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Beautiful model ... especially the face !!!

agreed, your painting is awesome.

im planning to build some TrueScale Doghouse Pattern Gothic, Teutogen Guard inspired Space Wolves just as soon as I get back from my holiday...

Will definately be going over your paint techniques very carefully.

I've a fair hand at modding & scratch building, and Im getting better with gs - but my painting ability is pretty non-existent.

Slappywag wrote:Wow absolutely stunning model. You're extremely skilled. I love this SW model. Looks great. The face is immense! The armour looks incredible.
What's the story behind your objective marker, it's very interesting!
Slappy

Thanks! The objective is one of five that I'm doing for my SoB army - their duties include the recovery of artifacts for study and classification. That one's Chaos weapon I've dubbed the Reality Mine. It was being held in stasis, suspended over a 'bowl' of indeterminate origin, however the stasis field has just broken down and the 'bowl' turned out to be a warp rift, and something is about to try to reclaim it...
It's not finished yet but it was the nearest thing I had that was prepped for basing. I'll be putting it and the other four up when they're done.

Myrthe wrote:Beautiful model ... especially the face !!!

Thanks!

ironKing wrote:agreed, your painting is awesome.
im planning to build some TrueScale Doghouse Pattern Gothic, Teutogen Guard inspired Space Wolves just as soon as I get back from my holiday...
Will definately be going over your paint techniques very carefully.
I've a fair hand at modding & scratch building, and Im getting better with gs - but my painting ability is pretty non-existent.

I like that idea a lot, very cool. I'll be interested in how it turns out! As for GS work, it takes a bit of practice, but check out the article here on Dakka, it's very good.

And now for...

PART EIGHT: YOU ONLY HAVE TO AXE

I've not had a solid run at it for the last few days, which is a little frustrating, but I nevertheless was able to lighten the axe blade a bit - I like it much better like this, it looks a lot more like ice, and does break it away from the armour colour too. I also got to paint the inner side of the cloak, and base/ink the outside of the cloak - so this means you get to see the back! (I never really realised I hadn't taken any pictures of him from the back before today):



So all that's really left now is the cloak and the base - I'm still hoping to have it finished by the end of the weekend, but it may be a close-run thing!

I'm honored to be drooling over this masterpiece.

Manchu wrote:I'm honored to be drooling over this masterpiece.

Thanks for the compliment - but not too much drool please, it ruins the paintjob!

PART NINE: THE PENULTIMATE PART

I'm going to finish this guy once and for all tomorrow, no matter what!

I was able to do most of his cloak today, which was worked up from Calthan Brown through Bleached Bone up to a little Skull White. I used the same mixes to keep the colour consistent, but used drybrushing on the textured fur, and feathering on the cloak. Since the cloak is long enough to drag on the ground, and is a bit tattered, I used Scorched Brown thinned with Devlan Mud and a little Chaos Black to stipple on some mud to the bottom. I increased the amount of black towards the edge, to make it look really beaten up. All that's left to do is tone down the drybrushing a hair with a little thinned wash:



So all I need to do now is the skull and rope, then the base!

Does anyone have any thoughts as to what price I should begin the eBay listing at? As mentioned earlier I was thinking around AU$30 (US$27) - which is a little less than the retail price on a plastic commander box, and AU$8 more than a typical metal character model.

Thoughts?

i think personally a very static model , but the paintjob is awesome

unistoo wrote:

Manchu wrote:I'm honored to be drooling over this masterpiece.

Thanks for the compliment - but not too much drool please, it ruins the paintjob!

Sorry, that's one downside of the canis helix.

Great job here. One of my all-time favourite figures and some great conversion work to boot!

Loving the sombre colours on this one. The one thing I would say though is that the ice blade, while fitting with the wargear lists etc, gets a bit lost in the fig due to being too close in tone to the armour. I think a more aqua or turquoise tone would perhaps work better.

Otherwise, great stuff!

Cheers,

Dante

Leone wrote:i think personally a very static model , but the paintjob is awesome

Alas, it's a common malady suffered by many heroes from 2nd ed - though I prefer to think of it less as 'static' and more as 'come get some'

Manchu wrote:Sorry, that's one downside of the canis helix.

