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 feltmonkey wrote:
Freya - More sculpting, so I'm impressed again. The face looks excellent, and I like the tone you've got on the armour. Is there a gradient on there, or is it the way the photos are lit

It's a gradient but the lighting does bring it out a bit more. I used zenithal highlighting.

Thanks for the feedback zergsmasher, midgetgems and felt. I picked out that head specifically as it had eyes, still have work to do but it's getting there and all thanks to your encouragement. Yeah the sword wasnt my finest hour, it should have been lightning crackles but ended up completely different. It probably would work quite nice if executed better, straighter edge down the spine and more evenly spaced gaps between the lines heading to the cutting edges sort of thing.

Thanks to DV8 for the explanation too, i understand what you are saying. The model still looks amazing but i understand how it could be improved upon now.

Thanks for the comments - Jamie Shred, queen_annes_revenge, Turaxa, ZergSmasher, Viterbi, Midget Gems and feltmonkey, really appreciate them and thanks for all who voted

 DV8 wrote:

CancelledApocalypse wrote:@DV8 You should really give out a few more than just three, just because otherwise you'll only ever be voting for QAR, Modock and Felt every month. ...
If I could give you guys extra votes in order to weight things, I would.

I'm accustomed to a traditional podium finish, and I don't like to throw out too many votes for the very reason you stated, it throws off the weighting some. For the scoring, I go top 3. Honorable mentions for the ones I loved but felt lacked in some aspect or another that prevents them from contesting one of my podium selections (obviously subjective, I think everyone who finished something and more importantly, improves on their previous work, is already a winner).

Fair enough, although, by that logic shouldn't you only vote for your very favourite entry? There's still no weighting to your votes amongst the top entries, so you're doing nothing to separate the positions 1 to 3 anyway. And besides, is the point of this competion to stroke the egos of the top three or four painters or to help encourage and motivate those who might be seen as 'weaker' but with the desire to improve and strengthen their own techniques and entries? A vote in this competition isn't there to split the best from the rest, it's to show that you appreciate the effort and skill of the painters, and that you liked a model, even if the painter isn't technically the best or their model the ultimate standout. At least, that's my opinion - and you're more than welcome to disagree with me. The good thing about this comp is that everyone's free to vote in whatever way they see fit. It certainly makes for an interesting distribution of votes.

@Turaxa I'm flattered you think so. As Felt said, one thing that will very quickly improve your finished results is if you thin your paints down more and apply multiple thin layers. Do you use a pallette? Or a wet pallette?

Re. the gems, I actually find painting them quite relaxing and rewarding. I love the end effect of making them look glassy and deep and find it satisfying knowing it's achieved purely by layers of colour and the shape you're painting them. Again, Darren Latham's tutorial on them is really useful.

@Jamie Shred I've done similar myself, it's easy to do when you're rushing towards a looming deadline... And I always seem to be rushing towards a looming deadline...

@ZergSmasher Thanks! I also love the orange, though to be honest I'm still improving how I paint folds of cloth. I should have gone deeper and brighter with the shading and highlights. And more importantly, I should have matted it down to get rid of those pesky reflections... Ho hum, it was late and I didn't notice them until I was editing the photos together.

@Midget Gems Much appreciated, though, like I say, I think the sword could have been a whole lot better. My favourite parts on that model are actually the gems, eyes and faceplate. I'm glad you got yours finished, too. That green is certainly very striking (axe pun intended)!

@feltmonkey Thanks, I always appreciate the time you put into giving praise and constructive criticisms for everyone. I also always love your entries for how colourful, impactful and beautifully painted they are. I don't think the blue is as much of a problem as you say, though perhaps the mushroom could have been a different colour/shade if you think it draws the eye too much?

Well that should be 5 days to vote, adjusted for inflation, time zones, and laziness. Let’s announce the winners of this round.

In third, with a model so beautiful it will damn your soul to gaze upon it, maxwin's Shalaxi Helbane:


Masters and puppets, two great things that go so well together, Modock with the Puppetactica Company:


And just one vote ahead, a stunning rendition of Gen. Washington from DV8:


As always, a fantastic job from everyone who entered. The quality of these gets higher and higher, and the competition for the podium is close as always.

