Please be sure to read the theme carefully this month. As it is a technical round, it is a bit more specific to avoid confusion.
Welcome to the 39th round of the Unofficial Painting Challenge! For the unfamiliar, this painting challenge is a friendly affair open to any Dakka members, whether you're winning Golden Demons or just painting Demons gold! The more you enter, the more points you accrue based on a public vote, and these are tracked in a League Table over the course of the year.
This month, a Technical Challenge finally makes it way into rotation. The theme is 'Three Colour Maximum', to challenge your ability to paint with a limited array of colours and see how creative you can be. Please read the following clarifications carefully before entering.
- Three Colour Maximum means the final model should have no more than 3 clearly identifiable colours. Variations within these are around, and there is no limit on the number of individual paints that can be used.
- Different tones/shades of the same colour count as one. For example, if you use a dark blue on a model's armour and a light blue on its weapon, that counts as blue and uses one of the three allowed colours.
- Conversely, mixed colours count towards the limit. For example, if your model features red and blue and you mix these to create a purple, that counts as your third colour.
- The following areas are exempt from the limit for the sake of simplicity: Bases, minor markings and weathering effects. Anything else (faces, eyes, accoutrements, weapons ect) count towards the limit.
- You MUST list the three chosen colours alongside your final model, so that when voting, people can decide to what extent you fulfilled the brief.
- Black, white and Silver count as colours for the purposes of this challenge.
- Techniques such as non-metallic metal will be judged on a case by case basis, but NMM gold for instance (composed of, say, brown, yellow, off-white, white) would count as gold. This is in line with the ruling that it's the colours that count rather than the number of paints used on them.
- As this is a challenging and unique round, please feel free to PM me or post in this thread with any queries regarding eligibility. If in doubt, ask first, as I don't want to have to disallow anyone's finished entry (though as the concept is highly specific this month, I will do so if I feel it blatantly violates the theme)
How To Enter
- You may enter up to 5 MODELS as a SINGLE ENTRY, and are permitted one entry per member per month. If you enter multiple models, they should ideally be related in some way, such as part of the same squad, unit or scene if you are doing a diorama
- You MUST post a 'proof' picture of your entry in the thread of the state it was in before you started working on it; this must be either unassembled, unpainted, primed or coated a single colour. Entries that do not submit a valid Proof Picture will not be eligible for voting.
- After this, you may post WIP pictures in this thread and your own if you wish, and on completing the entry, you may post up to 6 final pictures IN THIS THREAD that will then be used for voting. Please note that pictures in a montage or collage picture will be considered individual images for this purpose, so while these types of presentation are certainly acceptable, please keep the image limit in mind when compiling them. For example, a collage of 5 images and one separate image would count as your 6 picture allowance.
So What Do I Win?
- Points... and points mean... bragging rights for the next month! Following the vote, points will be awarded to every entrant. This year, the Points you receive will be equal to the Percentage of Votes your entry receives in the final Voting thread; if you get 10%, you get 10 points, if you get 6% you get 6 points, so on and so forth.
These points will be used to form a league table, which will be updated month on month as the results come in.
How Long Do I Have?
This challenge begins 1st of May and will end at midnight GMT on the 31st of May. After this, I shall compile the finished entries into a new thread, and voting will run for 5 days.
I'm in. I'll edit in a pic when I get home from work. Tippy, the loneliest homagaunt, an old metal 'nid will be painted in blue and black, probably with bone white for the 3rd color.
I'm in. Got some Fire Warriors and Drones to do.
As the Base/s are excluded, I might set up a little dio including a SM.
I got 1 question about the colour-range-rule. I usually try to avoid to use black and use a really dark grey (Black-Grey Vallejo) instead. So I could mix it with white, my 2nd colour, to create a brighter grey?
3rd colour would be red.
Kustomer D wrote: I'm in. Got some Fire Warriors and Drones to do.
As the Base/s are excluded, I might set up a little dio including a SM.
I got 1 question about the colour-range-rule. I usually try to avoid to use black and use a really dark grey (Black-Grey Vallejo) instead. So I could mix it with white, my 2nd colour, to create a brighter grey?
3rd colour would be red.
Proof will follows soon.
Good luck guys.
KD
Light and dark grey is fine, so long as it's clearly grey and not black/white.
As for the base, if you're including models/ doing a diorama base, I'll rule that does count, I'm afraid. If it's just rocks or metal or foliage or dirt then it's one thing, but including a mini (or part of a mini) on the base is probably pushing things to be honest.
