I would never use an image editor, I mean omg I don't even know what a computer is.
Mildred bein all gross n stuff.
All organic areas are finished now, just need to do the metal floats and wooden spurs. Getting tired of how warm the light from my lightbox set is, she is definitely colder and greener in the hand but capturing it without a stark white light is hard. Then again people say yellower daylight bulbs are better but mannnnn I don’t know, I’m still on the line.
Well, I don't know how it's supposed to look, but what I see is really fantastic!
White balance is always a tricky thing. I usually correct in PS, but I recently found a custom setting for white balance in my camera that is a little warmer than what I see outside of the camera, but I really like how it makes the minis look so I've been sticking with it.
Urien_Rakarth wrote: Disgusting.
Can you post a bit about how you do your boats/ the water as my Dreadfleet is still hanging around at home and I would really appreciate some help?!
Thx Iffy
I wrote up a step by step a while back but now can't find it! Derp :(
Basically, I start with a very deep blue and start drybrushing it through lighter shades up to a nice strong bright blue, like the old enchanted blue. Once I have enough contrast, I give it a full wash in a mix of green and blue washes with no water to shade it down and give it some nice colour shifts.
I drybrush it again up to the enchanted blue and add a little white for drybrushing wave peaks, making sure that they get lighter as the wave gets taller. I then wash all the waves with just green wash, and wash all the deepest areas with blue wash so the swells in the water are slightly paler and show more green.
Then it's a case of watering some wash and carefully going over the areas I want to be greener or darker, drybrushing the swells once more, then painting on fine lines of white where the water breaks at the top. I finish it all up with a gloss coat for shiney niceness
I am working extra shifts at work this week but have still been getting as much painting done as I can, here is a teeny update of some Blood Bowl amazon ladies that are now finished bar their bases (I will try to get shots today if it's not busy)
These are still early wip, meant to be tabletop but I went a bit crazy :S I don’t think their uniforms are a good idea for a game that involves beating each other to a pulp and kicking a ball covered in spikes, but hey, to each their own.
Getting back to Pm's today, I have a few If you pm'd me and I havn't responded in the next 8 hours, spam here. Seriously spam me here, I am being a numpty.
Ifalna wrote:
These are still early wip, meant to be tabletop but I went a bit crazy :S I don’t think their uniforms are a good idea for a game that involves beating each other to a pulp and kicking a ball covered in spikes, but hey, to each their own.
There you go again, applying logic to the magic/space universe of grimdarky and point ears. Tsk. You women. So logical.
Ifalna wrote: Getting back to Pm's today, I have a few If you pm'd me and I havn't responded in the next 8 hours, spam here. Seriously spam me here, I am being a numpty.
Okay, you asked for it!
I posted a few times in the thread here and PM'ed you asking if the juggernaut and rider were ever completed, if there were final pics of the two together anywhere, etc. I would love to get an answer sometime
I have no new "interesting" updates on the juggy, I can't bring him to work as he is far too intricate to risk transporting so I can only work on him at home, it's going slow but I hope to have an update soon
I managed to crunch my ankle pretty badly this morning by trying to stand up without realising my leg had gone dead (cat sitting on it strangely) and sprained it sideways really badly, so I'm sitting here angrily typing with a sore leg :( Such a clutz. Will actually have juggy updates ( and fishy ones) tomorrow as long as I'm not super sore. Derp.
Oh Iff incase you hadn't noticed, your sig seems to be a bit out of date. It still says all your commission slots are still booked. Unless of course you mean booked until this new years. In which case you are gonna be busy.
Belatedly... Happy St. Patrick's Day Iffy! Wife is making your Dublin Coddle today to celebrate (a day late... but I was gone all day yesterday). Hope yours was a great one.
Ifalna is having difficulties uploading some new pictures to the Dakka gallery at the minute, but they're up on Facebook - the above Amazon team, with several now completed, and a 24 hour Slann team which looks to have been converted from Kroot Mercenaries.
I just went through 132 pages of having my mind blown over and over again. Thank you Ifalna! That was well worth the time! Great inspiration. I might actually manage to pick up a brush again!
There has been 2 things Iffy has done that has really floored me with her skills. That batch of squigs, every one of them looked great and some of them were TINY! And those Dreadfleet ships. When she posted a pic comparing the sizes of those ships, I about crapped my pants.
And yea, I liked her Facebook page, thanks for sharing that link
Well, she is updating her business FB and her personal FB. She has a full time job now. Her commisssion backlog is huge, and she appears to be grinding her way through some cool video games.
And then there is her menagerie...
I would say that she is just very, very busy right now.
I'm sorry for the leave of abscense, working full time is killing me, but not really killing me because I absolutely love it. Complaining about it feels rather wrong because it is the perfect job for me, but I am doing all my updates quickly while at work and then rumming it up and dying on my weekends.
We just finished the Dragons maze prerelease and release for magic the gathering which was an INSANE week, and I wanted to post loads of stuff when I finally got back here so prepare your eyes, it's uploadin time!!
I have some Pm's to get back to and news for commissioners so I will be in contact shortly, I have a lovely day off today and will be making the most of it. Ahhhhh days off.. mmm.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Oh and thanks so much for keeping it running JB and Dysartes! I have indeed just been ridiculously busy and all my updates are quick iphone ones from work, which Dakka does not like it seems. Facebook has been all I've been managing.
That in fairness does not excuse me not updating when I come home but I've literally just been eating dinner and passing out most days!
Thanks Ifalna, but Gitsplitta and Dysartes were doing the thread running. I was only appealing for sanity and understanding from the crowd with the pitchforks.
Looking forward to any pic update but don't burn yourself out.
Glad you popped in Iffy. Also glad that real work is fitting into your life so well. Exciting, fun, rewarding... all good things. We, poor unwashed masses at the alter of Iffy can wait.
Hey Iff good to have you back (again). Try not to burn yourself out to much.
Has a quick squiz at your stuff on stalkerbook. Love the big spider. All black and creepy and real looking. Any chance of a close of they eyes? They look absoutely gorgeous.
First up, the tiny ladies for the blood bowl team.
These really are super tiny, I'm sorry if some have been posted before, I'm just doing to drop everything here.
and a size comparison with a very flustered Space Marine...
These were gorgeous when finished, especially the hawk holder and dark little star player ( I gave her a tiny thigh heart tattoo) but I don't have any photos of them at the moment as they were used for a blood bowl tourney immediately!
They all died within the first couple of turns, it was hilarious. I've never seen players die so fast before, they were totally cursed. The owner won best sport though so it all worked out grand!
Dr H wrote:Good to see you back If.
Nice skin tones.
Thanks man, and sorry for the absence. Seriously crazy busy times for me recently, but good times! Super good times.
Dysartes wrote:Nice Amazons, Ifalna - will Delilah be making an appearance soon?
YES.
Briancj wrote:The 4th one, with the blonde hair. I have never seen hair done so well. FanTASTIC job.
Thank you! That was an experiment, the owner wanted yellow blonde hair but I snuck in that nice ash one with layerings of wash, she turned out nice! Also, giant boobies.
Gitsplitta wrote:The exposed bustiness of those figures is a real hoot. But, the painting looks just great!
They are so over the top its hilarious, is the one bending over and giggling in there?? Oh man, I need to get shots of her, she was the best.
Here's some more tidbits, some crazy forest bases I was working on -
using army painter basing kits, moss, ivy, grass clumps, flowers, static grass, twigs, and flock. They turned out lurvly and I can't wait to do big ones
Big ones such as -
The gorgeous Delilah.
She is a giant black widow and will only have the dark blue highlights I started on here, and her massive freehand glowing orange widows symbol. She will be ridden by my gobbo lord, the rest of the spiders including her Arachnarok sisters Jezebel and Lillith will be exceptionally colorful!
Dr H wrote:Good to see you back If.
Nice skin tones.
Thanks man, and sorry for the absence. Seriously crazy busy times for me recently, but good times! Super good times.
No worries. Can't help it if you're busy. If it's good, it's all good. I have been sneaking peeks at your FB page to tide me over. Gotta get me Iffy fix.
Nice bases and nice Arachnid (keeping your other 'nids company I see).
Wow what to say.... The Amazons are beautiful. The lipstick and painted toenails are wonderful touches.
Now i cannot get over how amazing the eyes on Delilah look. It makes the whole spider look really sinister. Not to mention how well done the blue highlights and the red hourglass are.
Snrub wrote:Wow what to say.... The Amazons are beautiful. The lipstick and painted toenails are wonderful touches.
Now i cannot get over how amazing the eyes on Delilah look. It makes the whole spider look really sinister. Not to mention how well done the blue highlights and the red hourglass are.
Thank you! I spent a lot of time on the eyes as they are her main focus point so they had to be super pretty, the other arachnaroks will have far more interesting bodies instead.