CMDante wrote:Great job here. One of my all-time favourite figures and some great conversion work to boot!
Loving the sombre colours on this one. The one thing I would say though is that the ice blade, while fitting with the wargear lists etc, gets a bit lost in the fig due to being too close in tone to the armour. I think a more aqua or turquoise tone would perhaps work better.
Otherwise, great stuff!
Cheers,
Dante

Thanks - It's an interesting point on the axe, I'll have to think about it - a light turquoise glaze could make it look more like sea-ice too.


PART NINE: NOT QUITE THE END OF THE BEGINNING OF THE END

Apart from thinking about CMDante's suggestion, I'm done with him - I finished the skull (using the same colours as the bones on his belt), drybrushed up the base from Adeptus Battlegrey through Astronomican Grey + Skull White. I then added flock and snow using a similar method as in my experiment the other day:



All that's left to do now, is work out what I might use as a starting bid, then figure out how to put him on eBay, which I hope to do in the next few days. I'll be keeping this blog updated with how it goes, so feel free to ask any questions, or share any tips on getting good responses to a listing!

EDIT: I'll also have to take some more pics, and try to increase my focal length since a couple of the above angles are a little soft

Love the paint job + color choice as well.

Really hate the base though

more snow!

Amazing, Id love that skill level of painting. Guess i need to practice although i've only done 3 models :S

I love that model so much.

LunaHound wrote:
Love the paint job + color choice as well.

Really hate the base though

Lol, hate is a strong word. Unless you really do hate it. What do you dislike about it because I'm not to keen on the height of the base. A little lower and it would be perfect.



Great mini unistoo - 9/10 possible 9.5 if the base was a little lower.

Wow, It's really a nice model!

That is simply outstanding!
Fantastic paint job, well done on the battle damage & the face in particular!

My only peev with this is that the gold is a little yellow to my eye, and I'm not personally a fan of high bases, but I can understand the urge to make an HQ stand out, and these older models are a tad shorter than the standard plastics.

You're thinking $30 AU?
That's about £17.20 - a Ragnar blister, unpainted, is £12 and your character is a dam-sight better looking!!!
That paint job is worth a fair bit more than £5.20 in my book!

If I had a Space Wolf army I'd be bidding on this, simple as.
Any plans for some Red Scorpion stuff, maybe an Apothecary?

CMDante wrote:Loving the sombre colours on this one. The one thing I would say though is that the ice blade, while fitting with the wargear lists etc, gets a bit lost in the fig due to being too close in tone to the armour. I think a more aqua or turquoise tone would perhaps work better.

I would hit the "plasma" section of the plasma gun with this too. To me, the plasma gun needs a little color to make it stand out a bit.

I will be stealing your method for battlescars/ chipping

Good luck with the auction.


take care

Really fantastic job - the face is outstanding - I've never been a huge fan of chipped armor but I think you have converted me!

I'm not a huge fan of the model itself (such a 1990s GW pose), but the painting is exceptional. I think the axe looks great as it, just for the record.

I've been trying to figure out how to paint the armor on my SW. The whole blue/ grey vs. grey debate and I have to say, yours is the best I've seen so far! A detailed guide on how you did the armor would be most appreciated.....

Impressive figure. Well done! I love how you add a great amount of depth to the figure with that excellent paintjob.

Cilithan

Slappywag wrote:
Lol, hate is a strong word. Unless you really do hate it. What do you dislike about it because I'm not to keen on the height of the base. A little lower and it would be perfect.

Hehe yes i dont "hate" the base , i just dislike how high it is. It just screams out " im a special character , so stack more rocks under my feet! "

LunaHound wrote:Love the paint job + color choice as well.

Slappywag wrote:Amazing, Id love that skill level of painting. Guess i need to practice although i've only done 3 models :S
I love that model so much.
Great mini unistoo - 9/10 possible 9.5 if the base was a little lower.

Jupiter wrote:Wow, It's really a nice model!

Gordo Phreshmex wrote:Really fantastic job - the face is outstanding - I've never been a huge fan of chipped armor but I think you have converted me!

Thanks for the kind comments! I'm pretty happy with the way he's turned out as well so far. Keep tuning in - I'm going to be irregularly updating this blog until the auction is over, which will be a little while yet, and I've got plenty of tips to think about before I list it as well, so there may be some more changes coming!