Kustomer D wrote: I'm in. Got some Fire Warriors and Drones to do.
As the Base/s are excluded, I might set up a little dio including a SM.
I got 1 question about the colour-range-rule. I usually try to avoid to use black and use a really dark grey (Black-Grey Vallejo) instead. So I could mix it with white, my 2nd colour, to create a brighter grey?
3rd colour would be red.
Proof will follows soon.
Good luck guys.
KD
Light and dark grey is fine, so long as it's clearly grey and not black/white.
As for the base, if you're including models/ doing a diorama base, I'll rule that does count, I'm afraid. If it's just rocks or metal or foliage or dirt then it's one thing, but including a mini (or part of a mini) on the base is probably pushing things to be honest.
Oh, that's fine. I want to keep it in Grey, White and Red. All minis are going to fit the rules and so will be the rest of my entry - I hope
one small, possibly difficult question...right, so for my entry, I was thinking black, white, and some spot colour...probably green...but anyway...at what point does shading and highlighting of "black" and "white", become "grey"?
am I just going to have to go completely monochrome?...or maybe work a tint of my spot colour into the more obvious grey parts?...or is grey just pretty much a gimme if I'm working mostly in black/white?
Shading/highlighting is fine, only counts as one. So an off-white highlighted to white or a dark grey shaded to black is perfectly acceptable. So long as you list the colours at the start so I know what you're limiting yourself too, that's all okay.
I'll see what I can think of. If the voting is going to include deciding how well people kept to the 3 colours thing, I'm going to have to recuse myself from that part (being somewhat colour blind). Fortunately, paints come well labelled so I won't have that excuse for myself...
Paradigm wrote: Shading/highlighting is fine, only counts as one. So an off-white highlighted to white or a dark grey shaded to black is perfectly acceptable. So long as you list the colours at the start so I know what you're limiting yourself too, that's all okay.
black, white, green
strong-highlighted black = grey
strong-shaded white = grey
...also, extremely highlighted black = white...and extremely shaded white = black...
this is making my head hurt ...where does the white start becoming grey, or black...and when does the black start becoming grey or white
urgh...what if I just pick "grey" as one of my colours...and just shade to very dark grey, and highlight to very light grey...not quite hitting either pure white, or pure black...and it just being 1 colour instead of 2...
Maybe this will help (from a previous contest with grayscale models + 1 spot color). The robes/hood/boots are black, but highlighted up to white. Where as the back pipes/gun are neither black nor white, so would be the 3rd option of grey in the case of this contest.
ah sod it...I'll just see how I go with just "black/grey/white", and post up a pic of that when I'm done...then if it gets a pass for only one or two colours, then I'll add in a spot colour...that feels like the easiest way to go for now
I'm kind of relying on people to self-police here. If you paint part of the model using greys, but you'd call it black because that's how you paint black, then feel free to count it as black. Likewise for white, if the way you paint white uses greys then call it white. You're never going to get pure black or white on a mini anyway, so it's up to you. If you feel it's black/white then call it that, if you'd rather call it all grey then you can do that to, it depends on how you want to see it.
Let's not forget that this is all just for fun anyway, I'm not going to be awarding points on the finer details of colour selection or anything! Whaley's example is a good one, as he says that's black (robes, hood), white (inner clothing), grey (weapons/backpack).
If you're satisfied it meets the choices you're picking, that's enough for me. Sorry for all the confusion, I can see now why people weren't too keen for the technical challenges in the past... But onwards and upwards! I'm sure we'll get some great entries yet, even if they're a bit of a headache to get started!
My entry: I'll be grinding through my tactical marines this month, so here are the five for the challenge, along with the paint scheme model on the right...
So colors are green, black and silver. I'll have to figure out a way to do the eyelenses without making them red...
I'm going to enter with these Bloodletters of Khorne:
My three colors will be Red, Black, and Bronze.
One thing I'd better clarify: a lot of the time when I go to highlight red, I use an orange color as it makes nice distinct highlights. Is that okay? No part of the model will actually be orange in color, just possibly some highlights.
That's fine. Again, it's about the intent. If you paint something to a point where you'd call it a certain colour, call it that colour. If you use orange to highlight your reds or grey to highlight your blacks, or blue to shade your greens ect. that's not an issue so long as the end result is clearly (overall) the colour stated in the first place.