Gitsplitta wrote:That's terrifying... (psst! the hourglass goes on the bottom side of the spider...)
Haha it is indeed, but then you wouldn't see it so I had to take artistic license. Imagine converting an arachnarok so it was hanging on a thread off a big tree or something, that would be amazing.
Gitsplitta wrote:That's terrifying... (psst! the hourglass goes on the bottom side of the spider...)
Haha it is indeed, but then you wouldn't see it so I had to take artistic license. Imagine converting an arachnarok so it was hanging on a thread off a big tree or something, that would be amazing.
So now we know what you've got planned for your second one, do we?
Delilah is indeed a big scary, but she is also a pretty lovely lady, I swear!
Just a quick update from work, I have some people to get back to in Pm's ( you folks know who you are and thanks for waiting so much) but its another busy Friday night magic event so I will be dropping in tomorrow with updates and replies Loads more photos! Hope everyones having a lovely friday.
bebopdrums2424 wrote:I'm jealous of your painting do you have pics of those tyranids? I dig that scheme.
Thanks man!
None yet bar those dudes, I might have swapped.. onto something more.. leggy.. recently.
Zambro wrote:Wow. I just read through the entirety of this blog, and i'm wondering why i never looked at it before. You are one seriously talented painter
I shall be sticking around to see what you produce in the near future
Haha, thanks Zambro, glad you have enjoyed it!
Heres a quick teaser of why I've been so busy recently.. something I have been slaving over for work...
wow, its a big grey low resolution box of grey things!
OOh, large vehicles. I don't think I've seen you do many of those before Iffy. As emotive as your painting is I'm really curious as to how you're going to handle large, impersonal items like those tanks and the pod.
Teehee, yes I am quite further advanced with these now
Heres a bit of a WIP collection!
All these are iphone shots so the colours fluctuate a bit, the final shot is the correct colour balance with a camera.
First, I airbrushed everything a deep purply blue fading up into enchanted blue (the old gw one)
I added black wash to recesses, then picked out the first details like eyes and lenses.
I don't have any wip of the lenses, but when finished everyone had black to red lenses, like Delilah
After that, I started fine line highlighting with ice blue.
I did the exact same thing with all vehicles, I shaded the recesses with nuln oil, then started fine lining them with ice blue
I started laying down green lenses for the vehicles and some really rich golds, which are warplock base, gehenness first layer, mithril silver tiny highlight, and some varied washes.
When all the fine lining was done, they looked something like this -
After that came the silvers and final details, which in this case was glowing green pipes and pistons. This final shot is the correct colour balance without a flash They are quite dark.
I'm not a fan of Ultramarines myself, so when I was tasked with these I had to make them interesting for me to paint or they would have driven me even more insane than they currently have.
Going for a deep fade and crazy edge highlight made them way more fun to paint
They don't have much more to go now, just started on the reds (which will be super deep and contrasty) and then it's just the gun silver highlights and the scouts to go. Maybe some touchups here and there Bases will be sand with dead grass tufts.
These are for work and aren't really my choice haha, which is why they have to be done asap Nice to know it won't be much longer.
Heres some quicky Iphone shots -
And another of some of the little gits for my first spider batch -
Checkout all that blue light, nice one, Iphone!
Delilah is now all finished ( she won't have a howdah thingy). Shots with a real camera, whoah!
And a close up of one of the Gobbo's.
These dudes are the lower level of the painting for the army and I went with super contrasting layers, all the way up to bad moon yellow as a highlight. They look great fun and I can't wait to paint character versions with more layering Holy crap they are tiny.TINY
Gitsplitta wrote: That spider is just amazing Iffy... Your treatment of black is superb.
Must agree. I think the glossy eyes really puts the life into the giant creature. Personally I could never paint such a thing, I'm unreasonably afraid of any insect so even holding the thing would make me wanna chuck it across the room instinctively. :(
On a side note, while searching for painting tutorials on YouTube I stumbled across an interview with you. Who knew you were so famous?! Anyways, it was an entertaining watch. Keep up the inspired painting!
Ifalna wrote:I am like Betty, I am a nice person with good feelings all of the time.
HOLY what an awesome reference. Kung Pow!
i have been reading this thread for the last couple of weeks in my spare time (while at work, usually)...obviously, you are a fantastic painter. only up to page 91 so far...hoping that somewhere in the next 43 pages you work on black SM armor AGAIN...
Ifalna wrote:I am like Betty, I am a nice person with good feelings all of the time.
HOLY what an awesome reference. Kung Pow!
i have been reading this thread for the last couple of weeks in my spare time (while at work, usually)...obviously, you are a fantastic painter. only up to page 91 so far...hoping that somewhere in the next 43 pages you work on black SM armor...
@Galorn--i'd say i'm sorry for necro-ing a thread, but i'm not. deal with it. ironic, that you would further necro a thread being a smarrta$$ with a huge image...
@Ifalna--come back. your fan boys miss you.
GawdamSumbish wrote: @Galorn--i'd say i'm sorry for necro-ing a thread, but i'm not. deal with it. ironic, that you would further necro a thread being a smarrta$$ with a huge image...
@Ifalna--come back. your fan boys miss you.
1) to GdSb and Galorn, thread necro doesn't really happen in the P&M section because of the nature of painting and project logs.
1.a) Gd, you could probably be a little nicer about it, usually when a thread had gone without posting in it, you are usually warned that you're necroing a thread, so there's really no excuse for not knowing it, and there's no need to call another user a smartarse.
2) And there's a good chance that if Ifalna hasn't been posting here for a few months, then she most likely won't respond to your message, and she has painted black armor. One of the first few minis in her blog was Captain Korvydae, a ravenguard (who wear black armor)
On a serious note has anyone had any contact with her since her post almost 8 months ago. Firstly there is a concern for her well being overall. Secondly, in my case a matter of commissions.
If you have information you can share please do so or PM me priv. Other wise DO NOT respond to this thread so it spawns more Thread Necromancy.
Again if you have no info and nothing to add please show restraint.
I've had this box open for about 2 hours now totally failing to work out what to write, so I'm going to copy the Facebook post I made a couple of days ago after forcing myself to stop being such a massive sad coward.
I've been out of touch from the painting community for far too long now and want to issue a heartfelt apology for my absence!
Without throwing my personal nonsense all over all of you, about two years ago now what started as a trickle of small problems in my life just continued to get worse and more severe until I completely lost my ability to be creative.
Everything I painted was absolutely crap to me and I couldn't finish up any work, I was so ashamed and embarrassed by the "results" of my efforts that I just completely hid away and didn't know how to help myself get over such a complete lack of creativity or confidence in myself.
In hindsight, looking back at how it affected me, I was suffering from depression without realising it was happening.
After three (oh god) house moves in less than a year and extreme instability in the job front, I'm in a very secure and relaxed place at last, and yesterday, after being made sick to my stomach every time I looked at a paint brush for a two years, I unpacked and set up my painting desk, and I painted a little goblin.
And it wasn't crap.
And I liked him.
And I'm going to paint more of him today because he made me so happy.
To all the amazing people who commissioned me when I was relying on it as my main income and who I totally vanished from, please Private Message me as I've put aside cash for refunds and tokens of apology for everyone from my first couple of paychecks with the wonderful new company I work for.
For folks who have been PMing me for commissions for so long, I'm so sorry, I don't think I will be taking on commissions anymore unless they are very small projects and only in single batches, and that won't be for quite a while.
I can't express enough how aware I am that I was a massive bumhead. I haven't logged in here in literally years because I was so embarrassed and ran away instead of just not being so cowardly, which didn't even help my situation at all so it was entirely pointless to even do!
I have a lot of messages and I'm going to try and get through them today now that this anxiety bomb is out of the way, and I've finished painting my first awful little figure in years, which made me feel so incredibly happy again, it's hard to describe.
Dakka Dakka is probably the nicest community of folks I was ever part of and I shouldn't have vanished to try and escape how I was feeling, I hope maybe some folks will still drop in here and say hello every now and then when I slowly start taking piccies of what I'm doing (just the one wee Gobbo so far but my motivation is THROUGH THE ROOF and I can't wait to finish work and go home and paint tonight!)
Thanks for the complete lack of abusive messages from what I've seen, I don't really deserve to not get them so I'm kind of in shock.
It's good to see you came back with an explanation and are going to make amends, instead of being lost in the world forever. I don't think any of us are in a massive rush at this point, be sure not to bury yourself again.
I'm slowly getting through messages buy please, PLEASE PM me if you haven't and I have anything belonging to you! I will absolutely do my best to set everything right as I am finally in a position to be able to do so, which feels very nice
The little Gobbo is all finished, but I sadly have in the many house moves lost my Cameras, lightbox, airbrush and compressor, half my paints, my lamps, and so many of my handy little doodads, so getting a nice photo of him was very hard.