TheFirstBorn wrote:more snow!

I was wondering that as well, though I didn't want to go OTT in the first go-round.

Culial wrote:That is simply outstanding!
Fantastic paint job, well done on the battle damage & the face in particular!
My only peev with this is that the gold is a little yellow to my eye, and I'm not personally a fan of high bases, but I can understand the urge to make an HQ stand out, and these older models are a tad shorter than the standard plastics.

You're thinking $30 AU?
That's about £17.20 - a Ragnar blister, unpainted, is £12 and your character is a dam-sight better looking!!!
That paint job is worth a fair bit more than £5.20 in my book!
If I had a Space Wolf army I'd be bidding on this, simple as.
Any plans for some Red Scorpion stuff, maybe an Apothecary?

I went with a very warm gold to compliment the brown - I think cooling it off too much would cause it to be a little lost against the metal and armour. I also put forward the initial cost as (hopefully) a starting bid, since I'm a little wary of starting too high, but I'd be interested in what people would be prepared to pay for a model like this. As for Red Scorpions... I'm interested in doing something as a follow up if this goes well, so who knows?

albinoork wrote:I would hit the "plasma" section of the plasma gun with this too. To me, the plasma gun needs a little color to make it stand out a bit.
I will be stealing your method for battlescars/ chipping
Good luck with the auction.
take care

That's actually not a bad idea at all - it would give a nice sense of symmetry to the colours. I'll think about that as well.

get to the chopper! wrote:I'm not a huge fan of the model itself (such a 1990s GW pose), but the painting is exceptional. I think the axe looks great as it, just for the record.

Thanks! - though I have to say, as a GW grognard, I do have something of a soft spot for the old 'bad back' poses too

mattyboy22 wrote:I've been trying to figure out how to paint the armor on my SW. The whole blue/ grey vs. grey debate and I have to say, yours is the best I've seen so far! A detailed guide on how you did the armor would be most appreciated.....

No problem - I'll write a more detailed guide later tonight

LunaHound wrote:

Slappywag wrote:
Lol, hate is a strong word. Unless you really do hate it. What do you dislike about it because I'm not to keen on the height of the base. A little lower and it would be perfect.

Hehe yes i dont "hate" the base , i just dislike how high it is. It just screams out " im a special character , so stack more rocks under my feet! "

Thanks for getting specific Luna - much more helpful! The base is possibly a little high, and were I making a comp. entry I'd probably change it, but in this case, it met the two most important requirements - it fit the best given the splayed legs on the model, and it was 'free'! That and the top surface has a cool celtic-style pattern which seemed too good to pass up!

unistoo wrote:I'm going to be irregularly updating this blog until the auction is over, which will be a little while yet, and I've got plenty of tips to think about before I list it as well, so there may be some more changes coming!

Please just provide a link to your auction here.

unistoo wrote:

mattyboy22 wrote:I've been trying to figure out how to paint the armor on my SW. The whole blue/ grey vs. grey debate and I have to say, yours is the best I've seen so far! A detailed guide on how you did the armor would be most appreciated.....

No problem - I'll write a more detailed guide later tonight

And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to see a link to this here as well in case I miss it on the boards otherwise.

Thanks for all your great contributions!

Manchu wrote:Please just provide a link to your auction here.

Certainly will

unistoo wrote:And if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to see a link to this here as well in case I miss it on the boards otherwise.

mattyboy22 wrote:A detailed guide on how you did the armor would be most appreciated.....

I'll post the whole thing here

This is going to be a big wall-o-text because when I do a one-off model, I tend to just start painting and correct on the fly, since there's no incentive for me to develop shortcuts in the painting, so I'll outline how I did it, then try and give a close-match 'simple' version that should give similar results.