Despite still being too busy to dedicate proper time to painting, this challenge has really excited me. So I'm going to have to enter something small but I'm just unsure what at the moment!
Paradigm wrote: Sorry for all the confusion, I can see now why people weren't too keen for the technical challenges in the past... But onwards and upwards! I'm sure we'll get some great entries yet, even if they're a bit of a headache to get started!
No confusion I thought you explained it well and is a nice playful twist on the 3 colour min for tourneys =) . choose 3 base colours and highlight + shade as you usually would, should be easy with the right model... I hope
I've always voted for the technical challenges as I want this to actually challenge us rather than allow us to fall into our own comfort zones.
I feel like the briefing has been pretty straightforward for most people...it's mostly just been my difficult gimmicky high-concept idea that's been throwing a spanner in the works
...basically, I'll be aiming to replicate this kind of aesthetic ^, in a little diorama piece, so, black and white, but there's undeniably a lot of just grey in there too, even though it's all just a range of shading/highlights...I wanted to include an additional dramatic, vivid spot-colour, kinda "sin city" style, but if that's already going to be counting as black/white/grey, then I don't have the extra colour slot to spare ...meh, I'll see how it works out just sticking to monochrome - I might be able to just use strong application of pure white in place of the spot colour I wanted to use
My project (ignore the hammer & HW guys) is a group of squat space marines (long story). There are actually 8 of them (plus 3 that won't be part of it)
It counts if it's visible on the final model, if not then no. Again, it's about the number of colours on the final piece, rather than the number of paints/colour used along the way. Likewise, if you basecoated areas you planned to paint gold in brown, the brown wouldn't count unless you could see it on the finished model.
early WIP shot, I've got my little diorama all built and primed...now to spend an ungodly amount of time on meticulous black-white blends and transitions, that no doubt will barely show up in the final pics
I don‘t have a clue what to paint this month...
Not black templar again... black, white and red.... but for this challange they are nothing special.... hmm... difficult
SirOllox wrote: I don‘t have a clue what to paint this month...
Not black templar again... black, white and red.... but for this challange they are nothing special.... hmm... difficult
Ha! I had considered this...!
I am finding it a challenge to think of a scheme that will allow for the necessary color separation to stop the model from becoming muddled looking! I think I am close!
I'm really struggling to think of the models I have and what I could get away with doing only 3 colours. I wonder if choosing the subject will be the hardest part of this challenge?
craggy wrote: I'm really struggling to think of the models I have and what I could get away with doing only 3 colours. I wonder if choosing the subject will be the hardest part of this challenge?
Here's my train of thought on subjects that can reduce the amount of colors used:
1. Full body armor - can't have a bare head as that adds too many colors.
2. Either no skin, or almost all skin. In the case of the latter, you have skintone, loincloth/hair and accent color.
3. Monochrome with one accent color kind of like Sin City.
4. Beasts (Tyranids or Dragons, Treemen etc.)
craggy wrote: I'm really struggling to think of the models I have and what I could get away with doing only 3 colours. I wonder if choosing the subject will be the hardest part of this challenge?
Here's my train of thought on subjects that can reduce the amount of colors used:
1. Full body armor - can't have a bare head as that adds too many colors.
2. Either no skin, or almost all skin. In the case of the latter, you have skintone, loincloth/hair and accent color.
3. Monochrome with one accent color kind of like Sin City.
4. Beasts (Tyranids or Dragons, Treemen etc.)
Tanks are also a decent suggestion, as you can typically get away with main armour colour, metallic (for treads, gun fittings, exhausts ect) and marking colour. Statues (as I believe someone is already doing) are another good shout.
Is it ok if I change my entry? I just realized that I still have a chaplain that's only primed and he needs some love.
For colors, black, white and gold. Would grey, which will be used for highlighting the black armor, count as a separate color?
I leave that to your discretion. For example the kind of skin on the new GW Idoneth stuff I'd definitely consider white, and some Dark Elf/Eldar stuff or Raven Guard have pale enough skin to be considered actual white.
Are you using white anywhere else on the model? If you are, use that as a guide; if it's close to that, then feel free to call it white. Any painted white is going to be light grey anyway, so go with what you feel is appropriate.
Okay. No tanks. Tyranids might have been an option, in fact I have some Genestealers painted that would probably fit the bill, and thought about building my Prime, but nah, I'll wait til I brave magnets (how do they work?!) before I start my bugs. Think I'll use this opportunity to spruce up my Vindicare.