I chose the smallest mini I could find as my hands aren't nearly what they used to be and are all shaky and need some training, so I did mega detail on him as best I could without using any drybrushing to get lots of practice in.
He's not good, I know I would have been very unhappy with him previously, but painting him made me so happy I did have a bit of a cry.
I only have my phone to take piccies with untill tmy new supplies arrive, but here is a cruddy little shot:
God what an awful photo, and that's the best I could get!!
Welcome back. It is truly great to have more of your fantastic art back on dakka. Congrats on getting through the tough times. I hope my fellow dakkaites and I can help you continue feeling better.
He's not good, I know I would have been very unhappy with him previously, but painting him made me so happy I did have a bit of a cry.
Hah! I would have been pretty happy with him myself! He's a cute bit of work.
Glad to see you back Iffy. No apology was due to us; people come and go all the time, and the first awesome little guy you painted up would have made up for it. I appreciate you taking the to write all that out, as I am sure it wasn't easy but it certainly struck a chord with me, and hopefully will help a few others out along the way.
Looking forward to seeing the results of you taking the brush back up!
Nice to have you back, Iffy! One of the few reasons I've continued to get on Dakka was in hopes of your glorious return.
It's great to see you in a better place and I think I speak for everyone when I say we all look forward to more of your work. You've been one of my biggest inspirations, that's for sure. I'm definitely chuffed.
Excellent job on your return goblin. I always felt that your goblins were some of your best work, especially that guy with the cape that you did a while back! Carry on.
Sooooooooooooooo what are you planning for your next mini?
I have a new air compressor and airbrush on the way, and lovely awesome things planned for that that have been a LONG time coming, but for now, it's more colour and dexterity practice!
I don't even know what he is! I think he is a pirate elf. Out to be mega glam with a giant hair flick.
Sorry to hear you've had a hard time, If'.
But glad to see you're on the up and back to painting and posting.
Gobbo looks good. We are all our own worst critics, but you'll soon be back to your best (and well beyond the majority of mortal man's best) in no time, long breaks will do that.
That aside, enjoying yourself is the most important thing and it's good to hear you are.
Welcome back indeed! Glad to hear that life is shaping up again and those latest minis are looking just fantastic. Eager to see what you have in store for us!
Thanks for all the lovely words folks, I can't express how happy I am to be painting and able to enjoy it again, so this really means a lot
I'm just back from some blood tests with my doc to see if we can finally make progress on my chronic migraines, and the wench took ten vials! I was expecting 1, I don't even have 5 in me on a good day!
I feel like a raisin. Need some WD40 sprayed in my joints to even manage a movement. She didn't even give me a lollypop, can't believe it.
Glam rock pirate elf is all done and I have some batteries to get my camera setup today, and as I'm in a nasty doctory mood, I'm going to have fun with a unit of plaguebearers using almost entirely glazes and washes
I found some vallejo transparent paints in my stash and oh my god, these things are unreal to work with when it comes to colour blends!
Welcome back - it must feel amazing to have gotten over that hurdle and come clean! Well done and as long as those refunds get sorted I'm sure folks will be more than happy to see you have come out fine the other side
Looking forward to seeing you painting fun things in as many colors as possible!
I nearly fainted. Jab one into my muscle? No worries. Veins? Oh no. No. Can't handle it.
RiTides wrote:Welcome back - it must feel amazing to have gotten over that hurdle and come clean! Well done and as long as those refunds get sorted I'm sure folks will be more than happy to see you have come out fine the other side Looking forward to seeing you painting fun things in as many colors as possible!
Thank you so much. I really am so extremely happy now. Going to really make the most of my day off for painting too!
I finished up the experimental little fleetmaster. He was mostly for some colour practice and getting my schemes back together.
I learned two things from this mini:
1 - Do not attach his hair first or there is absolutely no way to paint half of his face. Seriously.
2 - Having my old camera is not much help without my freaking lightbox!
Can't wait for my new one to arrive
Going to ebay everything I paint untill my new compressor gets here to make back some of the cost, all these guys are practice anyway so I don't want to keep them around
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hmm, my plaguebearer box seems to be short 3, or a sprue maybe fell out? Not sure, but threw some Nurglings on bases instead
Wet blending done, just waiting on them to dry and then I get to make them mega, mega gross.
They are like extra fluorescent glazes with the thickness of regular paint, so you can paint crazy detail with them or use them for blends. I really love them and can't believe I never gave them a chance before.
All the colours I've used for these so far are in the background, all washes, glazes, and transparents.
Once they dry I get to do some actual painting, getting on the highlights and blood and goo ^^
I was just reading your previous post when I realised I was 5minutes late for my blood test. Thanks! I ran like the wind, which made the BP check rather worrying.
Wow, those look even better than before! I think I have a random bottle of transparent red, but I never used it before. I will have to dig it out here in the coming months. Wet blending has always been something that happens to other people, or an accident of high humidity and overdoing the wet palette. It would be nice to have a pre-mixed option.
As an aside, what are your opinions on the Vallejo metalics? I am not sold on them, but my GW ones are a solid brick in the pot I just discovered :(
Oh fantastic! Welcome back, so happy to see your new works And i can personally thank you for thta great tut you made about photoshopping your minis using GIMP!! It was incredibly helpful. I too know the burn of not being able to paint when you wish, as a prof musician, my wrist someimes simply cant handle both activities so i must stop painting for a year at a time it seems:( Anyways...gorgeous and fun painting as per usual.
Cheers
BB
Wehrkind wrote: Wow, those look even better than before! I think I have a random bottle of transparent red, but I never used it before. I will have to dig it out here in the coming months. Wet blending has always been something that happens to other people, or an accident of high humidity and overdoing the wet palette. It would be nice to have a pre-mixed option.
As an aside, what are your opinions on the Vallejo metalics? I am not sold on them, but my GW ones are a solid brick in the pot I just discovered :(
If you're looking into metallics, I would recommend going with Scale75. They're a bit more costly but they are fantastic.
weetyskemian44 wrote:I was just reading your previous post when I realised I was 5minutes late for my blood test. Thanks! I ran like the wind, which made the BP check rather worrying.
Nice work. dark elf looks just like Hugo Weaving.
Holy crap. Blood pressure must have been crazy, at least you didn't explode
Can't believe you mentioned he looks like Weaving, I'm totally seeing it now.
Wehrkind wrote:Wow, those look even better than before! I think I have a random bottle of transparent red, but I never used it before. I will have to dig it out here in the coming months. Wet blending has always been something that happens to other people, or an accident of high humidity and overdoing the wet palette. It would be nice to have a pre-mixed option.
As an aside, what are your opinions on the Vallejo metalics? I am not sold on them, but my GW ones are a solid brick in the pot I just discovered :(
Deffo try it out, especially as a way to tie together a red fade or gradient, it's amazing.
I don't like the Vallejo or GW metallics honestly, the best Metallics I've used are the real Metal ones with metal flakes suspended in alcohol. Those things are out of this world but are a nightmare to apply as they dry to rock hard very quickly!
bebopdrums2424 wrote:Oh fantastic! Welcome back, so happy to see your new works And i can personally thank you for thta great tut you made about photoshopping your minis using GIMP!! It was incredibly helpful. I too know the burn of not being able to paint when you wish, as a prof musician, my wrist someimes simply cant handle both activities so i must stop painting for a year at a time it seems:( Anyways...gorgeous and fun painting as per usual.
Aww man, thank you. See that's a really valid reason to not paint! RSI is horrible, I work in CS and spend 9 hours a day speed typing so I know the feeling of having wrists about to give in sometimes. I'm really glad you liked that tutorial, it's so fun to do, especially when you don't want to risk experimenting with colours on an expensive mini!!
Have to look into these. How do you feel they care in comparison to GW?
RiTides wrote:They look really great! Could you give the exact step-by-step of how you did them, including primer color? Sounds enticingly simple so far.
Oh dude, these are so simple so far.
1 - White primer
2 - Two or 3 clashing wash colours blended while wet on the mini
3 - Pick out some details with ink or wash
4 - Wash entirely with a neutral brown wash like earthshade (I'm using Army Painter strong tone which is almost a dip!)
I'm on the highlight stage now which is a super messy go over with a clashing bright colour, rotten flesh in this case.
After that I'll pick out details, and add oozing blood and puss which will honestly finish them off
Thanks for the link Coldfire, I will have to look into picking some of those up!
@Iffy- I looked into the alcohol based metals, and actually have a little pot of the gold metalic after you recommended it. It is still sealed up though, as I need to get a good cleaner for it and it is a little intimidating to try a new tech cold like that!
youwashock wrote:That DE is astounding.
Time to change the thread title to "How Ifalna Got Her Groove Back."
Thank you!
My groove is far from back though, I guess I had trained my body for painting more than I realised.
My eyes are constantly losing focus so I have to take breaks every 30 mins, my hands are shaky all the time cause my poor mini hand muscles need exercise again, palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's PVA on my sweater already, I.. oh wait.
