE OF POWERRRR!!!
Call in yakface- RiTides has gone crazy! First fixing my photo links, then soon he might adjust MY SPELLING!!!
But seriously... It totally autogenerated the same links when I used "recommended" and "Medium"... XD Didnt even think of using the "full-size" option...
I totally agree with you as far as doing the final presentation photos as 800x600 pics in the future. WiPs can suffer lower fidelity pics Thanks for your help!!
Um... Ramos? Why are they all mounted exactly the same way on the bases with the left foot forward? It looks like a Vegas chorus line. Is that the way they're molded or something? It looks like the front guy has his legs side-by-side, but the base is in the same angle as the rest so it makes him look like he's got the same pose. Thoughts?
Dont worry, Gits. Its the angle of the photo. We have one stock pose (which tends to have the left leg forward), one centered, one left foot stepping up (the regular knight), and the Lancer is stepping up left.
Once its all said and done theyll be different. Just looks a little funky cause of the quick pic. If you go back to the wip photos, you can get a feel what I did with them.
Ramos Asura wrote: ABUUUUUSE OF POWERRRR!!!
Call in yakface- RiTides has gone crazy! First fixing my photo links, then soon he might adjust MY SPELLING!!!
It is so tempting... all the time. Seriously. (Not with you, but with others...) I'll be honest, sometimes title typos I do fix if they're really egregious (was actually congratulating myself on Not doing so to one the other day )
Ramos Asura wrote: But seriously... It totally autogenerated the same links when I used "recommended" and "Medium"... XD Didnt even think of using the "full-size" option...
I totally agree with you as far as doing the final presentation photos as 800x600 pics in the future. WiPs can suffer lower fidelity pics Thanks for your help!!
You're right, I think "recommended" always does "medium". I think the gallery still might blur it just a little but it's much better than the non-resized ones, so yeah, I think you have a solution there (and going with full-size for the final pics sounds awesome)
Gits, the one closest to the camera looks to have the right foot forward, I think they'll look good and it's just a trick of the pic as it didn't strike me that way.
Its been a bit of a week... A little under the weather, but I'm a bit better. Well... At least good enough to paint!
Started on the many base colors necessary for Gits Knights. White areas are a quick 2 tone job (simple is best for white), and the Reds are currently based and have the first stage of a highlight on them. I think Im going to need another highlight on them, then perhaps a darker shade of red in the shadows. The base color was a bit of a mistake, but I like how it ended up. The game store was all sold out of the Army Painter color "Dragon Red", which I think is a bit brighter than old GW scab red, so I ended up with the darker "Chaotic Red". As it turns out, the color is a nice rusty AdMech-y red... Awesome.
Close-up of the current gradient.
With all the airbrushing, I had to wait for the compressor to cool a bit today, so I messed around with a different set of colors- Would have done some of RiTides gators, but these didnt need the airbrush!
This is a peculiar unit from Warmachine... Its a unit composed of the past, present, and future versions of one of the warcasters. Pretty neat, and the future one (right) has a LOT of gorgeous cloth to paint!
Got a lot of work to do, yet, and hopefully I can get back on track!
Armor airbrushing is complete at this stage, leaving only the metals to go. I'll probably get to those Sunday. Also set to be completed Sunday are the Haley's Three. Just have skin and a little bit of leather to go on them.
Carapace armor: Ended up using a highlight color (a rusty-looking red/orange), then "shaded" it with the same color I used for the base coat. Seems to have had the desired effect. In reality it is a little more dramatic than this.
And the black and white armor panels- Both are kept simple, just the primary colors shaded or highlighted with a single color.
Knights are currently being metal-ized, so no real progress pics of that (Unless you guys -reeeeeeally- want to see a hundred different pictures of silver paint )
Anywho, in between the weekend festivities and the Knight Airbrushing, I finished the Warcaster unit-
Looks very nice! Although the face colors look a little flat. Is that the case, or just my monitor and old eyes playing tricks on me?
Also, random aside, did Haley grow her severed arm back at some point? I thought her right arm was robotic... though maybe my memory is going down the same hole as my vision!
@Wehr: The skin tones are indeed a little flatter than my normal, but I wanted to give these three a fairer skin tone. Went with a new technique and stuck with only P3 paints... they're particularly smooth, which is nice.
As far as her arm... I dunno. I paint the things, I dunno backstory Maybe it was magic or something!
@Gits: Thanks!! If I were pressed to pick something to call my "specialty", Cloaks and capes and such would definitely be it. I absolutely love painting them and getting all the layers flowing over each other.
You know... I have always wanted to experiment with something like a dread and put a cloak on it... A knight though.... WOW. At that point, I think you could just sew one for it!
Haley died due to Cryxian poison and essentially her soul froze time and she became a time lord able to see the past, present, and multiple futures.
She starts to feel her soul drift to the afterlife but fights it, putting her soul into her body at a time before she lost her arm. Instead of being put back in time the new "body/vessel" materializes at the moment she dies, her old body explodes and the body with her soul is in its place.
In other news, my Warlord shipped today. It is however just the body. They showed a head off at Open Day last week that is the one I want (see spoiler). I would also prefer to have a quake cannon on one arm instead of double volcano cannons, because I think it looks cooler. Still, should see some action in the near future.
@primalexile: Ahaaaaa! Thanks for explaining that to us! So there ya go, Wehr- Haley is Dr. Who!
@WM: Stellar news, absolutely stellar. Im just so damn excited that I'm gonna get to work on a Warlord!!! You guys can expect full coverage when it gets in, from receipt to construction to painting to shipping (or delivery, you know, whatever ends up happening xD )! (anyone care about unboxing videos? Im sure there are some for this kit made by those more charismatic and interesting than myself...) Really hope the head is released sooner rather than later- The body is so huge, I might have to start charging him rent for the spare room!!
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Apologies on the absence, folks. Had a pretty bad week, and didnt get that much painting done. None at all, in fact :/ Hopefully the worst is past me now, and I can actually get some work done.
