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Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Nice work Don Qui Hotep.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






@gobert - hm, that's not a bad idea. I tried to even it out a bit this afternoon, going back and forth with the darker colors. Not sure I still have the effect down but I think it is looking okay - definitely something I'd like the opportunity to practice more.

@amazingturtles - I think you're right, zooming out helps with the glow going past the boundaries of the stone itself. I tried to expand it out a bit.

@Captain Brown - thank you! I really appreciate it. I've enjoyed your various blogs as well.

Here's another short update, from the heart. I took some to add more white to the center of the glow and expanded the circumference of the effect with a darker color.

I'm happy with how it turned out but it's not what I quite envisioned at the start of it. I think I'll leave it be for now, I'll wait til I get more work done before I revisit it, if ever. Based on this experience I think I won't try the effect on the Realmgate Engine (which I've been calling wrong this whole time) until I'm more confident with the technique, which might take a while.






Before:


After:


EDIT: Two pages! Thanks so much for reading, everybody!

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/04/03 00:36:16


My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in de
Longtime Dakkanaut






Updates OSL looks better! It‘s one of the things I‘ve never attempted, because I find it daunting, but you made a good first foray into it.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





Columbus, OH

New OSL looks much better, definitely glowier

Thanks,

MegaDave  
   
Made in ca
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Yeah, that looks even better! I really like that red on the bits on the top too, it makes the rest of the colors stand out more

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






Yep, a definite improvement on the glowing. It’s tough to get right, so definitely a good first attempt!

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






I think the only advice I have is have the actual sphere itself be brighter, perhaps bright white in the crevices, so it's clearer that it's the source of the light! As for the actual OSL itself, it's look really good now!

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Necron Warriors 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Thanks for the comments all, I really appreciate it. Thanks for the encouragement, Viterbi, MegaDave, amazingturtles, and gobert. Also thanks to Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll, that's really good feedback. Based on that suggestion I gave it a bit of a try. Here's what I promise is the very last image you'll ever see of the Astrolith (except for group shots, I suppose). I sprayed him with varnish and everything. He's done forever. Promise.



I'm prepping another update that I'll post in a bit, maybe later tonight or early tomorrow. Last week I was working on my skinks. They were equipped with blowpipes and daggers, but unfortunately no shields (they were built back in sixth when such things cost points). So I decided to sculpt some of my own, with positive results!

My priorities for the next week or so are:
1) finish chameleon skinks
2) finish Realmgate Engine
3) Finish painting Skinks from high school

Then I might give myself a break from reptiles and get back into some 40k! I have a half-finished armiger that's been shaming me for half a year.


My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Okay friends, here's the promised update.

So as I said before, a lot of the Seraphon I'm working through now I've had since high school or even earlier, and have just now got around for painting. I've got 12 skinks (which is 2 more than I need) and need to add some shields to them for that sweet sweet 5+ save. Problem: I had only two skink shields in my bitz box, and I've used exactly two for my earlier Warcry conversions. So I figured, I've got a bit of greenstuff, so I figured I'd give a try making some molds.



This was not the best idea I've had. Mainly because I realized that I actually have a whole bunch of skink shields still on the sprue from the start-collecting set that I haven't actually built yet. Ah well. I also wanted to add a bit of variety and thought it might be possible to add some round, scaly shields, in the style of the Saurus shields but a bit smaller. So here's what I ended up with:





Look at that! That looks pretty okay! It's got scales and everything.



Here we've got an example of me pressing a bit of the ol' GS into the molds. I let it cure about 75% and then pulled it out and straightened it. I did have to do a bit of touch up on the scales with a sculpting tool.



And then I realized that I could just sculpt them directly onto any available flat surface, because scales are easy.



I think they look okay ~ here it is on two old skinks, one unpainted and one with a high-school-paint-job.




(that's Agrellan Badlands on their bases, before being primed with Vallejo Desert Yellow).

Proof of concept: for the skink that I'd already painted, I did a quick sculpt-job of a shield and painted it separately:



Here he is, happy to have +1 to his armor save.




And there you go! Just like the OSL, this was a bit of a mixed bag, and although I am happy with the results I see areas I could improve. Scales are definitely sculpting on easy mode, but I think it works for a battleline force (plus these will be mixed in with a group of 20 skinks total, 10 of which will have the plastic shields. So hopefully it will look alright on the tabletop!

I'm typing too much. I oughta go to bed. Thanks for reading, friends!

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





Columbus, OH

New OSL is best OSL. I'm sure as you go forward you'll get even better at it.

I think the skink shields turned out pretty good! Same as with the OSL, you'll get even better at it as you do more and sculpting them seems easier than press molding. Pkus since since you have so many skinks I'm sure they'll look amazing as a group! Numbers hide everything, right?!

