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Inquisitor - awesome. The reworked robe shadows (white) look much better. Have you toned down the red highlights as well? It seems to match the white in effect - which looks balanced - great in my opinion! Gold and metal is looking really good too!

Git's GMS Marine - looks like the extra long purity seal could use some more blending - though you may not be finished? Just not as smooth as your other work - especially his helmet!

Scourge - Oh dear I'm still nowhere near finishing something for you for the Nobz and now this? And so much progress too! Glad they aren't canaries They are looking exceptional - your work has really come along leaps and bounds

Wow, love the GS on the Hybrid...

You took classes in sculpting too, uh?

Hey nice job so far. Just wondering how do you paint white like that??

Arakasi wrote:Inquisitor - awesome. The reworked robe shadows (white) look much better. Have you toned down the red highlights as well? It seems to match the white in effect - which looks balanced - great in my opinion! Gold and metal is looking really good too!

The red got another coat of red wash, which helped; but I think a lot of the highlights were light reflections as it's a bit shiny at the moment. Using the light booth has improved the colouring immensely. There's still some reflection on the red that shouldn't be there, but it's better than it was. Hopefully a blast of varnish at the end will sort that one out.

Arakasi wrote:Git's GMS Marine - looks like the extra long purity seal could use some more blending - though you may not be finished? Just not as smooth as your other work - especially his helmet!

Yeah, I know. That's one of the main areas that keeps bugging me. I've tried about three times now and each time it's just as bad. The other problem area is the eyes...

Arakasi wrote:Scourge - Oh dear I'm still nowhere near finishing something for you for the Nobz and now this? And so much progress too! Glad they aren't canaries They are looking exceptional - your work has really come along leaps and bounds

If it helps, think of them as a very late birthday present... or an early christmas one
Glad you like them. They were almost painted as lots of different hunting birds, but we have 5 Red Kites that come over our house... so it felt right, even though Kites are scavengers rather than hunters.

Yggdrasil wrote:Wow, love the GS on the Hybrid...You took classes in sculpting too, uh?

Thanks. Apart from the bottom of the sleeves, the green stuff is just blobby bits to bulk him out to where I want the cloak to actually be. Sadly sculpting isn't one of the classes that they have done yet... I might have to suggest it though as it could be fun. Sculpting was always one of the things I hated at school...

risewiththefallen wrote:Just wondering how do you paint white like that??

Lots of patience
Once I've got these three lots of models (and Graven's long overdue Star Scorpion) done, I would like to go back and write up a few tutorials on the different colours as I try to solidify in my mind how these things work; hopefully speeding up the process at the same time. I'd also like to go and try out Migsula's painting style too as it's so eye catching.

Speaking of tutorials. Can anyone suggest a decent plastic kit (or combination thereof) that includes plenty of skin and/or large areas of fabric good for freehand practice? I've had a quick look through the various units available from GW and none really meet the combination. High elf archers look useful for fabric and freehand practice, but there's not much skin available to practice on. For skin, the Chaos Marauders or Ogres look to be the best options... but none of these are *nice* models (imo), so I'm not likely to be inspired to practice on them...

endtransmission wrote: Speaking of tutorials. Can anyone suggest a decent plastic kit (or combination thereof) that includes plenty of skin and/or large areas of fabric good for freehand practice? I've had a quick look through the various units available from GW and none really meet the combination. High elf archers look useful for fabric and freehand practice, but there's not much skin available to practice on. For skin, the Chaos Marauders or Ogres look to be the best options... but none of these are *nice* models (imo), so I'm not likely to be inspired to practice on them...

Er...Witch Elves? Flagellants?

Edit to add Ogryns to the list of possibilities...and of course the Giant!!

Plenty of skin on those ork boys...not all orks are green

looks interesting! ill follow this blog just to see how far that pimped wizard is going

Last night saw a major bout of insomnia, so Mr Inquisitor is ready for weathering on his cloak and robes... they are far far too clean! I'm just waiting for the camera battery to recharge and I'll upload the WIP shot of a very clean looking Inquisitor.

I was thinking of following Migsula's example and keeping things secret until the end of the competition... but I'm impatient to move on to the next thing. If I don't take the photos and put them up in the +PMW+ thread I'll forget.

Speaking of the next thing... I realised this morning that I know exactly which kit suits my painting needs. The fabric requirement for the kit was to try out my freehand painting... what better thing to try skin tones and freehand on than a unit of Slayers?! I had my eye on the Avatars of War Dwarf Berserker kit when it was announced, but I don't play fantasy. Now I have an excuse, with the added bonus of the kit having lots of things to learn NMM on as well.

