Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Woot - Hi everyone.

I had a gap between commissions so I've decided to quickly paint these GKs and put them on a local trading site before people start buying new ones.
These took about 20 hours of work during the span of 3 days as a side project - the highlights aren't really there yet and I wasn't focusing on the details as they're meant to be gaming pieces. Just had to rush them because I'll have more stuff to paint soon and school starts next week... I just dread going to classes urgh

Another good opportunity to practice my chiaroscuro + OTL style and oil work.

Big thanks to MajorTom for putting up his GK tutorial. Though I didn't use the exact same method, but gotta thank him for the guideline on metallic painting.

For these models, I worked from bright to dark - starting with grey primer > boltgun metal > VMA steel (which clogged on the first attempt but thx for the tutorial I diluted it and worked fine! > swords and mask them with liquid mask > details > shadows for the sake of sticking to my typical chiaroscuro style > shiny lights > shadow again.

80% of work done with airbrush - this time without clogging though I was being paranoid about it since my first attempt at spraying metallics VMA with my Iwata Eclipse didn't work out (spent about half an hour un-clogging urgh)

Oil paints were used as washes and glazes... the more I use them, I find that I dilute them less and now starting to use them to paint rather than to wash









C&C are welcomed

Wow...
I really love the grimdark feel to them.
And the basing is awesome as well.
Great poses too.

Well done me sir...
; )

Whoa!

Amazing painting as per usual.

I particularly like the OSL.

Holey Moley! School? How old are you painting at this level? :O

Jeez, you're quite the busy painter aren't you?

These look very very nice and I can definitely see improvement over your spacehulk termies.

The dual wielding sword guy turned out especially sweet!

One point of criticism: the light from the nemesis weapon shining on the left foot of the last guy looks a bit much and to localized if you keep the distance from the light source in mind.

Loving the bases mate and the swords very well donE!

Love them... However, I don't find the bases appealing. Idk why though, possibly because the lava part looks rushed, or too flat IMO

The painting is absolutely awesome - how long have you been doing it? But I'm curious how chiaroscuro comes into those minis. Chiaroscuro is a 2d technique used to create a 3d effect, or a compositional starkness between dark and light. You can't really do the former on a 3d model, and I can't really see evidence of the latter. The only thing close to it is the shading which is more a result of OSL than anything else. Or am I missing something here?

Thank you all for your opinions!

By school I mean university and the thought of having to go to classes has been killing my buzz for the past weeks... ARGH!

At fiddler6291 - I can see that now and I agree, the light should have been weaker.

I think I need more practice on lava base speedpainting. For gaming pieces I didn't want to spend too long on basing so I worked the colors from dark-light with airbrush and washed/glazed with oil paint. I think it should be brighter.

One thing that I'd like to improve is the way to highlight red/orange tone without making it pink or too yellow if you know what I mean. Ideally I would like the lava to gradient from dark red to pure white but during the process you need orange and yellow. Without them it would become Teletubby goo food instead.

At Martiler - Thanks! I started gaming and painting in Dec 2009 so not that long ago (a childhood milimodel phase doesn't really count!)

About the chiaroscuro technique - I just think it would be a good way to describe the style since often in OSL people put more emphasize on the lighting than the shadow. In my first attempt at this technique, I was sticking to the 'chiaroscuro' principles too much so my minis (spacehulk) appeared to be really bright on one side and completely black on the other.

Now I try to adapt the technique to mini-painting. In practice, the biggest challenge is how to add high contrast between light/dark tones without losing midtones (which define many details on a mini). Though the contrast between dark and light isn't as strong as it should be according to the principle of chiaroscuro, I've found that by being more subtle with lighting and shading while sticking to the principle of chiaroscuro, my minis turn out nicer.

I think the best way to view these minis is to pick them up and turn them around because I've painted them so that the illuminated parts would appear brighter and the shadowed parts really dark and that's IMHO when chiaroscuro comes to these minis.


Cheers
Fasai

Thanks for sharing these great minis and especially thanks for sharing the steps you followed...

What did you use to thin your metallics?

Dude - that is art. Awesome job!

Lol now I want a tutorial from you! It looks so much better with 'full glow' weapons, not the nmm look I did, blows mine out of the water! Awesome!

your force weapons look great.

for the record imo your work is far superior to tabletop quality.

Btw, You need a touch more glow in the lava, it should be brighter than the objects it is lighting technically speaking - still... awesome!

I was actually pretty pleased with my painting skills before I saw this, now I feel so tiny and insignificant

Beautiful work.

Wish I could do this! Must take years of practice! I salute you!

Awesome! I agree that the lava should be brighter, but...

Awesome!

Very nice indeed.

Do you have any tips on using oils? When I use them the thinner tends to try and strip the paint layers underneath - any suggestions?

Thanks for your comments everyone!

About the bases - I'm sure if I've spent enough time working on them they would have turned out better.