Thanks,

MegaDave  
   
Made in ca
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Any thing done with greenstuff is an accomplishment. And the sheilds look excellent, they fit in perfectly with the originals, i think. And that's also a really well done eye for that skink.

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in de
Longtime Dakkanaut






Easy mode sculpting looks really good, very crisp shield, great job!
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






@MegaDave - thank you for your encouragement! I've been feeling like taking more risks lately - it helps having a bunch of models that are not in the best shape to experiment with, but also I think I'm finding a lot of opportunities to practice XYZ new hobby techniques that I'd have previously overlooked. And if it goes wrong - well, as you said, numbers hide everything!

@amazingturtles - thank you as always. I was pretty happy with how that eye turned out! I didn't realize how angry-looking he was until after his second ink wash. His is not the temple I would like to raid for treasures.

@Viterbi - thank you! I appreciate it. It's a bit of a first for me (other than some awkward chaos-type tentacle things) so I appreciate the feedback. One thing I learned from a pretty bad mold I made of the original skink shield is that the scutes needed deeper lines between them than I thought - the first attempt ended up coming out very flat.

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in au
Ragin' Ork Dreadnought






Albany, Australia

Risks is good! Eye looks acceptable - I can't really make any helpful suggestions here . Shields came out great .

   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





Columbus, OH

 Don Qui Hotep wrote:
@MegaDave - thank you for your encouragement! I've been feeling like taking more risks lately - it helps having a bunch of models that are not in the best shape to experiment with, but also I think I'm finding a lot of opportunities to practice XYZ new hobby techniques that I'd have previously overlooked. And if it goes wrong - well, as you said, numbers hide everything!

Yeah man, risk for the risk god! Half the time I get a crazy idea and just go with it. I almost never have more than a rough idea in my head. Doesn't work for everyone, but keep at it and you'll make some amazing things that are all your own. Can't wait to see what else you come up with!

Thanks,

MegaDave  
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






The shields look pretty good, this whole Green Stuff thing is tricky! They’ll definitely look fine all ranked up that’s for sure!

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in be
Been Around the Block






The greenstuffing is coming along nicely!
   
Made in ca
Grisly Ghost Ark Driver






Shields look good, you can knock out tons of those pretty easily now!

See what's on my painting table Now painting: Necron Warriors 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Hey all, thanks for the encouraging comments - I appreciate the support and it gives me good hobby energy. I got a rather short-term deadline for work so I'll be off hobby stuff for two weeks or so. Hopefully with my next update I'll have my realmgate engine finished.

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Hi all, here's a quick non-update:

My last hobby purchase before this all went down was a pewter slann off of Ebay (not trying to throw shade, but I'll never buy Finecast if I can help it). I was worried I'd have to find a round 50 mm base but it comes with a 60 mm flying-stand, which I think should work just fine. I got a little nostalgic to see the red-bordered box.



All the lovely pewter pieces:



I have a hard time having two models with the same sculpt in my armies, so I tend to like to convert my HQs just to put a little personal spin on them. The Slann is no exception. I thought about making changes to his platform itself, but decided against it (other than taking of the three spikes on the bottom that surround the flying stand, which I thought looked a bit silly). Instead, I thought it would be good to give the guy a big headdress.

I had a cool banner topper from the Saurus Cavalry kit and thought about how best to support it. Going back to the Maya, I thought of these famous stelae from Tikal that show different kings wearing different style of headdresses:




There's kind of a cloth under typically with a whicker or wooden frame, that was often painted or had jade or other precious materials affixed. I decided to sculpt a cloth skullcap, then a layer of scales representing the pelt of some beast, then the banner-topper.

Here's the skullcap, not sure if it came out the way I meant but I think it looks woven. I textured it by rolling a seashell over it then used a sculpting tool to add the different cloth sections, followed by another round of texture and then redefining the lines.





Then the scales and banner-topper:



Hopefully sculpting those skink shields paid off! I think the scales look pretty nice. I also added some trophies from the Night Lords Leviathan Dreadnought kit, which happened to fit around the Slann's neck pretty well.

Here's it all together:



And a shot of the scenic base: mostly Agrellan Badlands, with some small and medium slate pieces, a pile of skulls, and some more reptiles.



Sprayed it up on my spacious porch, with a reference pumpkin in the background for scale.