Wehrkind wrote:Thanks for the link Coldfire, I will have to look into picking some of those up!
@Iffy- I looked into the alcohol based metals, and actually have a little pot of the gold metalic after you recommended it. It is still sealed up though, as I need to get a good cleaner for it and it is a little intimidating to try a new tech cold like that!
The best cleaner I found for it was basic nailpolish remover!
You can buy fancy alcohol but I found this worked perfectly for me
Have to look into these. How do you feel they care in comparison to GW?
I have not used GW paints in years and when I did I was a terrible painter (see: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/312074-Sisters%20of%20battle.html), but in comparing them to Vallejo they are definitely superior. They have great coverage and dry very matte. The downside is their cost--around $3.50 - $4.00 per bottle, and it seems you have to buy them in sets of 8.
I've applied a really messy and strong line highlight of Rotten flesh which clashes with them very well, and the idea is that this layer will make them look striking from 3 foot away, but the gore and detail I'm about to put on will make them look good in the hand
Have to go sleepy now and will get their final shots tomorrow after work, but heres some quickie sneak peeks with totally wrong colour casting, just to get an idea ^^
Lt. Coldfire wrote:
I have not used GW paints in years and when I did I was a terrible painter (see: http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/312074-Sisters%20of%20battle.html), but in comparing them to Vallejo they are definitely superior. They have great coverage and dry very matte. The downside is their cost--around $3.50 - $4.00 per bottle, and it seems you have to buy them in sets of 8.
They sound definitely worth a shot. I very much struggle with finding metallics I like, and I'm paying 3.60 euro per paint pot atm here so that's not too bad pricewise!
RiTides wrote:Really fast and nice! I particularly like the 3rd from the right in the group WIP shot
I ca't wait to shoot them tonight, they are all disgusting.
SlaveToDorkness wrote:Damn, loving those Plagubearers!
The Dark Elf is so colorful but still dark...like a rainbow...
IN THE DAAAAARK!
[/Diovoice]
I think all Dark Elves are in essence inspired by Dio.
Gitsplitta wrote:It's starting to come back to you, isn't it?
The techs slowly are, it feels so lovely. It also feels great to be able to be totally experimental with zero worries, if they turn out awful I don't care, I can just paint over them ^^ That's a lovely feeling of freedom.
These are all beautiful. In a funny way, it's good that you're not satisfied, though, as continuing to push yourself will only raise your standard higher. Awesome.
I never liked them at all before I started on these dudes, they actually have a lot of character and really fun little faces!
Frustrated I only have 7 and not 10 as I wanted to sell them as a unit though. Maybe they will still go, just annoyed that I seem to be missing a sprue.
How did I even manage that?
New compressor and airbrush should be arriving within the next couple of days, how exciting! My old one lasted an impressive amount of time considering it was on its last legs for well over a year ^^
A friend mentioned exactly that on Facebook, I can pretend these dudes have his lovely blessing
Having some Pizza tonight and watching Steven Universe to take a bit of a break from painting as my eyes are getting quite tired and they are out of shape, then I will properly photo these Nurglies!
Also, I've added my Facebook accounts into my Siggy for folks to come say hello or watch the Facebook page as I will likely spam it with quick WIP shots that may not make it here. If you want to add me as a friend then go for it, but please just PM me first so I know who you are from Dakka
Gooey and filled with all the vile colors of rot and pestilence.
I'd say thats a damn nice job, iffy. And in such short time, too! Definitely think some things are starting to come back to you Very happy to see that.
While I desperately need a lightbox and these images suffer from lack of proper light diffusion, I am extremely happy with the colour correction and quality of my phone cam. Normally I get very colour cast results as you can see comparing these to the warm tones of the last photos, and they are a nightmare to fix, but this is perfectly on par with their actual colours so I am thrilled
When my lightbox arrives, things are gonna be so fun!
The majority of the oozy bits used inks and glazes so are pretty shiny, but I think you are right and adding a bit o' gloss to the guts and open wounds would not do any harm!
love Gits idea of slimy puddles behind them too, just not too sure how to achieve it, hmm.
A 1:1 mix of fluro yellow and transparent green maybe? That would be nearly radioactive!
I just had to google that as I had no idea what it was, and looks like GW released some awesome technical paints without me noticing!
I love how that looks, it looks like a thick glaze suspended in a kind of matte varnish.
I could totally try whipping something similar up, I'm thinking using PVA as the base for it could work well as it would soak into the sand on the base in a gross convincing way, and I could blend it up their legs a bit to look like they were oozing.
That or varnish, but I wonder if that might be a bit too thick?
Oh hey, this proves why I should check my exalted threads more regularly!
Fantastic to see you back. I quit Warseer years ago for similar reasons (depression and missed commitments - this was a fanzine article I'd promised to write) and that's why I'm on Dakka. It's really brave and healthy of you to have come back and I'm looking forward to reading more posts from you and admiring more of your paint jobs.
Fair play for trying to make amends on the missed commissions and stuff too- the temptation to just completely walk away must have been huge but I think it's absolutely the right thing to do.
Loving the fleetmaster, looks like something from a David Bowie video.
Yeah PVA or varnish should work well for you as a base for the goo. I'd personally go with your gloss or satin varnish of choice and mix in inks and whatnot to it. I'm just more familiar with how my varnishes behave and dry compared to PVA (I use Liquitex varnishes).
Could also look at using something like scenery water effects mixed with inks to do something similar.
Imho, there are a few technical paints that are better left alone. Like the Blood effect one. Tamaya Clear Red all the way! Much cheaper and I think looks better. The verdigris (Nihalak Oxide) is a nice quick way to weather bronze, though.
Da Boss wrote:
Fair play for trying to make amends on the missed commissions and stuff too- the temptation to just completely walk away must have been huge but I think it's absolutely the right thing to do.
Loving the fleetmaster, looks like something from a David Bowie video.
I really appreciate that, thanks so much. I've let some very kind people down so I'm not going to feel back to normal for quite some time on Dakka, but it feels fantastic to be back painting and conversing with people again. I missed silly little posts with folks like this so very much. I isolated myself from my own hobby, the more I think about it the more absolutely ridiculous my way of dealing with it becomes
Ramos Asura wrote:Definitely liking the sound of that...
Yeah PVA or varnish should work well for you as a base for the goo. I'd personally go with your gloss or satin varnish of choice and mix in inks and whatnot to it. I'm just more familiar with how my varnishes behave and dry compared to PVA (I use Liquitex varnishes).
Could also look at using something like scenery water effects mixed with inks to do something similar.
Imho, there are a few technical paints that are better left alone. Like the Blood effect one. Tamaya Clear Red all the way! Much cheaper and I think looks better. The verdigris (Nihalak Oxide) is a nice quick way to weather bronze, though.
Ohhh, I think I actually have some water effect! I could totally try that out, that's an awesome idea.
I have a Vallejo Verdigris wash but the consistency means the results arent actually what I would be looking for, there are definitely some of the new GW tech paints I do want to try out, so I might get some and do a review, sort out the good from the bad and see what is worth it and not
I have heard wonderful things about Tamaya, I just can't find anywhere around here (Dublin) that stocks it, but I've only been in Dub 3 months so haven't done much exploring.
Solar_lion wrote:I've seen hot glue used to make sticky gobs of drool. Thou as always there is the pain that comes with the attempt.
I've seen that before now that you mention it, and it looked great! That could be something to add to the arsenal.. hmm.
I'll be in touch by PM tomorrow by the way, sorry about the slow response, been a bit busy at work and home but it's a bank holiday tomorrow so I have the whole day to relax, really looking forward to it!
KernelTerror wrote:This is a really gorgeous squad, congratulations on the painting.
Thanks so much! Definitely a lot to improve on, but I was super happy with the colours as some crazy colour mixes was the aim.
I just found TWO BOXED ARACHNAROKS in my stash, so I have a lot of ideas for those when it comes to colour as soon as my airbrush + compressor arrive
I spent this evening trying to get to a point I was happy with with an old metal OOP Emperors Champ I found mashed up in my bits box, and to copy straight from my Facebook page:
"Oh I should be able to get him to a decent character standard by tonight"
6 hours later and not even half done. He's not coming together either and I'm getting frustrated. Hopefully when his whites and reds are finished I won't hate him so much.
I remember now why I hated working with solid black.
Sorry for the delay folks, big order of Ikea furniture arrived and I've been hammering away at it. Finally all moved in now and very happy
So my new super snazzy lightbox arrived from China today, and I thought I would show the results!
I bought this little thing as it described itself as being perfect for miniatures, and was a self lit lightbox meaning all the lightsource comes from within, and it's set up to reflect it perfectly to give an even light around the entirety of the object in it.
It wasn't super cheap, but I was so intrigued I went for it anyway.
