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I picked the Forgeworld Raven Guard Captain Korvydae up at GDUK 2010, but due to a general lack of hobby time, I've only just gotten around to starting work on him in the last week or so.

The figure is a great sculpt, lots of movement and aggression and a nicely sculpted face. It does suffer from the usual Forgeworld casting issues though, namely some nasty mould lines and strangely concave shapes and rough surfaces. This meant the clean up phase took a lot of sanding, trimming and some sculpting and milliput washing.

Due to the pose, with the weapon across the body and much of the nice detail on the chest hidden by this, I decided to paint it in sub-assemblies.

The first area I've been working on has been the body, the largest sub-assembly and one which helps set the colours and tone for the rest of the figure. As I'm a big fan of painting faces, I also did some early work on the skin on the head.

So here's where I'm currently at with him:



As I'm currently trying to change my photo setup I took this one a little quickly and had to sharpen the image as a result - you can still see the work thats been done fine, but it looks a little rough in places.

Taking my time a bit with this one since it's my first fig since my GD entries last year, but hopefully I'll have some steady progress to show in the coming days.

Cheers,

Dante


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Also, since I forgot to post it before, here's a bit of a poorly lit pic of my Fantasy Single GDUK entry that was apparently only just pipped from getting bronze:

EDIT - Oh and before I forget, here's a pic of my Fantasy Single GDUK entry that apparently was just pipped for bronze:

Well, since the first post was a resounding success...

Some progress in work on Korvydae over the last few days.





More pics can be seen on my blog - http://cmdante.blogspot.com

Just the weapon (with other arm), jump pack and base to go. Had to create new vent tube things (the additional, very fragile bits that come with FW jump packs) using some wire and putty so the jump pack will be last to be finished.

Feel free to let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Dante

nice work on both pieces,the ravenguard dude looks awesome and i can't wait to see the finished piece.

Very nice skin tones, what colors/steps did you use! Can't believe I didn't see this one.

btw, you can sharpen up the pictures in photoshop if you duplicate the original layer, run a highpass filter on it (filter>other>highpass) and switch the highpassed layer to overlay, try it out you will see, very helpful especially on zoomed in macro shots!

Cool, cheers for the tip mate!

Copied from my response to a similar question on Warseer about the skin recipie:

"The skin recipe is as follows:

3rd Highlight(s) - Dheneb Stone (50%) White (50%) going up to pure white "spot lights" on key features such as nose, brow, cheek bones etc.
2nd Highlight - Dheneb Stone
1st Highlight - Dheneb Stone (70%) Tallarn Flesh (30%)
Mid-tone - Tallarn Flesh (60%) Dheneb Stone (40%)
1st Shade - Talarn Flesh (50%) Dheneb Stone (20%) Homogaunt Purple (30%)
2nd Shade - Talarn Flesh (50%) Dheneb Stone (10%) Homogaunt Purple (40%)

Though I've written these as staged ratios, that's not really how I apply them.

I use a wet palette so the mixing is done by eye and all stages are applied in very thin, numerous layers to create smoother transitions. So there are probably actually twice as many "layers", but because they are so thin, they dry quickly.

If you get a tide mark type line when either shading or highlighting, just go back in with some really thin mid-tone (but only a tiny amount on the brush to allow you to control it) and then blend the line back into the mid-tone.

Hopefully that makes some kind of sense, I'm not sure since it's hard to explain in writing!"

Cheers,

Dante

Here is a shot of your Mini with the highpass filter applied at a 4pixel width and overlayed on the original -



As you can see, it is a filter designed to sharpen fuzzy images and clarify lines. As I said, good on macro stuff or low res screen grabs. It's absolutely not cheating or 'airbrushing' anything in the photo, just helps crisp it up a bit, to what I'm sure looks a bit more like the real thing?

Thanks for the skin recipe by the way!

Ummm, yes and no really. It's definitely sharpened the edges up nicely, but it has also added a lot harsher contrast between colours than the mini has in real life (which is more like the first pic).

Still, it's a great technique and one I will bear in mind for both personal use and at work, cheers for sharing!

I've become re-energised with regards to my blog since the holiday period, and after doing some painting at the weekend, decided to put together a short painting tips list of some of the less discussed painting tips I've picked up in the last few months.

The tips cover topics such as:

- Why using a bigger brush makes more sense than you might think

- How to hold sub-assemblies such as arms without using glue and pinning

- How to look after your best brushes properly

Painting Tips Collection I

Would love to know what you guys think and if any of you have any unusual painting tips you'd like to share.

Thanks for the tips! The holding of sub-assemblies is one that I use a lot, I will have to try using a bigger brush based on this.

Very nice. I bet the finished product will be just astounding.

Buggers off to read blog, I'll be back -


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Great set of tips sir! ESP the bigger brush, one I figured out myself this year. Very generous of you to share as always!

How is korvydae going? And, not to rush you, but I'm really excited to see what you do with lelith!

Thanks for the comments folks!

Metsuri wrote:Thanks for the tips! The holding of sub-assemblies is one that I use a lot, I will have to try using a bigger brush based on this.

Definitely! A good big brush (size 2-3, kolinsky sable preferably) makes a world of difference to smooth transitions. In a future blog post I intend to discuss the technique in more detail with some added visuals, but basically its a side to side motion while moving up or down, where the "vertical" direction is dictated by whether its a highlight or a shade (the stroke should always end at the top of the highlight or the bottom of the shade).

bunnygurl wrote:Very nice. I bet the finished product will be just astounding.

