NEW INTRO: This is a blog to showcase all my short/long term projects that don't fit a single-mould. Promethean Hammer is all but dead, but currently in the process of getting new life. My Thousand Sons (PH) are still in the mix, but that thread is just for that- 1K Sons.

I've got several projects at different stages of completion (read: Whenever I want)

- Eldar
- Various WHQ Characters
- Various =I= Warbands to be introduced to P-Hammer... once we get it up and running again
- Various video-game inspired characters: ME3 Kill-Team, Ezio Auditore, etc.
- CURRENT: Vampire Counts Samurai Army (Starting Page 3)

Starting an Eldar Mini-Army
It was a toss-up, to decide on if I should go after the newer Dark Eldar, or standard Eldar. I was impressed by the colors used on Ifalna's Warp Spiders, and it got me to thinking how much I've always liked the ideas of the Spiders themselves- ripping small pockets into the warp and touching the stuff of Chaos every time they teleport... Effin' sweet. My first idea was to create "tainted" Eldar off of the DE list, but that wasn't the exact idea I was going for... but I digress...

This blog is going to be primarily the Eldar I start up in early March, as soon as I get my complete airbrush kit and my starting models for the army. In the meantime, I'll be focusing on the three WHQ guys I need to paint up by mid-March. My barbarian PIP is already on the Promethean Hammer (pg 6 bottom) so I'm not going to put him here until I have new stuff done on him... he's currently on hold as I'm stuck on his color scheme.

Group Shot- We're missing two heroes, an Asian Martial Artist/Monk based on Derek Shezzard (sp?) of Anima Tactics. These are all guys from Anima Tactics (left to right): Colonel, Marchosias, Tsubasa Kurokami.



Wizard Front - You're going to have to forgive me for this model- he was constructed when my grasp of GS and single model preparation was rudimentary at best. He's got mould lines, flash... this was before I figured cleaning, brushing, soap & watering, and properly GSing a model BEFORE priming. I anticipate a pretty good paint job on him, as he's being worked on at the standard of my current guy- scheme will be green and gold-trim jacket, cream pants, brownish-chocolate leather, and purple for the fireball in his hand- he had a larger one(check the original), but I'm not OSLing his whole frontside- screw that, charlie..



Wizard Back - There you can see the epic GS job I did on his tailcoat... Well, either way, he'll get done.


Thanks for stopping by! Comments and critiques always welcome! Stay tuned for WHQ updates and starting March, the Eldar Phantom Remnants!

Ah... it's been a short while since I've been back! MBA classes have ended and given me three whole weeks... I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but hey, take what you can get!

Anyways, took a bit of time to do a bit of painting on two separate projects... unfortunately NOT related to my incoming Eldar. I've got an idea for those, but I'm not going to explain anything until I get pictures and WIPs to with the post. Anyways, I did a bit of work on Smurfwedge's Space Marine Conclave charity marine and my cousin's WHQ Wizard.

Without further ado, I present both!

Scorpion Marine 1 - I was struggling with a color scheme for this guy- either Egyptian or a scheme mimicking an Emperor Scorpion... black/white/gold/bone or black-to-brown-to-brown-red fade. In the end I settled for a mix of both.


Scorpion Marine 2 - Here he is a bit further on.


Scorpion Marine 3 - I was struggling a bit as to how I wanted to finish the model... I considered making him battle-worn, but I don't think I'll have time to do that. I settled on a pristine marine, but gave him a bit of extra such as the OSL (hmm... needs practice...) to add some depth to the model.


And in other news... my cousin's WHQ wizard.

PIP Wizard 1 - He's actually a bit farther on than these pics, actually... I was doing the Charity Marine to mix it up, but yea.


PIP Wizard 2 - At least I've had a bit of practice for OSL on the Scorpion Marine... and hooray for mould lines...


Anyways, sorry to be AWOL for so long, and as always, comments and critiques are always welcome!

That marine is really cool. I like the idea. Good job with the green stuff as well, at least I'm assuming that's all green stuff.

You're right and thanks about the GS! Thanks for stopping by!

Whoo hoo! I figured I was on a roll, so why not continue? It felt like making him as-is nice and shiny without any scars to show for it was kinda cheap and didn't feel right... so... here's the completed Brother Ardeth, Tactical Marine of the Sons of the Scorpions! (now with battle-damage!) Enjoy!

Brother Ardeth in all his beat-up glory! OSL (that needs work) and battle damage (will try salt-weathering next time...)!


The Smurfwedge Conclave Dakka Campaign badge- two bullets... or at least I think it is... I saw it on a bunch of other marines, so I just figured...


Freehand Tactical Arrow and Name


I couldn't think of an adequate chapter badge simplified, so I just freehanded a similar scorpion to the one adorning his powerfist.


I could imagine an entire army of these guys and their themed-vehicles (I'm thinking a cleaned-up brass scorpion counts-as) being extremely cool... but it'd be a labor of love... and yea... I don't know that I've got enough love for making 50+ guys like this...


Anyways, it was definitely a fun journey from start-to-finish on this guy! And there’s still time to churn out a marine for the project as well! If you’d like to contribute, follow the link and join us! I believe the basic chapters are covered, but custom chapters and following foundings are always awesome!

The Space Marine Conclave
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/333851.page

Comments and critiques are always welcome! Thanks for stopping by!

Good morning, Dakka! After finishing the charity marine for Smurfwedge’s project, so I decided to move back onto a batch of 3 WHQ characters I needed painted before the 18th of this month. I’d be scared if I hadn’t started them yet, but they're right on schedule! I present the barbarian character painted today! (Anima Tactics- Marchosias Model)

I’m pleased overall with the character and paint job- the design is beautiful, and the only things I can really fault are the flimsy swords- thin as all hell, but pretty. As for his gauntlets and shinguards, I was having trouble finishing them. I decided on my original idea of white, then chip it like SM armor… it came out “alright”. I don’t have time right now for a repaint, as I have two other figures waiting. He looks good enough to play with though, so that’s all that matters. Check him out and let me know what you think!

I originally envisioned this guy to be a straight up barbarian and almost thought of trying him with a limited palette of browns and greys… go for the real northern-barbarian look. But the crosses and ornate weapons and the need to go as far away from the original paintjob as possible, I went for a dirty-crusader look. The only thing I kept from my original scheme was the darker skin.



I repainted the shin and forearm armor white and proceeded to dirty/chip it. Unfortunately, they're the parts that I'm most unsatisfied with. I’ll eventually have to repaint them, but I’ll practice a couple of techniques for weathering before I do…



The blades I kept as simple as possible- as I said before on the Promethean Hammer, I wanted it to look like it was his prowess, not his weapons’ innate magical abilities that made him dangerous. Keeping them pretty plain-jane, I gave them knicks and blood to add a bit of flavor.



… after adding the blood, I thought it would be cool to have gore staining the tile floor he was standing on- kinda like he just scissored someone's head off a la Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Lo and behold… it was pretty cool!



Thanks for stopping by! I’d appreciate a comment or critique- you like it, hate it, think it can be improved scheme/technique-wise? Please let me know! It helps improve the standard of my work!

Wow... Nicely done, sir... You've once again leveled up... I like the skin effects in particular for the Barbar.... And the overall effects of oozing life and quiet menace is perfectly captured... Bravo! I can only hope my Elf Ranger doesn't stand out too much for being painted in a "different" style...
As for the marine, nicely executed chapter concept. I feel that you added just enough detail to mark him as your own chapter without being overwhelming or looking like a CSM. The battle worn look is definitely the way to go. Too clean and it's hard to believe that they are the Imperium's finest "warriors". I feel like the glowing effect is a little choppy around the leg, but it does add a very cool effect. And the freehand scorpion... very very cool dude. DAMNIT! I wanna do SMs now!

Thanks man! Appreciate the critique!

I'm not gonna lie, I'm getting pretty excited to play again next weekend. I've got to finish your bro's guy this weekend, and my bro's guy sometime before next Fri/Sat. They're on their way, so I'm not too worried.

Don't trip about yours either. The Wizard is getting done... not quite to the barbar standard, but getting done. And the Samurai doesn't have enough done to form an opinion.

In other news... just ordered my Iwata and compressor! Now to wait for that, Z's gift of FW Shadow Specters, and the start of my Eldar phantom warriors!

Hello again! It's been a week/weekend with both ups and downs... My wife and I recieved a slew of calls early Friday morning from all of our friends in the US and Canada, telling us about the earthquake that hit Japan. My wife, her family, my friends, my mentors and family... a good portion of them live in Japan, and I was sick with worry until we caught word that they were all fine. Fortunately, none of our family/friends were hurt, but many others have not been so lucky. It's a place I've called home for over 5 years of my adult life, and to see it destroyed and its people displaced... it was rough.

Now add to the fact that my b-day was on Sunday, and I just wasn't a fun guy to be with at all. My wife and I tried to make the most of it, so I present a bit of outdated work, my cousin's Wizard for our WHQ session on 3/19, as well as a couple of presents from my loving wife.

PIP Wizard Front - He's very nearly done here. A bit of detail, a bit of failed purple in the eyes and hair that I needed to fix...



PIP Wizard Back- I'm overall very pleased with the green and the gradations... but the horrid GS work and other bits and pieces... the fact that I didn't clean him at all before putting hime together... yep. Knocks it down a few pegs.



Wizard Complete 1 - Here he is in his final form- fire all highlighted to the max, and I added OSL to that side as well.



Wizard Complete 2 - Here's a better look at my OSL practice- I don't know if I didn't do enough... to intense... I guess it's all practice. I'm going to have to learn it though, as I've got it planned for my Eldar.



Wizard Complete 3- Front View, and in case you're wondering, the hair is made of GS extensions... a bit of practice, like Cloud and my Monk's hairdos. What can I say? I like volume.



And with that, ends my WHQ model stint. For now. "Wasn't there a Samurai to go with the crew?" Why yes, yes there was. Unfortunately, my brother will not be joining in the festivities, so the character is off my plate until later. I might pick it up again if the mood strikes me, especially since my older brother and I decided it would be absolutely SWEET to have a WHQ team modelled after Spartacus: Blood and Sand/ Spartacus: Gods of the Arena characters... escaped gladiators, as it were. Planned in the far-future, when I find the perfect base minis are Gannicus(my guy), Crixus in half-gear (my bro's), Oenomaeus, and perhaps one other... a retiarius (spear and net user?) guy, or one of the Syrian gladiators...

Oh yea... here's what the wife picked me up for my B-day. I told her I really wanted an airbrush and compressor, but I actually didn't say which one or what kind. She went and asked another mutual friend of ours who does motorbike/chopper detailing about his, what kind to get... and this is what she came up with.


For myself, I've decided that the GW brushes "fine detail" just won't cut it anymore. (check out the Wizard's eyes...ouch.) So, I picked myself up one of the following!


My cousin Z also got me Shadow Specters from FW, and I'm expecting a couple more boxes of Eldar stuff... next post and onward? Izanagi's Eldar Phantoms!! Stay tuned!

Welcome again to another installment of the Phantom Forge- and this post is actually Eldar-related! I mentioned at first that the army was supposed to be warp-spider themed, but I figured that path to be a bit too narrow... I want that and much more for this army. Because of that, I plan to grow the army organically...

What does that mean?
Bottom line is, to go along with the fluff of this army, I'm buying whatever I see fit to build the army, rather than what will make it competitive. I figure that even if they/I suck at the game, my army will hopefully look great going down in flames.

The basic premise of the phantom remnant is that they are a random collection of survivors, warriors all, no craftworld to speak of. They're resigned to the death they should have experienced with their respective craftworlds, and now throw themselves into battle for the sake of their "still-living" kin, turning the hard edge of destiny in favor of their people. They're lead by several leaders, the concept of one I present to you today.

Maugan Ra, Harvester of Souls
This Maugan Ra is/will be inspired by the FW Shadow Specters to be used as Dark Reapers. I'm not a fan of the DRs, in any incarnation. I took the idea of the Reapers and Specters and went for something more "Grim Reaper", while staying true to the original sculpt. I plan to build this guy using a standard plastic guardian kit/support weapon shuri-cannon, lots of green stuff, and lots of luck.


In addition, I present the first group to join the Harvester's team-

Scouts 1 - This guy is still a major WIP, I need to cut down his folded coat, and mould greenstuff to the barrel's contours.


And here are the other pathfinders, based and awaiting primer and paint jobs...




A couple of questions for readers

- Any ideas for a color-scheme based on the tidbit of fluff? I know I'll probably come up with one eventually, but I didn't want to rely on the Altansar Craftworld, as I already have a Tyranid army with those same basic colors...