After greedily unpacking it, I was really happy to see how gorgeously wrapped it was. Every part was well protected, and each vinyl part of the box itself was individually wrapped and padded.
Everything is hand made with this little thing, so seeing the pride put into its shipping was a good sign.
It also came with lots of colour background options which I appreciated bigtime.
Everything was supplied, even the greasepaper diffuser to go over the LED strip, and there were multiples of each. They even had little sticky strips so I wouldn't have to bother.
There was no guide and it was surprisingly easy to mess up putting it together, but the end result was incredibly cute and very small. It's also really sturdy and quite heavy.
It came with multiple colour backgrounds but the grey is a favourite as it tends to let Digi cams auto colour correct. You can see the quick job I did of covering the LEDs, it actually comes with tiny crocodile clips to pin the paper in place, but I rushed it.
Being a SUPERIOR EUROPEAN WHAT WHAT, I had no plug sockets to fit its dual prong plug, but found one in the bathroom that fit! Bit of an odd place to take photos, but we do what we must.
With the front door closed, you really see just how much light is bouncing around in there. It practically glows.
Threw they tiny gobbo I I had trouble lighting before in andddd. Wow.
Superb. I moved the box around, turned outside lights on and off, there was no difference to the photos. It is a completely self contained light source, there is 0 fiddling around getting it ready. I've saved so much time with this thing and am totally in love with it already.
Wow that was a great find Iffy, your gobbo looks absolutely amazing in there, its makes such an incredible difference.
I picked up one years ago and it ended up being too big and needed lamps and I never really bothered with it, I got better results with a piece of paper which I'm still using now
Edit: We all know now that all your pics are being taken in the bathroom....
I'll third wondering where you got the lightbox! I've been using the "Foldio 2", but I think I may have actually gotten better results angling 3 OttLites together... this is much faster but I may consider swapping it out at some point as yours looks brilliant.
GiraffeX wrote:Wow that was a great find Iffy, your gobbo looks absolutely amazing in there, its makes such an incredible difference.
I picked up one years ago and it ended up being too big and needed lamps and I never really bothered with it, I got better results with a piece of paper which I'm still using now
I've been using bits of paper for years, but nothing gives you as good a result as a light bouncing lightbox, I'm just amazed at how MUCH light this thing bounces, and I double layered the diffuse paper!
GiraffeX wrote:Edit: We all know now that all your pics are being taken in the bathroom....
Because all my pictures are poop! HOHOHO.
Wehrkind wrote:That looks pretty slick! Where did you get it from?
Ramos Asura wrote:Im curious as well... Looks to be SUPER nice! Wouldnt mind upgrading my own setup to something similar!
RiTides wrote:I'll third wondering where you got the lightbox! I've been using the "Foldio 2", but I think I may have actually gotten better results angling 3 OttLites together... this is much faster but I may consider swapping it out at some point as yours looks brilliant.
SlaveToDorkness wrote:OK, I want one of those things!
So happy you guys like it too, I'm in love with this wee thing.
The only place I found selling them was this one Chinese dealer:
That's a very cool little light box you have there Iffy. I've never seen a plug that that before. Sure did a nice job showing off your little gobo though!
Gitsplitta wrote:That's a very cool little light box you have there Iffy. I've never seen a plug that that before. Sure did a nice job showing off your little gobo though!
What an amazing airbrushing set up... wow.
I was so surprised to see it, it seems like such a simple idea and yet I never thought of it!
Haha, it will be less impressive looking stowed away in its slot under my desk at home. I always feel its a shame to not see compressors as I think they look awesome.
RiTides wrote:Thanks for the lightbox link and info . Airbrush looks shiny!
I'm so happy with it ^^ I can't wait to get home and do some tinkering.
I note your airbrushes have the bottom cup and tube set up instead of the top feed, little tiny cup set up. Any thoughts about the virtues of either? It always seemed a little strange that the cup-o-paint at the bottom wasn't the standard instead of the little cup on top you have to refill all the time, but what do I know?
Da Boss wrote:I need to get myself a light box. Every picture I take to post on dakka looks like crap, which doesn't motivate me to post as many as I should.
I still use that tutorial you did ages ago for finishing and colour balancing in Gimp though. Very useful.
Dude I cannot stress enough that you owe it to yourself to get a photo setup done properly. It is so demotivating to not be able to show the work you have done properly, I totally understand you. It does not matter how well a fig is painted if the photos of it don't do it justice, and while amazing DSLR cameras and light studios help, a decent phonecam and a little lightbox like this is all thats really needed for nice photos.
The only editing I did on the gobbo was to crop the image, I didint even need to edit the colouring because the lightbox does it for you. Totally worth it.
Wehrkind wrote:I note your airbrushes have the bottom cup and tube set up instead of the top feed, little tiny cup set up. Any thoughts about the virtues of either? It always seemed a little strange that the cup-o-paint at the bottom wasn't the standard instead of the little cup on top you have to refill all the time, but what do I know?
Nothing, that's what!
You know plenty!
I didn't order the under feed brush as I don't like them, you tend to need to use quite a bit more paint and more is wasted than an overhead one, so it's down to what you want to do.
If you are basecoating an army, and underhand one is great as it holds lots of paint.
If you are working on a nice single fig, you would be wasting a lot of paint with an underhand one. Also, the underhand brush has a single action trigger, so it basically just releases paint and air as soon as you press down.
The brush I did actually order has a dual action, so you can control how much air and how much paint come out seperately.
Ahhh that makes sense! I might pick up a cheap underhand one for base coating sooner or later. The Sotar is a little over kill for it, and that little cup.... It also doesn't help that I am convinced I need to swirl my hands around while I do it, and inevitably get paint sloshed out the top
Looking forward to seeing those first fancy airbrushed and boxed pics!
I have that exact same compressor and pair of airbrushes.
I've not used the siphon feed brush (and have left it sealed for resale value), but the dual-action side feed brush seems to work well. The compressor does what it says on the tin.
nice the light box is a slick set up. curious, are you photoing your minis with a phone camera? I'm having an issue where the photos looks super crisp on the phone screen, but then they almost lose some colors or something, like colors almost become separated when i view the photos on my pc. wondering if you have any thoughts about that or workarounds...etc etc....goblin looks good too bb
Dr H wrote:I have that exact same compressor and pair of airbrushes. I've not used the siphon feed brush (and have left it sealed for resale value), but the dual-action side feed brush seems to work well. The compressor does what it says on the tin.
I'm probably going to butcher the brushes for parts but the side feed one is pretty decent considering it was part of the bundle! Really surprised at the value, I gotta say
My compressor did not have the filter attached and I've had a nightmare getting it on, as the threading on the main nut means that the filter always locks in at an angle, instead of locking in straight.
I realised only AFTER I sent an ebay message asking about it, that they actually included some teflon tape in the box and you are meant to wrap the threads lots to cusion them and make an air seal.
It's set up fine now
Solar_lion wrote:I have the same compressor. Which brand and model AB did you get?
The brushes are some nameless brand, but decently put together!
I would love to have an Iwata or Badger one day, but they are outta my price range at the mo ^^
The compressor was the real deal, I think I paid about 105 euro for the whole thing + shipping, which is fantastic as I couldn't find any mini compressors here for less than 200!
bebopdrums2424 wrote:nice the light box is a slick set up. curious, are you photoing your minis with a phone camera? I'm having an issue where the photos looks super crisp on the phone screen, but then they almost lose some colors or something, like colors almost become separated when i view the photos on my pc. wondering if you have any thoughts about that or workarounds...etc etc....goblin looks good too bb
I am indeed taking them with my camera!
If you are on Android, look for an Ap called Open Cam. It gives you lots of manual setup camera features the auto mode doesn't give you access to, including a colour corrector and iso options.
Totally PM me a link to some of the photo's losing colour quality, that's pretty odd but it could maybe be fixable in GIMP with a bit o tweaking!
EDIT :
Quick wee update, the seller has 2 more of the vinyl lightboxes available after getting back to me
This guy is a major pain to photo. He either turns out so dark you can't see the highlights, or so bright that they look bright blue!
Getting there slowly with him, he's a much richer black in reality but I'm struggling to catch it in the photos. He also is quite an old metal fig now, and the detailing on his sword is non existent so had to be mostly freehanded, which is going slowly as he is so tiny.
Its funny, that old Emp's Champ is really an old old model by most standards, but in many ways I think it represents the peak of Space Marine sculpting. It is so understated, with none of the crazy bling future releases got smothered in, but just has the purposeful stride and salute/challenge that is so well conveyed.
I actually had plans (and bits!) to make him and a Sister Superior into wedding cake toppers for my wedding. Alas, we didn't actually decide to the ceremony until too late to get it all together. Maybe for the 10th anniversary. I could stand to paint up another of him
Gitsplitta wrote:Very nice Iffy, don't forget to highlight the vents on the back of the backpack.