Metals are completed except for edge highlights on the knights. This brings the project to the end of primary airbrushing. Everything now is a bunch of regular brush work!
Rather than the shinier polished metals of the House Terryn Knights, I wanted to go with something darker and more aged. Primarily this is black and Boltgun Metal. The brightest it goes so far is pure boltgun, and Chainmail will be the edge highlight of choice. The surface has been hit with several layers of SWM Armor wash, which has a brown/black color and an oily finish.
But boring metal is not the only thing I have to show you today!! Remember when I had that contest for my site's launch back in May? Well I finally got off my butt and got one of the prizes finished. Its not the AdMech army (no, thats going to be a bit down the road yet! The winner even added a couple units to the list ), but the second place prize!
I had this done for a week or so, but I wanted it in the winner's hands before posting it. I bet you'll never guess which particular Dakka member won this one....
I've had this particular mini sitting in storage for years, half-built and homeless, but as soon as it caught my eye I knew exactly what to do with it. He mentioned he had an Alpha Legion army (its Alpharius, alright? Im sure you guessed by now), so I painted it up in the army's colors. I think they're rather fitting for a Death Skulls dread!
I actually prefer to work on them all at once. It actually goes quicker painting them in batches, especially with the airbrush where its beneficial to keep the same color in the pot as long as possible. The most tedious part is edge highlighting, and thats not too bad once you get into the flow of things!
I figured you'd get a kick out of them, RiTides. This is actually -exactly- the same color as your DzC guys, maybe a bit darker. The particular way I ended up highlighting these seems to really suit a darker washed metal. Has a LOT of contrast and it just seems to fit perfectly. I can thank nerdfest for teaching me that one!!
So after many hours of tiny edge highlights, I've finally finished with the metallic areas on the frames (there were an awful lot of them @_@ )
This is as bright as they are gonna get now. Left side is before, right is after highlights. Just enough to give them another level of luster.
On to the colors! There aren't as many parts for those compared to the metals, so hopefully those wont take me near as long as these did.
Camkierhi wrote: They look spot on, can tell jobs a goodun' because they look heavy, like they are made of solid metal, brilliant work.
That's the twist, secretly Ramos has been learning metalworking and has decided to give Gits metal knights that look like the plastic kits. The armor will probably still be the normal GW plastic, but we'll all just refer to it as "plasteel" anyways
Camkierhi wrote: They look spot on, can tell jobs a goodun' because they look heavy, like they are made of solid metal, brilliant work.
I didn't even think of that, but you're right, that is a great side benefit of darker metal besides just looking vastly superior to light metal. Everyone must convert!
Even that small splash of red is looking good, these are going to be magnificent Ramos!
Next phase complete: The light metal trim is just about complete. Took a long time to get the Chainmail color to cover right (ended up switching to the Army Painter equivalent), but in the end I;m pleased with the results. The wash I used didnt turn out as blue as I had anticipated, but thats only a minor gripe. Just an edge highlight of bright silver and the majority of the project will be complete!
After this, its just the lenses (which will be green), various AdMech symbols, dark metal areas on the armor, and purity seals.
What color do you think the purity seals should be? The traditional bright red or something more unique like mint green?
The popsicle stick of armor plates looks good . You tease!
I'd say traditional color for the purity seals, I think anything else would throw off your eye since you'll be looking for that red and parchment colors.
Hey, Popsicle sticks need protection, too, RiTides!
And ok, Gits. Green it shall be!! So like the green of the lenses and cables on the admech I've seen on your blog, or perhaps a darker green? Can do just about anything ya like!
It's also a time where those of you with weaker computers may want to look away. Serously, I think this is the largest chunk of photos I've put on here in a good long time!
So lets get started with a group shot!
Then the obligatory 360 close-ups.
The lancer: Clockwork Red
Chainsword and Gatling cannon:
Chainsword and Melta
Chainsword and Power Fist
Next time on the Ramow Mystery Painting Hour, we go to the swamps!
Thanks for reading!!
They look incredible!! The clockwork shield definitely steals the show, but I love the black and white shins - and you've even got a half black / half white face on that close combat Knight, very menacing! Excellent pose on that one too, very dynamic (as is fitting its loadout).
The swamps line has me extremely excited too, of course . Should be a nice change of pace for you after all that heavy armor!
The guns from the Aegis wall set look really good, I didn't even notice the difference! Now that I do, I like the bit of variation / not having them all identical, and if anything I actually prefer the Aegis guns
Yeah the ADL guns worked out INCREDIBLY well. Its like they were designed for it! Just had to cut down what would be the central post on the build ADL gun turret (this gives it a nice angle), then glue some sort of optics onto the gun half. For one I used the bit that came with the ADL. The other I think is an old bit from a Land Raider or some similar kit.
The closest I got to magnetizing anything on this kit is that the guns are on bits of brass rod, so they can be removed and rotated. End result turned out pretty nice- just tight enough to keep it in place, but loose enough not to stick.
RiTides wrote: Ah, I was wondering about that - having them be removable on brass rods sounds perfect. Otherwise they'd have been crazy to pack and keep safe!
Added bonus, you can swivel them to face the flyer you're about to blow out of the sky
I was thinking more practical due to GW penchant for making certain weapon configurations less desirable or down right illegal over time.
Don't forget to vote on the pics guys... especially the one that shows the shield so well. Let's get Ramos some face-time on the gallery page shall we??
Thanks so much you guys!! (especially if you vote like Gits' mentioned )
@nerdfest: DO IT! Keira needs some company! Besides... WMdoes know a guy. You know. If you want to bow to our peer pressure like you totally should
@Stormwall: And the funniest thing was that the gears were a totally random thought we had during one of our discussions of the project Very much looking forward to seeing what you end up doing with them!
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SO!
I putzed around the past couple days after getting the Knights sealed up and shipped, mostly just messing with a rebasing project for another client's space wolves. Its a nice easy change and goes pretty swiftly. Plus I get to learn how to use the glass snow effects, which Im growing to like more and more.