I really like the fact that lava base can be a great reason for me to add warm colors on the models. I might try basing my Space wolves on lava bases just to see how it would turn out... I'm really pleased with the hint of orange on these minis and if anyone have some ideas about what kind of material that would give a similar 'glow' - please advise.

Ideally I'd like to base my SW on snow, with some sort of orange/yellow glow from somewhere...

----

@SilverMK2 - you have to varnish the model first to protect the acrylic coat. Also - try not to use too much turp and let it pool all over the model. I find that the longer turp stays on the surface, the more it'll 'eat' through the previous coats.

From my experience, use gloss varnish when you want the oil/wash to run to crevices and corners. If you want the paint to stay on large surfaces, then use matte varnish, because it's textured. If anyone finds it differently, please share your experience.

We should open a new thread regarding oil paints - please let me know if anyone is keen

Cheers
Fasai

Thanks for the tip - I think I may not have been covering well enough with the varnish, or pooling too much turp

An oils based thread/article could be good, as not many people use them in the wargaming world, though there is a lot of use for them found in the modeling side of things and they can add a lot to a model.

SilverMK2 wrote:Thanks for the tip - I think I may not have been covering well enough with the varnish, or pooling too much turp

An oils based thread/article could be good, as not many people use them in the wargaming world, though there is a lot of use for them found in the modeling side of things and they can add a lot to a model.

I completely agree with you!
The scale modeling, figure painting and illustration world have so much more knowledge that we can apply to wargaming painting IMHO.

nuclealosaur wrote:I completely agree with you!
The scale modeling, figure painting and illustration world have so much more knowledge that we can apply to wargaming painting IMHO.

There is only one article that I can see dealing with using oil paints

I will go and look at my bookmarks and see if I can put together at least an information page

SilverMK2 wrote:

nuclealosaur wrote:I completely agree with you!
The scale modeling, figure painting and illustration world have so much more knowledge that we can apply to wargaming painting IMHO.

There is only one article that I can see dealing with using oil paints

I will go and look at my bookmarks and see if I can put together at least an information page

I use exactly the same brand of oil as the article writer: Winton (Windsor and Newton)

Although, I've found it to be a little too grainy when applying to large surfaces so I'm waiting for my Mig Productions Albeitlung 502 range to arrive (ordered red blue yellow and black just to try first - but can mix any other colors from this lot)

nuclealosaur wrote:About the chiaroscuro technique - I just think it would be a good way to describe the style since often in OSL people put more emphasize on the lighting than the shadow. In my first attempt at this technique, I was sticking to the 'chiaroscuro' principles too much so my minis (spacehulk) appeared to be really bright on one side and completely black on the other.

Now I try to adapt the technique to mini-painting. In practice, the biggest challenge is how to add high contrast between light/dark tones without losing midtones (which define many details on a mini). Though the contrast between dark and light isn't as strong as it should be according to the principle of chiaroscuro, I've found that by being more subtle with lighting and shading while sticking to the principle of chiaroscuro, my minis turn out nicer.

I think the best way to view these minis is to pick them up and turn them around because I've painted them so that the illuminated parts would appear brighter and the shadowed parts really dark and that's IMHO when chiaroscuro comes to these minis.


Cheers
Fasai

Ah, I see where you're coming from. In that case, good job - cos you pulled it off!

Martiler wrote:

nuclealosaur wrote:About the chiaroscuro technique - I just think it would be a good way to describe the style since often in OSL people put more emphasize on the lighting than the shadow. In my first attempt at this technique, I was sticking to the 'chiaroscuro' principles too much so my minis (spacehulk) appeared to be really bright on one side and completely black on the other.

Now I try to adapt the technique to mini-painting. In practice, the biggest challenge is how to add high contrast between light/dark tones without losing midtones (which define many details on a mini). Though the contrast between dark and light isn't as strong as it should be according to the principle of chiaroscuro, I've found that by being more subtle with lighting and shading while sticking to the principle of chiaroscuro, my minis turn out nicer.

I think the best way to view these minis is to pick them up and turn them around because I've painted them so that the illuminated parts would appear brighter and the shadowed parts really dark and that's IMHO when chiaroscuro comes to these minis.


Cheers
Fasai

Ah, I see where you're coming from. In that case, good job - cos you pulled it off!

Thanks Martiler!

I'm linking you from a few places, hope you don't mind, I think a lot of people should see your work!

Any progress with lava brightness and/or oil article???

MajorTom11 wrote:I'm linking you from a few places, hope you don't mind, I think a lot of people should see your work!

Any progress with lava brightness and/or oil article???

Hi!

No problem! Can you give me some links also so I can go and see where you've posted my work?

The squad was sold so no changes made - although I've ordered a new set to paint in the same manner. This time hopefully will do better!
Right now I'm busy with commission works so as soon as I can find time to finish painting/filming the DK I'll give you some update.
Taking 4 papers this term doesn't help either

Nice work, very sharp.

Movac wrote:Nice work, very sharp.

Thanks!