I won't there is so much more to do on him, I'm getting quite annoyed with him to be honest, the metal is so lumpy there are no smooth edges for edge highlights, bit of a nightmare :(
He has really reminded me how far the plastics and finecast have come.
Wehrkind wrote:Its funny, that old Emp's Champ is really an old old model by most standards, but in many ways I think it represents the peak of Space Marine sculpting. It is so understated, with none of the crazy bling future releases got smothered in, but just has the purposeful stride and salute/challenge that is so well conveyed.
I actually had plans (and bits!) to make him and a Sister Superior into wedding cake toppers for my wedding. Alas, we didn't actually decide to the ceremony until too late to get it all together. Maybe for the 10th anniversary. I could stand to paint up another of him
Absolutely agree, this is prob my favourite Space Marine sculpt. It has such a perfect blend of extreme power and grace, I really, really love it. I also love that with only minor tweaking, it works as a fantasy figure too. Just wish he was the finecast version, poor guy.
Love the idea of using him as a cake topper, that's brilliant What a great way to integrate a hobby into a special day ^^
I'm actually going to take my own advice for once and stop working on him for a bit, as I'm getting frustrated with him and not enjoying him at the moment, so I'll be intelligent and move onto somethng else for a while and come back to him later.
It's all assembled and I'm booting up the airbrush and compressor now.. wish me luck!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Ahh..
That's better. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
1st hour done, now to start picking out stars and edges.
GiraffeX wrote:You certainly haven't forgotten how to use an airbrush Iffy, looking very nice so far.
Poor Emperors Champ you cant wish for him to be finecast, that stuff is really bad he would end up going round with a banana shaped sword poor guy.
Haha, aww thanks. I can blend decent with it but I tried to do some detail work today and it did not go well! I have no paint thinner so I'm using water which doesn't work very well, but it was AMAZING FUN to do a bit of airbrushing again"
whalemusic360 wrote:I had GW send me a total of 5 finecast ECs until I got one that wasn't a total wreck.
Fire Prism looks great so far. I've always found the starscape stuff very cool to look at.
Aww man, is finecast still not great? Last thing I remember was it getting much better :( That sucks.
Here is where the prism is at tonight before bed. I'll get shots of it on a grey or black backdrop tomorrow, as some of its detailing is lost against the white.
Blacklining, edging, millions more stars, and star detailing done.
Another layer or two and thw hites will be finished too.
Does anyone have suggestions on the gems? Would love the contrast of scarlet red, but think it would overpower the purples and pinks that are hiding in there already.
What if you did the glossy gem tutorial that's been floating around dakka for a few years now? go with a "deep red" that's mostly black, but with just a smidge of red on one of the corners?
Thats looking really really nice, iffy. Very well done!
Perhaps a turquoise or teal on the gems, following that black gem tutorial. Would keep the colors cool but still have a spot color?
Alfndrate wrote:What if you did the glossy gem tutorial that's been floating around dakka for a few years now? go with a "deep red" that's mostly black, but with just a smidge of red on one of the corners?
I love black glow gems!
I tried to do them with my Arachnaroks eyes and LOVED the turn out.
This is definitely an option as it would be a very slight amount of extra colour but look gorgeous.
Ramos Asura wrote:Thats looking really really nice, iffy. Very well done!
Perhaps a turquoise or teal on the gems, following that black gem tutorial. Would keep the colors cool but still have a spot color?
It's totally a toss up between teal and blood red right now. I kinda want to do a little OSL on the engines and weapons with teal, so this is tricky! Argh!
SlaveToDorkness wrote:"It's full of staaaaars!"
Nice! I used to have a celestial themed Eldar army back in the day (before some gak stole it.)
Someone stole it???!
Oh man, that's terrible, so sorry that happened :(
I've wanted to do this forever but didn't have the confidence and was afraid I would ruin my fire prism, but a bit of reassurance from my partner that I could just "Primer it again with black?" got me going
Big question for Eldar players:
My plan is (if this ends up nice, but it's looking lovely so far), buy one of these sets:
Which comes to 261 euro, plus this fire prism which I found in my wardrobe so we won't mention that.
I was planning on painting it to this quality using the same scheme (which is making me drool thinking about the wraith lord..), and then selling it for a profit as a small army.
My worry is, the Wraith host looks like it's probably not that popular a set to field. Would I be better going for the regular Eldar battleforce to sell on?
I'd say the wraith host is your best bet, but that's a very large investment and might take a while to shift when you add the price of your painting on top along with the Prism.
You need to make sure if you go for this option to arm the models correctly as well
If your'e buying direct from GW you will also loose the discount of not buying it from an online retailer, although I imagine that might be an issue if you're in SI.
GiraffeX wrote:The Prism is looking really nice so far Iffy.
I'd say the wraith host is your best bet, but that's a very large investment and might take a while to shift when you add the price of your painting on top along with the Prism.
You need to make sure if you go for this option to arm the models correctly as well
If your'e buying direct from GW you will also loose the discount of not buying it from an online retailer, although I imagine that might be an issue if you're in SI.
Thanks again for all the amazing help dude, I won't forget it!
The price for the full batch is probably going to be pretty steep if I'm honest, as this scheme really does take time, but I think it will look gorgeous as a small army... I have so many ideas for the Wraithknight too, oh my god.
My plan is to paint up every weapon choice and magnetise them so folks can swap and change em based on what they want to field
angelofvengeance wrote:@Ifalna: The eyes you did on your Arachnarok spider are genuinely creepy! Nice work!
Thank you so much!
I loved her, she was gorgeous. She is back in Galway, still in my old store I worked in for a year, scaring folks from the display cabinet ^^ It's a good home for her.
So despite getting SO much awesome feedback on what colour to go for the prisms final shade, I ignored every single bit of advice saying to go for red, green, orange, or yellow, and went for my favourite Falcon Turqoise cause I AM IFALNA AND BOY DO I LOVE PAINTING BLUES!
I am so happy with this scheme, this is the final look. She just needs the little doodads around the crystal attached and the whites given one more coat and she is done.
I am a bit upset by how lumpy the clear cockpit pieces were but I hope I managed to hide it well enough with paint!
If anyone has any negative feedback on it, please hit me up! It's the best way to improve and I want to be sure the scheme is up to snuff before starting it on an expensive army
Realised I never showed her blue-er side, so there it is!
So happy with this, and learned a LOT.
Things of note:
Why did I not just airbrush the gems and windows? THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH FASTER.
Don't spend 3 hours painting individual facets on a large gem you are then going to almost totally cover up.
The most time consuming part of this scheme was not being able to decide on things and changing them over and over. I think I can paint this up relatively fast despite it looking quite complex.
Using an old velvet dress as background for photos works out awesome.
A friend just told me he is giving me a NIB Wraith Knight that arrived to his store with a miscast shoulder pylon, so I am absolutely thrilled. Will be painting it up next in this project, but next up on my actual list are some tiny boats for a very patient person ^^
@Lt. Coldfire: That would be an old velvet dress. Works REALLY well, it seems... Absolutely love it.
Iffy, you've sure chosen a way to return to Dakka. From a little Gobbo to a gorgeous starscape.... Man. You've got paint in your veins!
The solid white panels are absolutely perfect. works awesomely with the scheme. Airbrushing the canopies and blue gems would definitely be faster, but stick with a brush for the red gems (of course!)
Needless to say, I really cant wait to see a whole army of these!
angelofvengeance wrote:That Fire Prism is stunning! Nice work there Iffy
Thanks so much, I am extremely lucky it turned out the way it did I wrote down each step I took so recreating it should deffo be possible!
GiraffeX wrote:Now thats looking amazing, a whole army like that is going to be jaw dropping good.
It's gonna be retina burning, just the way I love it!
Ramos Asura wrote:@Lt. Coldfire: That would be an old velvet dress. Works REALLY well, it seems... Absolutely love it.
Haha, bingo
Thick, rich black velvet has a light absorbing nature that few other fabrics can match due to it's density of raised fibers.
I bought a lovely dress online a couple of months ago but started weight lifting back in October and my arms look like they are wearing girdles when I try to squash myself into it now, so it's been religated to photo backdrop ><
All the black background pics use this and require absolutely bare minimum editing. The velvet doesnt reflect even Fluroescent light aimed right at it, but any little bits of fluff stuck to the velvet will!
This means that I usually give it a quick once over with a big black brush in GIMP to remove the little fluff reflections, but you can tell the black background is not edited in so it looks very nice indeed.
Next time I take shots, I'll show the unedited ones so you can see what I mean I deleted the originals of these already.
Ramos Asura wrote:Iffy, you've sure chosen a way to return to Dakka. From a little Gobbo to a gorgeous starscape.... Man. You've got paint in your veins!
The solid white panels are absolutely perfect. works awesomely with the scheme. Airbrushing the canopies and blue gems would definitely be faster, but stick with a brush for the red gems (of course!)