Then today I spent much of my time thinking on the Deathroll project for RiTides. A large chunk of it is already done, thanks to the group of Shamblers I painted last month, but there are still quite a few different aspects to this army, including a truly massive lizard beast with an altar on his back!
I started painting the smallest models in the remaining groups, a pair of Fungeins from Imbrian Arts. I believe (and correct me if Im wrong here, RiTides...) that these are stand ins for Swamp Gobbers, if any of you play Hordes.
The concept of these was simple. Paint em like mushrooms!!
The most mushroom-y of the two got hit with the colors of the Fly Agaric (the classic colors we think of when we think "Mushroom", while the other got a colder gray-blue like a particular shelf fungus.
About halfway done with these, and it shouldnt be too much work tomorrow to finish them!
Very very cool!!! Thanks a million to everyone who voted- You guys are awesome
I've some more work to show tonight:
Fungiens are just about done now. Repainted the blue-gray one to match, as this is a 2-man unit and RiTides wanted them to fit together. I took the red of the mushroom cap and put it on the tabard and facemask of the horned guy.
These are off to the "just about finished" pile. I'm going to wait until I have a group to paint the bases all at once.
In addition to the Shrooms, I played some with the giant Sacral Vault stand-in. Concept here is to go Albino with it, and I think I managed a decent base for it. Still a number of highlights and (more importantly) more shades to go, but you can see where Im starting to go.
So cool!!! So very very cool... And its so HUGE!! I mean seriously, seriously big. Heres a pic WM put up of a single piece of shin armor next to a Knight:
I dont even... WHAT!?
There are no words, just unintelligible garbling. xD
Plus... Is it just me or is number 121 really pleasing? I mean its not 111 or 100, buuuut.... Palindromes xD
This project is going to be a particularly nice treat
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But before that!
More work on Deathroll, this time a number of minis from the DeepWars game. Its some kinda underwater combat game... Kept meaning to get a game in at Adepticon, but just couldnt make it xD Next year, next year...
Anyways, these guys are rather cool looking models, especially the big nautillus. I may need to get one of my own after this all is done!
I am attempting to replicate the stock color scheme on these, which include beautifully mottled chestnut-colored carapaces/shells. Going to be a lot of experimenting with inks and washes... But that's for another day
I love that blue you've got going on for your undersea critters, a change from usual cthulhoid greens. The Warlord, well, I shall just add my noise to the chorus of squees.
Wow, so much progress, and it all looks awesome!! Love the shroom fellas, you've even got mushroom spots on the one on the left . And the deep wars models are killer - glad you were able to "extract" the driver of the vault to be able to paint him!
Camkierhi - The giant gator holding up the vault is going to be an albino look, which was an idea that came out from Ramos discussing options of how he might paint it, and I think is brilliant!
Just the shell . Not sure about the turtle skin, I had been leaning green... although PP paints their turtles with red skin. Do you have a preference? Green would certainly blend in with the army more easily.
Reminds me that I've always been intrigued by that deep sea war game I see demoed at Adepticon for the last couple of years. Should stop by and try that some time.
Next year some demos are definitely in order!! As fun as it was to play (read as "lose to") you guys, We definitely gotta do a better job of exploring xD
I did actually demo a game called "Aetherium" or something of that sort. Very neat cyberpunk game. Its a skirmish style boardgame where you play as virtual avatars and other "programs" and try to defeat your opponent by elimination or capture-point missions. I even picked up one of their larger minis. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to painting it!
No warlord (gonna be a few weeks at least on that). but dont worry. After I do get it, you'll be flooded with images!! I plan on documenting every possible aspect of the build/paint process.
But enough of that for now, I have MINIS to show!~
Several of the Deathroll miniatures are complete, starting with Helix himself, A Swamp Horror:
And the Animist (I believe), standing in for a Witch Doctor:
The Telepath, who rides atop the Sacral Vault:
Everyone's favorite Cute lil' Shrooms, who are counts-as Swamp Gobbers
Lastly, A Waldgeist from Malifaux, who stands in for the Feralgeist. I tried to convey this by making him a little more ghostly than just a plain tree.
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STILL TO GO:
Rask - Privateer Press
Maelok - Privateer Press
Wrong Eye - Privateer Press
Shamblers Bokor - Ashoka from Helldorado
Bull Snapper - Squamata Spitter from Helldorado
10 Gatormen Posse - Ágriosávra, Myrkanio, and Eikovra from Mierce Miniatures
Wrastler - Canopic Beast from SMOG
Ironback Spitter - Whati from Kaha Miniatures
Snapjaw - Privateer Press
Sacral Vault - Kaairioc-cro, Sea Devil from Mierce Miniatures, Cephalid Telepath from Antimatter Games, and bits from Reaper
Wow, the Nautiloid Chrysalid model (aka Helix aka squid thing ) looks just like the studio model, simply stunning!!
They're all incredible, I'm so impressed! Your usual projects are very imperial / armor heavy so I was just a hair nervous when commissioning this crazy job, but man, you are killing it
Whoah Ramos that shell on squid-thing is perfect! how did you get such a natural effect? looks great and I also love that tree man thing! :-) metal or plastic? could work if I end up painting for AoS as a Tree man? I love the big tree guys...... anyway...... Warlord
RiTides wrote: Wow, the Nautiloid Chrysalid model (aka Helix aka squid thing ) looks just like the studio model, simply stunning!!
They're all incredible, I'm so impressed! Your usual projects are very imperial / armor heavy so I was just a hair nervous when commissioning this crazy job, but man, you are killing it
whalemusic360 wrote: I think the normal projects have more to do with what the clients want and less what Ramos can or wants to do.
^Bingo! But such is the way of the full-time commission painter!
Truth be told, I dont mind it that much. Even though I haven't really had the chance to paint something of my own in some time (I think the last one was some silly little DzC infantry a couple months ago, and then ME stuff in March xD ), doing other people's stuff means that I get to jump from stuff like the Imperial Armor stuff to organic stuff like these Squid! Hell, it means I get to work on a Warlord, so i think its all time well spent!
