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They are indeed from Dropzone Commander. They are probably the coolest looking race, but hicks in pickup trucks are what call to me. I just need them to come out in a plastic starter kit

@RiTides: Allow me to respond in order:

1: Easy enough. The base painting before weathering is a brighter silver, so that will have the effect you;re looking for. As for the prototype... with a wave of my magic wand (plus some alcohol) the legs are clean!

2: There are indeed orange dots on the panels as well as orange and green on the main body. The lighting I need to work with here tends to be really harsh- great for painting, bad for photos. Unfortunately, the panels are just at that right angle to catch the most light, even with a matte varnish. The black background might play a role in this as well (see below). You might not be able to see some of the dots on the body simply due to the angle of the pictures. Perhaps I need to take it another level brighter... Ill have to see what colors I have here to work with.

3: This might be a case of lighting. The circles are all the same color as the gradient, but the light catches the highlights around some more than others. Then there are some orange "lights" on some circles, as there are blue ones on the studio model. This, too, shows up a little better on a white background.

Jaguar on a white background:


Im thinking I should get a midtone color like a mild blue or medium gray, so that this balances out. I've lately been considering ordering a few backdrops from Hangar 18 Miniatures. Like theres this one, which is a nice gray. Or this one, which is a beige-ish color... Or maybe even blue?


@Gits: Yeeeeeah Im with you on the 4th leg. I cant imagine how these things even move, other than a pathetic limping "hop" across the battlefield.

@nerd: Yes, yes I see what you mean, and I appreciate that. Seems Im always fighting with my photos nowadays, doesnt it? Maybe it really -is- time for a change in my setup :/

I agree with you 150%, so went back and used the WiP camera (which I know how to use a little better) to shoot the orks again. Still a little rough in places, but I think thats the best I'm gonna get right now :/

Weirdboy:


Red Menace!



@tenebre: Glad you like em! Hopefully they pop some Capitalist heads for MOTHEЯ ЯUSSIA!

@ckig: Thank you! And you know.... Your headcanon fits really well... The runtherd drew first blood, so Grot-bo had to go jungle crazy on em! (Just keep the explosive arrows locked up o.o )

@Alf: Hah! You know, -I'm- supposed to be the one from "Brunstucky" xD
Give it time, Im sure they're on the way! Then we can get a DzC game going around here!

===================


All quiet on the model front today... Installed a new under-cabinet microwave at my grandparents, so that was most of the day.... Other than that, gapfills and greenstuf. EXCITING!!

Ramos made the small tweak I had asked for on the orange, and I think the two prototypes look absolutely fantastic . I think using the multi-colored backdrop also really helps, or his old camera - the details come out so much better in these pics! I am extremely pleased

Pics shamelessly nabbed from Ramos' gallery:

Yeah, those look pretty slick. Looking forward to seeing more of it unfold.

Oh yeah those pics look much better, makes me want to pick some more up to paint but must resist lol

Multi-colored backdrop= my room's hideous wallpaper.
Definitely not making the photos look better, but the better diffused lighting certainly helped (plus, ye olde camera helped, though I had to charge the thing 3 times to take as many photos! )

Looks like we found a winner with these changes, eh, RiTides?
Thanks guys! Hopefully Ill get rolling on these guys very soon. Busy busy holiday week!!


Hope all you guys had a fun Thanksgiving and ate lots of turkey!!

Definitely a winner, they are perfect

Had a wonderful Thanksgiving here, and even a secondary Thanksgiving today with a fried turkey!

And it is now time to deploy the Christmas avatars

Hope it was not a frozen one.

I have proof that Ramos occasionally plays a game. Suffice it to say he was on the receiving end of some of the dumber things of 7th edition.

In the end, we might have had the game won, but we all pretty much ignored the objectives to blow up a Knight, an Ironclad, and some heretic White Scars w/Crimson Slaughter Chaos Marines vs. Dark Eldar, Grey Knights, and Ramos' Chaos.

I snapped a few pics to prove he placed models on the table


Added spoiler tags since these pics are a bit large - RiTides

*cue assorted gasps of horror and amazement*



Yeah, my experience with 7th...

I'm honestly at a loss for words. It just isn't the game I started playing back in '09. Guess thats the simplest way to put it.

I really want to love the game, I really do. Its been a big part of what I do for years! I love the painting, I love the minis... but the game... The game! Just so much has changed- even having experienced the shift from 5th to 6th. It feels completely different!

I dont like it.

And none of this was the fault of my opponents, no no no.. Great group! Honestly if I had played my first 7th ed game with anyone else, I'd probably have just thrown my hands up in disgust and sold my models.

As sad as it makes me, I just don't see myself ever playing again, outside of maybe a random pickup game with the Wardens at Adepticon.


*sigh*

================================


Anyways, on to more cheerful topics.

Took a couple days, but I got everything in RiTides DzC army all set and primed, then laid the gradient down. There are a LOT of models here xD




And a few closeups:
A Caiman heavy grav-tank


And a Firedrake- quickly becoming one of my favorite minis out of the bunch.