Needless to say, I really cant wait to see a whole army of these!
Oh mannnn Thank you so much.
When I came up with this scheme I knew what colours I wanted in the space clouds, and that stark white was going to be the contrasting. I'm really lucky it looked the same in reality as it looked in my head. It could have been awful
It was only when I was looking at price ideas on Ebay that I was seeing all these fully airbrushed Fire Prisms with Airbrushed crystals that it dawned on me that I could have made them look better in half the time. That was such a weird thing to not do.
Army of these is going to be absolutely insane but I can't wait to get to work on it. Because the vast majority of the eye catching look is from the airbrushing, it leaves time to be really precise (well, as precise as I can be with my shakey hands now) with the rest of the detailing without spending a week on a single figure. That's a great feeling
The poor special Wraithknight coming to stay at Chez Ifalna has this casting issue.
I'm wondering if it would be even worth trying to fix it up or would I be better trying to track down someone who has a spare pylon?
Looks beautiful indeed! As for the Wraithknight, why not have some hard-core battle-damage on that pylon? It would also give you a chance to showcase a radically different painting style on the same model.
Dr H wrote:Great job on the Prism, If'. Very effective paint scheme, and lovely colours.
Were the majority of stars on that just "flicked" on? Enjoy your rum and biscuits.
The stars were flicked on indeed, different consistencies of water and white paint to vary the size and how far out the pattern went. There are little white clusters of them in spots, and then I picked the shine shapes out on some by hand ^^
It was a good night of rum and biscuits, I savaged many a:
Briancj wrote:We will continue to think positive thoughts for you!
Thank you so much ^^ Just bounced back from a Sinus infection today, I feel hard to take down at the moment, very full of positivity and a lot of it is from tis site, so honestly, thank you!
ZergSmasher wrote:That fire prism is pretty awesome! I'd be afraid to actually use it in a game (because what if I dropped it or something?).
Haha, that would be so scary!
Luckily, it's quite light so I think the worst that could happen is a bit snaps off. Pretty hard to chip light plastic models, so as long as folks aren't drop kicking it around a play area, I think it would survive
inmygravenimage wrote:Looks beautiful indeed! As for the Wraithknight, why not have some hard-core battle-damage on that pylon? It would also give you a chance to showcase a radically different painting style on the same model.
I was totally thinking that myself, I might well do it! Let's see who arrives sooner, the Knight or the replacement parts ^^
Tiny art haul today!
I heard wonders about the W&N matte spray so grabbed a can, some turps for speed spot cleaning with q tips and the airbrush, a lovely W&N angled brush for lining, and of course, the legendary blue windoline. For everything.
I finished up a really lovely Termy Chaos Lord today that I'm quite proud of, and finished it off with the W&N spray I showed earlier.
Guess what!
It's not Matte, it's Satin.
The slight gloss over the entire fig means it looks lovely in the hand, but I can't get a single decent shot as the slightly reflective glare is ruining all the detail work and makes him look messy and gross.
If I had a dslr cam and tripod I could put him in very low light with a long exposure and he would be OK, but because I can only take super high speed shots, there has to be enough light, which means the gloss shows absolutely all over him and he looks like a shadowy yet massively overlit mess, and I spent soooo long practicing a bit of contrast on him, haha!
Just hit it with some Testors Dullcote and that will knock the shine right off. Love that stuff. I have bad luck with other matte finishes, as they are never matte enough. I need finishes made by Matt Mattson of the Connecticut Mattsons, known for their dull and non-reflective DNA.
Thinking about it, that photo probably doesn't look that bad to folks, but that's because you don't have the figure to compare it to :( My partner agreed when he checked him out today and said the same thing, the gloss finish is really negatively affecting the contrasting in the photos.
I just sent this to W&N so I hope I will hear back something:
Hi guys, I'm a long time fan of W&N as the series 7 long haired brushes are considered the be all and end all for sable brushes in the miniature painting community, and have been a happy user of W&N products for about ten years now
Last week, I was thrilled to find my local hobby store was selling W&N Multiuse Matte Varnish, which was a big deal as it's very hard to get a good Matte spray varnish in Ireland!
It wasn't that cheap at 15 euro, but I've never had a single bad experience with any of your products so had no problem paying for it, and even posting how happy I was to find it on my painting blogs on Facebook and Dakka Dakka.
I used it for the first time last night, and completely ruined a figure I spent over 18 hours work on, and which was to be sold on Ebay.
It is NOT Matte, it is Satin.
That sounds like I am complaining about something stupid, but the problem is, I paint miniature figures. Most under the size of a thumb. When photographing them, unless you have an extremely expensive DSLR camera that can shoot at very low light levels and long exposure, you have to be extremely careful with lighting to make sure none of the contrast work and shadowing painted on is lost, as they are so tiny that a glare or shine in the wrong place could wipe out 3 hours of work.
This guy is so shiny, he is not possible to photo correctly, so I now cannot sell him at the price his paint work should be at. All of his recesses are slightly shiny, his blacks are now a glossy grey, all his metallics are halfway between matte and gloss and blend together with no differentation anymore because the sheen has just covered everything.
Here is thread with a video showing how insanely shiny this Matte varnish dried, and this is after 5 minutes of agitating the can and spraying in correct conditions:
I'm really upset lads. I never even thought "Wow I should test this out first just in case it is totally gak" because it was W&N, one of the highest quality brands available here.
I've had to pay and order in some brush on extreme matte varnish which will dull him down, but also add texturing he should not have and still negatively affect his price.
I've been a loyal customer of W&N for a long time, even when cheaper sable brushes like Rosemary and Co started appearing, but this is a real shaker for my happiness with the brand.
Actually Iffy, I don't think that's as bad as all that. I think it looks stunning honestly. I like the fact that you did the mechanical claw bits in silver/steel rather than gold... really makes them jump out as being a very functional element of the armor.
Ah thanks Gits, I appreciate that, it's just very hard to show you guys WHY the photos are so bad, because you would have to be looking at the model itself D:
Maybe I will just have to fly you all over to Ireland so you can take a look and then nod in agreement?
Haha, it would be worth it
I have some Vallejo pure matte varnish on the way but my wee schedule was to have this guy totally finished so I could toss him on Ebay and work on the other two projects I'm doing atm
(Tiny boats, and the worst figure ever painted as a jokey gift for a friend who might read here every now and then so NO HINTS FOR YOU, AMY!!)
You know Iffy, it comes to mind that there is another very talented painter on Dakka who complains regularly about professional painters using black or very dark background to artificially increase the "drama" of a figure when in fact, it tends to mask the actual painting skill involved (for good or ill). He recommends/pontificates a white background (you know who you are!!) as being be best for actually showing off the figure... however in my experience digital cameras often have a hard time dealing with extremes in either background (white or black). So white backgrounds tend to leave things underexposed & washed out while black backgrounds increase the contrast to the point where you lose the subtleties. I think my best results have come with a neutral grey or tan background, which seems to average the light balance & give the figure an honest shot at being a good representation of how it appears in-hand. Might be worth a shot.
Model looks great, but yea... knowing what I am looking for that shine is driving me nuts
If I do have one quibble, it is that the skull on his rack is too white. I prefer a more beige look to skulls. Which seems incredible asinine now that I write it, but it strikes me as looking a tad unfinished and plasticy looking next to all that great blending.
Automatically Appended Next Post: As a general "What are you doing GW?" question: What do you suppose is in the pink sack? Does his den mother pack his trail mix and hang it there before battle? Is it his dream sack? I have never understood that. How does he even get to it?
You know Iffy, it comes to mind that there is another very talented painter on Dakka who complains regularly about professional painters using black or very dark background to artificially increase the "drama" of a figure when in fact, it tends to mask the actual painting skill involved (for good or ill). He recommends/pontificates a white background (you know who you are!!) as being be best for actually showing off the figure... however in my experience digital cameras often have a hard time dealing with extremes in either background (white or black). So white backgrounds tend to leave things underexposed & washed out while black backgrounds increase the contrast to the point where you lose the subtleties. I think my best results have come with a neutral grey or tan background, which seems to average the light balance & give the figure an honest shot at being a good representation of how it appears in-hand. Might be worth a shot.
White is absolutely the best for most mini's, I totally agree.
I originally photod this guy on white, then grey, then tan, and the problem is that he is so freaking glossy that the reflected light left him with a horrible sheen.
The mid grey black was the only background I found that worked, pure black was awful, as it hid half of him like you said, even though it reduced the glare.
The big culprit is my camera honestly.
I find that:
Grey gives the best colour correction and a well lit, honest representation of the fig.
White is great for darker figs that just need a wee bit more light, but you have to light them very carefully with white or you can get a bit of glare or incorrect white correction with crappy little cameras like mine ^^
Black is amazing for larger figures or for very bright ones. It can also make a "bland" figure painted using a lot of neutral tones look better than white, as it draws attention to any little shades of colour you used instead of washing it out a little like white.