-Any ideas as to what constitutes a "good" Eldar force? I have an idea of what I want to buy, but out of curiosity, what are the competitive units for Eldar?

Cool Art matey and look forward to seeing some colour on those pathfinders too , they are beautiful sculpts.

Thanks, Neil! I hope the conversion is true to the vision! And definitely- I don't know how well the Pathfinders perform in the actual game, but the previous and current incarnations of the scouts have always stood above all other sculpts in the GW range. I remember making a "gang" of Delaque/Pathfinders in Necromunda using the old game and weapon conversions. I should have more progress GS pics on that barrel pathfinder and the Maugan conversion tonight!

Had a relax session with my cousin and wife yesterday- drank, watched the new Karate Kid (minus Karate, in China, with Jackie Chan) and recieved my new FW Specters! Aside from the resin being extremely light/fragile and having one slightly warped weapon barrel that I reset with warm water, they look fantastic!

... and now I see they came out with a Shadow Specter Exarch model too?? Tricksy... tricksy, indeed. I'm almost finished filing, pinning and gluing one model... but then remembered I had to wash and brush each model with soap and water to remove the oil before working with them. Whoops... Ah well... first time to work with FW products, I'll be sure to do better on the other ones!

Leave a comment- good or bad! At least it helps me know I'm not talking to myself!

-HF Iz

sounds like a fun day , i haven't seen it yet, was gonna take the boys when it came out but its kinda expensive for all five of us , will watch it on dvd evetually.. forgeworld models are just lovely , i am really digging eldar anad their dark breatheren at the moment

@Neil - The movie was pretty good, but I recommend taking it in without the preconceptions of the original Karate Kid, Karate... yea, it's about 80%-85% different with minor references to the namesake and a near-identical plot. I'm almost certain your kids are going to like it- I'm almost ashamed to say it's good because I grew up with the original.

Anyways, onto the meat of this update! I did a bit of work and had several moments of note. First off, let me present my minor pathfinder conversion. I put the guy on a chopped barrel to give him a bit of height, but the contours were all off. So, I took the time to GS extensions to his cloak and foot to make it look more natural.

Front - I'm pleased overall with the work, but the cloak on the front looks a bit on the long side.. That, and the GS didn't lay properly, leading to the folds. I started sanding it, and it still needs a bit more.



Back - The original model has his foot propped, the toes folded underneath. I used the GS to extend the food, again, to mold him over the contours of the barrel he's posting on.



And next, we've got the insanity that is the FW Shadow Spectres. Make no mistake, they're beautiful models. But the man-sized minis are composed of 8 components each, including flimsy wraps/tiny contact points... Did I mention I didn't wash the first one?? Sent the complete mini into a bath with soap and a brush. The rest are good, just taking a LOT of time to assemble.


Anyways, that's it for now. Oh yea, I originally thought of using components from a guardian squad to create Maugan Ra in the form of the Specters-turned-Reapers. However, Eldar codex states 3-5 Reaper squad size... SO... in order to save money/time, I'll use one of the Spectres to create Maugan Ra. So, that saves me an entire box of guardians, as I still keep all components to make 10 guys and 1 weapon platform. (no need to buy a new box to complete a squad minimum) And, when I eventually get the FW Spectre Exarch (which I'm not looking forward to building at all... ), I can formally separate Maugan Ra from the squad or keep him a Spectre Exarch.

Anyways, comments, critiques... tips on how to use GS? Oh yea... figured a color scheme too. I think. I'll paint up a test model this weekend, after my grad school marathon Saturday... Thanks for stopping by!

-Izzy

Just a short update before I get back to work! Enjoy!

First up, initial progress on my version of Maugan Ra based on the new FW Shadow Specters!

1 - Chopped off the Specter backpack hood and used one of the Guardian support platform arms instead of the standard for the two-handed look


2- Sideview- current one has the nub taken out from behind the head, and green-stuff to reconstruct it onto a more fitting shape


3- GS'd a funky Green Goblin hood on him and chopped the barrel of the specter cannon- it's cut, pinned and GS'd again to reposition the three flanges at the top to make room for the scythe. Now the prongs are set in a way that the scythe is in-line with the rest of the weapon instead of sticking out at an odd angle. Will GS some small spiritstones onto the scythe and clean the blade as well.


Also ready for a bit of GS clean-up and paintwork are my guardians w/ top knots. I saw a picture inside the Eldar codex- it was easy enough to copy and I like the look much more than the standard guys.






My favorite guardian- very Captain Morgan!


Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment/critique!

-Izzy

Wow… feels like I’m talking to myself . 100+ looks from time of post and no comments…? Perhaps when I start painting stuff up…?

Ah well, here’s the next batch. I said I would do a paint test yesterday, but due to unforeseen circumstances with switching over to Vallejo Game/Model color (and that going terribly wrong ), I’ve only my FW Maugan Ra step-by-step semi-complete for presentation today.


Here’s a close-up of the pipe at the back of the neck cut and reshaped with GS.



The initial GS flaps put onto the Specter. I thought it looked pretty cool already, but I decided to take it even further and go full-on wraith with styled rips on his cloak.







Here’s the (semi) final product. I’m overall pleased with him, but he is missing that “oomph” that takes him from Exarch to Phoenix Lord. I might have to give in and model skulls on his shoulders…






And one last one- Maugan Ra (or a simple Specter/Reaper Exarch) leading his team into battle.



Questions for you readers-

Does anyone know how to do flat-skull motifs and such? Any tutorials, etc. I could take a look at? I’d like a stylized eldar skull on his chest plate, as well as the large Maugan Ra shoulder pads (or a version thereof) over the cape-arms.

Also, what do you think? Tears or no tears on his cloak? I'm starting to reconsider, as his front loin-cloth thingys are not ripped... if I kept it before I started fraying it, it might look better/more uniform?

Thanks for stopping by- I’d appreciate any comments/critiques or help for the GS, as I know I’ve got a long way to go to improve for sculpting. - Izzy

Alright, this post will probably be my last for a while, as classes are ramping up for my MBA program... although Managerial Accounting and Econ/Decision Making pale horribly in comparison to the prospect of making progress on my Guardians. Speaking of which, I've painted up the (tentative) color scheme for the Phantoms. It's pretty rough, so please excuse the look.


Front- I basically started with a mixture of GW/Vallejo paints to make a Midnight Blue-ish color and airbrushed that all over. Then I went with the aqua greens and turqoise blues for most of the armor plating. There are few highlights and he's far from complete, as I wanted to see what the basic colors would look like. There's an Eldar Painter program out there, but it's pretty horrendous and doesn't have very many options.



Back- This I'm pretty pissed off with. I first decided to color his back green, but then decided on blue. But you can see the paint through the airbrush leaves a dry look on the model, while the re-painted on blue has that nasty sheen (minus the tiger blood and adonis DNA) on it.


I'm an absolute novice with an airbrush, so I'm hoping I could get some tips from the airbrush-using members as well as some general tweeking of the color scheme... In the end, whatever color they turn out to be, they're going to have wear and battle damage to their armor to take away that pristine look.

What do you think of the color scheme? Ok? More purple crystals? Less crystal "bling"?

What color should the weaponry be?

For airbrushers- if you were doing this scheme, how would you set about painting this model? - for speed and effectiveness without loss of high quality?

Thanks in advance, ninja warriors- I appreciate it! Now if only some of you would leave me something more than just your footprints...

Your Maugan RA is awesome!!! As for the color Scheme, I would contrast the weapons, maybe a bone color. Also add lots of jewels, they really make a model stand out when ard'coated. I would go a little darker on the base coat of the green and blend up, that's just me though.

@Bt_Mask: Thanks for stopping by, man! For the Maugan Ra, I'm thinking of reverting back to the non-frayed robe/cloak to match his front-streamers (almost added "loin" in front of streamers... didn't sound right), but I'm glad you like him! I feel he needs a bit more though... he's Exarch of the Reapers/Specters right now... but he needs more Reaper paraphernalia... Stay tuned!

As to the paint-scheme, I like the idea of the bone color weaponry. I'll have to tread carefully with the jewels, as I don't know how well the bling will mix with the dirt and battle damage. But I like the idea of 'ardcoating just the jewels, as I kinda like the matte paint look (kinda like your Exodite army). How about the piping up to the weapon? Or should that be painted bone as well?

Thanks for the comment and stop by! I appreciate the advice!

wow great work Izanagi , those models are better than i expected , and i had high expectations! the green stuffing adds lots of nice personel touches , your really making me want to get some mate.

Hey Neil! Thanks for the kind words! After stopping by Migs' "Legion at Rhisienne" blog and seeing that latest shot of his Alpha Legion army ... I've thought about trying the same thing... it also helps me not to get roped into building the same army for a year or two... So yea, to go with the goals of my army, I'm trying to grow it organically (buy what I want), and realistically, it'll probably be a "boutique" army- well-painted and even the foot troops at a single-mini standard or better, but the army itself will probably be uncompetitive if at all playable.

Next project...? Kill team, or perhaps another boutique army based on the unified races of the Mass Effect universe... far future project.

Tentative Projects (probably spanning over 1 year or more... )

1) Ranger Autarch on bike - saw a great conversion of one... I plan a version of it as well.

2) Falcon/Fire Prism/Wave Serpent - practice large-scale freehand on a larger canvas

3) WHQ Pit Fighter team based on Spartacus: Blood and Sand characters- Spartacus/Gannicus, Crixus, Oenomaeus, and.... one other at my older brother's discretion (he's a player, but not a painter or modeller at all)

4) Mass Effect Turian Kill Team to start, Asari Commando team next, Quarians/Salarians after. Or perhaps 100% of one race...? Tau/Kroot Rules for army...

- HF Iz

Good stuff, awesome maugun ra. I think you should try and make the weapons pop out a bit more but apart from that it looks great

Thanks Moonshine! Any ideas as to a color that would suit the weapon? I'm leaning towards bone-ish... but the piping on the weapon, the backpack... that's still not decided. And while I'm at it, color scheme-wise, does it need anything? Thanks for the advice! I appreciate it!

I think bleached bone or maybe even orange or somthing along those lines could work. I would personaly go for bleach bone

Sweet- that's two for bleached bone. I'm leaning towards it as well, so that (technically) makes three. Thanks again, and I'll try to get an updated paintjob soon... maybe this weekend? Thanks again!

No problem, looking forward to seeing the updated model, it is nice to see the hair conversion aswell

You could make the piping black or bone. I like the idea of it being all bone. My bone would be a basecoat of 60:40 Bone:Snakebite Leather (you could even go 70:30). Then Pure Bone (I use P3 Menoth White Base, it's the same tone but covers a lot better), then a 50:50 Mix Bone:White. If you wanted to add a little extra pop I would add one last very thin highlight of 20:80 Bone:White (the mix can vary, I just add enough bone to slightly modify the white, it looks smoother than pure white).

Hey! Thanks for the tip and formula! I'll give it a shot and take progress picks... hopefully this weekend!

Also, I'll be posting new stuff for my Phoenix Lord, as I redid his frayed up robes to match more with his clean front-streamers. I also gave the robe a bit more flow to match the direction of the model... hopefully an improvement! Thanks for stopping by- advice and critiques are always welcome!

-HF Iz

Back again with a mini-update. I took a break from my studies to try something I've wanted to try for a long time- battle damage. I think it looks "okay"... but for this army, I don't okay is going to cut it. Not really sure what it needs... SO! I'm hoping I can get the advice of the dakka community out there! It took a little while to find out what to color underneath the damage- the armor and weaponry is supposed to be wraithbone, so I didnt' feel right about having metallic armor underneath... found the answer when roasting up some chicken and somebody packed the guy up with a broken drumstick- the marrow came up purple-reddish brown. Voila!

Things to note-

1) I'm going to remove the copper ammo clip butt, because the weapon looks cooler in full bone, IMO.

2) Ignore the extra clips on his leg and grenades... they're not finished yet.

3) I'll be putting on some weathering on his boots-area as well... something grey-ish muddy brown, I think.

Without further ado, the battle weathering on his plates...








Alright? Questions -

What do you guys think? Convincing? Stupid-looking? Any way to sharpen it up?

I'm not pleased with the weathering on the bone or white on his face- any tips for mapping out and coloring the battle damage on the gun or white face-plate?

Any ideas on how to weather up the navy blue? The pants I think I can get away with just using weathering powder/dirt... but how about the backpack? Colors to use for damage?

Thanks for stopping by- leave a comment, leave some advice! If you have any questions about anything, let me know!

-HF Iz

Hey, HF, at first I was sad you stopped your =I=Munda thread, but it might be possible I'm even more interested in this one!!!

The Dark Reaper concept looks awesome, and well in line with their grim reputation!!! The GS you add on them is great!

