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.

hello dakka,

my new HQ for my salamanders army:



this was an ebay rescue model. more glue then I've ever seen in one place... also my first time working with a metal model. let me just say, my hat's off to all you folks who've been painting and converting metal models for all these years. what a pain in the arse! I'll stick with plastic and count myself lucky, thanks :p

this will be my last salamanders model for a while, I think, as I'll be working on a new night lords army this year.

cheers and thanks for looking!

v

Looks good. The little hints of text scattered about are a nice, characterful touch and I quite like the basing. The one thing that irks me, though, is the banner. The image on the face looks good, but the back is absolutely flat, in terms of color, as is the whole piece, in form. It's quite unnatural. The slight curve to the pole throws my eye off, as well. Perhaps a hint of shading, some light weathering, more bits of text... anything to break up that big field of green would help, I think.

Love it, but I HATE pitch black Salamanders. They should all be black dudes. fething GW.

Looks great, but I'm going to agree with oadie on the back of the banner. A little bit of weathering on the back or perhaps a two-tone coloration on it would make it look less like a giant slab of green plastic.

Looks awesome. I love Salamanders, I did mine the pitch black too just to keep it in line with the codex and current fluff but I understand people's opinions on the subject.

I would rather see him with a hammer, but I know it is a metal model so it's rather hard to convert sometimes.

The front of the banner looks awesome but I agree the back needs a bit of weathering. Keep up the great work and post pics of the other models for the army when you're done with them!

yeah, that's a good point about the back of the banner. any thoughts on how to go about weathering it? I was just happy to have the darn thing done :p painting that turned out to be way more work then I was expecting.

the bent pole bugs me as well, but the way the model's designed it's the only way to get the banner to hang straight unless I dangle it behind the pole (considered it, but it would look lame). in hindsight, I should have just filed the crap out of the base of the pole so it glued in "straight". lessons for next time (it's pinned, or I'd rip it off again and do it right).

the skin actually has some brown to it, but it's really subtle. you definitely wouldn't see it from table-top distance. I used to do the skin in a pure black, but someone suggested adding in some brown to add warmth and I went with it. on a side note, I hate painting salamanders skin :p looking forward to being able to do real skin tones on my CSMs later.

I also play Salamanders, and I wish I had this model! I'm in favor of mutant-black Salamanders too, rather than African-black. I totally agree with oadie's assessment about the back of the banner. It's too much area with nothing going on. I'm not sure what you could do with it, but a giant field of green is displeasing to the eye here. The front of the banner is fan-freaking-tastic, though! While I agree that the one shot where I can see the curve of the banner pole kind of threw me, I also didn't even see it until oadie pointed it out. You've done a really good job on the weapon and the metallic bits. I've got several models with tunics, and I have struggled with a color for them. Thus far I haven't ever gone with black. It looks like a really good choice, though, and I might switch to it. Great work!

Is that the Forgeworld shoulder pad?

the black for the tabard was honestly a bit of a cheat. my original thought was to do a red, but against the green of the armor it gets christmas-y really fast. I couldn't think of another primary color that would work and cream/white/bone wasn't really calling to me. I thought the black might tie in better with the shoulder pads, anyway.

I love it! Such clean work. Looks menacing!

the colors and freehand work are all so smooth and crisp. Excellent work...love the color of green and the power sword.

Nice model btw, he looks bulkier than the regular terminators, nice. Considering the back of the banner, i would maybe cut/ drill/poke a few bullet holes on it, just to get a hint that he has seen battle. I would also add purity seals, such a simple thing could go a long way. keep up the good work!

hmm, yeah maybe adding some script to both sides and a couple purity seals to break things up. I feel like it needs a wash or something, too, but I'm hesitant to slop one on there. might also look a bit odd if only the back is washed. hrm.

 varl wrote:
the black for the tabard was honestly a bit of a cheat. my original thought was to do a red, but against the green of the armor it gets christmas-y really fast. I couldn't think of another primary color that would work and cream/white/bone wasn't really calling to me. I thought the black might tie in better with the shoulder pads, anyway.

Check out my Salamanders in my Gallery. I use Yellow and Purple a lot as accents on tabards etc. Even a dark blue looks pretty good with the green and black. When i did do red it was always a very dark ruddy color red to keep the whole Christmas feelinf out of it.

Really nice model. The green armour looks really chunky and heavyweight. Agree with the back of the banner comments. A few posts ago, someone suggested a couple of purity seals, and I think that would be a great way of breaking up the flat colour.

Edited due to autocorrect putting words in my mouth.

I always went with a dark brown, since I thought it gave the impression of a leather blacksmith's apron. I tried purple, Overwatch, but it looks real Joker-y to my eye.

 Jimsolo wrote:
I always went with a dark brown, since I thought it gave the impression of a leather blacksmith's apron. I tried purple, Overwatch, but it looks real Joker-y to my eye.

Yes, you definitely have to not go overboard with the purple on Salamanders! I usually used it on Terminator arm cabling, inside of cloaks, and a tabard here and there. Sometimes a whole robe wasn't bad if you don't have the model next to a bunch of other models with the purple too.

Yellow is definitely a good option too, and a leathery color.

That is an awesome paintjob. I hate that model but you have managed to make it look decent. Honestly I have never liked that model at all because it sculpted so strange and there are parts that are just not the right size or something but you have shown me for the first time just how nice it can look. Even the painted one on the GW site does not show off the qualities of this model while subetly down playing the weaknesses as well as you have here. Great job! I hope this isn't mistaken for sarcasm because i am in no way being sarcastic, keep it up

thanks for the kind words I'm pretty happy with him overall. the highlighting on the tabard could be better and I really dislike the extra texture you get from the model being made of metal, but eh. so it goes. going to try to do something with the banner back in the next day or two.

updated; now with back-of-banner goodness:



not my greatest lettering job, but I wasn't up to doing the fancy script I'd done across the front again I still feel like it needs some sort of weathering... maybe pigments or something. then again, I didn't really weather the rest of the model, so the banner would stick out if I did. eh, calling it done for now.