He actually looks pretty spiffy by the 20+ year old standards of when he was first painted, and the skull he's standing on is pretty nice even for now, so I might not touch that, but there's some metal showing and I'd like to bring him in line with the more modern models I've been painting.
I'm now torn between choosing black/grey/silver and black/red/silver as a colour scheme. I could just about cope with monotone if it wasn't for the eyes, but I'm going to sleep on it.
Shame really, as I'm painting my Exodite Avatar right now in shades of red, yellow and metal colours, but he's got purple hair, and there's silver, bronze and copper in the metal parts so even if I hadn't started him a week or so ago, he's too busy for this challenge.
My WIP.
Going for a skeleton centaur. Don't mind the mold lines and hot glue residue, this is just a test fit. Most centaurs are pictured with bow and arrow, but I wanted to make one for close combat. I'm having some doubts, so your critiques and suggestions are welcome!
1. Pose: wanted a dynamic/action look, so I went for a prancing pose. Succesful?
2. Head: too big? I'm thinking cutting off the base so they'll fit better and look better in scale. I've got some other horns too, just need to dig them up.
3. Spear: I obviously have to add a spear tip, but is the shaft too long? This shaft is from a standard bearer, I've also got a Tomb Kings spearmen arm, the back part of the shaft is a little shorter.
4. Flail: suitable for him?
5. Other tips/ideas? Thanks in advance!
That's really cool, clever use of parts and it should be perfect for the limited number of colours. I think the spear and head look fine, to be honest.
Tim 121RVC wrote: My WIP. Going for a skeleton centaur. Don't mind the mold lines and hot glue residue, this is just a test fit. Most centaurs are pictured with bow and arrow, but I wanted to make one for close combat. I'm having some doubts, so your critiques and suggestions are welcome!
1. Pose: wanted a dynamic/action look, so I went for a prancing pose. Succesful? 2. Head: too big? I'm thinking cutting off the base so they'll fit better and look better in scale. I've got some other horns too, just need to dig them up. 3. Spear: I obviously have to add a spear tip, but is the shaft too long? This shaft is from a standard bearer, I've also got a Tomb Kings spearmen arm, the back part of the shaft is a little shorter. 4. Flail: suitable for him? 5. Other tips/ideas? Thanks in advance!
Pose/head/spear are all fine. I might have gone with a shield over a flail, and up armored him a bit. But that’s mostly a personal choice and what’s in the bits box. Similar in build to the ones I made myself back in the day.
I'm still considering it. I don't want to ruin the statue by giving it too much of weathering. It is already drowned in Agrax and dry brushed in gold and platinum to highlight the edges.
I've finally found a model I can justify using only three colours on. But it has a purity seal. Can purity seals be exempt or am I gonna have to be inventive?
Paradigm wrote: That's really cool, clever use of parts and it should be perfect for the limited number of colours. I think the spear and head look fine, to be honest.
Pose/head/spear are all fine.
I might have gone with a shield over a flail, and up armored him a bit. But that’s mostly a personal choice and what’s in the bits box. Similar in build to the ones I made myself back in the day.
Thanks, men!
I'll probably stick to the flail, tried some shields, but none of them looked "right."
As for the colours an obvious choice would be (bone)white, brown and silver (metal). Or does anyone know a crazy cool alternative with more striking colours?
If you were to darken the bone to more of a sandy colour, you could call that all brown. That frees up a third colour to add an ethereal glow to the eyes or spatter on some blood or something.
Yes, I'm afraid so. So by my count you've gone over the limit there (though of course, there's nothing to stop you taking those bits off, submitting your entry then adding them back on afterwards if you're able to).
Paradigm wrote: I'm afraid that would count, so unless you can use a colour present somewhere else on the model, it'd be one of your three.
Inventive it is. Additionally does a chapter symbol count as a minor marking?
It depends what sort of size we're talking. A small inscription on a kneepad might just be ok, a larger one on a shoulder pad is pushing it. Again though, feel free to enter the mini without those then add them afterwards. There's no rule saying your model has to be entered in its final state.
Coming along nicely.
Colours used so far: Basalt Grey, toned down with Nuln Oil, Different Lighter greys, Ivory/White, Red tones.
If you detect any violation of the rules allready, don't hasitate to point on it.
Looks legit to me, I see grey, white and red. The chipping looks brown but I did specifically flag weathering as an effect that doesn't count towards the 3 colour limit.