As for the battle damage, it looks really good, pretty realistic!

Pure win!

That guardian looks much better now it's gun is bleached bone. Well done

Hey Yggs! Thanks for stopping by! I was sorry to have to stop it too, but it was getting impossible to update and move on into actually playing... I'll still paint up my guys... but I think the game concept is dead. Dead, dead... dead.

But I'm happy to hear that I've got you on board for this one too! I'll be posting up redo-pics of Maugan Ra, he got "clean" robes instead of the frays. I'll also be taking a tip from your OSL light-sourcing for their jet-packs...

Also, I've got a Ranger Autarch conversion planned for this month as well!

Stay tuned, and thanks for stopping by!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ Moonshine- I totally agree! Thanks for helping pick out the color!

Hello again and sorry for the long absence! Saturday evening and all of Sunday was relax time with the wife/dog and hobby time for some semi-neglected work.

Originally, my return post was supposed to be a guide for the Eldar Guardian weathering that a I received a few PMs about. I’ll try to get to that tonight before I disappear again!

This post is my test camo-scheme for my rangers (inspired by a video I saw of camo’d troops popping up, and confirmed that the concept to mini-RL would work by Migsula’s Pathfinders- credit where credit is due! ). Unlike most of the other gorgeous eldar snipers who have coats/rifles with camo (but the standard armor/helmets underneath) I decided my rangers go fully covered. Here’s the test guy –

I wanted to make sure that the camouflage wouldn’t just look like I was slapping paint to get him finished. He’s based with Charadon Granite, airbrushed first HL with a personal mid-gray mix I concocted a year or so ago for painting up WHQ Gate props, and finally airbrushed second HL with Fortress Grey. The only things to be colored will be his helmet’s eyes, and gun lense, as well as his Spirit Gem on his waist. (as yet, unfinished)



THEN, I applied the pattern. I actually looked up an urban-camo pattern and determined the colors to be a bone-grey, an olive-grey, and fortress grey. I wanted it to look random, but didn’t trust myself with a paintbrush. So I took my pristine GW stippling brush (that was bought last year and has yet to see action) and used the edge to lay down the pattern, color by color.



I’m overall very pleased with the effect, although I may use a regular brush and not the stippling one for a bit more control. My only rule was that the patterns laid down would be going in one direction… the stippling brush seemed to suck up the watered down paint, but didn’t release properly- loading it up with extra in frustration only lead to nasty blotches..


Question time-

What do you think? Realistic? Stupid-looking? Any ideas for improvement?
**Addendum- the only thing to add will be to put a bit of wash and color into the recesses of the gems, hands, folds, etc- to add to the separation and shadow effects.

Currently using a GW stippling brush (piece of crap), might consider using a brush, and possibly a sponge, but I’m afraid of what patterns it might come up with… Any tips for making camo?

I’m thinking of repainting the “face mask” area of the helmet a subdued grey, but without the pattern… thoughts? Or should I just leave it as-is?

In addition, I’d like to present my WIP on my Autarch on bike… the rider will probably be later saved for later posts, as he’s had only minor prep and GS work done..

I wanted to give the bike a bit more “pop”, without totally biggerizing a viper for his chariot. So, I looked into my bits-box and found a Eldar (titan?) bits from a conversion I bought over 10 years ago… it broke through no fault of my own, but I kept the wings. I hate the little soulgem nubs… and in order to get it to fit, I stripped it of paint/primer and shaved off the nubs before sanding them.



Here’s the bike primed. I’m actually considering doing a bit more GS work- it came to light after priming that the fit wasn’t 100% between the parts and the engines… and the work to the fin, although extensive, doesn’t look as good… I might add a thin layer of GS to smooth it out and make it as similar to the body of the bike as possible.



Questions for the bike-

Any idea how to “salvage” the fin from here? My current idea is to use a thin roll of GS to build a thicker layer closer to the base of the fin, get rid of the ribbed texture area and cover some of the more unsightly bumps from the cut gems.

Stay tuned for the requested guardian weathering tutorial, and in the near future… a new MERCS miniature team… picked up the rulebook, but haven’t decided yet which team yet (Zakkennaya had to go and pick out the CCC/Yellow Jackets with the epically-posed mini-gun Heavy miniature…). Currently in the running are Kemvar for midnight/limited palette/OSL opportunities, up and coming Sedafu because they look like samurai, or Keizai Waza which is the Japan/Indochina/Australia Megacorp, who are supposed to be out later this year...


Thanks for stopping by! Leave a comment, critique or suggestion!

Hey dude,

Very cool stuff. I do like the granite/marble like camo effect quite a bit. My only comment would be this: It looks like what I would expect a real world camo'ed sniper to look like (once we get active camo, and ignoring the gems), but I feel like you need to step back a little bit away from reality due to the nature of your subject. They're Eldar, fantasy space elves. I personally would like to see more accent and color on this guy, like maybe the clothes beneath the cloak. Darker colors or different shades to your judgment, does it have to be everything that's camo'ed or would the clothes underneath be like normal dress uniform not so combat color oriented? You already have that idea going on with the purple jewels which act as a great accent. Otherwise, again, love the look as is.

Onto the next subject, bike looks great. I can't wait to see it completed.

You've really inspired me, and I look forward to our painting tutorial later this week. Guard might not be so pretty, but let's see what I can rustle up. Also, was thinking of starting up a thread of my own, documenting my work. Might not be as pretty, but hey, might as well show the world (or just Dakka ) what I've got.

Ja! Keep up the good work!

Hey Z! Thanks for stopping by!

As to your critique- thanks for the ideas... jerk.

I hear what you're saying, and I agree to a certain extent. I might consider it, (and good that I only did one test)- I'll sit on it for a few more days (weeks??) before picking another one up. I'm still intrigued with the idea of the full-on multicam going... especially with the rest, but I might have to scale it back to just being the cloaks? Or perhaps I can take a not-so-real-looking pattern for the cloak? Still, it's good I just tried it on one.

My original idea was to reverse the colors of my guardians- dark blue for the coat, aqua-green gem accents, purple body-plates, white face-mask.... perhaps I might revert to it. We shall see...

The bike... the rider is going to be a pathfinder as well- look at the original model... I just went after his hair with my wire-cutter and sealed his mouth shut with GS... but.. him being a pathfinder, that means I'll probably have to invest in the expensive guardian bikers to create a squad of pathfider jetbikes too... ugh...

That'd be pretty cool if you could post your stuff too- we barely have face time as-is, so it'd be nice to see what you're working on. And when do we start MERCS, man? WELCOME TO THE CAUSE and all that? If it's sooner rather than late this year, I might have to do Kemvar to play with...

Either way, thanks for stopping by and thanks for the honest critique... I'll be sure to spit in your food when next we meet... I mean... wait, what??

Anyways, lemme know what models you want to practice with too- text/PM/whatever, before next weekend so I can prepare material for you. Thanks again and stay tuned!

Hello yet again! Today I’d like to address a few similar requests regarding the weathering test on my guardians, first from a Dakka member called Oreo_Golem. This one’s for you!


So, to start it off…

HF IZ’S WEATHERING TUTORIAL (feel free to add to it!)

This was all trial and error, and many other painters have solid techniques- if any of the Dakka^2 community want to share a tip/add insight, please do!

So to start, I assume that you’ve painted and highlighted your miniature to a fair-to-almost-finished standard. The reason for doing so is because the 2nd weathering stop is easier to figure out when you have the highlighting to guide you. Or, if you’re completely clueless about lighting and light reactions to multiple surfaces/depths (like me) then it just makes it a bit more convincing! The first two colors chosen below are standard for light-to-medium colored areas, and the final Inner color was to give a more “organic” look to the under-armor of my Eldar. It will change depending on what you paint. (aka dirty/rusty boltgun for SM under-armor)

Colors Used:
BASE (Charadon Granite w/ Chaos Black Mix @ roughly 1.5:1)
HL (Fortress Grey w/ Skull White @ roughly 1:1.5)
INNER (Scorched Brown w/ Bleached Bone @ 1:2)
, all watered down to skim milk consistency.

Base- I’ve seen this done with sponges and with brushes. I prefer the control of the brush rather than the random patches put down by a sponge. You might also want to look into reference pictures- either other models done in this way or real .


Start by taking the BASE mixture and hitting the edges with knicks (lines) and chips and/or chunks (mixture of random shapes). Here’s where the references come in: if you have no idea what shapes you want, you can copy what you see onto the model. Alternately, think about the contours of the model’s armor to add whatever weathering shapes make the most sense in terms of what/where you’re putting them on. For example, chunks from the center of a SM’s ceramite shoulder plates makes sense, but chunks from an Eldar’s bodysuit… not really. Any area is fair game, with most damage will be on the edges and/or highest points of the armor.







Next, take the HL color and add a thin line along the contours of the black shape, close to the edge, and closer to the bottom of the marked-areas. This gives the illusion of depth. For some areas, it won’t be so much lines, but small stippled “dots” along the edge, giving the look of a portion that was torn off, instead of a more clean break.





Finally, take the INNER mixture and layer it inside the black shape, leaving a thin black lip and the highlight intact. How much, how far- that’s on you. For example, I imagine that guardians’ armor is wraithbone-grown... So for my Eldar, underneath the nice bright armor colors would be a natural marrow-like or even bone-like color. And the color layer I imagine isn’t that thick, so the Inner-color covers a lot of the Base, giving the impression the color shell is only a few centimeters thick. In case that didn’t make sense, the more BASE color (“lip”) you leave visible in relation to the INNER color, the thicker the outer shell (that got torn off) will look due to the HLs.



**Note: Some of the BASE and HLs on this guy are too thick- Thin them down using the final armor highlight color to clean up the look. ** That's why you do the weathering last!


I’m not as pleased with this guy as I am with the first guardian. I believe I used slightly thicker paint the first time around, not quite skim-milk. That kept the stippled dots consistent and small, instead of bleeding out into inaccurately wide, white splotches. It also kept the initial Base color knicks and chips small. SO.. with that in mind, I’ll repair him to look like this guy- using the colors of the armor to manipulate the size of the BASE/HL shapes to be smaller. This is what it should look like with slightly-thicker paint. Note on the back antennae, the thicker paint allows for dot-textures.



One more thing to note is that this is only the beginning- the weathering on these Guardians is far from complete, for me, anyway. I plan to use some washes on the gem areas to simulate built-up grime. I also plan to drybrush browns onto their boots (possibly use some weathering powder on their legs) to simulate dirt and dust from the battlefield. For other ideas, you could very lightly stipple/dry brush on some brownish-orange in the exposed metal of SMs, black for added scorch, or even weathering powders for dirt that the created-chips/pits are catching.

… and that’s where the tutorial ends… lol. I am pretty clueless for darker colors, so for any other painters out there- Question time!

What can I use for darker colors- say, I want to damage his dark-blue backpack?

Did I miss anything? Any other questions that popped up from the tutorial?

And so ends my first tutorial! Questions? Feedback?- I'd appreciate it!

Hope that answers the original requesting-parties, and thanks for stopping by!

How'd i miss this thread?? Love all your work bud.

The WHQ characters look boss, the barbarian especially but the wizard still looks good despite the obvious modelling flaws (loving the green blending and his calfskin? boots)

The Shadow spectre --> Maugan conversion is bootiful, i like the rips but do agree it doesnt quite gel with the current cloth. The gun/blade is awesome.

The Guardian's battle damage is sweet, i love Charadon for this (in fact i use it on all my chipped damage). Love the aqua, bone and the topknot but cant help but feel the dark blue seems a bit out of place. As youve been looking at Ifalna's thread, how about a hardlined black (either highlighted grey or that funky blue she used on the marine commission) sort of Tron style.

LOVE the Ranger guy, sweet camo!

And, ive said it before and i'll say it again im sure. COLOUR SHAPERS!!! The best way to sculpt with GS, you definitely wont regret it.

Oh, and you're a lucky boy to have an Eclipse!! I love my airbrush to bits, but its only a fairly cheap one (bout £30). It does the job for basecoats and subtle vehicle highlighting but i wishj it was a bit more precise. Had my eye on a Paasche Talon for a while now, just need a bit of spare cash!

Glad to see you're back again! Hope your course goes alright (im starting my masters degree in Chemistry in Oct, took a year out, bit nervous!) and that all your connections in Japan are coping fine.

Regards,

Vitruvian

Hey Vitruvian! Thanks for stopping by! There are so many great threads out there right now (both newcomers like Baiyuan's work, Flinty's Starcraft-Terran team... and oldies like Migs/Les/Gits/etc.- and apologies if they're not new, I've not seen their work before) that it's hard to see everything... I could spend a day looking at everything I want to, but I would probably end up losing my job doing so...