I probably won't get to paint this guy for a bit; I have a big deadline to meet on the 28th, after which I'll have a lot more hobby time. This post is the product of a couple of minutes of work every few hours over the course of several days - anytime I got up to stretch or a glass of water I did a few minutes of hobby. It's a nice way to get both work and hobby done, but I won't have even that time for the next two weeks. So in my spare time I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to paint the toad. There are some pretty interesting and lively-looking desert toads. Here's a few:





I like the yellow-and-black one, but I worry it might be a bit too busy to paint easily - although I'd only have to do it once, so it might be worth spending some extra time on. And I have all the paints. The green toad with orange spots is also pretty neat, but I think it might be a bit too much of a departure from my other paint schemes - but again, it's a distinct character (and species), and the rest of the model will include details that will help tie it into the rest of the force - the stone chair, the skink handler, and the base. Then again, as long as we're thinking of other famous brown toads, there's one other scheme that has entered the ring:



Thanks for reading, all.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/04/13 09:03:43


My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in gb
Posts with Authority






Norn Iron

Oh thank goodness. For a second I thought you were going to chop into that precious precious metal.

Looking good! I like how the headdress slots under the back piece of the palanquin. Neatly done.

Colour scheme: well I think you've gone and presented the right choice, haven't you?

I'm sooo, sooo sorry.

Plog - Random sculpts and OW Helves 9/3/23 
   
Made in de
Longtime Dakkanaut






Nice work on the toad, really impressed with the two different green stuff layers, excited to see it painted up.
   
Made in gb
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought






Hypno-toad ftw! Are you going to integrate the head piece topper more closely with the scaley bit? It’ll be tough but I think it’ll look neater. It’s cool you’re taking the time to differentiate two models of the same sculpt, keep it up!

Goberts Gubbins - P&M Blog, started with Oldhammer, often Blackstone Fortress and Void Panther Marines, with side projects along the way 
   
Made in us
Maddening Mutant Boss of Chaos





Boston

I love seeing all the photo/historical research and the step-by-step looks into your process. Thanks very much for sharing -- this is looking good!

   
Made in ca
Damsel of the Lady





drinking tea in the snow

Oh, I like almost all of those toads for ideas! I do think i have to agree, the black and yellow one may be the busiest and possibly the most challenging, but it also looks like the most interesting one to try.

realism is a lie
 
   
Made in be
Been Around the Block






What a nice update. Nice to see the effort to make every model unique. Good luck with the deadline and looking forward seeing this one painted
   
Made in gb
Fixture of Dakka





6 foot underwater

Nice work on the headpiece, and the trophies fit nicely as a necklace.

Black and yellow looks the most interesting - and also the most challenging...

cyborks & flyboyz : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/300067.page
heretical ramblings : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/302773.page
imperial preachings : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/303365.page
Da Waaagh-ky Races : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/325045.page
Briancj: You have the Mek Taint, MT, and the only thing we can do is watch in horror/amazement.

 
   
Made in ca
Fixture of Dakka





Surrey, BC - Canada

Don Qui Hotep,

That is going to be quite the centerpiece when it is painted.

Cheers,

CB

   
Made in us
Deranged Necron Destroyer






Hey all, thanks for the nice comments. I've responded to them below. Sorry for missing updates on your own blogs, I've been pretty busy the past few weeks. I can't wait to see what you guys are all working on in May. I have a very silly little update, but first let's do some quick hellos.

 Vermis wrote:
Oh thank goodness. For a second I thought you were going to chop into that precious precious metal.

Looking good! I like how the headdress slots under the back piece of the palanquin. Neatly done.

Colour scheme: well I think you've gone and presented the right choice, haven't you?


Thank you, Vermis! I long ago realized that my style of conversions tend to lean more towards "slap stuff on" rather than "cut stuff up" - although I did have to shave one of the prongs off of the headdress to get him to fit under the palanquin!

 Viterbi wrote:
Nice work on the toad, really impressed with the two different green stuff layers, excited to see it painted up.


Thanks, Viterbi! The idea for layers was me trying to diagram how those headdresses were constructed. They are often depicted larger than life and although I am sure that even the most elaborate ones were worn at least once for particular ceremonies, the day-to-day would have been lighter material. Ancient Maya doors were often only five or five and a half feet high - you don't want your king to have a bad neck from ducking all the time! (well, maybe he had a special porter just for his hat) The "drum-major" headdress from Palenque is a good example of a more reasonable headdress that was only trotted out at certain times in the city's history.

 gobert wrote:
Hypno-toad ftw! Are you going to integrate the head piece topper more closely with the scaley bit? It’ll be tough but I think it’ll look neater. It’s cool you’re taking the time to differentiate two models of the same sculpt, keep it up!