I started work on a Gold smoke knight, another kingdom death: monster model. I decided that I'm gonna strip it down unfortunately, even though it wasn't looking all that bad. I had problems creating smooth blends, neither wet blending nor glazing seemed to be working. I got it all figured out now though, I finally figured out how to get rid of the brush marks when glazing. It's a great feeling, getting rid of a mental blockade. Up until now I've been painting much smaller models, and my techniqes didn't seem to be working on larger surfaces. Turns out all I had to do was feather the brush marks to the side with a damp brush.
Well I was going to make a post with advice not to overthink things but its taken me 8 days to work out what I'm going to do so can't really say that Since my time is very limited I wanted to do something I knew I could complete.
I didn't think when we voted this topic in that it would cause so much extra work for Para, but at least we are doing a technical as a bit of a change. Good luck everyone
My proof
Ork Deathskulls - Colours - Blue, White and Brown (that's right no green! thought I would make it I challenge for myself)
p.s.s the colours on these models will be painted over.
Little WIP, they're off their sprues, not glued though. And if anyone steals the whole, dichotomy, white/black imperium/chaos thing I'm flipping some tables.
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: Little WIP, they're off their sprues, not glued though. And if anyone steals the whole, dichotomy, white/black imperium/chaos thing I'm flipping some tables.
Prowl, is that you?
Tell me you're at least going GI JOE on it and doing the "baddie" in white?
Subverting the tradition has become so common that the truly subversive thing is to stick to the tradition. Also I can't face painting the chosen marine in white.
I'm having a hard time picking a model to paint this month. I know what I'd like to do, but not how to do it, or what model to do it on. I better pull my finger out soon though or I'm not going to have enough time to pick something, realise that what I'd like to do is way beyond my abilities, and hastily pick something else instead.
I've got quite a lot of stuff I could get away with only doing three colours on - for example I've got the new Star Wars Legion box set, so loads of lovely storm troopers. However I'd rather do something really left-field to fit the spirit of the challenge. Hmm...
Do you have any more Sylvaneth lying around? That Treelord you did a few months ago was epic, and with them it'd be easy to keep to the colour limit as there's basically a whole bunch of browns then your spot colour of choice.
Quick WIP photo of my Bloodletters:
This has been an interesting challenge so far. Working with a limited palette like this has been somewhat of a challenge, although thankfully these models don't suffer too much from it. It has also been interesting seeing what everyone else is coming up with.
Well, wasn't sure about this guy, but given he's basically done, sans a bit of basing...
Proof pic, with a couple of beasties I was considering as alternates.
Shortly after deciding I didn't like the waviness of the mace, and didn't feel like straightening it.
as he currently is, minus the base I've glued him to. Just need to work out how I'm basing him, and take some better pictures.
Black and Red, I suppose with a little silver, though thats really more for a highlight and separator for the the black metal panels (and on the scales, light glare)
hmm...that looks pretty thick...but, it might not be as bad as it looks?...I've recently painted that model, and some parts of the sculpt aren't exactly what I'd call "crisp"...like the back half of that shoulderpad with the big horn...you just have to kinda fight the model there...
maybe try giving the whole thing a wash with thinned nuln oil, to help everything stand out easier for painting? (I say "thinned" nuln oil, because unthinned might darken it too much overall, which could be a pain if you want it painted white...cut it like 50-50 with water, or lahmian medium, whatever)
feltmonkey wrote: I'm having a hard time picking a model to paint this month. I know what I'd like to do, but not how to do it, or what model to do it on. I better pull my finger out soon though or I'm not going to have enough time to pick something, realise that what I'd like to do is way beyond my abilities, and hastily pick something else instead.
Yeah it took me 8 days to work out what to do, but what's the worst that could happen you either end up with a cool model or you learn something . Really interesting to see what people have picked this month.
Looking forward to seeing that model painted Suzuteo
Cool model Marine_With_Heart, your last entries have been very good so I'm sure this one will be as well
And I'm done! Already! Not even halfway through the month. That's gotta be a record for me! Here are the final pics of my Bloodletters of Khorne:
Again, my chosen colors were red, black, and bronze. Hopefully it's okay that the eyes are yellow, as they are tiny compared to the model and the rules said that small squad markings, etc. would be okay to be a different color. Ditto with the bases, I'm pretty sure they were exempted from the 3-color limit. Hopefully I'm right about that...
Anyway, feel free to vote for these images in the Dakka Gallery, and I look forward to seeing what everyone else can do with a limited palette!