And in regards to your critiques- Thanks, first and foremost. Now, for the details...

1) Thanks for the WHQ guys, you'll see the rest of the defunct =I=Men here too. If you've seen any of the TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, you'll see a hopefully-similar team of Pit Fighters...

2) Maugan "Spectre" Ra - I thought about it after- the rips did look pretty sweet, but I didn't trust my bludgeoning meathooks to gouge the resin loin-streamers (LOL... that sounds really bad...) to match. He's been redone... looks more like a wizard than a ripped up wraith... to mixed feelings and results.

3) Dark Blue doesn't look so hot- Hmm... I think I understand what youre saying. I'm actually putting a dry-brushed muddy brown on the leg portions... it almost makes them look like they have boots, and fills in the dark, it looks better than the clean look right now. I'll post him up later when he's about 95% finished, and we can revisit this conversation yet again.

4) Battle-Damage - Yup, I love clean Eldar... but I love the crapped out look more than I do the pristine... Hopefully after damaging all of these guys, my technique'll improve that I can actually make a newsworthy guide or article... by the way, any ideas of showing wear for dark-colors...? It looks good on light because you can see the darker paint you lay down... but when it's dark... you can barely see it, causing the transition to be more abrupt and less-believable... thoughts?

5) Ranger- Thanks! I actually like him too- it's a great concept I modified from Migs' pathfinders- check em' out... how's that for awesome? I'm still thinking... don't know if I want to keep him as is, or perhaps give him colored armor to pull him back into the grimdark universe rather than the more realistic-take.

Colour shapers- ditto. I'm always looking for more tools to complete my kit!

The Eclipse is pretty good, and I'm trying to get practice in. The Zenithal Lighting article by MajorTom11 and AwesomePaintJob channel on youtube have been a big help learning how to use it. Lol... turns out I'm not a natural with an airbrush. Go figure.

It is good to be back, although I'll inevitably disappear for a bit for finals prep and/or HW... Good for you for your Master's as well! Here's hoping you have an easier time! Aha ha ha ha...

And thank you for your thoughts on my Japanese friends/family. They're alright, thank God, but it's been hard to not just drop everything I'm doing and go "home" to help my wife's family and her friends... or any of my family or friends overseas, for that matter. Didn't stop me from donating a hefty sum of savings though... my only regret is that I ran out of money to give.

But enough of that- Thank you again for the visit and your thoughts! Stay tuned for more later!

Good morning yet again! For some god-awful reason, I couldn’t sleep at all yesterday… so instead of laying in bed staring at the ceiling, I upped and got to work on my FW Shadow Specters! In order to prep and try zenithal HLs (which I don’t think I quite got, but practice makes perfect!) I finally got the chance to look at MajorTom11’s Zenithal Highlighting article. Don’t know if you read this, MajorTom, but many thanks and great work!

Check it out if you haven't seen it yet! I’d be surprised if you haven’t though, it’s Dakka home page material- with a gorgeous zenithal HL, OSL Grey Knight pic!

----------

So, without further ado, the nightmare of building the Shadow Specters finished last month, I primed and airbrushed them. I actually use a white primer, as I enjoy the brighter colors, but Z-HL works with black… so, started by first airbrushing GW Chaos Black onto the model, followed by a layer of my Midnight Blue variation mix, and a layer of Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. One final highlight was that same D Prussian Blue with a bit of white… came out sky blue and screwed the whole thing up. LOL… so, a few washes of oldskool GW blue ink and Badab Black Wash got it back down the colors I originally wanted. Ta-daaaah!






For colors, I wanted to tie the group to the rest of the army in some way… mainly the aqua-green tinge, or purple… so I tried it on the streamers… and that was probably a mistake. I am however, pleased with the start of the OSL around the eyes, hood, and jetpack.. For this, I’m using Yggdrasil’s OSL guide to help me with color and transition correction for this team, as I really like the test colors.










I also decided to inch them closer to actual Reapers, which is what they’re designed to represent in-game (if I ever play).. so I slapped on a white facemask… I really like the original reiteration of the black-blue face with the glowing green eyes and halo hood… so I’m saving that idea for Maugan Ra, his armor will be a reverse of theirs so I can use the awesome blue face and OSL green eyes.




And now that I look at the model again… I can imagine this color scheme being really awesome for Necrons. These Specters are very reminiscent and lend themselves well to OSL with so many potential energy sources.



And that's it for now... actually, no it's not. There was work done til the break of dawn on the converted Pathfinder Autarch (rider), more paint on the Rangers... but yea, that'll be for later. This time, just one question-

What do you think about the streamers? Should I keep the aqua-colored? Or should I paint them grey/white?
Thanks for stopping by! I love the views, but would love a comment/critique for guidance even more!


-Remi

I think they look pretty nice! The front on shot makes the model look a bit messy, but that final pic is just gorgeous!

Lovely work.

It took me a while to get my OSL to a respectable level. Using the GW VerminLord masterclass really helped, as did thinning my paints right down to glazes and applying loadsa layers. You seem to be getting the hang of it nicely, but it does seem a tad stark where the glow stops (if that makes sense?)

Thanks! I'm still not quite sold on the aqua-white streamers... I might redo them to be just white/grey? Not entirely sure yet.

And yea, I'm trying to figure the fine line between the "stark" look (totally understood what you mean) and the softer Yggs' style OSL... I'm definitely going to find a happy medium between them, hopefully before I finish all 5 Specters.

I'll give it a go though and thin them down even more... the only thing I dislike about thinning (in general, not just for OSL) is having less control on the paint flowing around... but yes, I'll definitely thin them even more- at least there's groove for it to follow for the jetpack!

Anyways, thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

This is such a cool thread, amazing painting and GSing, good luck with finishing the eldar army

Thanks, Logan! I'll be starting up again next weekend after midterms! It won't be just Eldar, but expect MERCS minis WIPs starting next week, among others!

Stay tuned!

Hello and sorry for the long absence! With Midterms over, I decided to do a bit more painting. And with the following update, I believe I’m exhibiting signs of ADD, starting many different aspects of the project but not finishing any of them…

Ranger Paint-Scheme Mod: I took the advice of my cousin and decided to pull the look back to the “fantasy” side a bit more… For the Ranger armor, I decided to reverse the colors, and make the dark-blue color dominant, and keep the familiar coppers and signature white face-place. Still deciding on a color for the innards of the gun, the janglies on his belts, his belts and pouches (probably a rustic brown-ish leather?), and wiring. I’m thinking maybe a black color for the wires and gun, but again, still haven’t decided yet- “definitely not metallic” is the only boundary I’ve got at the moment.



Next, I present progress on the Autarch Jetbike and Assembly-Style Guardians

Not too much done on this guy- just gave it a base spray of my blue mix, with two successively brighter highlights. Hope to get more work done on it later this week.


These guys are a pain in keister, as in-game, they’re worth less than the paint used to color them, but they’ve got a more complicated scheme than even the FW Specters or Rangers I’m making. Easiest to hardest (to paint) – Rangers, Specters and a far, far back would be these guys.



And finally, WIP on my Autarch’s (for the moment?- might end up just being another Guardian-Ranger Bike-Leader) Jetbike Hood. In changing the ranger back to more “fantasy”, I got the ridiculous idea to do the hood in an 80s style Tekkaman star-knight motif. Praise the emperor for battle damage, I don’t know if I could stomach it if it was totally clean…



Used an ebony pencil to mark out the design...





I’m adding a bit more detail, as it was just too-plain being 2 colors… I’m added the Ranger symbol, which needs a few more layers of highlights. I’ve got a few more ideas to make it a bit cheesier.


Freehand Questions

I’m absolutely zero for color theory or even color painting/freehand. The original sketch was created while listening to a riveting lecture about accounting cash flow statements… ugh. Any suggestions about how to make the image “pop” a bit more- colors, where to hit it for light spots…? As much as people are going to hate the design (I know because I’m laughing and crying as I paint it) I’m going to stay with it- it says “flamboyant” to me, and I’m hoping it’ll come together when I get a few more jetbikes with different star-knight designs and battle damage.

Comments and critiques are always welcome! Love it? Hate it? How can I improve it? Let me know!

Also, in other news… I’ll be doing yet ANOTHER project log to satisfy my short attention span… Look for it towards the end of May, my start on Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons, with a suitably snazzy title that accurately describes the indescribably slow way I paint and produce miniatures… something like “A Thousands Sons… is a bit too ambitious, how about a squad of 10 for now?”… or “The First of a Thousands Sons… (the rest are slogging behind)”

Not sure what to make of the freehand. What is it supposed to be? I read through your blog and i'm not sure i get it. From what i can tell your highlighting on it seems good, the blending could use some more time, i would reccomend getting a wet pallet and take your time with it. Also the eldar ranger symbol edges seem a bit choppy. Very good first attempt though.

When you say you want it to "pop" could you clarify? which portion do you want to pop. As of right now its difficult to discern whats going on in the freehand

Hey Chrono, thanks for stopping by. Basically, it's a crested helmet on one side, with the symbol behind it. Symbol is not quite complete yet.

I'd like the helmet to "shine", and this probably goes along the lines with NMM or some variation thereof, but I've not worked with a wet palette before. I want it to stick out more- more contrast, more projection instead of the flat-look that it has right now. Doing freehand symbols isn't that bad, but when it comes to outright pictures, I'm a bit lost.

Thanks for stopping by and thanks in advance for your advice!

Always happy to help. Take a look at this image, not the best representation but may aid you.



Notice how the eyes are a bit more rounded, and also how the brow of the helmet sticks out farther.
Bear with me while i throw out some pointers.




Here is a before and after thingy i was working on for you, may help out a bit. Or it may be nonsense

So the red arrows point to where i think you should take away portions of the helmet to make it appear more as a.... well helmet.

The green arrow is where i added some highlighting to make it pop, i also added some shading along the entire profile of the image to make it stand apart and almost appear as if floating above the ranger symbol.

The purple arrow is pointing to where i believe you should extend the "hair" on the helmet, as you had it before it looked to short and not how it would appear on a spartan/crested style helm.

And lastly the blue arrow, wasnt sure what this gold triangle was, but i believe it should be removed, it distracts from the image overall and is difficult to discern what it is. Also i wouldnt recommend using gold on a freehand, its hard to percieve depth, use a nmm style if you want to achieve a gold look.

I really hope this helped, and sorry for the slow response, i had to photoshop up my thoughts

~ Chris

LOL... holy hell! Thanks for the treatment, Chrono/Chris! That'll definitely help! I was expecting a verbal explanation, but yea, a picture is worth a thousand words! I appreciate the work for the response!!

I'll try to give it a go tonight, and I'll post results hopefully tomorrow?

Thank you again! You've been most helpful!

-Remi

No problem

Looking forward to what you have to show

I really like what you are doing, I don't think i've seen battle damage on Eldars before. I had the same problem as you mentioned before, when thinning paints it tends to get runny. I just found a produkt (from a tip here on Dakka, sorry I don't remember from who), Liquidex Acrylic Medium. I just started experimenting whith it, but it thins the paint without loosing it's consistence. You can still add water to make it more runny. And, good luck whith your freehanding on the bike!

Lord J - Thanks for stopping by! I'll be putting the Liquitex on my list to buy this month, along with some colour shapers. I also like the battle-damaged look. I know Eldar probably keep their stuff very neat and clean, but it seems a bit out of place after the first hour of engagement on the 40K battlefield. Stay tuned! There's more to come!

-----------------------------------------------

Hello again! It’s an update that’s both up and down. The good thing was, for once, the lady showed an interest in my work rather than indifference or outright scorn for my hidden-geek… pah! Woman, away with you! It’s ART!!!

Now, this isn’t a crack at female-painters. The ones on Dakka I’ve seen/followed and some of the ones on CMoN kick ass at this stuff, and definitely have better technique and vision than I do. No… this was a lesson in… patience.


On this certain occasion, my wife found whatever I was doing interesting at the moment. I was painting guardians, the hood and body of my jetbike (with a lot of help from ChronoTrigger- thanks again, bro!). Here's the work on the hood below-

Didn't get to follow the advice Chrono gave me yet- my computer decided yesterday was the day that it wouldn't be able to find it's own Operating System... I decided to do fleck a bit of paint on the blue portion to create stars... might keep them, might not. I think they look pretty cool, but i'm not entirely sold on them yet.




---------------------------

It was at this time that she enlightened me to the fact that she is, in fact, an excellent painter! I present our conversation below... with pictures!

(wife comes up behind me/my desk)
Me: Something wrong?

Wife: That looks fun. Can I try?