@Gits & Jan: Thanks a bunch!
@graven: Ruh-Roh...
Maybe I need to get one of these then .... Hmmmmmmm.
@nerd: Believe it or not, the shell is almost purely washes and glazes! I followed the studio painter's method pretty closely- thats where I picked up the idea for using a bunch of washes. I ended up getting a considerably different color due to different paints (I think he used artist inks, and I dont have any!), but I think the key was primarily using earthy colors, including some heavily contrasting washes mixed in at the deepest points (for example, a little purple in the darkest recesses to give it a little more definition). Final result is a lot like your metals. Lots of washes then a sharp line highlight!
Treeman is a plastic kit. Waldgeists from Malifaux- Several different designs in the box, so I think you'll be able to get some really cool units together
@Wyfox: Yer all taken care of now
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No progress report today- Played some board games and re-established that I suck at playing Halo xD
Received my pledge for Exploding Kittens today, too. Got home late so couldnt play any, but damn I really want to! xD Looks like a fun little quick game.
Anywho, Off for the night, then I think it'll be the 10 Gators up tomorrow. Get those done and thats half of the remaining minis!
A friend just received Exploding Kittens and we tried it yesterday - very fast game, silly and fun, as it should be (also, I totally won )
Doing the 10 gators next is smart, I think! Then you'll just have interesting singles left no unit stuff to worry about.
The 10 gators are actually 2 units of 5, I think Ramos is going to try to put some red slashes or the like on one unit to distinguish them. The idea came up in our brainstorming and I really like it!
Alrighty! So yesterday and today was spent painting up the gators. I figured that I would keep a similar color base around the army, so everyone got the same basecoats. Where Ill make them differ is in the washes and glazes. That way they'll all have just a bit of individuality, but still look cohesive.
RiTides wrote: A friend just received Exploding Kittens and we tried it yesterday - very fast game, silly and fun, as it should be (also, I totally won )
I also recently played exploding kittens. Very amusing and very simple. Great game to play when you are short on time.
Everyone loves Exploding Kittens!
Crazily enough, I even got my folks to play it (and they dont play ANYTHING!) Through some stroke of luck I managed to survive all 3 rounds we played. Should have been in vegas with that luck in cards!
More on the painting front!
After finishing the base colors, everyone was looking boringly the same. To solve this, I started to apply washes in varying colors and consistencies to get three similar but visually interesting skin tones.
I did my best to mix up which minis got which, and I think I hit a good balance.
I think at this stage its off to the many details.... FUN!
I forget which side of the state you are in, but if you get to Cleveland ever there is an art store in Pat Catan's. Whatever that means. The store is Prism Art Supply, one of which we have far too close to my house. They have all the art supplies ever and they sell them at discount.
I be in the Northeast of the state- Just south of Cleveland, in fact!!
Pat Catan's (I believe thats the founder's name, but dont quote me on it) is one of my go-to supply stores, particularly for misc basing stuff and S7 brushes. Never knew about Prizm, but it looks to be much like Dick Blick's back in Columbus (where I used to live for college). I absolutely need to check that place out.... Looks to be an easy trip on the Rapid, too. Thats Cleveland's Light Rail system, for those of you not in the know Thanks, moon!
Somehow I missed that mini-update! The different shades are interesting, and painting the details to tie them together should really help with making them look like a singular unit (and army).
The first basecoat pic with the yellowish gator underbellies made all the various sculpts look really cohesive, so as long as they still tie together well at the end I will be very happy . The yellowish underbelly particularly helps with telling people "GATOR", since not all of the models I chose are technically gators but they are supposed to be in-game (with the exception of the turtle, of course).
I also love the gradient of tone on the two closeups you took (of Snapjaw and Ashoka) so I hope those remain even if the tone is changed slightly by the wash
Check out Golden Fluid Acrylics or Liquitex Soft Body which have a consistency similar to GW paints.
Golden High Flow are designed to go straight into an airbrush.
Liquitex airbrush medium is just essential. It's similar to Lahmian Medium, but I don't like it quite as much. It's also substantially cheaper.
The Liquitex Proffesional Acrylic Ink! are neat too.
My girl makes a little fun of me about how I goob out in there, talking to the staff and all that.
I think you will like it. Plus, brushes for days. The Snap! brushes they will likely have right by the counter are really good too at least for a while and especially for the price.
Also, brush cleaner, paper palettes, the list goes on.
@Alf: Yeah that sounds great! (You know we still gotta beat Dragon's Lair at 16 bit, too... ) Lemme know when you're free and we'll get some games in and look at Prizm too.
@SL: Thanks a ton! Hopefully you arent suffering too terribly at their hands
@moonpie: Sounds AMAZING. I have a feeling once I make it out there Ill walk out with an armful or two of new toys... Definitely some inks, as Im really starting to dig glazing and the like for painting carapaces and such. Like the Nautilus shell I did last week!
Always looking for good and inexpensive brushes, too. Definitely giving the Snap brushes a look!
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Oof... What a past couple of days. It was one car failure after another in addition to other weirdness. Family van gets a flat about an hour from home, Dad's truck self destructs, one brothers car continues to be a lemon... Then the last car suddenly snaps a brake line as my brother and me were driving it!! City driving becomes a remarkably harrowing experience when you suddenly cant stop very well anymore...
Fun fun all around.... @_@
Anywho! Fins and frills on the lizards are done. Went with a sandy beige color, which seems to go nice with the greens. Makes the group look more cohesive too. All that's left is to paint the bases, then the wood/leather, eyes/teeth/tongues, and metal bits.
@Razgriz: Thank you very much! Really glad it worked as it did... Idea you can definitely chalk up to Gits- I was just the madman who engineered it! Also, I must complement you on your most excellent avatar/username... Now I gotta go find where I hid my Ps2... hmmmmmm
@SL: Well, looks like you need your very own Knight household to combat them, eh? Betcha I know a guy who can paint them!