Thanks, here's hoping!

MajorTom11 wrote:Buggers off to read blog, I'll be back -

Great set of tips sir! ESP the bigger brush, one I figured out myself this year. Very generous of you to share as always!

How is korvydae going? And, not to rush you, but I'm really excited to see what you do with lelith!

Korvydae is coming along. I added the self-made vent tubes to the jump pack and have undercoated it ready for paint. I have also done some basecoat work on the other arm and thunder hammer. Lets just say it keeps with the bling theme!

Lelith is a strange one. I've had the figure sitting on my desk ready for paint for a couple of months now - it has a few sloppyy "sketch" coats of paint on it from when I was trying to decide on a colour scheme but nothing more.

When I saw the figure and when it arrived, I thought I was going to love it and leap right into painting it...but for some reason that hasn't happened. I suspect it's because I dislike painting large areas of hair, and that I can't decide of a colour scheme!

The colour scheme point is probably the same reason the Hellion I had assembled and undercoated before Christmas still hasn't progressed either!

I'm actually seriously contemplating returning to doing some new Blood Pact and possibly a couple of Ghosts too. My abilities have improved a lot since the first go round and the kits available now also provide a lot of new creative potential.

There are also the Space Hulk terminators which winterdyne and yourself have me contemplating clipping from their sprues! Decisions, decisions!

Cheers,

Dante

I am surprised, the DE are so tempting for me, I am a sucker for Jes' work though, always have been. Lilith was a big hope to see because I was really looking forward to watching how you handled the large areas of skin, as well as what you would do with the armor scheme!

Still, BP and Ghosts wouldn't be unwelcome either!

SH termies, stay away from em, I wouldn't want to have to go back and start over because you destroyed my paint jobs and made me feel bad lol!

The one thing I found really annoying about Lelith was the mould lines. They seem to run through all of the detailed areas (hair, leg armour etc) and that really wound me up.

The Ghosts and BP are ones I always find my interests coming back to as I love the Gaunt novels (currently readng Necropolis!). There are lots of versions of both now out there - but none look like how I plan them - which is another motivating factor!

As for the terminators - I'd only ever get one or two done before moving onto something else probably! Lol!

I think I'll wait and see where inspiration takes me once I finish Korvydae!

Cheers,

Dante

Hey Dante, glad to see ya back in action making all of us hum-drum painters look bad! As always, what your workin on here looks great, anxious to see the shadow captain all finished up!

Thanks mate, good to be back to be honest!

Hoping to finish Korvydae this weekend and move onto something new - too many ideas flying around!

Cheers,

Dante

Have been working on the thunder hammer the last few sessions and it's reminded me how frustrating painting gold can be.

Particularly shading it realistically while creating enough contrast to highlight detail on such a small scale. I wouldn't say I'm bad at painting gold, but I find it very tedious at times!

The current method I'm using is to create contrast by using matte shadows to contrast the reflective metallic highlights. At the moment I'm using mainly snakebite leather blended into scorched brown. However, because the paint is kept fairly transparent, it takes a lot of work to avoid tide marks!

Sorry for the lack of pictures to accompany this post, just wanted to vent really!

More pics soon though as the other arm and weapon are almost finished.

Cheers,

Dante

I don't believe a word of it until I see pics!

Ok I believe you but I still want to see pics!

Just finished a new post for my blog with some sculpting proportions charts I made for humans and Space Marines and figured it might be of interest to some of your guys.

Miniature Sculpting Proportions Chart - Humans and Space Marines

I've assumed marines to be 8 feet tall as it is the commonly mentioned height in fluff etc.

The chart includes proportions for humans in 30mm, 32mm, 35mm and 54mm and marines in 35mm and 54mm.

35mm seems to be the common GW scale these days and 54mm is included for =I= players.

Also got some updates on Korvydae still to come! Stay tuned!

Cheers,

Dante

Very nice work

Pretty much finished the second arm bar some tidying up:



Just the jump pack and base to go and I can move onto something else...

Really need to work on my lighting setup for pics - still not quite there yet.

Cheers,

Dante

Solid Job Dante.

Wow, I love the blending. Beautiful black.

Mmm I would be interested in seeing some shots on a black or grey background. I have a feeling that because the models colors are monochrome for the most part, the high saturation of the background is really muting the nuances in certain areas. Any chance..?

Finished!



Some more pics from different angles on my blog

Cheers,

Dante

That looks fantastic. Very nice!

Looking great! Is there a particular reason you chose white for the chest raven? I would've gone for gold to tie it in with the hammer and the raven on his jump pack.

stunning

As expected, fantastic, subtle work my friend... What's next???

CommissarKhaine wrote:Looking great! Is there a particular reason you chose white for the chest raven? I would've gone for gold to tie it in with the hammer and the raven on his jump pack.

I wanted to paint the brocade across his chest yellow and as there was already gold on the icons on it and the collar, gold on the eagle would have been too much. Also, having white there draws focus past the hammer and creates a focal point in the centre of the mini, surrounded on all sides by gold (the hammer and belt buckle beneath, the gold on both shoulders and the eagle on the pack top).

MajorTom11 wrote:As expected, fantastic, subtle work my friend... What's next???

Tanith guard squad... (http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=292290)