Me: *cringing* Umm… yea, I guess. Do you know how to do this? I thought you didn’t like my hobby stuff…

Wife: Remi, I’m an excellent painter. I think I paint better than you- did you know… (proceeds to tell me story about winning an award for painting neatness during grade school)


At this point, I’m resigned, but I want to be a “good” guy… and I don’t want to be sleeping on the couch for something “trivial” like my models… Patience. Pass it on!


Me: Ok. (I’ll probably end up regretting this, but) Sounds like you know what you’re doing. I want a certain look to this- it’s not that hard, but it’s not like pencil.

Took a bit of time to teach her the incorrect but effective way of using a stippling brush filled with watery paint, using a nail to fleck paint onto a surface to make “stars”.

Me: Remember, you can’t take it away if you mess up… I want it to have small white flecks… like stars… I think it’ll look nice if we do that, but don’t overdo it so it looks like we just flecked a lot white paint on it. Just take it nice and slow. Sound good?




Wife: No problem. You’ll see. You’ll like it!

(30 minutes later)

Wife: Remi… I think I’m done… How did I do?






Me: Michiyo … you tried to fix it, didn’t you?

Wife:… yes… yes, I did. I thought I put too much, so I wanted to fix it… Is it messed up?

Me: No… no, it’s not messed up. You did... good. Let’s… watch a movie or do something else. Together.

Wife: (smiling) Really? But I can-

Me: No… no really, it’s ok. We’ll continue later. I’ll go out for a cigarette for just a second… when I get back, we’ll watch Rome or something, ok?

Wife: Ok.

LOL… comments and critiques about our work? I’m probably going to have to redo it, but I thank/love the wife for her momentary interest in my hobby…

Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi (and Michiyo)

Haha nice story. My fiance (now wife) had a go at painting. It was very entertaining. She painted my orks with pink shoes, purple guns, yellow shirts and metallic green skin. Interesting to say the least.

I do like the stars, adds a nice depth to the piece. However i would recommend continuing that star effect throughout your whole army. I think it would give each piece a nice unique touch and a sense of unity. As well as looking pretty cool. Maybe even adding some color to your splatter effect to better emulate stars. Also, if you wanna have another go at it possibly mix a swirl of colors before you add the splatter stars. Don't be afraid to use references, like this picture

I've been away for awhile and you've been busy!!! Looks fantastic man. I really like it all. The bike and Spectres are awesome. The rangers are my fav so far though, the Urban Camo is some of the best I've seen.

@ Chris/Chrono- LOL.. thanks man. And I like how they have a vision of what they want... and it's NOTHING like what we've been indoctrinated with. Love it when they show interest though, I guess I should pay it back in spades and make dinner... go shopping.. something! As to the rest of it, I think I will- especially for vehicles.. I'm almost excited to see how this is going to finish up with the battle damage.

- Reference pictures... a MUST. I realize that the stars now have no depth, no swirls, purples to break it up... yep. Let's try it... one more time!

@BtMask- Welcome back! I gotta agree with you too- the Rangers are not only my favorite sculpts of the Eldar line, it's the only set of models for this group that I felt I nailed on the head. (for now)...

Just had a thought... not to keen on the old P.Lords... they're great, no doubt, but the sculpts are starting to show their age... perhaps a mini-project to rebuild their images (or at least the ones I like- Jain Zar... not so much, as with the Banshees) from standard guardians and crazy greenstuff work... resulting in taller, more proportional, but perhaps not as masterfully detailed P.Lords...

Per Vitruvian's recommendation... colour shapers are on order!

Stay tuned!

If you want a cool sculpt check out the new elder model chapterhouse released. It's pretty sweet. But I hear ya, my wife can't cook so I got that in the bag, as long as I keep plugging out meals she let's me play with my plastic army men haha

Whew... it's been a while since I've been been back on my own "random" blog. One is dedicated to my 1K sons, another to =I= Munda with fellow friends and ninja-dakkaites Evinyr + Zakkenaya, and this one for my Eldar and random works.

Let's see... started this one up in May... then got caught up with a job change, joined Baiyuan and PDH's "Pimp My Wizard" competition, and started a slow build-up of a Pre-Heresy 1K Sons force. But I've got a few models here that don't quite fit in any of the other two threads for =I= or 1K Sons... SO... here it is! My entry for the PMW group project!

Finished GS Work/Conversion sans wings



Final Entry - for a closer look, check the gallery, the medium-sized view squashes the pic and makes it kinda grainy...


Comments and critiques are always welcome!

Coming up will be a Monkey King figure, as I'm currently on a Sun Wukong phase... and an Anima Tactics shinobi figure to be used as an Imperial Assassin (taking "Imperial" to mean Cathayan, not Empire) for WHQ! Stay tuned!

-Remi

Good afternoon! I FINALLY got one of my products ordered over Labor Day Weekend from the Fantization website… My order was languishing til October when I could get my Monkey King mini as well, but I talked to the sales team over there and they shipped my Anima Tactics guy Friday and received it yesterday.

The figure I got in the mail (as painted by the Anima Tactics team)
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He comes with a Ninja magic two-fingers up (LOL… I see you trying it out there ) with one hand or a kunai-wielding hand for one option and a katana or kusari/sickle for the other. Originally, he was just to be another member of my group’s WHQ band, and a simple single-mini level paintjob… a break from conversion and the work I put into the PMW competition. However, upon staring at the options and the pose… the thought came to me to turn him into this guy ..



I don’t play Marvel vs Capcom, but he’s my all-time favorite of the line-up. Now… the purpose of the mini has not changed- To represent an Imperial Assassin (rules found here http://wquest.free.fr/warriors/Imperial%20Assassin.pdf) but I don’t like his head… and I don’t really like the sword. Question is, how much of Strider Hiryu should this model channel? 100% conversion (requiring a resculpt of the arm, as Strider has no shoulder armor) or simply a “likeness”…?

Currently leaning towards “likeness”. But stay tuned, progress to come on the weekend! (or sooner if I get tired of studying finance ) Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

I dont think you should copy it completely, after all the base model is amazing!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I dont think you should copy it completely, after all the base model is amazing!

Very true. I really like the sculpt... aside from the head, I think it's perfect. I'm almost certain it'll only be a hair-swap, as the Cypher (tonfa-blade-thingy) the real Strider carries doesn't really mesh too well with WHQ. I just got finished drilling out both arms of the body to put pins into it... does anyone know if they make drills smaller than the GW one? This one was bit tricky and didn't leave me with a lot of material on the OD of his forearm...

-Remi

Good evening! With my midterm finished for finance, I finally had a little bit of time to hobby. Did a bit of work on my newest WHQ miniature. From the previous posts, you can see the original model from the Anima Tactics line. It's an excellent sculpt, but I just wasn't feeling the head. I decided to make him look Strider Hiryu-ish, and not a complete copy, as this is supposed to be a "relax" mini, and not supposed to take forever to do. That being said, here's the results.

Started out by taking a rough file to his dome, and I gotta admit... he kinda looks cool without the four-point hat thingy, and more the wrap-around mask we're all familiar with.



Next came the reconstruction of his brow bone-structure and added eyebrows, as it was all covered by the hat-piece and headband that got filed off.





And finally, I sculpted the hair in two parts, the shorter, shaggy under-stuff, followed by laying and positioning GS strands to make his anime-cut. I took a look at him and figured this was where I was going to stop modelling and start painting.






Anyways, that's it for me! Painting progress pics probably tomorrow? Comments, critiques or questions are always welcome!

-Remi

Good morning! I finally got started on the paint-job for this figurine, and I decided to try a couple of new things out after doing a bit of research- in an attempt to “up the game”. Still not sure about the results, though. For this one, I wanted to give a true heart-felt, attempt at NMM for his sword… which would also mean re-doing it if I wasn’t pleased. In addition, I wanted to try and paint this to a high-standard and try out “complementary color shading”. For those who have no idea what this is (like me when I started reading about it), it’s basically using the opposite color (helps visualize it using a color-wheel) to shade a certain color in order to keep its integrity…

Example? Trying to highlight red by adding white makes pink- instead, use orange and yellows to move upward and greens to shade. Greens, you say?? HERESY~!!

Without further ado, my progress with said-goals.

Here he is in his current incarnation. For the blue, I used oldskool (OS) GW Deadly Nightshade (a navy-blue-black color), and went all the way up using OS GW Regal Blue, and started adding VGC Turquoise to the mix to get something very close to OS Lightning Blue. Can you tell parts of my paint-set are old as sin??



The shadows were done using VA Yellow watered down. (complementary shading) Not sure how well it worked on such a dark base, and honestly, I’m not entirely sold on my efforts for this run. I might actually try it again using a lighter shade of blue to start with, so I actually have a lower shade to go down to… We’ll see. Perhaps it’ll all come-together once I get closer to the finish-line.



And one last picture- the scarf has had nothing but water-thin coats of Mecharite Red done to it to start off with(all the work done in these pics is about 5-6 hours… balls… ). I might up the base to a Red Gore or down a bit to a Scab Red then move up. For the shadows, I’ll be using some sort of green.



What do you think? Comments/critiques are always welcome! Still deciding whether to do a fish-net pattern on his arms (for sure on his chest). Leggings and arm-armor will (hopefully) be a NMM dull metal/silver. Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

I used a green wash for the red on my PMW entry, it definitely does give it a deeper feel.

Have you thought about rehighlighting the blue again? I always prefer to use the wash as an intermediary stage and make sure the last stage is a highlight, makes it pop more and imo look a bit neater, but thats just imo!

Btw, that blue writing is hard as sin to see.

The hair is in the perfect anime style

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I used a green wash for the red on my PMW entry, it definitely does give it a deeper feel.

Have you thought about rehighlighting the blue again? I always prefer to use the wash as an intermediary stage and make sure the last stage is a highlight, makes it pop more and imo look a bit neater, but thats just imo!

Btw, that blue writing is hard as sin to see.

Yea, I noticed the color and similar results to another "Hall of Heroes" figure I made- Cloud Strife. For my work, I actually don't use any washes... just really thin paint. I've thought about re-highlighting the blue, but I brought it down a notch because I thought it was too bright/stark before... I dunno. I'm probably going to start over with a higher base-color then properly shade it down and then back up.

Now that I think about it... I think the reason it looks a bit wierd to me is that now that I look at it, the HLs aren't following any real source of light... the shirt, which is from a bent-over position(shadow) is HL to the same degree as the bent knee, which is out in (more) light). I'll have to do it over and choose a light source before doing the work... again.

As for the blue writing... damn... I picked dark-blue for that one too... ah... do you use "classic/black-gold" for your background? That's probably why. I use "Work-safe" ..

tipios wrote:The hair is in the perfect anime style

Thanks! It's pretty close to what I was going for, thought I had to do it twice for putting too much GS hair the first time around!

Thank you both for stopping by! I'm definitely trying to bring my work up to the next level, and objective advice/critiques are always helpful!


-Remi

Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve been on here with anything of substance. My weekend MBA class took our final class aka “Capstone” nearly one year before we’re actually supposed to finish school. Uh… ooh-kay? But that’s not what I’m here for!

I realize I’ve got several projects going on right now- revitalizing my Inq X-men team, painting random miniatures, a b-day commission Scibor mini, and my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons… and now, I’m adding another. While surfing I found something on another forum called “Samurai Undead”. Johnny B, I have no idea who you are, but your work is fantastic! I love samurai, I love VCs, and I was damned impressed by Johnny B’s work.

Here, see for yourself – http://www.vampirecounts.net/Thread-The-Samurai-Undead

As another slow project, I’m planning on starting with a few leader models, then go into Core units. Every single model will have extensive greenstuff work to make them more Nippon/Cathayan in nature. I am “borrowing” Johnny B's general idea, but going about the creation of these guys my own special way. To start, I did a bit of theme-brainstorming. Without further ado, Part 1 of my VC Theming Idea… thingy.


My ideas for the VC General. I wanted the leader (or one of them) to be youthful-looking, an “eerie beauty”. And who better to copy than the 400-year old alien-inside-me Gackt of Bunraku fame? I believe I’ll be following his armor scheme as well for the whole army- black/blue/purple/gold. I’m having trouble finding a suitable model at the moment.


I found a picture of mummified Buddhist monks from Japan… crazy stuff how they prepared for it, but I saw this pic, and immediately thought of how I could convert the newest plastic necromancer to fit this look… I’ll be replacing the crooked skull staff with a monk ring-stave, as well as making that cool fin-hat on him and moulding his robes to look more like this guy!



The Wight King… Although all skeletons will be turned into samurai, I’d like a few “standout” minis. I saw the Krell Finecast and immediately thought of transforming him. And now that he’s resin, major/minor changes in details won’t be a major pain in the ketsu!



Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding a suitable GW model to base my vampire on. I’m 1) trying to make it all from tourney legal material and 2) currently looking at the Wood Elf wardancer 5-fig set. An order for Krell and the Necro is on the way to get me started.

Stay tuned for more VC theming ideas and progress updates soon!

-Remi

Glad youve got some spare time Remi! Its been a long time without you

This new project sounds awesome, and that thread you linked to.... wow

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Glad youve got some spare time Remi! Its been a long time without you

This new project sounds awesome, and that thread you linked to.... wow

Hey Vit! Yea, it has been entirely too long without my daily/weekly dosage of Dakka... Hope everything is going good with you at Bristol Uni!

I come around every once in a while like a phantom without logging in: watching your, Peter, Baiyuan, and every other friggin' thread that catches my eye... (READ- nearly everything... )

Yea, I found Johnny B's work a few months ago... friggin' amazing work. I want to upgrade the flat lamellar (strip-plating) that he does with a bit more detail, but to do the scale armor (on some of the skellies in front), I'm going to need a knife or thinner tool to do that. It's a shame the guy didn't continue... I would have loved to see the rest of his stuff... but that just gives me more space to work with.

I've got other ideas that are VERY far from his for the other units, but I'll be revealing them as soon as I get money/time/models to work on, so they're not just empty promises. Now if only the post would hurry with my Krell and Necro models.... New updates either this weekend or early next week!

-Remi

Alright... just finished with finals and have two weeks before the new round starts. Man... never knew how much I missed this til I started getting down with the exacto and green stuff...

Anyways, I intent to make the best of this time in between my grad classes and work. Without further ado, the start of my samurai Vampire Counts!... starting with Krell!

I started with scraping the out of the original finecast model... LOL... "finecast", indeed. Lots of pot-holes (horn had a good 1/4 of it missing from the bottom, like an air bubble) as well as one on the hand, and a bend axe) but nothing my GS can't fix. Here's the body before it gets sanded down.



Here's the head with the roman-horsehair-mane thingy and horns chopped off... I never knew how small his head was without the extras...



For his weapon, I know there are axe-weapons in ancient Japanese history, but it didn't seem right to me for this guy. I took an VC skellie champion's arm that I had lying around and used the scimitar as a naginata head. It was already banged-up looking, so that saved me some time. Although you can't see it from the picture, it's actually imbedded in the shaft, like you would an arrowhead. I'll be putting GS on it to further seal it in.


Started putting on his shoulderpads. I did it with older brush protectors (the thick plastic tubes you get with your new paint brushes) cut in half and GSd. Originally, they were supposed to be flat, much like my bug guy... but I decided to try and give this guy's armor some texture as a character model.



Sideview of the new helmet and head-ornament. This was actually the first piece I did, not the body... hence the "learning curve". I'm pleased enough, but I'll be reworking a bit of it with my exacto and sand paper a bit later.



That's it for me tonight. I'll be working every single day for the next two weeks to get my modelling time in. Apologies for the long absence, and comments/critiques always welcome!

-Remi

Hey Remi, youve reared your ugly head!

Loving the work so far, have to agree that the shoulder armour is better than the head armour though!

Cant wait to see what else you come up with for these VC.

LOL, thanks Vit! I’m reading that response, and the following comes to mind…
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… thanks, I think…?

Yea, I was concerned about the helmet's quality and decided to redo it- I think it looks much better now. In addition, continued adding plates of armor to his other shoulder, his legs, and chest. Naked pad before it gets the GS treatment.



Did the left shoulderpad and chest at the same time. More detail to come.



Close-ups of the other shoulder with the head on there, and from the front.





Added detail – with the new helmet. The texturing is much deeper, and matches the rest of the armor.


From the back…



And one final shot of what his enemies see right before they get the axe… er, naginata.




Again, I’ll be thinking about this level of texture/detail work for the footsoldiers… (thinking about 30+ skellies… how about ‘NO’?) Alternately, I’m also thinking about other textures I could use- smooth lamellar plates, scale-style plates, etc. (Just watch the forest scene in Last Samurai and look at their armor very closely… you’ll see what I mean) I think that’d look fantastic with all of those different helmets and accompanying armor styles…

Anywho, thanks for stopping by! Comments/critiques are always welcome!

-Remi

The new helmet looks much better.

Perhaps you could press mould some armour plates? Smooth would look cool, especially if you used a lacquer effect (ie varnishI, scales are always cool too.

You read this? Its pretty cool and could give you some ideas/ background:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33025584/Warhammer-Armies-Nippon

Vitruvian XVII wrote:The new helmet looks much better.

Perhaps you could press mould some armour plates? Smooth would look cool, especially if you used a lacquer effect (ie varnishI, scales are always cool too.

You read this? Its pretty cool and could give you some ideas/ background:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33025584/Warhammer-Armies-Nippon

Thanks Vit! And for the link!!! Great resource material! I'm thinking of how many different suits of armor I can make before dropping the project due to being too complex... That dude with the spikey armor is sweet!

But yea, I've got Krell on the bench, next is a liche/priest/counts-as necromancer from the plastic kit with minor mods. I should also be getting a box of Black Knights and skellies aaaany day now...

I'm also starting to get ideas for rank-n-file vampires... one being based on my all-time favorite samurai- red hair... cross-scars across the cheek... no.. you can't be...

http://www.alafista.com/2011/04/18/new-rurouni-kenshin-anime-series-announced

Probably going to be a DE body/face base and lots of GS, plus a bit of modifying to give him some light-armor aka under-clothes chain mail.

Thanks again and stay tuned!

-Remi

Good morning, Dakka! Nothing too big today, but I got to do a bit more work before going out for b-day dinner with my wife. I did all the work before starting to imbibe, so I think it looks ok… unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the pictures…

… but I finished Krell!! Behold!







And, I received my black knights yesterday in the mail, so I started cutting them out and assembling them…




At this point, I kinda got a weird idea… the obvious idea would be to turn them into these guys…

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But I was looking at the hexwraiths… and thought I could turn them into these guys…

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So, right now, these horses are at a standstill until I figure out exactly what I want- it’s not as if I care if the army is effective… and I will have both types at some point, just trying to figure out which one I want at this moment in time… Anywho, comments and critiques always welcome.

Tonight will probably not have any updates, as I’ll be celebrating my 30th b-day (yet again)…

-Remi

He looks so badass. Armoured like a tank! lol

I love that you used the word imbibe too, i believe im the only person i know who ever uses it!

I would like to see what you could do with the hex wariths with naginatas (?) but that pic of the horseman is so evocative, so he gets my vote

Vitruvian XVII wrote:He looks so badass. Armoured like a tank! lol

I love that you used the word imbibe too, i believe im the only person i know who ever uses it!

I would like to see what you could do with the hex wariths with naginatas (?) but that pic of the horseman is so evocative, so he gets my vote

LOL... thanks! I figured I'd overdo it and ask questions later. His chaos armor was huge, so little plates wouldn't do him justice. That, and leader samurai usually had ridiculously ornate armor. (log leggings going past the knees, but starting from the hips...? ) But he makes it look pretty sweet.

Yea, I figured the samurai pic would be better. That other one just doesn't do the warrior monks justice. Was also my intention to make mounted samurai first... *sigh* Looks like it'll be the next box for my mounted warrior monks. I can't wait to see a small cohort of these guys...

Thanks for stopping by!


- Remi

Good morning and another mini-update for this VC project. Tonight and running into this weekend will be GS work on my first set of 5 black knights as well as my necro-priest.

I’ve started putting the plastic necro kit together, but due to the head being so close to the staff-holding-hand, I’ll be assembling that later, AFTER I put on his pointy-thingy- see below for example. I originally had an idea to make him a skeleton, but seeing as how I’d be having cairn wraiths here too, I’ll be keeping him human. (er, whatever is left but not quite undead)







I also thought I’d get more work done on the knights- I love the new kit, and if I wasn’t so hard-up on making them into samurai, I’d paint them as-is. Unfortunately, I’m trying to get them away as far away from their Euro counterparts as possible, and that means having to grind away at their horses barding.







Did Japanese samurai have barding on their horses? Quick and dirty answer is “no”. Most prints and artwork done have them riding saddled horses, but no armor. A bit of research shows they actually did have armor… though, how often it was used is beyond me. It looks like leader-only gear, but seeing as how the BK knights all have crusader-style cloth on their horses, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have it on all of them, in varying forms/lengths. Like so-


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Also started with the champion’s sword arm. Seeing as how they all need katanas, I’m running out of ideas as to how to make more weapons, quickly. Obvious solution is plasticard, but that adds to the “custom-construction” time along with the armor and helmet ornaments. Might have to research press-moulding after all…




Anywho, that’s it for me. I’ll be working a bit more tonight, hopefully starting the GS work on the necro and a bit of GS work on the first knight while constructing/chopping apart the others. Comments and critiques are always welcome. Also expecting a batch of foot-skellies this weekend, so I’ll start work on them as well.

-Remi

Amazing work man, a lot of creativity there! It is not all for 40k is it?

darkcloud92 wrote:Amazing work man, a lot of creativity there! It is not all for 40k is it?

Thanks for stopping by and the compliment! No, these guys are for Fantasy, or at least... in my heart of hearts, a shot at Armies on Parade 2013.

Not too much of an update, I recently got my claws onto a copy of Mass Effect 3, and saving the galaxy from the enemy is really cutting into my motivation to do any modelling...

I started the funky hat on the necromancer, but I need a bit more theming to really have him stick out as a monk-priest... he still resembles a European alchemist... or peasant...

Also tried working on the leaf-scale for the Black Knight you see in the previous post. Yikes... that was horrid. He'll be the only one like that. I'll be doing lamellar and other, simpler versions of samurai armor for the rest of the knights and armored characters I make. Thre rest of the knights have had their euro-barding cut off, and awaiting a sanding job to clean up the cuts.

Updates coming soon... as soon as I can pull myself away from kicking Reaper arse...

-Remi

Not too much of an update, I recently got my claws onto a copy of Mass Effect 3, and saving the galaxy from the enemy is really cutting into my motivation to do any modelling...

Enjoy the game! I did up until the end. We'll see you in the ME3 Discussion thread when you're done so you have a shoulder to cry on and people to vent to.

I really like the feel of the army, and your inspiration shots really help sell what you're going for. There's tons of Japanese/Chinese myth you can dig into to create interesting and exciting stuff for the army, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Enjoy the game! I did up until the end. We'll see you in the ME3 Discussion thread when you're done so you have a shoulder to cry on and people to vent to.

I really like the feel of the army, and your inspiration shots really help sell what you're going for. There's tons of Japanese/Chinese myth you can dig into to create interesting and exciting stuff for the army, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Ah yes... I've heard of the ending and the reactions to it from a cousin of mine who already beat it... I'd love to join- post a link to that thread so I can get into it. If they do any discussion about MP and the weapons, I can go into that. I might break up this VC army by making a Necro/I-Munda killteam based on the Mass Effect races.

Anywho, without derailing my entire thread- yea, I need the images: I'm familiar enough with the culture and history... but never knew they had barding, for example... and this army is all about theme, lest it become half-samurai, half-VC and fail to get the message across...

Thanks for the comment and check back every once in a while- I'm sure my shame will force me away from saving the galaxy to continuing the undead!

-Remi

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/436319.page

Careful! THAR BE SPOILERS!

Beat the game before delving into that wretched hive of scum and whatnot. I try to keep upbeat about things, but you know how the internet can be.

I was also thinking about making up an N7 Killteam... might use Infinity models though, they have a more svelte appearance. If I could Sculpt I really really want to make a Turian, but I can't sculpt a smiley face.

I've always like Samurai themed everything. There's such a stance of nobility and sheer badass that comes with the masks on the helmets and the weapons they wield. I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, and I'll be watching to make sure!

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/436319.page

Careful! THAR BE SPOILERS!

Beat the game before delving into that wretched hive of scum and whatnot. I try to keep upbeat about things, but you know how the internet can be.

I was also thinking about making up an N7 Killteam... might use Infinity models though, they have a more svelte appearance. If I could Sculpt I really really want to make a Turian, but I can't sculpt a smiley face.

I've always like Samurai themed everything. There's such a stance of nobility and sheer badass that comes with the masks on the helmets and the weapons they wield. I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, and I'll be watching to make sure!

Roger that. I'll get into the ME3 thread after I finish then. Hopefully it'll still be alive and kicking at that time...?

Infinity sounds like a good place to start, and actually, my original Pimp My Wizard closed-comp entry hosted by members Baiyuan and PDH was supposed to be a grimdark Garrus Vakkarian stalking ruins. Turned into a crazy Vespid merc assassin/warrior. Both good, just a major 180 turn in plans..