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Busy the past couple of days, mostly work on the Lizards (plus a game night with Alf in which we played this ridiculously stupid but still amazingly well-designed Wrestling board game). No wips of the Lizards, unfortunately, as theyve hit that threshold of being juuuuust short of being complete.
Perhaps the most tedious part was waiting for the numerous final washes to dry on the minis. Fortunately, I happened to have a random little quick project to do in the mean time. Whats more is that it was assembly, so a GREAT change of pace from painting.
On The Lamb sent me a big ol' dragon to build and paint! This is one of their newest minis from their recent kickstarter, and its one I find myself really loving. Its a very pretty model, and comes in a delicious bubblegum flavor!
And the base closeup- Still going with the Crystal Mines theme, as per the studio minis I've painted for them in the past. This one was big enough to build up a set of minecart tracks- Luckily I still had some of the tiny I-Beam left over for the rails!
Alright, so back to the lizards for some final touches, and they'll be getting final shots up soon! Till next time!
It really does seem to be a bit of a cold-blood-fest around here lately, huh? We need to get some small mammal miniatures in here already!!
Wait a minute...
Mammals?!
Small?!
Miniatures?!
Incredibly tangential segway!?
Interrobang!?
I'm house/puppy sitting!
A friend of mine is out of town for a wedding, so he asked me to watch his two Chihuahuas and his house while he was away. So I packed up a few minis to work on and some paints and I was off! It's really nice and quiet now (save for the constant pleas for attention from the younger of the two- such a baby) and I even got some work done- Specifically, RiTides' Lizards:
Unfortunately a lot gets lost in the stark brightness of this room (great for painting, but terrible for my basement-adapted camera settings), but I'll be getting final shots of the entire 10-lizard squad come Thursday. Red face paint marks one of the squads, while the other has no facepaint. All have different patterns.
I then started to work on a trio of other minis for the army. Two smaller lizards (I believe the bipedal one is called Ashoka), and a giant slab of metal from P3 (Snapjaw, if memory serves)
Progress is slower for the moment on these, due to me forgetting one or two critical paint colors! Ah well... Guess I'll go pay attention to the dogs then
I love the red warpaint on the warrior so much so that I'm thinking a splash of red on some of the other gators might be a good idea! Not necessarily on the faces, but just to provide some relief to the green. What do you think?
Snapjaw in particular is looking just plain menacing, looks like you've even done the eye - really nice!
How long are you house sitting, I can mail you some paint? Seems like it's a conducive environment to painting
Absolutely love them, particularly that standing model - he is so intimidating! And they look awesome as a unit (two units really, and that's like 1/3 of a 50-point army right there!).
Only thing I'm wondering is if the banner of the unit leader needs something - could the head and the "bones" radiating our from it be the lighter bone color of his bone mask, perhaps splashed with a bit of red, while the webbing remains that darker tan / brown that it is currently? I think that would really seal the deal
First up, a Squamata Spitter from Helldorado- Counts-as Bull Snapper:
Probably the most striking addition to most of the models is the addition of the red warpaint. After the lizard squads, we both wanted to bring some of the color into the remaining models. Its a brilliant contrast and should work to bring the group together. Dont want to go too crazy on it, though. Very easy to go overboard!
Good old Snapjaw, looking a might bit miffed:
(Yeah I know theres a mold line.... sadly nothing I could do about it cause of where it was )
And lastly, the counts-as Ironback Spitter - Whati from Kaha Miniatures:
The yellow shell is proving to be rather interesting... Definitely going to give the back a LOT more shade! Bit too bright currently.
Looks awesome!! I agree about being judicious with the red . What do you think about a few tiny slashes of red on the upper breast of the turtle shell, like where his pectorial muscle is? Just like a gator came up and clawed him. Very tiny though...
Also agreed about darkening the shell, I think the Nautiloid shell you did earlier was perfect.
Finally, Snapjaw looks simply incredible! The mold line doesn't bother me, personally. Huge old metal model, part of the nature of the beast, I think.
1: Add some red paint to the upper arms. Especially on the not-Snapper, as there is a lot of mottled green on him and my eye is having a little trouble picking out what to look at. Might just be the picture though (or my old eyes )
2: Bring out the eye sockets of the gator bokor's skull hat. As it stands I don't know where the eye holes in the thing are, and as it is standing in for a face it makes the focal point a little odd.
That's a great thought, Wehrkind - the slashes I was thinking of were something like this:
Wehrkind has done a ton of models with warpaint, although it's more celtic-like on his and blue. But for these beasties I think they'd just be dipping their claw in some red and slashing it on, hence the above pic. I think that could work on the Snapper upper arm as well as the Turtle corner breast plate or upper arm
Maybe the bandages could use a bit of brightening up to be more in line with the lizard unit cloth colors, too? Or just hitting the highlights of them (on the Snapper).
@graven: I ended up doing just that- excellent suggestion! I think he looks just that little bit more characterful with the big scar... covers the mold line too!
@Wehr: Per the suggestion, I added some additional red to the arms of the snapper (and the turtle, of course). Not too much, but certainly enough to break him up! As to the skulls on the bokor- they did lose a bit of depth in the photo (just a case of the 3d mini displayed in 2d)- in real life they're nice dark pits. Thanks for the pointers!
@RiTides: Leather bandaging wasnt quite finished in that pic- its much more defined now. And I went ahead and put warpaint on the turtle. Hopefully it isnt too much. I did a sort of symmetrical placement on the upper arms and chest plate (fun fact, its known as a plastron! Why is my head filled with useless crap like this xD) Hopefully its not too much!
Finished 4 more of the assorted reptiles!
First up, Snapjaw- freshly scarred.
Ashoka (Helldorado) - Counts-as Shamblers Bokor
Squamata Spitter from Helldorado- Counts-as Bull Snapper
Finally, Whati from Kaha Miniatures - Counts-as Ironback Spitter
This particular segment of th earmy is nearly complete. Right now I have Rask, Maelok, Wrong-Eye, and the Sacral Vault left. Three Privateer characters (fun, lots of details) and the monster of a lizard! Should be fun
Looks great! The scar really came out well too. You can almost feel the despair of the trencher that shot Snapjaw in the head, only to miss the fatal eye shot by just that much.