Settled on my Vindicare. Was previously painted, but I repainted the whole model black, and started adding greys on top. Some washes to indicate varying textures and red for the eyes and cable on his back. Very quick paint at least, only took a couple of hours and I am mostly happy with him.
As many of you are aware, I've pulled out quite a few times because I've misjudged how much free time I would have. For the first (and hopefully last) time, I'm withdrawing an entry because it's so goddamned awful I think it would be an insult to submit it. Hopefully I have some models primed black lying around so I can reenter, but still.
As you can see in some of the pictures, bits of the model are just completely devoid of detail because of how much paint is on there, like the winged skull on the gun. Additionally, getting a flat white is bloody impossible.
I blame two things, really two paints, and myself for going into it knowing what would happen, and doing it anyway.
First, the corax white. Jesus christ that stuff is runny. If I still had any black or green spray left I'd use that, but I ran out. Even taking it slowly, the paint just will not adhere in one go. But after three coats of primer, it's still not coated evenly and now the details are starting to get obscured. Then trying to get even coats of colour over it is very hard, but more on that later.
Second, the ulthuan grey. I now own three pots if the stuff, and each pot gets little clumpy bits in it and it's almost never smooth, even after lots of shaking. I must have layered on 10 layers of near water consistency ulthuan grey, as smooth as I could get, and it still wasn't really flat, which is partly due to the corax white, I've never had this issue with black primer, the ulthuan needs lots of thinning but it sticks. And with the dark grey, it was really thin, but to get a smooth coat over the corax it needed so much that the details disappeared.
I don't even watch to attempt the chaos dude.
So to summarise, if you've never used corax white, don't.
Holy crap - that really is thick, isn't it?
I will definitely steer clear of Corax White...I have a couple of rattlecans of Skull White that I still use but you should save up for an airbrush, man.
I know they are a lot of money, but after the initial outlay, the undercoats and base coats become easy, smooth and really cheap.
Either way, I hope you still find an entry - I always enjoy seeing your atmospheric minis. They always seem to live really well in the 40K universe and capture the imagination.
Anyhow, I am going to paint a Farseer. The idea is still percolating in my melon but there may be other eldar models added as well. If so, I will add extra proof pics. Sorry about the crummy photo, I used my dodgy phone. The model does have blue painted on the blades but is otherwise just undercoated black. Hope that is fine.
Oddly enough, I bought a can of Corax White last week and have used it to prime my Star Wars Legion Stormtroopers. I don't know if there's a big difference from can to can, but it worked fine for me. Really well, in fact. Much better than the Vallejo light grey primer I bough and used through my airbrush, which was a disaster. That's probably my fault though - I can't airbrush at all, and every time I use it it's a disaster of one kind or another.
Ulthuan Grey is consistently rubbish though - lumpy and always separated. The only way I've found of getting it into a usable state is lots of vigorous stirring with a cocktail stick.
I don't think I'll the time to do anything for this month's challenge I have a big project at work which must be done till the end of next week.
Plus I'm streesed out cause of it, really not in the mood for painting . If I find some time to do it, I'll make a single small mini.
It'd be a shame to have a Modock-less monthly challenge, but I certainly understand feeling to stressed to paint. Hopefully even if you miss this month you'll be able to power back next month!
Anyway, I've decided on what I'm painting, and have made a start on it. Here's the proof:
I decided that if I was going for a really weird painting style, it would be an interesting idea to paint a pretty familiar style of miniature, so I picked a Space Marine. I've painted a bunch of them recently (including a duplicate of this mini) which helps me know what details and bits and bobs are on the mini, but I also thought it would be cool to see something familiar in an unfamiliar style. An unexpected side benefit is that it might end up reminding me of the animated adaptation of Helsreach on youtube.
Anyway, I've decided on what I'm painting, and have made a start on it. Here's the proof:
I decided that if I was going for a really weird painting style, it would be an interesting idea to paint a pretty familiar style of miniature, so I picked a Space Marine. I've painted a bunch of them recently (including a duplicate of this mini) which helps me know what details and bits and bobs are on the mini, but I also thought it would be cool to see something familiar in an unfamiliar style. An unexpected side benefit is that it might end up reminding me of the animated adaptation of Helsreach on youtube.
Looking forward to your entry. I am finding this month's to be pretty tough!
Automatically Appended Next Post: Figured now is as good a time as to post some WIPs...