I was planning on using the Kroot head with major cutting and GS work for a more-humanoid/raptor look.... either way, the above is what it ended up as, and I'm happy with it.

And yes, samurai's are sweet. I'll be getting down to working more GS stuff on the guys tonight, as I've got a very early morning tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates, and thanks for stopping by.

I'd like to see your attempt at a Garrus in the 40k universe. Anyway, back to playing ME3...

Baiyuan wrote:I'd like to see your attempt at a Garrus in the 40k universe. Anyway, back to playing ME3...

LOL... challenge accepted... probably after I finish ME3, though...

-Remi

... no seriously, I'm going to do it. I've been wanting a ME3 killteam since I played the first one. I just need the time to put it into my schedule. Possibly between units of VC Samurai.

If you can cast it, I will give all of the Credits. ALL OF THEM.

I mean... I might be able to model up an Asari, but really, who couldn't?

Maybe cast little M8 Avengers... *mind wanders*

Good afternoon and sorry for the long delay. ME3 Adept + Inferno/Infernus Armor = I AM IRONMAN!!

Back to the game. I finished studies a bit early and started on the first mounted troops. It's been a good long while since I used GS, and whatever I learned from the PMW contest has probably gone out due to the lack of practice...

Here are the three "test" armors I've been working on. Some will have the Western style iron-plate chest piece, and I'm trying to do lamellar strips, as well as scales. The one on the right will probably be the only one of its kind... it's very hard to do and adds to the pre-paint work that I really don't have. They'll be getting a sanding too, to keep it smooth and neat(er) looking.



And a side view for the leg armor. The leaf-scale armor will be the only one. I'm having a hard time copying that, so it'll be one of the other styles of leg armor (strips, wide-scales, detailed strips) and matching chest plate.



Tonight, I plan to continue my work (after schoolwork) on the at least the Black Knight Champion's arms/shoulderpads. I'll also get some armor on the remaining 2 knights. And if I'm really lucky/prodigious... I'll start on my skeletons on-foot!

Comments and critiques are always welcome, especially GS tips at this point! Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

Very nice, fwiw, the scaled gs looks great!

I like the lamellar strips too, not quite sure about the squares though, what are they supposed to be?

As for tips, when sculpting inorganic materials, i tend to mix in more blue, so the gs generally keeps its edge better. Also, sculpt it messy and then cut the edges in after its cured a couple of hours.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Very nice, fwiw, the scaled gs looks great!

I like the lamellar strips too, not quite sure about the squares though, what are they supposed to be?

As for tips, when sculpting inorganic materials, i tend to mix in more blue, so the gs generally keeps its edge better. Also, sculpt it messy and then cut the edges in after its cured a couple of hours.

Thanks, I assume you mean the guy on the right? *groan* That means I have to make more of them... the thing is, the scales don't look the same as the leaf-leg scales that come on the GW models... I might just have to cover them as well.

The squares were my attempt after little to no practice for several months and several glasses of gin/tonic. Yea... probably going to redo them tonight.

And thanks for the tip- I think the right-most guy had more green than blue, the lamellar strips and the square-guy had too much yellow. And too much drunk.

I'll be working on the necromancer and the rest of the knights... or maybe complete the three I've got going here. We'll see how much I can squeeze in!

-Remi

Good morning and sorry for the long delay. It’s hard get into the modeling mood when Reapers are setting the galaxy on fire.. that, and GS takes so long to cure. But I did get a bit of time yesterday and continued work on my mounted samurai and my necromancer.

Without further ado, let’s get to some pictures!

Here’s the work on the Necro-priest guy. I believe I would have been more pleased had I used a skeleton head instead of the natural nasty-old-guy head that came with the kit. He’s also in need of a bit more theming, I think- I just not sure at the moment where to do it on the model. He’s got the hat with the neck-flap thingy, but not much else that brings him into the samurai-Japanese world.




And a back shot for more detail- I tore up the back to make it match the rest of his gear.



Right now I have two ideas for him, so he isn’t going to get primed/painted just yet. One is to shave down his ripped sleeves- the priests and in general, traditional kimono clothing have “long and triangular” sleeves, but that’s all but gone because it’s all torn up. I could cut/shave them off then rebuild them with greenstuff. Another idea is to put two GS strips going down both shoulders to his knees/feet, tied off at his belt. I’ll give it a bit more thought later.


And next we have the samurai. I made a decent batch of GS and did 4 helmets/heads and one leg-pad with zero to no waste. I gotta admit, I’m pretty pleased with myself, as I usually end up not being able to use half of the stuff I make… or worse, not enough.

Here they are all lined up. I decided to do one guy without a helmet, and there’s a close-up of him below.



Here’s the guy who had the crap-square leggings a few posts back. I decided to redo the pads- he’ll have a western-style iron chest plate and the fine-grain leggings/helmet.



Samurai-sans-helmet. I decided to give this guy a chon-mage or topknot. The head had a bullet-shot in the front and exit on the back. Covered that with GS, then moulded the rest before detailing with my hobby knife. I’ve still got to add a small bit in the back of the head for the knot detail and he’s finished (or at least, that part of him is).



And the last guy. Yes, I’m keeping the horns.



The helmets need a bit of sanding and cutting to make them more neat, but overall, I’m pretty pleased with the look of them. After that, I'll add the helmet ornaments out of plasticard.

That’s it for now. As always, comments and critiques are always welcome. Any ideas for the priest to make him look more like this guy below?




Thanks in advance!

-Remi

For the priest it just seems like the head-bit needs to be more vertical and pointy. Make it look like it's practically standing up by itself.

The Necromancer needs a really really long fu-man-chu. Like one of those ridiculous Confucious mustaches, I think it would really start to pull the character into the theme a bit more.

No idea how to sculpt it of course.

The knights (samurai) look good so far! I'd like to see another shot of the skull guy, because the topknot looks well sculpted.

Keep it up chief!

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:For the priest it just seems like the head-bit needs to be more vertical and pointy. Make it look like it's practically standing up by itself.

The Necromancer needs a really really long fu-man-chu. Like one of those ridiculous Confucious mustaches, I think it would really start to pull the character into the theme a bit more.

No idea how to sculpt it of course.

The knights (samurai) look good so far! I'd like to see another shot of the skull guy, because the topknot looks well sculpted.

Keep it up chief!

Thanks! I'll try that out tonight (fudgecakes... more stuff to sculpt... ) I'll go at it first with some sandpaper to see if I can't shape what's already there... then maybe add some height to it?

LOL... dunno if they had fu-man-chus... but hell, might as well try that out too! I agree though, without radical changes to the structure of the mini (which I love), I think it'd be good to change the face (which I hate) to pull it more in-line and "ancient Asian".

And thanks for the compliments. I'll take a front shot of the Topknot tonight along with any other work I pull off. Tonight's schedule will be leg armor for all BK torsos, helmet for the last guy, ornaments... and possibly shoulder pads and forearm armor if I have time.

Thanks again for stopping by!

-Remi

Good morning and welcome to another progress update of Undead Samurai! After a long day at work, I got a bit of modeling into my schedule before turning my attention to school work. Here are the results of that progress.

Took a bit of time (and a scalpel) to the Necro’s hat, going on Chem Cutthroat’s suggestion to make the hat a bit taller and pointier. Cut it down, sanded it, and added a tad bit of GS for height. I’ll be sanding it down more after it hardens. Looks a bit better, but still not pushing the envelope for me, so to speak.



Also as requested by Cutthroat, a close-up of the helmetless samurai. Voila- the skellie in all his funky glory! It’s kinda hard to tell, but he does have a lower jaw, just, doing some crazy screaming-mimi face. That, and the hauberk is kinda getting in the way.



And one more, just for kicks, and because the front shot doesn’t actually show a whole lot of detail.



And finally, a group shot. Most of my time was taken up 1) making a final helmet (back) and 2) carving up a bunch of helmet ornaments and sticking them on. In case you’re wondering, one guy’s ornament is from an Epic Ork Warwagon of some sort with claws on it. You’ll notice one guy doesn’t have his yet. I plan to make his ornament a gunbai dansen, or warfan. Like so-
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Anyway, that’s it for me for now. I’ll be getting a bit more work done over the weekend. I think after I finish converting these mounted guys, I’m going to take a break and start painting up the squad and Krell.

Comments and critiques are always welcome!

-Remi

I like the crests on the Samurai, it really brings a lot to the models.

I was right the topknot sculpt looks awesome, escpecially on that skull!

Jury is still out on the necromancer. I think we all know the effect you're obviously trying to go for, it just seems to be having trouble getting translated to the model.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I like the crests on the Samurai, it really brings a lot to the models.

I was right the topknot sculpt looks awesome, escpecially on that skull!

Jury is still out on the necromancer. I think we all know the effect you're obviously trying to go for, it just seems to be having trouble getting translated to the model.

Thanks! I can't wait until they have the shoulder armor as well to complete the look. And yea, topknot is probably my favorite right now.

... I'll probably leave the Necro for a while- something will come to me eventually, but it's just not coming together in that mini yet. Might experiment with the fu-man-chu 'stache tonight just for kicks.

Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

The topknot looks great Remi.

I feel the necros hat needs to be pointier still, like in the image it literally tapers to a point. A fu man chu, while not technically thematic (perhaps, i dunno really) would look freaking awesome! Plus it would drive home the japanese theme. I think paint will help too.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:The topknot looks great Remi.

I feel the necros hat needs to be pointier still, like in the image it literally tapers to a point. A fu man chu, while not technically thematic (perhaps, i dunno really) would look freaking awesome! Plus it would drive home the japanese theme. I think paint will help too.

LOL... Pointer still?? Yea, I'm thinking the 'stache is one of the only ways to get it across, along with the paint job.

I did a bit more assembly work, knights will be about 90% finished with the next update. Stay tuned!

-Remi

Welcome back to another installment. Thanks to an extended 3-day weekend, I was able to do a bit more work. I realize you might be saying, “Sweet lord, these BKs are taking for-friggin’-ever!” (at least I am)… but the cutting and modification has left more problems that I initially did not anticipate.

Here are the boys… pretty much done. One guy very nearly complete, only missing shin/forearm guards. The others are in various states of completion. But on a whole, I’d say the major work is nearly 80% complete, with the fix-up stuff around 25%.



Here’s the nearly complete guy. He might be one a few I’ll keep with this style of armor, as it’s very plain… and not quite as cool looking as the textured stuff. I say “nearly complete” as cutting off the barding from his legs has left a nasty space between him and the horse… making all the knights look like they’re hovering above the saddle.



A shot of the crosshatch scale Champion. I just realized right now they all need sheathed swords too… balls. I’ll be cutting down the edge of his armor and smoothing it out with sandpaper.



Remember how I mentioned “fix-up” stuff? I want to armor their legs as well, but the cloth draped around them obviously shows only bone. So I’m building up a bit of robe to accomodate the shin-guards they've got underneath. And covering up those nasty crevices between rider/horse while I'm at it.



I’ll be taking close-ups of the others once I finish more of their armor-

If you take a look at the first pic, I’ve given them names to distinguish them- (from the left)

Gorget - Needs arms, shoulder pads, forearm guards and shinguard leg-fixes (50% completed)
Champion – Needs one more shoulder pad and one more shinguard leg-fix (90%)
Saw Crest – Needs one more shoulder pad and both shinguard leg-fixes (70%)
Top Knot – Needs both shoulder pads and both shinguard leg-fixes (60%)
Lamellar – Needs shinguard leg-fixes (90%)

Anyways, that’s it for now. I’ll have more updates tomorrow! Comments/critiques are always welcome!

-Remi

-EDIT- And I TOTALLY lied in my previous post saying they'd be "90% complete". Not. Even. Close.

Yeah, but they still look damn good.

I can never give an estimate on when something is done, cause I'll inevitably find more stuff to do.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Yeah, but they still look damn good.

I can never give an estimate on when something is done, cause I'll inevitably find more stuff to do.

How very true… And now I’ve got this to look forward to for 20? 30? Skeletons? More?

I wasn’t able to get any work done yesterday, but did manage to get a bit of research done into the art of “casting”. Yes, the dark art of casting.. Fortunately, I just want to cast GS samurai armor pads and possibly sheathed-samurai-swords that I make to expedite the process into painting. No friggin’ way in hell am I making 4 pcs (shouders x 2 and leggings x 2) x 30 = 120 pads+??


Thanks for stopping by! (lol, one of two faithful followers!) More to come tonight, as I know for certain I'm getting out of work on-time!

-Remi

Thanks for stopping by! (lol, one of two faithful followers!)

You do good work! So I always look forward to updates.

Besides, I know how important motivation can be, and it's always nice to know someone has their eye on your work.