Wow Ramos, I'm basically speechless. They look incredible, and I think you did the red perfectly. I am so pleased I can't even describe it... look at Ashoka, he is going to kick some serious butt!
The metallics are ace on Ashoka too, and the turtle shell came out amazing - you absolutely killed these!
Well done mate! they look really really good, the scar is a nice touch/trick :-) they all certainly fit together nicely too and as a group, imposing to say the least!
Thanks a million you guys!!!
All points to the scar definitely go to graven- I'd probably just have left it moldline-y if he hadn't spoke up! Turned out to be a perfect call!!
But wait theres more!
Working on the trio of characters now. Lots of really fun details on these. They're all a pleasure to paint.
We have Wrong-Eye (I think hes becoming a favorite mini of mine )
Rask:
and finally Maelok, who is AWESOME!
Incidentally, I wanted to pose a question to you guys... In particular, how the heck to paint all the fleshy bits on Maelok!?
Im trying to match the stock scheme which has a particularly nice reddish-salmon color. For the life of me I cant figure it out. Already tried various mixes of AP Chaotic and Dragon Reds, Warlock Purple, and bone...
I usually do a skin tone set for red flesh, so dark flesh -> medium -> pale flesh/ivory, then add a red wash with a touch of brown to pull it into the red category. I like the result, and it always strikes me as more fleshy like as all the colors are shared, just more of the blood part. Works well for gums too.
I may be of some help here dude :-) to get a colour that still blends with the Croc skin I would use the same method as I do for my Orks wounds etc. and that's simply using the highlighted skin colour and adding in some scab red or sanguine base (P3) this way you can start light and blend it in to the main skin tone before you make any darker passes with the addition of more red. hope that makes sense? I'm sure you'll smash it outta the park anyway like always! :-)
The character WIPs look good! I like the somewhat subtle "innards" painted on the stock Maelok, so awesome to use that as a guide . I mean, sure he's undead, but he's been walking around for a while and leading his gators and stuff, so it's not like he's suddenly bleeding out or anything.
I think that pic strikes a great balance without making him too "gory" (which I'm not a fan of). Whatever method you end up using for this will likely be perfect for the big gator that you're adding a brazier to in wave 2, too since he's also an undead beasty with exposed ribs.
Been playing around with both of your suggestions, nerd & Wehr, and I think that combining the two is gonna get me close to what I want
In between all of the Maelok experiments, I've been painting Wrong-Eye and Rask, and I've just about finished both of those guys.
Here's where Rask is so far:
Ensuring I always get the alpha strike (from his feat) with my gators, Wehr! It'll be like my troll beasts all over again (okay, maybe not... but I'm hoping they'll be competitive )
Rask is looking perfect, just like the studio pic! Very well done.
*L* Literally every model in my army that can walk walks >5" Rask's feat does not worry me a great deal! (Ask Charlie how that game went, and how transferring damage to 13 fething bog troggs will not save you from kill box.)
Automatically Appended Next Post: P.S. Paralysis shot is the scary thing... Def 14 warpwolves do NOT like losing that DEF! Especially when they are planning on being teleported into Rask from 12" away to eat his face the next turn
You're totally right, I forgot - I'll be pulling out Maelok, or possibly Barnabas + Croak Raiders (wave 2!) for that! My two list format is always going to have one arm-cracking list - Rask in this case - and one for tricky factions like Legion/Circle/Cryx.
Started to plant the Warmahordes bug in Ramos' brain... Took him to our local gaming shop for some warmahordes. Khador vs Trolls, Trolls took a gamble for the caster kill to win. If I hadn't, he would have slowly torn through me.
So you know you guys have to start up a store now... Nerd & Wehr: Nerdy Wares for Wary Nerds!
Also see alternative joke: "WehrNerd's : Open Late"
As far as tactics, I'm afraid thats a conversation I'll have to play spectator to- Though I might be starting to learn... As Alf mentioned, I'm considering taking up a little bit of Warmahordes... I mean I've got the start of a Khador army and the start of a Retubution army.... And I am really missing playing games... Maybe Warmahordes'll fit that bill...
In the mean time, some more Gators!
I initially wanted to wait till Maelok was done before these final shots, but he's taking a little longer- Finally figured out the fleshy bits (blending together both Wehr and Nerd's techniques), and those are looking pretty sweet so far. Also threw in some work on the Sacral vault. Its turned a particularly disturbing hue of pinky white, so I think Im on the right path for an albino skin coloration.
Anyway! On to the newly finished pieces!
First up, Wrong-Eye:
And of course, Rask!
Nearly there, guys! Tiny bit behind schedule, but making up for lost time!!
The two characters look awesome! Ramos and I were talking over PM and he's just going to make two small tweaks (dark beak on the bird and rusting up the metals). Can't wait to see the Vault progress - this whole project has been fantastic
@SL: Yeeeeah thats what mine have been doing... If I hadnt had a spare bit of paint time following Adepticon, I probably wouldnt even have the little box of Khador done yet...
Eventually, eventuallyyyy......
@Wehr: Yeeeeesss... Beautiful! That reference photo is perfect... I'll make those alterations presently. Still a yellow cast to the eye, but it does need that extra few steps towards milky.
So the last two models in the Deathroll project are odd ones with challenges of their own-
First off, the Vault. Big, detailed, and ALBINO. (You've already seen all of these pics of it, Tides... feel free to skip down)
A little (read as a LOT) pink, but this is to serve as an undertone to the model as I paint future layers. Top highlight will be nearly pure white, so I need to build as good of a base color as I am able before then!
Maelok is one of my favorites, aesthetically speaking- Undead gator with bits of him falling off and tied/sewn/stapled back on... Its brilliant!
The gooey bits in particular were difficult, simply because of the color- I dont have any paints to use directly from the pot for this, so it was all down to experimentation.