The Inefficient Way
STEP 1: Basecoat the armour with Fenris Grey (Foundation).
STEP 2: Wash the area with Devlan Mud. Use plenty of the stuff. When it dries, pay attention to where it has formed shadows - this is a good key to remember, because the wash naturally settles on the lower areas of each surface, simulating lighting from directly above (the most common source used when highlighting).
STEP 3: Feather (see below) 50% Fenris Grey + 50 % Space Wolves Grey over the armour, blending it from the outward edges in, and from the top down. Pay attention to other parts of the model that may cast a shadow. For example, on the greaves, I started my highlighting from the outside edges and worked my way in, with the darkest parts of the colour being left just below the kneepad, where it would cast a shadow, whilst the kneepad itself was highlighted pretty straight from the top down.
STEP 4: Repeat with 100% Space Wolves Grey, with the goal of bringing the whole surface colour together now - at this point the armour should look nicely shaded, but it will lack some definition because it still needs to be highlighted.
STEP 5: Feather the edges of each armour plate with a mix of 50% Space Wolves Grey, 25% Bleached Bone and 25% Skull White. Be careful, you don't need to do more than a few millimeters cover with thin paint for this to be effective.
Step 6: Using 60% Space Wolves Grey + 40% Skull White, do very fine edge highlighting to make the armour 'pop'.

If at any time you feel the armour is getting too light, prepare a glaze mixed from a little of each of Devlan Mud, Badab Black, Asurmen Blue and a few drops of water. Add a little speck of washing detergent and paint thinly over the armour, wait until dry before deciding whether to coat again because glazes can turn out darker than expected. You may need to rehighlight afterwards or it might look a little drab.

Feathering
Feathering is a name I made up for the technique that I use for highlighting - It's a mix of drybrushing and blending that other people may know of as other names, but I've never seen described in the same way that I do it. I like it because it allows you to achieve pretty smooth transitions of colour quickly, with quite large 'jumps' in colour mixes. Mix your paint to the desired shade, then water down a little of it on your pallette, it needs to be quite thin at this stage, and experimentation is the best way to get the hang of it. Light colours need to be a little thicker than dark colours because the pigment needs to be more concentrated for the same effect.

Then paint a line along the edge of the area you want to highlight with a fine brush - use more paint than you think you'll need. Then immediately dry your brush - it doesn't have to be completely dry, so I usually wipe it on a piece of paper, then on my hand a few times. Take the brush and use it to gently draw the paint from the line you just painted across the whole surface. As you do so, the paint will become thinner and thinner, making a transparent gradient that reveals the colours underneath. This is because the brush absorbs the excess paint as you move it about the surface. You may need to re-dry the brush during this process to avoid spreading the paint too far. You will also need to work relatively quickly to avoid the paint drying where you don't want it to be.

That's it really, it's complex to explain, but not very difficult to do with a bit of practice.

Chipped Armour
STEP 1: Using a fine brush (I used a 00), paint random scratches and chips around places where obvious wear would occur, around the legs and kneepads is an obvious one. Vary the shape and size of them as much as you can. Copy the way other people have done it relentlessly. A few of the scratches I stole for this model are the same shapes that were modeled into the Hector Rex model I did a while ago.
STEP 2: Using your finest brush (I used a 20/0) paint an irregular line along the bottom of each scratch and chip using a solid mix of 80% Skull White + 20% Space Wolves Grey. Making the line look a little jagged improves the look, but making it too thick spoils the illusion.

The Simple Way
Try undercoating with Fenris Grey, then paint Space Wolves Grey. Wash with a thinned mix of mostly Devlan Mud with some Asurmen Blue. Re-highlight with Space Wolves Grey, then highlight that with Space Wolves Grey + Bleached Bone. Finally do spot highlights with Space Wolves grey + Skull White.

I think that just about covers it, let me know if there's something you think I could explain better!

Thanks for the description of "feathering." You can do all kinds of stuff with wet/thin paint. The model is very nice - old school and gothic.

Ah right, 'feathering' is the highlighting technique I use on anything other than cloth . I didn't realise it wasn't what everyone did in all honesty. I feel special now .

Thanks for much for taking the time to write out your explanation of how you achieve that Space Wolf armor. Very enlightening. I will definately be trying your feathering approach on the next colored armor I try.

- Blackbone

Awesome! That's exactly what I was looking for!

Any word yet on the auction, unistoo?

Manchu wrote:Any word yet on the auction, unistoo?

Looks like Manchu wants to get himself a Space Wolf! Lol.



Ill help your Q with a bump



Oh, and great explanation on your techniques you used! Can't wait to see your other stuff!


Slappy