Basecoated:
Red is Reaper Clotted Red
Grey is custom mix P3 Gnarls Green + P3 Beaten Purple
Bone (base) is P3 Hammerfall Khaki
Shadow is Reaper Clotted Red + P3 Gnarls Green (right leg)
First Highlight is P3 Khador Red Base (left leg)
Update 2:
Final Highlight is P3 Ryn Flesh (left leg) - I think I'm going to knock this back a bit on the knee and the foot... it is getting a bit too desaturated.
Right, exams done, time to get this thread sorted!
Sorry for the delay, I'm going to sort the OP now and then hopefully crack on with my own entry at some point soon (though I think I need to pick up some more Blood For The Blood God paint beforehand...)
Some very promising work on show so far, and a nice variety in approaches to the challenge of the limited palette, which is what I certainly hoped to see!
Automatically Appended Next Post: There we go, OP should all be up to date now, give me a shout if I missed you but I think I got all the entries.
craggy wrote: I might see about trying to take better pics before the end of the month.
@Craggy: Try taking photos on a blank background. It looks like your camera is focusing on the wet palette behind and the model is a bit out of focus as a result. I usually fail in this regard as well due to laziness.
Also, if you have time to tidy the ring of the base, that will improve the presentation as well!
Thanks Keezus. I'm definitely prone to a bit of laziness. Last month I made a quick lightbox for the final pics and will probably use that again when I've the time and sunlight to make it worthwhile.
Finished. Must say that I'm not happy at all with the results, especially since this is for a friend. I guess it's okay, but I was aiming for much higher than this. I got arrogant and lazy, thinking that using some of the new tricks I learned from my last paintjob (infinity guijia) that I simply did not use enough colour mixes and that resulted in less than stellar blends.
Maybe I'll change my entry later, I was at a workshop last week and made a diorama, sticking a model onto it could make for a great entry.
The colours are gold, blue, and a bit of orange-y skin colour for the inside of the cloak (though it isn't really visible form the photos).
CREEEEEEEEED wrote: Looks pretty good to me. Sure it's not the greatest mini ever painted, but I'd be proud to have made it.
Yeah I know it's not bad per se, but I KNOW that I could have done so much more with it. It just feels like a step backwards rather than forward compared to the last mini I painted.
To be honest, it does look more orange than red on the crest to me. But that's fine, as you've already used orange for the rust so you're within the limit.
And that’s a wrap for Tippy. Colors are blue and black. Couple of different shades of blue used, From powder light to midnight, and a few shades in between. Gloss soulstone used for tooth and claw. It was interesting to challenge myself with a limited palette, but I think having the correct subject was huge here. Even if you discount one or two accent/highlight colors, even a fairly monochrome army like Marines uses a lot of different colors.
Anyway, was fun and looking forward to next month.
Here are my final pics. Colours used were black and white, obvs.
I used Frank Miller's art on Sin City as an inspiration. The Dark Angels chapter symbol was painted freehand, which was nerve-wracking, but it came out decent enough. Taking the photos was really difficult, I needed a black background so I used a shirt and damn, that is one furry shirt. The shirt fur is all I see when I look at the photos. All I request is that you please judge me on the painting, not on the furriness of the shirt.
argh...I got preoccupied with painting 36 ork boyz, and a deffrolla for my battlewagon, that I needed for a game...as a result I've got barely anything done on my entry so far :/ ...well, I'd made some decent progress on snikrot himself, but the scouts he was sneaking up on, and the whole diorama base thingy, are all just primer still :/
...in hindsight, I should've just done a single model for this...and I also probably should've saved snikrot for next month - what better an entry for "blades in the dark"...
I have no idea what I'm actually doing now (I honestly don't think I have much desire, or nearly enough time, frankly, to do full black/grey/white blend highlights on...a lot...of leaves, and 3 scouts, and all the rocks and stuff...as well as finish off snikrot...so, I think I'm out, at least as far as my full entry goes...might still just finish up snikrot and just enter him by himself vOv)
@Feltmonkey - damn, nice work there man! - that's basically the style I had in mind when I started my entry...but you've stuck very faithfully to the style, and pulled it off really well!...so far on my snikrot, I've gone more towards grey blends everywhere, with only a little true black and white...I do like how mine's going, but man yours is striking! nice work!
That’s really effectively done Feltmonkey and you went down to two colours(!). One suggestion/observation, based on the Sin City style; it would have been good to have one item in a really vivid spot colour (scarlet or something).