Even more experiments were needed for the flaps of flesh around some of the wounds- They needed to be close to the meaty bits' colors, but different enough to contrast them. To this end, I used the same base color, but highlighted with a touch of purple-gray in the mix to desaturate the colors and make the flesh look more pallid.
Here's where we're at so far with it. He still has a bit to go yet, mostly browns (leathers, woods, ropes) and blacks (trophy hair, jewelry).
Maelok is looking great! Will his candles be glowing / yellowy? I'm guessing so, as without that they might look a bit like icing... yum
I'm very excited to see more on the Vault, as long as it does not end up PINK in the end! (Ramos has assured me it will not ). Totally agreed that you need that solid layer before bringing it more up to close-to-white at the top.
I did try to get a glow on the candles, but how the stock painters did that is unfortunately beyond my skill... Absolutely crazy!
So I went with the next best thing and made the candles a nice cream color and painted the wicks with a flame coloration. Because its so small you dont get much, but theres just a little touch of black, red, orange, and yellow in there. Hopefully that's a workable look for you!
You've really (and I mean honestly) done an amazing job on that Croc! he looks amazingly good and the skin blending into the flesh is perfect! well done Ramos I'd shake your hnd if I were there!
Solar_lion wrote: ok, though what is the vault actually? Please explain the figure.. dead lizard? ???? I only say so as the legs are in a weird position
---The uninformed----
It's a conversion I made from the art, before the official model (large pic spoilered below) came out for the gator faction of Privateer Press's Hordes:
Spoiler:
I still like mine quite a bit . The idea of them is a vault of souls that the voodoo gators collect as they go around fighting things in the swamp. My problem with the official models is there's noooo way that thing is making it through a swamp whereas I think mine could quite well!
Yea I never understood the concept behind that model. Why would swamp dwellers make anything out of stone, let alone something so large and involved. Those would be hugely expensive unless there happened to be a stone quarry nearby. I would have guessed it would be made out of bones, perhaps of some giant swamp monsters, or some other strong but relatively light material. Instead they went all Indiana Jones, forgetting that gators live in the swamp, not jungle or mountains.
Wehrkind wrote: Yea I never understood the concept behind that model. Why would swamp dwellers make anything out of stone, let alone something so large and involved. Those would be hugely expensive unless there happened to be a stone quarry nearby. I would have guessed it would be made out of bones, perhaps of some giant swamp monsters, or some other strong but relatively light material. Instead they went all Indiana Jones, forgetting that gators live in the swamp, not jungle or mountains.
The only reason why I can think it was made out of stone is for the following reasons:
1) With all of the creole and voodoo influences in the product line, perhaps they were going for something like a Mausoleum that you'd find in New Orleans (not sure why it has wheels though)
2) Since the gators don't wear a lot of clothing, Privateer Press had to add WoW shoulders to something, and the Sacral Vault took the hit.
Those ideas are about as good as any Such a shame, it could have been a floating rib cage of a mighty beast, held aloft by the souls of a thousand victims trapped in a giant soul cage held within the bone structure, and guided into combat by gators dragging it on chains so that the commanding bokor can direct its energies at his foes.
Instead we have a giant town square fountain on wheels.
One rationalization behind it that I have works along more "religious" or culturally significant terms.
The reason it's made of stone is a statement of its importance. It is because stone is rare/hard to get that they constructed it of stone. It was deemed a worthy expenditure of time and effort in order to appease the spirits or whatever. Its just such an important monument that it could only be constructed out of rare materials. So sort of fantasy conspicuous consumption, I guess.
Wheels are still stupid, though
Alternatively it wasnt so much a Swamp theme they were thinking of with it, but a Jungle theme. Like GW's lizardmen. More Mayan/Inca influences.
I really like the rib cage concept. Like REALLY like it! Thats super fluffy in my mind, and honestly makes a better idea than the "town fountain" (i lol'd).
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@Gir/SL: YEEEEES! The yellow must flow!
@nerd: Very much appreciated- Rest assured, you and your orks were no small inspiration for the blending
Voodoo gators was an instant sell for me. I mean come on.... Wrong-Eye is a gator in a coat and top hat!! How could I not love that?
So Vault progress continues... I kept trying over and over not to make it too pink, but after sleeping on it and looking at it with fresh eyes, I realized that it was a no sell...
TOO PINK!! I think where I went wrong is the use of a red wash, which turned fluorescent pink over the white basecoat. Then the whole thing was just turning pink and peach and looked terrible.
So back to square one.
Took the basecoat to a just barely blue-gray, then hit it with a custom wash comprised mostly of GW Tanned Flesh. I still have a lot more highlighting to do, but already its looking WAY nicer. Less pink and more fleshy.
I've also been working on a mini for OTL from their newest KS. Dark Dragon!
Unfortunately, it seems that IM totally out of Purple paint, so Im stuck on this guy till Monday :/ Guess thats all just as well... Albino lizard still has a long way to go, and I want to get him home to RiTides soon as I can
Looking awesome! The fleshy look does seem like a big improvement over the pink. Still conveys albino without looking like a white brushed version of My Little Pony.
Looks like I came decently close... Might have gone a little different, but at least its not "a white brushed version of My Little Pony"
Metals and stone areas are blacked out- This gives us an idea of what he'll look like when he's got more colors. (bottom jaw is removed so I can paint the teeth and mouth easier)
Looking awesome! I quite like the skin, looks really albino and not over the top like the pink would have been. The rusty armor and stone should provide great contrast
Top notch! Hes almost done, so should be just a matter of a day or two before Gator box one starts its march towards you!
Still painting away, but I thought I'd mention a particularly creepy step....
"he's got... lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eye. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be livin'. Until he bites ya and those black eyes roll over white."
This has been your Jaws quote of the day. We return you to your normally scheduled ramble!
Oh, in that case go for red! Would help show folks it's an albino . Just didn't want you to have to redo things and a bit busy and sleep deprived over here so take nothing I say as trustworthy for a bit. Love the updates though!!