It's frustrating, because you are totally right that white or grey would be better, the only reason they aren't with this dude are the gloss, the extra bouncing light just leaves him a shining blur :(
Wehrkind wrote: As a general "What are you doing GW?" question: What do you suppose is in the pink sack? Does his den mother pack his trail mix and hang it there before battle? Is it his dream sack? I have never understood that. How does he even get to it?
I don't think that anything is in it at all... well... perhaps a couple of nuts. Probably wasn't even put there on purpose... it's just a gobbit that flew off an enemy that was being shredded and got stuck up there!
I swear, it is like we have banned it! I can order it online but it is basically a million, billion euro + 1.
Wehrkind wrote:Model looks great, but yea... knowing what I am looking for that shine is driving me nuts If I do have one quibble, it is that the skull on his rack is too white. I prefer a more beige look to skulls. Which seems incredible asinine now that I write it, but it strikes me as looking a tad unfinished and plasticy looking next to all that great blending.
It's killing me every time I look at it :(
That's really great feedback though, I tried to use the loaded brush tech on the skull and it was great fun, but it's wayyyy brighter than the rest. It shows up even more cause of how dark he is, so I'll darken that down a bit tonight Thanks for pointing it out man!
Wehrkind wrote:As a general "What are you doing GW?" question: What do you suppose is in the pink sack? Does his den mother pack his trail mix and hang it there before battle? Is it his dream sack? I have never understood that. How does he even get to it?
The pink sack has his night out kit in it. Spare armor polish, some mascara, a beating demonic heart, everything he needs for a night on the town.
Aaand I snarfed breakfast sausage. I love the idea of his night out kit being in there, but now I want to model up a termi holding a little sequined clutch in his power claws.
Sucks about not being able to get Testors in the EU. I hadn't realized that it was impossible to get paint stuff from here to there, just now saw that the Warstore isn't allowed to ship it internationally due to LAWS. What a bloody mess. What is going on in Europe that spray paints and related products cost so much?
I suppose I could generalize that question... that's like 5th time this month I have found myself asking what is wrong in Europe that makes X crazy expensive.
Wehrkind wrote: Aaand I snarfed breakfast sausage. I love the idea of his night out kit being in there, but now I want to model up a termi holding a little sequined clutch in his power claws.
Sucks about not being able to get Testors in the EU. I hadn't realized that it was impossible to get paint stuff from here to there, just now saw that the Warstore isn't allowed to ship it internationally due to LAWS. What a bloody mess. What is going on in Europe that spray paints and related products cost so much?
I suppose I could generalize that question... that's like 5th time this month I have found myself asking what is wrong in Europe that makes X crazy expensive.
Ah man, there is so much stuff we cant get here.
People are always talking about airbrushing medium, glaze medium, isopropyl alcohol in diy stores, all this stuff is impossible to find here!
If I wanted to buy any form of raw alcohol, I would have to buy it from a chemist in a tiny bottle for an extorionate amount of money.
We can't ship anything like that in either, so I am quite often very behind the cool kids of painting with all their awesome accesories I can't get ^^
Then again, the USA has its odddities too, I remember trying to send Gitsplitta some sweets for his kiddos and made the mistake of packaging some Kinder Eggs in there, did a check on candy custom laws just before I sent them luckily ><
I think they might finally be legal to import now though, I am not sure!
Dr H wrote: Ooo, that is shiny. Hope W&N pull out some good customer service for you.
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your interest in Winsor & Newton.
Matte varnishes all have a matting agent which requires vigorous shaking as it can sink to the bottom of the can. If it has not been adequately dispersed, you will get a variation of finish. If you believe this can is faulty, you need to return it to me for testing.
Kind regards,
Thanks for not reading the mail at all, and the implication that I don't know how to agitate a spray.
If any member of my team were sending out responses like this in our company, they would be immediately put on a performance review. Awful, not a single part of my mail was addressed, no apology, no even attempt at compassion or empathy, asked to speak to a CS supervisor.
Not the most absolute matte I've seen, but it does its job. Plus its relatively cheap. I got a 500mL bottle for like 13 bucks here. It runs through an airbrush too. Just a little windex to loosen it up and boom. You're off. Its my go-to, at least!
Testors is not available in Ireland, and we can't legally send aerosols in the mail, but I'm going to be MEGA CHEEKY and see if an American friend can send me a can.
The worst thing that will happen if customs finds it is to send it back, so that should work out
Ramos Asura, I have heard awesome things about liquitex in general, I want to try and get some next month, but the postage is so insane:
Holy balls, 18 pounds to get a can from Britain?! No wonder Ireland's economy went through the ringer. It amazes me that people continue to live there (or Europe at all from what I hear from folks.)
That and screw W&N. What crap customer service, a real shame on the company.
I don't know how they could read your original email, watch that video and then come to the conclusion that you probably don't know how to shake a can properly...
Wehrkind wrote:Holy balls, 18 pounds to get a can from Britain?! No wonder Ireland's economy went through the ringer. It amazes me that people continue to live there (or Europe at all from what I hear from folks.)
Dr H wrote: postage like that is because you live on an island, called Ireland, off an island. Don't think that the spelling differences are fooling anybody.
Haha, the postage is just people taking the and charging as high as they want.
The actual price to ship a can that weight from here to england would be about 6 euro. They just hike the prices up crazy on Ebay because they know no one really has any other choice ><
Irelands shipping prices are crazy good. I recall shipping a unit of painted, packaged marines to China, tracked, for a tenner.
People just make up prices for shipping to usand get away with it!
Wehrkind wrote:That and screw W&N. What crap customer service, a real shame on the company.
Dr H wrote:Yeah that sucks for W&N.
Hope you manage to solve your Matt issues without the need to re-mortgage or sell your soul.
It was TERRIBLE cs, but I went pretty mental (in a polite way) in the response and got a far better response from a lady named Melodie who instead of demanding I post them back an Aerosol can as there is no way it could be Satin as I claim, asked for the batch number to test, and is sending me out a new can just in case, and a nice size 1 Series 7
That's how it should be considering this can has cost me over 20 quid now in total, and I happy again with W&N, though I won't be buying any more varnish from em.
Fifty wrote: I don't know how they could read your original email, watch that video and then come to the conclusion that you probably don't know how to shake a can properly...
He's all up and I'm working on him now and very happy so far
I took one some awesome feedback I got from Gits and darkened him down a lot more than the Fire Prism.
A LOT of the Fire Prism was mistakes, or covering mistakes, as I had no idea what I was doing and learning as I went, but with what I learned from it, I'm getting way better results now.
Here is himself and his base colours (The purple is much redder but the colourcasting from the turqoise and solid black was hard to avoid)
And here is an mid WIP of his shield arm after finishing in the space effects and starting on the stars.
I think it looks way more like space than the Fire Prism did, so far anyway!
I used a reference image I was trying to use on the FirePrism but botched by adding way too much blue that covered the black.
Letting the black and purple take the front seat has gotten me way closer to what I wanted, and the star effects have turned out much better now there aren't way too many of em covering everything.
Better. This is very inspiring Iffy. Might even try this type of scheme on my wraithdar when I finally finish up my Admech (they've been waiting patiently in the webway).
Eldar are too demanding for me to paint. They have so many clean and shiny surfaces that need a nice paintjob. I like humans because their paint schemes can be more...human?
Gitsplitta wrote:Better. This is very inspiring Iffy. Might even try this type of scheme on my wraithdar when I finally finish up my Admech (they've been waiting patiently in the webway).
I think he is much better, but still definitely room for improvement!
You should totally try it out, theres a lot of trial and error but it's a super rewarding scheme once it starts working!
inmygravenimage wrote:Sparkly and lovely. Beautiful.
SO STARRY
JB wrote:Oh sweet Jesus, that's pretty!
Eldar are too demanding for me to paint. They have so many clean and shiny surfaces that need a nice paintjob. I like humans because their paint schemes can be more...human?
Oh man, I understand.
These guys have to look pristine or they just don't look right, even if it's a gorgeous paint job
I've spent about 8 hours on him so far, and here is where he is at now:
Can folks let me know if that image is fitting to fullscreen, or stretching the screen out? Seen full size do both on my monitor and not sure how its showing for other people
The biggest downer about him is that he is SO BIG, you can't really see the detail work in these shots.
Like, his arm is the size of 2 space marines on top of each other, I really went crazy with little gas clouds and whirls and streaks.. but you can't see them this far back ^^
That's why I have gone for crazy over the top fades on the visor and sword, because they look neat and striking from any distance, then when you get closer to him you start to realise.. he is full of stars!
I'm assuming that Mona is not a free hand? If it is I'm wondering which side of the mushroom you ate to make your brush strokes smaller 
but that would seem a bit 
what an awesome reference. Kung Pow!
Thank you so much.