And I can always be holding our for that Garrus conversion eh'?

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:

Thanks for stopping by! (lol, one of two faithful followers!)

You do good work! So I always look forward to updates.

Besides, I know how important motivation can be, and it's always nice to know someone has their eye on your work.

And I can always be holding our for that Garrus conversion eh'?

True again! LOL... fine, fine. I'll up the ME3 killteam on the list from "N7" to "Priority" status. It'll be something like this for a schedule-

Finish Mounted Samurai
Start painting on Krell
Start painting on Mounted Samurai
(probably get bored of painting in between and start work on Garrus conversion)

To start, I'll need to consider which version I want to do- definitely not ME1 with all the different "generic" armors, ME2 is a nice possibility as it's iconic, or ME3 (default, as much as I love his guerilla fighter alternate constume).

...Heavy conversion using Tau parts (upper body, shoulder pads, leg pads and leg form) with extensive GS work plus gs'd kroot head, custom weapon with brass tube/plasticard/gs

...I'll have to check the infinity line to see if they have any minis I can modify with any success. The problem will be the turian legs. They're bent back, but not so much so, plus little spikey knee-thingy bits. All covered in armor. And next biggest is the fact that Infinity minis are all metal... which I'm not as fond of in terms of chopping apart.

Alternately, I can start with Commander Shepard (canon dude), and need to find the most handsomest (preferably bald) head I can from any model lines out there.

-Remi

I'd just rock him with the helmet and cheat horribly.

I think you could look at a lot of the Combined Army models for Infinity, since they have some weird-legged aliens that aren't too oddball. The problem with those is they tend to be a hair smaller in proportion than the 40K models, so a Kroot head might look ridiculously out of place.

It might be a better bet just to browse through some of the more random model lines in the hopes of stumbling over something perfect for conversion, but those are even more likely to all be metal, which I know is a pain to modify.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:I'd just rock him with the helmet and cheat horribly.

I think you could look at a lot of the Combined Army models for Infinity, since they have some weird-legged aliens that aren't too oddball. The problem with those is they tend to be a hair smaller in proportion than the 40K models, so a Kroot head might look ridiculously out of place.

It might be a better bet just to browse through some of the more random model lines in the hopes of stumbling over something perfect for conversion, but those are even more likely to all be metal, which I know is a pain to modify.

LOL... yea, I've gotta do him without the helmet and the messed-up face. I'll be researching this inbetween my other projects... more coming soon. But for now, another update!

I’m pleased to say I actually finished three of the five knights yesterday night! (and this is a lie, because they still need swords at their sides… ) In addition, I finished all the GS to cover the spaces between the horses and their legs. Not too shabby! Without further ado, the finished guys-

Sawcrest- gave him both textured shoulders and leggings, and he’s keeping his Western-style breastplate with the three-fork icon



Champion- he’ll probably be one of the few with the funky scale armor, as 1) it’s kinda hard to make and 2) the end result isn’t quite “samurai” in my eyes. But pleased he’s done!



Lamellar- This guy I was pleased with as he does look like a samurai, but his armor is a bit plain. I’ll be doing some texture work with the paint (scratches and such) to add detail to his flat-surface plating.



And as a sneak peek, I’ve got a single shoulderpad and leggings (possibly gloves?) to finish on Topknot before he’s finished. Definitely my favorite of the group.



I’m also thinking of adding the samurai face-masks to one or two of these guys… something like this…


Thanks for stopping by! Comments and critiques are always welcome! There’ll probably be one or two more updates before I start painting these guys!

-Remi

Yeah, I really like the nice, flat bits of armor. They fit perfectly, look easier to sculpt, and look perfect for the theme. Texture be damned, a bit of chipped up laquer and those would looke perfectly in theme.

I can't wait to see them once they get all primered up and everything. Once you get that first coating on and it blends everything together it really makes the GS work stand out.

Im a faithful follower! Lol. Shame i can barely access the net these days

Theyre looking great. Youve finally sort of finished one! Congrats.

One of those oni type masks would look sweet. You given any thought into including any japanese mythological spirits?

On the subject of casting, do it! If you cant be bothered to fully go resin casting, grab some instant mold or something like that, those kinda armour plates would take well to press moulding.

On a side note, youve inspired me to bust out the GS and sculpt for the first time in ages. The end product may or may not fit with this project and may or may not accidentally fall into a box labelled with your address.......

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Yeah, I really like the nice, flat bits of armor. They fit perfectly, look easier to sculpt, and look perfect for the theme. Texture be damned, a bit of chipped up laquer and those would looke perfectly in theme.

Thanks! I like it as well, but I'm more partial to Krell/the other two mounted guy's armor with the detailed bitz. Either way, I'll have a good variation going for everyone.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Im a faithful follower! Lol. Shame i can barely access the net these days

On a side note, youve inspired me to bust out the GS and sculpt for the first time in ages. The end product may or may not fit with this project and may or may not accidentally fall into a box labelled with your address.......

LOL, yes! Yes you are! One of two! I suppose Jesus started in a way much like this, although I'm far from that particular religious figure.

And WHOA!! You gonna make me something?? Ahaha ha ha! Lookin' forward to whatever might fall into the box along with the order.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:One of those oni type masks would look sweet. You given any thought into including any japanese mythological spirits?

That's a very good question, actually. And yes, I have. When I first thought about doing this, I had several ideas for the units to make them "fit in" a bit better. I made a theme-file of ideas and brainstorms to further play with. Here are a few of the ideas.

Dire Wolves


Vargheists


Spirit Hosts - using the zombie bits I'm taking off your hands. (the kuchisake-onna (slit-mouth woman) might be my banshee, if I don't end up making her the plate-breaking servant girl ghost...






Something like that. And then the link you uploaded got me thinking Hexwraiths into Warrior Monks w/ naginatas. But yes, like we spoke about over PM, I'm taking 40K Fenrisian wolves to turn them into 9-tail wolves, possibly with a brighter aqua or tangerine-creme color scheme as "ghost wolves" counts as Dire Wolves for the next unit after 10-15 skellies.

-Remi

Yeah, its been kinda fun sculpting from scratch again! Ive always wanted to do a Nippon army so its been a welcome distraction from revision!

They all look pretty damn cool, cant wait to see how the 'ninetails' turn out.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Yeah, its been kinda fun sculpting from scratch again! Ive always wanted to do a Nippon army so its been a welcome distraction from revision!

They all look pretty damn cool, cant wait to see how the 'ninetails' turn out.

You've piqued my interest... I'm wondering what it is you could be sculpting...? Wanna add WIP pics to this blog for me to drool over?? (and totally blow my crap out of the water?) And sculpting from scratch... not a conversion, a complete GS sculpture?

And yes, I've dreamt about making a samurai army for a very long time... it started with Empire troops... (seriously, I'll bust out old plastics from 10 years ago with my "test" armor, never got to assembling them fully though- pics when I get back to my parents' house in the burbs)

In terms of my own progress, not too much to report. Pleased to say I finally finished a strip of GS I bought maybe 2.5 years ago? Started with a freshly bought batch from GW and it was very... soft. I used it to make more foot/shin guards and fill in the shoulder-arm areas for a few of the samurai, as I glued them at "off" angles without cutting them apart and reforming the arm to make it look like they're holding the reins of their horses instead of holding a shield.

Nine-tail wolves will be coming next month. I stopped by a FLGS on the way back to the office from a business trip to pick up some plasticard to chop for head ornaments and feet-raising (so they don't "sink" into the snow and basing"), plus some rectangular-rod to cut/bend/melt into sheathed swords for nearly all of the incoming troops. More progress tonight.

-Remi

Alright i guess a sneaky wip cant hurt...

First is just a random samurai skelly i messed around with, the second is a kabuki vamp

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Alright i guess a sneaky wip cant hurt...

First is just a random samurai skelly i messed around with, the second is a kabuki vamp

Spoiler:

Friggin' awesome!

You plan to outdo my "standard" formula for skellies- they weren't supposed to have much clothing, so erm... if/when that guy arrives at my doorstep, I'll be making him a champion!

And as for the vampire- very interesting! I'm looking forward to what you're planning on using for the head.. the rest of it looks really good: the solid lines of the kimono and the sleeves.

Thanks again! That pesky thing called school (and Mass Effect) got in the way during the weekend- I'll be doing more modelling and hopefully primer/paint work tonight.

-Remi

Great Stuff... looking forward to more updates from you

Regnak wrote:Great Stuff... looking forward to more updates from you

Thanks, Regnak! Here's the newest from the phantom forge!

As the title update states- these figs are FINISHED! I'm waiting for the primer to dry out completely and set before painting them as we speak (er, as I write?).

These guys are done! Finished Gorget's shoulder pads, and also added GS to the backs o the saddles to make the transition more seamless between the figures' components.


Then I figured they needed weapons if their lances broke (preferably on their enemies)- so I made a trip to my FLGS to get some plasticard. Shaped, and added a bit of GS on the ends and mid-edges to get a handguard for each. Yes, I realize they are a bit "thicker"... no, I'm not going to do them over.



Close-up of the blade. Every handle-butt and sheath-end have different patterns of holes. And there are a few variations on the tsuba/handguards.



And in addition, did a bit of work on the Necro... LOL... managed to put a fu-man-chu on this guy... and he looks even MORE ridiculous... Be honest, he looks like Gandalf, doesn't he...


And just to finish it off, I made his hat even TALLER.


That's it for this update. I'm going to start painting Krell and the knights. And that's it for this d-bag necromancer. I'm going to rely on the paint to convey my ideas. If he blows, he won't be making the family photo a year down the road. Comments and critiques are always welcome- helps me improve what I do!

-Remi

Haha that fu man chu is awesome. Honestly think it makes him look more oriental

How about some eyebrow strands as well? I love those old dudes in kung fu films with eyebrows as long as beards

The knights look ace man, really well done. Cant wait to see em with paint.

As for paint schemes, this is pretty cool:




And found this awesome image too

Well the paint is what I'm waiting for!

The swords were a good call, even if they are a little thick.

I think the creepy necromancer looks alright. I think the facial hair is a good touch, but I guess we'll have to see if he eventually looks like your inspiration.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Haha that fu man chu is awesome. Honestly think it makes him look more oriental

How about some eyebrow strands as well? I love those old dudes in kung fu films with eyebrows as long as beards

The knights look ace man, really well done. Cant wait to see em with paint.

As for paint schemes, this is pretty cool:

Spoiler:

And found this awesome image too

Spoiler:

Thanks, Vit! Appreciate it. I've decided to do my original- black, purple/blue, gold accents. Looks kinda like the 2nd picture... feels good to get back into the saddle and paint again...

Chem Cutthroat wrote:Well the paint is what I'm waiting for!

The swords were a good call, even if they are a little thick.

I think the creepy necromancer looks alright. I think the facial hair is a good touch, but I guess we'll have to see if he eventually looks like your inspiration.

LOL... thanks. I still look at him and think of this guy...


YOU SHALL NOT PASS!!

I'll probably add superlong eyebrows to Necro-Gandalf, just to complete his ridiculous look.

As to progress, I did start airbrushing some black onto the armor and horse-blankets. Did the base of one guy minus static grass and snow and took pics. However, I won't be able to put them up til this Thursday. Heading out to FL and AZ on business... ugh...

Anywho, stay tuned, and I'll get back to blogging progress as soon as I can!

-Remi

Hey Remi, saw this and thought of you.

http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28sold01.htm

It's not Garrus, but it's my favorite model on the Citadel...

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Hey Remi, saw this and thought of you.

http://www.brother-vinni.com/gallery/28mm/m28sold01.htm

Awesome! That not-Shepard model carrying a not-Avenger... It looks like a great choice! I'm not too fond of the head though- a bit too brutish, and not Sheploo enough. To be fair though, my shep is a custom code to look like Andy "Rain-Bringer" Whitfield, God rest his soul.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:

It's not Garrus, but it's my favorite model on the Citadel...

LOL

As for myself, I got back from a grueling race from FL to AZ... one 19-hour day in there, early departures... yea, suffice to say I was not in the mood to paint when I came home yesterday. I'll have updates this weekend after school!

-Remi

... on hiatus.. surprise surprise... Last update was mid-April, but classes got in the way yet again.

Actually, no. This is legit. VitruvianXVII and I are working on an =][= Munda campaign to be made available for public consumption on our duo-blog, Shadows Over Vanaheim. My FINAL MBA classes are not as difficult, providing me with a rigid schedule and definite time to collaborate/paint/model.

Stay tuned (over there), as I'll be presenting most of my work on our newly made site! Thanks again. I'll be back here if I've got something non-=][= related, but for now, focusing on the summer project!

Check us out- http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/455099.page

-Remi