@wehr: Thank you!! Its Secret Weapon's "Armor Wash" over a simple Boltgun Metal basecoat. I dont use it too often for its intended purpose (I go for the Soft Body Black for that), but its perfect for making armor look disused and gross... Toss on some rust powders and you've got where we are now!
As far as the armor terminology.... I think "Helmet" is workable. After all, what is armor on the head? A helmet! Lizards have heads too, after all!
@wyfox: Taken care of! Apologies on not getting to it sooner!!
@WM: Only one model? Psh... thats nothing.. I can knock that out in a day or tw--
Uh oh....
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The Sacral Vault is now complete, and that means that Project Deathroll is officially complete!! (well, at least wave one is ) Albino skin was a real treat to paint... Really pleased with this especially compared to the bright pink... thing... I would have ended up with.
And lastly, a closeup of the head... Perhaps not as creepy as the pure black eyes, but certainly suitably menacing!
What a great center piece for an army, stunning work Ramos. I have never entertained the thought of getting a commissioned model done but having seen your work here and Gits models first hand I may change my mind. Thanks for sharing your talent.
@Gits: Thank you!! Glad he turned out as nice as he did ^^ Does make me want to paint more albino stuff now....
@wehr: Excellent! Creepyness acquired He does have nostrils, but theyre taken up by the nose ring- angle doesnt quite get it, but hes got two little pits deeper in the center of that ring.
As far as claws, there arent any sculpted on him, and the stock model I found seems just to put him in ankle deep mud or just different colored skin:
Perplexing...
@Yorkright: Thank you for the kind words My door is always open to new projects- Iffin the fancy ever strikes you, feel free to shoot me an email or pm!
I'm so incredibly pleased with how this model (and project) came out! Ramos came up with the albino idea and executed it brilliantly. Absolutely fantastic job Ramos!
Wave 2 consists of a unit of frogs plus several miscellaneous models, and I think will be coming up towards the end of the month (or may have slipped into early Oct now). Then it's Titan Time . Hope you all agree the wait has been worth it to see this project unfold!
AS much as I'm not into the ' animal ' models , these are fantastic. Very nice touch with the blue to really offset all the pale colors and draw your eye to the vault.
SL - The blue was the very last thing added, and I totally agree, it makes the whole thing come together! The in-game model is really the vault itself (the albino gator is just there to hold it up!) so it's great that it draws the eye
Salvage - Awesome to see you're still tracking this . I'm looking forward to giving them a try against Wehrkind's wolves! Although probably not for a few months with all that's going on here, so hopefully I'll have the frogs to bring then too which I think are a pretty scary counter to some Circle shenanigans, and really open up the gator army's game.
@RT: Yeah looks like early October now- Titan will be one of those massive projects I do in the background, especially because we're waiting on more head and weapon variants to be released. So right now it'll just be assembling, but hopefully it'll see some paint sooner than later! I just gotta figure out a good way to do the metals... hmmmmm
@SL: I know you dont like all the animals Got some real heavy armor coming in the next few weeks, so theres that to look forward to!
Anyways, like Tides says- the blue was actually the last thing added to the vault. Really glad to see it was an addition for the better. I think I had thought of as I was painting the stone, it but brushed it off as being too much color... Just shows you how wrong I can be sometimes!
@Salvage: Thank you very much!
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Army shot-
Honestly at a real loss when it comes to taking massive shots like this. I just dunno what to do- So much space and you cant get a good angle without other stuff getting in frame.... ergh... Chalk that up to my inexperience with large scale shots like this!
Anywho... ARMY!
Pic is very zoomable (better be with a 16 megapixel camera!)
Today Ill be working (and hopefully wrapping up) the Dragon for OTL, and putting the first paint on a pair of assassins!
Till later today, gents!
That makes total sense and definitely looking forward to seeing the titan get assembled as well as the other little projects you have going (OTL's dragon is looking sweet so far!).
Army shot looks great! The frogs will be blue so should help tie in the blue color to the army a bit . Man I am excited to try running Maelok (who will use the Vault) and Rask (who will use all those Shamblers in the middle - very smart to knock those out first like you did).
My favourite is the tortoise-dude-thing. Where did he come from, I can't find him (searching for a model is hard when you don't know what they are called)?
If for any reason they're not shipping at the moment, I do have a spare Whati, but since they're in France and you're in the UK you might want to reach out to them first via Facebook
whalemusic360 wrote: Go to gallery, copy image url (right click, its an option there), use said url with the image brackets around it.
I see, he's using the original version instead of the small or medium ones. There's only one problem with that: on mobile it looks like **** because the pic isn't scaled down so the text becomes tiny. Is there any way to fix that or is it planned to be fixed?
I just resize the pic in MS Paint and save as a .png (saving as a .jpg will make it look very poor), upload to the gallery, and once you navigate to it's page in the gallery, under "Share this Image" select "Full sized" instead of "Medium"
I also sometimes use http://www.pixlr.com , which is like an online version of photoshop, but I have found that resizing in Microsoft Paint works much better and loses less detail! You just have to be sure to save it as a .png. Sometimes I'll take that .png and convert it back to a .jpg file using pixlr to reduce the size, but that can still lose some detail.
I started doing this to get images a little larger than the "Medium" size, but mostly because there is an error with the gallery right now where pics of certain native sizes (notably my iPhone pics!) show up blurry under the "Medium" setting. When you resize, 1000 - 1200 pixel width will keep the forum page from getting a scroll bar at the bottom - much wider than 1200 pixels and it will cause the thread to scroll on many monitors and make it a pain to read.
Hope this helps
Edit: Ninja'ed twice! On my mobile (iPhone) I do have to zoom out a bit to see this image. But even if you only want a 600 pixel wide (Medium size) image, sometimes resizing it yourself (rather than having the Gallery do it) can help it show up better. If this one looks too wide on mobile to you, you could go with 800 - 1000 pixels instead of the 1200ish I used here when manually resizing.
(they are called "Bog Trog Shamblers")
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