That's a really good suggestion, gobert, as usual! Any ideas? I'm visualizing kind of a "ponytail" of feathers coming down off of the back of the helmet to hide the edges of the topper, but I'm not sure I'm up for that sculpting challenge. But now in my head it looks like I just plopped the topper on top of his head, which is exactly what I did. Lucky for me the slann has good posture or it would fall right off! Hmm, maybe the topper could have two extensions that go down the side of his face, like mutton chops? Helping to secure the headdress by bracing against the side of his face? Something like this?

 tinfoil wrote:
I love seeing all the photo/historical research and the step-by-step looks into your process. Thanks very much for sharing -- this is looking good!


Thanks, tinfoil! Doing the historical research helps me feel like hobby time is productive. "This isn't me playing with my toys, this is me doing my research!"

 amazingturtles wrote:
Oh, I like almost all of those toads for ideas! I do think i have to agree, the black and yellow one may be the busiest and possibly the most challenging, but it also looks like the most interesting one to try.


Agreed, AT, thanks for your feedback - I'm going to be ambitious and try the paint-splatter toad!

 Honingtomaten wrote:
What a nice update. Nice to see the effort to make every model unique. Good luck with the deadline and looking forward seeing this one painted


Thank you, Honingtomaten! I really appreciate that. The 28th is less than a week away but I'm feeling pretty good. Unfortunately (fortunately?) because of persistent mold issues my roommate and I are getting moved from the first floor to the fourth floor of the apartment, and our landlord is giving us from the 28th to May 1st to finish our move - so as soon as I finish my qualifying exam I gotta start packing up all my stuff! Really not looking forward to transporting all my little guys. XD

 monkeytroll wrote:
Nice work on the headpiece, and the trophies fit nicely as a necklace.

Black and yellow looks the most interesting - and also the most challenging...


Thank you, monkeytroll! I think I'll go with Black and Yellow. It's going to be a fun challenge!

 Captain Brown wrote:
Don Qui Hotep,

That is going to be quite the centerpiece when it is painted.

Cheers,

CB


Thank you, Captain Brown! I probably won't be able to work on him until May, but I'm looking forward to sharing updates with everybody.

-----

I really appreciate all the encouraging words that people have shared! It gives me good hobby energy. Like I'm accountable to all of you to do good work in a reasonable amount of time! My qualifying exam is still continuing as scheduled, and then my roommate and I have to move from the first to the fourth floor by May 1st. So it will still be a bit of time before I post anything of substance, but I have a very silly and very dumb little thing that I thought I might as well share. It contains some very mild spoilers for Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

Spoiler:
So, Academia is pretty hard, but one thing that always helps me unwind is watching an episode of Star Trek at the end of the day. It doesn't matter which series, I love them all - even Voyager! But I'd never watched Deep Space 9 before, so a few months ago I started from the beginning and holy cow. What an amazing show. I know I'm almost thirty-years late to the party, but man, DS9: really good. So I've been tearing through it at a breakneck pace. When I've got a lot of labwork to do I can sometimes have it on in the background (I only need to look up when I hear phaser fire), and even when I spend all day researching and writing I can still watch an episode before I go to bed. So the fact that I'm Star-Trek-less this week, I feel a little lost. I needed a bit of Star Trek to keep my spirits up while I worked.

Well, there's this character called Morn. He's a full-body makeup alien that goes past ugly back to adorable. As far as I can tell he started as just a background character, but for some reason the writers decided to give him more screen time. He never speaks, but you'll have characters just throw out one-liners every couple episodes; "man, I used to have a huge crush on him," or "he was an excellent sparring partner." I think it started as an inside joke. All Morn does is sit in Quark's bar and drink. So when he fakes his own death, Quark turns it into a business opportunity: "the best way to honor him would be to make sure his seat never goes cold. Keep it warm for Morn." Well, I might be crazy, but I thought that "Warm for Morn" was one of the funniest things I'd ever heard, and thought it would make a great out-of-context t-shirt. Not having any silkscreen printing equipment but lots of cardboard and spray paint, over the course of a couple minutes a day I did the following:





Is it silly and dumb? Yes it is. Does it look pretty bad? Of course it does. And really, isn't that the best way to honor Morn's memory? I like to think so!


Hope everyone's keeping sane this late into social distancing. Looking forward to checking back in with everybody's blogs and getting back to painting in a couple of weeks!

My painting log is full of snakes
Have any retro, vintage, or out of print models? Show them off here!
Games I play: 40k (CSM, Necrons); AoS/Fantasy (Seraphon/Lizardmen); Warcry; Marvel Crisis Protocol; Wargods of Olympus/Aegyptus; Mythos 
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





Columbus, OH

Excellent use of hobby time! And just think about when you meet up with someone who understands the reference, it'll be magical.

Keep at it, glad to have you around!

Thanks,

MegaDave  
   
 
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