The biggest challenge for me was figuring out how to paint the fins on the larger gates. Having them fall in the same gradient would look off, but I couldnt think of another way to do it. That was when RiTides put the idea in my head that not all the fins would have to fade from dark blue to white. I could have them end at a light blue.
Building on this, I took each fin and based it in a color according to how it fell on the primary gradient. For example, if it attached midway down the hull I started with a medium blue, as that was the color at that point in the gradient. Then I lightened the color on fins angled to the fore of the craft, darkening it on fins facing the aft. On the largest gates, I mixed in black to make the Midnight Blue even darker, and sprayed the back-most areas.


For the infantry, I wanted an easy way to differentiate them on the table, so I painted the basic troopers white, shading them down to a light blue, and the elites a dark blue fading to (eventually) black.







i have a little bit more to airbrush on these guys yet, but then its off to clearcoat and oil wash!
Till next time~!

What's so bad about 7th? I kind of dig it. And I played it when it was second edition.

"Hey, let's play a 500 point game."
"Sure, I have 6 hours of free time."

But ultimately, what you need to do is get into WHFB. It's the s-word. In fact, I am going to go play some right now.

Weird, the images weren't super large when I originally posted it... Sorry RiTides!

Ramos sent me a sneak peak of these images last night, and I think things are progressing incredibly! Love the gradients

The pics are coming out really well again, too, which I guess means you're still nursing along the old camera . Maybe a good idea for a Christmas gift if your family / etc is deciding

Playing a single game of 7th is not enough. In fact the 7th ( with it's understandable quirks ) is a lot more versatile with 2 sets of mission types and 2 different ways to produce lists.

You need to get in a few more games with good friends and enjoy gaming. We are expecting you to bring a good sized army to Adepticon for some friendly gaming against us and any friends we can find.

Nice thing is that you can bring what you want. There will be a least 4 of us so 1 on 1 or 2vs2 will be the expectation. I and Git will expect no less!

Or you can just play Dropzone Commander with me as I definitely owe you a demo game after this project!

I will likely be attending without 40k this year (possibly bringing DzC, Infinity, X-wing/Armada, and Hordes). There are lots of things to do even without playing 40k, but braving 7th once more for the sake of the Wardens is probably worth it

Oh to be sure I'll be bringing as much marine stuff as Im able to, come Adepticon. The event and hanging out with you guys is why I look forward to it.
I just really dont know about the game outside these annual instances. Friday's game just left me really disappointed with the ruleset.


And RiTides: You can bet Im counting on a Demo game!!

It's a date! Heck, it's even possible I'll bring some 40k myself to hang out with you Wardens with... that one's currently a longshot, though. Yet to play a game of 7th myself, and the updates I would need to do to my tyranids would basically mean re-doing the entire army! So, they are menacingly guarding my shelf at the moment

RT....We be happy to have ya!.. were in it for the fun so don't fret to much on your list if you manage to bring it.

And ramos.. bring what army you want.. I'll be bringing several just to mix it up.

More the merrier, RT!

Think Ill probably just build on my Marines Errant. horrible rules aside, I just think they deserve a little more love than what I've given them. Might even have a land raider I can paint up!


Oh, and it seems I managed to find some extra Christmas lights, so tossed em on my avatar!
Figure its about time to have a seasonal picture!

======================

So after a double layer of gloss varnish, I set to oil washing the various minis. Super simple technique, but it works awesome on super light colors.

After letting it dry, I took a soft brush and some clean mineral spirits and set to neatening up the splotches. Heres where the earlier coats of gloss pay off- the paint just wipes right away!

Here is a comparison shot between a washed infantry model (right) and one that has been cleaned up (left). After this it will get matte varnish and highlights, of course! The helmets will be picked out in black, just like the vehicles.


And a freshly cleaned Caiman. This is the point that it stops being a mass of blue and white, and the real details start to come through.


Still have a bit to go cleaning-wise (mostly the turrets and walker bodies), but should be on to details soon enough!
Till next time!

Very pretty Ramos.

Thanks Gits, though I think I may have just royally screwed myself...

Goddamn it, I KNEW this would happen, I KNEW IT!
It was getting a little late last night (11, so "late" in massive quotes), and Like an idiot I decided to put off cleaning the other half of the washed army. I just should have gone ahead and forced it through... I've done this in the past too, so that makes it even more inexcusable...
The extra drying time on the oil wash has made it incredibly hard to remove, especially on the white areas. And I mean HARD! Its supposed to just come right off with a little bit of brushing, but this I have to damn near scrub.



On the right side I was scrubbing so hard I ended up removing the damn paint from the model... The left side is what gently cleaning it gets me- bands of stuck on black RIGHT ON THE WHITE!
In addition to this, the white is stained a little darker by the wash. Not too much, but goddamn it if I cant notice it.




Im just so mad at myself right now... so goddamn furious....

And here is a quick review of the models done for me

FOOL OF A TOOK!