Busy life as usual and busy days ahead of me so I'll have my entry finished either on the 31st or late night on that day......
Hopefully not early morning of the 1st of June......
Well, all finished!
I spent a lot of time blending, hardly any of which shows on the photos, of course!
Tried to stick to only one colour - even the shadows and highlights are blue but I guess the snow on the base is actually white, so two colours really...
Felmonkey and Chris56, your projects are awesome, in the litteral sense: they elicit awe in me, as in "a feeling of reverential respect mixed with fear or wonder" ...
I'll get back to my marines, they will never approach these in any way, but the painting must continue, if the gaming is to come...
A Black Templars Sword Brethren with the colours red, black and gold.
When I see the finished entry of felt and chris I get a little bit jealous....
Both are looking great.
@Feltmonkey and Chris: Bloody hell chaps, both those entries are jaw-droppingly good. I'd hoped when I set this challenge that a couple of particularly bold (or mad) entrants would go for a true monochrome entry, and you've both smashed it! Absolutely top notch work... Unless someone else plays a blinder like that in the next 24 hours I think voting is basically going to be a showdown between the two of you!
As for my own entry, it is in fact a redux of a model I've entered before, back in (I think) the first year of the challenge. I was struggling to find any real inspiration this month despite finding the theme an exciting challenge, but then I remembered some black and white nids I'd done a few years ago that went down fairly well and could fit the restrictions. With that in mind, I pulled out the Broodlord from Space Hulk, re-undercoated him and got to work.
Proof: The Broodlord as of 2 days ago, in his 2016 paintscheme
And the Broodlord now, redone in black, off-white and red, looking, I hope you'll agree, much better!
erm, so I mentioned my entry a few days ago...well...then I pretty much immediately forgot about it again ...I've only just remembered about it again, and it's kinda too late to really do any significant work on it now, so it is what it is ...think this is my first "DNF" though, if I'm not mistaken, so, eh.
here's a couple of pics of snikrot, who I at least got about 3/4 done...
Well, goodness knows how, but I actually got some paint on these guys in the middle of a house move!
Only one dreadful photo but since I'm surrounded by chaos I figured I'd put it here anyway, what the hell.
Paradigm wrote: @ZoBo: Do you want me to take those pics as a finished entry? Even if it's not 100% done it's looking good!
ehhh...yeah alright, if there's no problem with that?...I guess almost all of him that made it into the pics is more-or-less finished...aside from the base and the foot...so he wouldn't have looked that much different at 100% anyway I guess vOv
hmm...I might actually get 2 challenges out of this model, just do a full repaint for next month (I mean, I do kinda like the black&white look...but if I decide I want to use him in a game, he'll look a bit too weird with all my other stuff :/ )
Yeah, I've no problem with entering it if you're happy (or if you wanted to do the base or foot and throw up pics for tomorrow), it looks complete enough to be called an entry as far as I'm concerned.
Lots of cool stuff coming in right under the wire! Modock, Chris, and feltmonkey, all of you guys knocked it out of the park if you ask me. SirOllox, that Black Templar of yours looks really good too!
Not finished but close, I was feeling a bit embarrassed by this entry but the last 2 hours have made them seem at least something that could be entered.
Will post the final pics just after lunch tomorrow.
Final Pics for my Ork Deathskulls. Colours are Blue, Brown and White.
Realised half way through the photos I'd forgotten to drill the bleeding gun barrels out, anyway its done, I definitely underestimated this challenge and my time available to work on it. I've done that for the last 2-3 challenges so will have to go for something simpler next month.
Well done to everyone that completed this month, it was a hard one. I don't think we will see another technical for a while lol
Didn't manage to finish my model properly and in time. Too bad, lesson learned.
Some great entries here, will comment as soon as the poll goes up. Good luck all!
Thanks ZoBo, Jadenim, SirOllox, ChaosDad, Paradigm, and ZergSmasher for the comments. I'm really pleased people like my entry. I'm tempted to do a whole army in the style!
Some great late entries as usual. I'll comment on everyone's in the voting thread, but here's a spoiler: Chris56 - that is absolutely beautiful. So flipping good.
...where does the white start becoming grey, or black...and when does the black start becoming grey or white 
...meh, I'll see how it works out just sticking to monochrome - I might be able to just use strong application of pure white in place of the spot colour I wanted to use 
Since my time is very limited I wanted to do something I knew I could complete.
. If I find some time to do it, I'll make a single small mini.