See you all next month for The Long War!

Congratulations maxwin, Modock and DV8 - great work all round!

Congratulations to everyone else as well - I love the inspiration that this thread consistently provides.

Thanks to those who said nice things and special thanks to everyone organising and doing the hard work to keep this challenge going every month.

I second Chris, congratulations guys, your art is well deserving!

Thanks to everyone for their encouragement. This place is a haven for me and your kindness and constructive criticism help me immensely.

With that said, watch out! I'm gonna pull out all the stops for the Long War!

 feltmonkey wrote:
Pariah Press - A crazy-looking model! Is it a kitbash? I notice you've said you sculpted his legs yourself, so good job there. I've never managed to sculpt anything, so I'm impressed. He's really got some junk in his trunk too.

Yeah, I bashed him together from various bits. His torso, boots, and left arm are from a Custodes Vertus Praetor. His right arm is from an old Space Marine Assault Squad kit. His head is from an Empire handgunner. His thighs and butt were sculpted in greenstuff. The shuriken catapult is from some Eldar kit obviously, but I have no recollection of where I got it from!

Thanks, feltmonkey, and everyone else who commented on everyone's work, for taking the time to comment, offer props, and constructive criticism!

Congratulations to everyone who participated, this month's champions, and to Nevelon for doing the legwork.

Cheers,

CB

Congratulations to the winners and thanks to Maxwin, Feltmonkey, Midget Gems and ZergSmasher for the comments.

@CancelledApocalypse: I use an ordinary plastic palette. I've thought about DIY-ing a wet pallete for its portability, but do wet palettes also give substantially better results?

 Turaxa wrote:
@CancelledApocalypse: I use an ordinary plastic palette. I've thought about DIY-ing a wet pallete for its portability, but do wet palettes also give substantially better results?

They won't necessarily immediately make you a better painter (in the short term, anyway), and they do take some getting used to, but they provide an easy non-drying source of paint so you don't have to keep going back to the pot every time the paint dries on your palette. It also makes it easy to thin your paints to the right consistency. And again, it won't dry out once it's been thinned, like it quickly would on a dry palette. And they're good for keeping paint mixes liquid, so you don't have to keep remixing. Overall, it's just very convenient.

They're also really easy to make. I used Tabletop Minions's tutorial to make mine, but there's loads of others and they're pretty much the same as far as I'm aware. I actually used the same materials as Darren Latham's tutorial before I even discovered his channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mjmqWTPfM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzGae5S828k

Congrats to the winners and everyone who took part! And thanks Nevelon and Paradigm for keeping this competition going for so long. All the work you guys have and are putting in is so appreciated.

Okay seen as how we are talking wet palletes i will jump in with a question. Does anyone know if its possible to make or buy a wet pallete that will work on an unlevel surface? A friend of mine gave me a wet pallete a while ago but i found it useless as my painting surfaces are not level so within a couple of minutes of using it the paint runs off the paper and under the sponge.

Also congrats to all the winners and everyone that entered.

I don't think it would unfortunately, Jamie.

Don't worry about it though, wet palletes are great, but you don't need one, by any means. I have a couple of those redgrass wet palletes, but quite often I will just use my well palletes instead. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. I find that wet palletes can sometimes create strange consistencies to my paint - if you don't have the right amount of water you can end up with paints getting too watery, or too sludgy. Obviously, paint on a dry or well pallete will dry up quicker, but you can't really come back to paint you were using a day or two ago on a wet pallete either, as the consistency will be off, the paint will have separated, and it can't usually be magically turned back into completely usable paint. I make my well pallates out of the bottoms of Coke bottles by the way. The plastic ones, not the glass ones. If you look at them, they have these little wells in that are the perfect size for mini painting.

Cheers Feltmonkey

I have managed ok so far with my stash of pringles tub lids but a coke bottle based wet pallete might actually work for me as the wells may stop everything running together.

I thought I was a super genius for using coke bottle bottoms :(

Congrats maxwin, Modock, DV8 the standard is so high these days, Its wonderful to see

League table updated here

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/732117.page#9481149