As promised. My battery finished charging, so here's the update photo. Zoom in for a much better view of it all... the image is *big*.
the Red and the sword are both, currently, gloss. Hence the light reflections... not much I can do about that now unfortunately. After tonight's weathering it will be going back to satin. I just need to work out the most realistic way of weathering the robes...

Very nice, the freehand on the cloak came out well with the added black.

Just out of interest, is that a random helm on the base or does it belong to Mr Inquisitive there?

It's a random, Red Scorpion helmet. It'll be dirtied up and trashed when the weathering gets done

Well, I think it's beyond my ability to critique!

If your still after a fine pen for the scroll work Micron pens are the best for this, size 005.

Here's a place in the UK where I got mine from http://www.art-of-craft.co.uk/acatalog/Sakura_Pigma_Micron_Pens.html

I really like how you've painted your Scourges the colours make them look like they are from a totally different army than Dark Eldar.

That inquisitor looks fantastic! The Scourges look super cool, although they don't look evil enough to be dark eldar... Have you settled on a color for the guns yet? I wanted to suggest prey animal colors for the guns... like the hawk after it caught it's lunch... mouse colors, rabit, snake, smaller birds... I know it doesn't narrow it down much but I thought it would look cool with the already awesome hawk paint job.

I'd also like to second the Micron pen recommendation. Those things are crazy small.

Thanks for the Micron pen recommendation, I'll be ordering one of those in a bit.

I'm pleased with the Scourges, so I'm glad everyone else likes them; especially Arakasi
I think the weapons are going to be bone, but if I'm feeling very very confident I may try some faint osl on the bulbous bit on the weapons... maybe. Although after last night's work on the inquisitor... I'm not sure that's a great plan.

Speaking of which... here's an update from last night. Can anyone spot what's wrong?

Hmmm... some more thoughts on the Scourge. My first thoughts for the guns is the same yellow you are using for their beaks and feet, like another form of claw.

The blue looks a little out of place to me, but extending this to the guns might work as well...

Or go a mottled grey/black like darker talons...

Interesting ideas, I might have a play with potatoshop and see which one looks better.

The blue bits needed to be something not orangey-reddish-yellow as they needed to stand out a bit. If there's a different colour that you'd prefer, just shout

Ah - posted at almost the same time - I missed your update

I think the issue I have with the blue is it is too bright compared to the rest of the model - perhaps a darker blue would work? (rather than sky blue) This could also be taken to the weapons (you didn't want black...)

I agree - I think the cloak looks off! You would think the middle would come straight down from between his shoulders! I guess you could try an inquisition I or a number or a skull to the right...

I'm not sure if adding more design to the cloak will improve the situation, or make it look even worse?

I've been trying to reverse engineer the cloak in my head and it would be one weird shaped piece of fabric to make that cloak. It might be better to try and redo the bottom part of the cloak to cover up the eagle and return it to it's pre-transfer state. At least it wasn't particularly obvious that the cloak wasn't right then.

Still. My problems pale into insignificance when compared to Baiyuan's entry into the other PMS group. A dodgy can of spray seems to have knackered his stunning conversion :(

Barring seeing it in person and changing my mind, I'd say leave it as is. It's centred to how the top falls. Just be choosy on the angles you photo/display it from

Sadly I can't do that. Normally I'd agree, but I've spent so long on this and had so many encouraging comments from people that it's annoying me to have something on it that *needs* hiding.

Feels odd for us to be talking about this here when we're talking about work on skype at the moment

Would it be feasible to tatter up the left side of the cloak a bit, make it appear as if the eagle was in the centre before an edge got torn off in a scrap?

Good progress mate! It's a lovely model. I wouldn't worry too much about the transfer - it's one of those things that bothers you and most people will miss altogether.

I love the gold and the shade of red and the sword is nicely done.

As one key suggestion for future you might consider, I would steer away from using pure black anywhere on the model except in complete shadow areas that are also dark, or perhaps on a reflection on the sword. So no black paint other than as a wash anywhere else. This makes a big difference in realism and feel of the model. It's something I think eavymetal doesn't understand.