Sweet review, tenebre! Those orks look great

Argh, looks like a learning experience on the oil wash / white here! I definitely prefer the "whiter white" of the two prototype models, the last couple shots have looked significantly darker on the white than these two sweet ones:




I have no idea what to suggest, but I can tell you are on it

Amazing tenebre!! Really awesome work!
Very much appreciate it, man. Glad you like the minis as much as I did painting em.


And nerd...
yeeeeeah.........


Several hours later (for something that would have taken less than a single hour of extra time had I not waited, cue further facepalming), Everything is cleaned up as best as I can. Some of the paint on the corners started to scrub off, frustrating me immensely. I possibly could have gotten it a tiny bit cleaner, but that risks further damage of the paint. Ended up finding this perfect example in the two Caimans. I just happened to clean the one that very first night.



On the left we have the "good" Caiman, which I cleaned Friday night. The right side is the day-old Caiman. Of particular note is the dullness of the midtone blue, the flecks of nearly permanent black on the top panel, and a bit more of a messy blend with the black lines. Everything else cleaned up ok, but not perfect. The wing fins on the gates are in need of a nearly complete respray- they picked up an indelible line along their edges.
Not. Happy.

So Im left with two options here. First- the fast-ish way- Touch up areas as best I can, blending the patches in, limited respraying (like the white). Problem here would be that the colors might not be as intense as they might have been. Benefit is that it will be a quicker fix and the paint wont be overly thick.
The other way... One that I'm dreading... is a complete respray, as far back as even the second blue color. The pro here is that I can get the colors back to "normal", then theoretically redo the wash. The problem here lies in that the details are very small, and the paint (especially the twin layers of gloss) is already very thick. Some details are just barely working after all of this, and I'm almost positive that any more layers will clog them and entirely screw me over.


Neither of these is optimal, but I guess I need to find the lesser of two evils... I dont know what to do.

And it was going so well....


EDIT:

Ah RT:
Yeah, the wash stained the "white" so that it does have the more tanned look. One of the things to fix now is to brighten it back up.
I am really sorry I ballsed up your minis so badly... Im absolutely gutted...

Well I shot you a PM Ramos . Definitely don't want you to do more work than necessary, and I honestly can't see much difference between those two caimans in the pic! The only thing that stands out is the white being darker, and it sounds like that might be easier to re-do than the whole gradient, right?

Sounds like some touch up is needed on models not pictured, but at least from this pic, I'm inclined to think touching them up (and maybe re-doing the white) is the way to go, rather than a completer re-spray.

If I could see some comparison shots between problematic models and the prototypes, I think that should make it really clear. Cheers for the hard work on these! I think "army projects" like these are a process, and I am sure this is something that can be worked through without anyone pulling their hair out

No matter what we end up deciding, touch-up is a massive issue I'll need to address. At the very least, I need to blend out the speckles and smudges. They need to be cleaner before I can call them back on track.

I've sent you the same pic, but for everyone else, here is a comparison of the new and old.





As far as hair pulling.... Im definitely already at that stage, especially as I keep thinking on how I could have avoided it


Maybe I need to work on another project for a day or two... Try and glue some of this hair back in.... heh.

 Ramos Asura wrote:
As far as hair pulling.... Im definitely already at that stage, especially as I keep thinking on how I could have avoided it

Doh . But believe me, as someone who generally does assembly line / army projects, I know this feeling! And I also think that, like you say, after stepping back from it a bit, the best and most efficient way to fix things (which imo is basically just re-doing the white!) should be obvious. I don't think the damage is that dire, personally, and that all but the white still looks pretty darn good (and since they're all done the same way, they should match fine). Maybe some other expert painters could chime in here, but from what I can tell, all is definitely not lost

Once again, thank you for working so hard and putting so much effort (and emotional investment ) into these models, it's obvious you care about your work a lot and I have total faith in you here!

I think touching up is a good idea but your never going to get the same look as the proto type without stripping and re-starting as the magic is in the airbrush blends which the oil has killed by making it too dark.

If you don't mind the rest being slightly darker on the blue and whiter on the white I'm sure they can be fixed, you just might loose a bit of blending.

I've no idea if you can strip that kind of resin though if you had to re-start from scratch as its very soft.

Also don't forget you haven't painted the canopy's, that will make a difference on the overall look as it will break the white/cream up more.

Edit: Just had a quick google and you may be able to remove the oil using Distilled Turpentine, test it out on something else first though and very gently apply with a cloth and it should rub off and leave the paint. No idea if it will work and there is a risk if you apply it too much it will take the rest of the paint off as well, as the minis are resin you really need to be careful and try it first on something of the same type of resin in case it has any weird reactions. I'd be rather scared doing this to be honest on some one else's minis, RiTides would have to close his eyes.

Cheers for the input, GiraffeX! I think Ramos and I have come up with a plan of attack (basically, fixing the white!) that won't require a complete reboot, and hopefully won't require me to close my eyes . Looking forward to the results, once Ramos has had a chance to step back from this and then attack it the most effective/efficient way possible