On this model, I'm not so keen on the shade of his cap/hood. I think a few washes to make it darker, more leathery would be good. It looks like the shade on mild-chocklate for me. Maybe that's my bias, as I like 70%+ chocolates

I'm also not a fan of the SM helmet on the base. It looks wrong to stay there like that and not tilt over and detail like that takes away from the beautiful model itself.

But yes, very very nice model - these are just some suggestions from a critical guy.

And all very gratefully received, thank you! Critical is what I need at the moment as it's the best way to learn what not to do in the future.

Sadly you're both about an hour too late for the cloak... it's been redone and looks a bit smoother this time around; so it's not all bad. Next step is to add weathering powders to dirty it all up again.

I might see what I can do about the base as it lets the whole model down... but I'm not sure if I can get him off it at this stage of the game. The first lesson I learnt while doing this was that I really really need to not stick the model to the base before I've finished painting it.

Other than the original black undercoat, I don't think there's actually anything black left on him. Or did you mean the undercoat too? Trying a white undercoat is on my list of things to do as I've long been an, admittedly silent, admirer of your work for ages. Now I'm in an experimenting mood it's time to give it a go

On a different note, I tried making the blue on the Scourges darker and introducing it onto the weapons... oh dear. Another failure... The blue looks awful when placed right at the front of the figure. I think the weapons are going to be pure bone, possibly with grime and moss growing on it to tone it down a lot... not sure yet.

Lesson 1. Don't put the model on it's base before painting
Lesson 2. Plan the base properly, rather than shoving things on at the last minute
Lesson 3. Try and plan colours up front so you don't have to work it out as you go.

The transfer doesn't look too bad...besides, on scale terms you should be looking at it from arms reach (minimum) and it probably won't look as bad from there.

Gah! where were you all yesterday afternoon?!

biding our time for the right moment to strike

Massive update ahoy!
This weekend I've managed to complete a number of partially done items as well as a couple of servitors.

Item 1. Pimp My Sorcerer
It's been a long journey, with a few false leads, but with only a couple of days left I'm going to have to leave him like this as I don't have the time to do any more. The cloak has now been repainted 3(?!) times as each incarnation has had something go wrong. Attempt 1 I put the Aquila in the wrong place. Attempt 2, the weathering went wrong... attempt 3 is what you see before you. I'm not 100% happy with the shading and detailing on the cloak, but it's still vastly improved over the first attempt.



Item 2. Gitsplitta's Great Marine Swap
This has been in the works for an absolute age. There are things I'd do differently were I to do him again, but I'm happy with the effect. the basing has been left so Gits can make him fit into his existing squad.


Item 3. InMyGravenImage's Great Marine Swap
Graven's marine has been in the works almost as long as Gits'; which is embarasing. Thankfully he's now done and I ave to say I never want to paint another white marine again! This is my first real attempt as OSL from the plasma gun. Comments/suggestions for future attempts would be gratefully received as some of it doesn't look right. I hoe that's the right size base Graven?


Item 4. Arakasi's Late Birthday/Early Christmas present
Earlier in the thread you saw the WIP shots of Arakasi's Red Kite inspired Scourges. Well, here's the finished flock. Again, basing mostly left so Arakasi can make them fit into his own army when it gets done.



And finally. After crossing all those bits off my list, I decided to pick a couple of random models from my Guard and do some long overdue updates. I wasn't really in the mood for normal troops, so here are two servitors. They were an interesting experiment with skin tones as I needed to do raw flesh as well as necrotic flesh. I think the blue one came out really really well, especially for only 3 hours start to finish. Pulp at the Reading festival is obviously great painting music!




*phew!*
That's a pretty big update and a lot of work for two evenings!

Looking at the cream servitor there are a few things I need to touch up/fix... so maybe he's not finished after all :(

Wow, that's a lot of work that you got done. Good job!

Why are your IG ransomed?

What will you do next?

Your paint jobs just keep getting better and better. They're way above tabletop quality now.

Heh. Not sure why they were being ransomed. They aren't any more

I think my next job is to finish off Sevrin Loth and Chaplain for my Red Scorpions as they have been partially painted for almost as long as Git's marine and are *nearly* finished. There's no hope of me getting the Genestealer hybrid finished for the Pimp My Sorcerer competition, so he's going on the back burner for a while

Good work, that's a nice update.

The ex-sorceror looks thoroughly pimped, maybe a little touch of dirt on the outside of the cloak?

Both marines look sweet, good job on the white.

Liking the final colour for the DE weapons, the bone stands out and the blue ties in to the packs.

And very impressive servitor for just 3 hours