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Good morning! I finally got started on the paint-job for this figurine, and I decided to try a couple of new things out after doing a bit of research- in an attempt to “up the game”. Still not sure about the results, though. For this one, I wanted to give a true heart-felt, attempt at NMM for his sword… which would also mean re-doing it if I wasn’t pleased. In addition, I wanted to try and paint this to a high-standard and try out “complementary color shading”. For those who have no idea what this is (like me when I started reading about it), it’s basically using the opposite color (helps visualize it using a color-wheel) to shade a certain color in order to keep its integrity…

Example? Trying to highlight red by adding white makes pink- instead, use orange and yellows to move upward and greens to shade. Greens, you say?? HERESY~!!

Without further ado, my progress with said-goals.

Here he is in his current incarnation. For the blue, I used oldskool (OS) GW Deadly Nightshade (a navy-blue-black color), and went all the way up using OS GW Regal Blue, and started adding VGC Turquoise to the mix to get something very close to OS Lightning Blue. Can you tell parts of my paint-set are old as sin??



The shadows were done using VA Yellow watered down. (complementary shading) Not sure how well it worked on such a dark base, and honestly, I’m not entirely sold on my efforts for this run. I might actually try it again using a lighter shade of blue to start with, so I actually have a lower shade to go down to… We’ll see. Perhaps it’ll all come-together once I get closer to the finish-line.



And one last picture- the scarf has had nothing but water-thin coats of Mecharite Red done to it to start off with(all the work done in these pics is about 5-6 hours… balls… ). I might up the base to a Red Gore or down a bit to a Scab Red then move up. For the shadows, I’ll be using some sort of green.



What do you think? Comments/critiques are always welcome! Still deciding whether to do a fish-net pattern on his arms (for sure on his chest). Leggings and arm-armor will (hopefully) be a NMM dull metal/silver. Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

I used a green wash for the red on my PMW entry, it definitely does give it a deeper feel.

Have you thought about rehighlighting the blue again? I always prefer to use the wash as an intermediary stage and make sure the last stage is a highlight, makes it pop more and imo look a bit neater, but thats just imo!

Btw, that blue writing is hard as sin to see.

The hair is in the perfect anime style

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I used a green wash for the red on my PMW entry, it definitely does give it a deeper feel.

Have you thought about rehighlighting the blue again? I always prefer to use the wash as an intermediary stage and make sure the last stage is a highlight, makes it pop more and imo look a bit neater, but thats just imo!

Btw, that blue writing is hard as sin to see.

Yea, I noticed the color and similar results to another "Hall of Heroes" figure I made- Cloud Strife. For my work, I actually don't use any washes... just really thin paint. I've thought about re-highlighting the blue, but I brought it down a notch because I thought it was too bright/stark before... I dunno. I'm probably going to start over with a higher base-color then properly shade it down and then back up.

Now that I think about it... I think the reason it looks a bit wierd to me is that now that I look at it, the HLs aren't following any real source of light... the shirt, which is from a bent-over position(shadow) is HL to the same degree as the bent knee, which is out in (more) light). I'll have to do it over and choose a light source before doing the work... again.

As for the blue writing... damn... I picked dark-blue for that one too... ah... do you use "classic/black-gold" for your background? That's probably why. I use "Work-safe" ..

tipios wrote:The hair is in the perfect anime style

Thanks! It's pretty close to what I was going for, thought I had to do it twice for putting too much GS hair the first time around!

Thank you both for stopping by! I'm definitely trying to bring my work up to the next level, and objective advice/critiques are always helpful!


-Remi

Wow… it’s been a while since I’ve been on here with anything of substance. My weekend MBA class took our final class aka “Capstone” nearly one year before we’re actually supposed to finish school. Uh… ooh-kay? But that’s not what I’m here for!

I realize I’ve got several projects going on right now- revitalizing my Inq X-men team, painting random miniatures, a b-day commission Scibor mini, and my Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons… and now, I’m adding another. While surfing I found something on another forum called “Samurai Undead”. Johnny B, I have no idea who you are, but your work is fantastic! I love samurai, I love VCs, and I was damned impressed by Johnny B’s work.

Here, see for yourself – http://www.vampirecounts.net/Thread-The-Samurai-Undead

As another slow project, I’m planning on starting with a few leader models, then go into Core units. Every single model will have extensive greenstuff work to make them more Nippon/Cathayan in nature. I am “borrowing” Johnny B's general idea, but going about the creation of these guys my own special way. To start, I did a bit of theme-brainstorming. Without further ado, Part 1 of my VC Theming Idea… thingy.


My ideas for the VC General. I wanted the leader (or one of them) to be youthful-looking, an “eerie beauty”. And who better to copy than the 400-year old alien-inside-me Gackt of Bunraku fame? I believe I’ll be following his armor scheme as well for the whole army- black/blue/purple/gold. I’m having trouble finding a suitable model at the moment.


I found a picture of mummified Buddhist monks from Japan… crazy stuff how they prepared for it, but I saw this pic, and immediately thought of how I could convert the newest plastic necromancer to fit this look… I’ll be replacing the crooked skull staff with a monk ring-stave, as well as making that cool fin-hat on him and moulding his robes to look more like this guy!



The Wight King… Although all skeletons will be turned into samurai, I’d like a few “standout” minis. I saw the Krell Finecast and immediately thought of transforming him. And now that he’s resin, major/minor changes in details won’t be a major pain in the ketsu!



Unfortunately, I’m having a hard time finding a suitable GW model to base my vampire on. I’m 1) trying to make it all from tourney legal material and 2) currently looking at the Wood Elf wardancer 5-fig set. An order for Krell and the Necro is on the way to get me started.

Stay tuned for more VC theming ideas and progress updates soon!

-Remi

Glad youve got some spare time Remi! Its been a long time without you

This new project sounds awesome, and that thread you linked to.... wow

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Glad youve got some spare time Remi! Its been a long time without you

This new project sounds awesome, and that thread you linked to.... wow

Hey Vit! Yea, it has been entirely too long without my daily/weekly dosage of Dakka... Hope everything is going good with you at Bristol Uni!

I come around every once in a while like a phantom without logging in: watching your, Peter, Baiyuan, and every other friggin' thread that catches my eye... (READ- nearly everything... )

Yea, I found Johnny B's work a few months ago... friggin' amazing work. I want to upgrade the flat lamellar (strip-plating) that he does with a bit more detail, but to do the scale armor (on some of the skellies in front), I'm going to need a knife or thinner tool to do that. It's a shame the guy didn't continue... I would have loved to see the rest of his stuff... but that just gives me more space to work with.

I've got other ideas that are VERY far from his for the other units, but I'll be revealing them as soon as I get money/time/models to work on, so they're not just empty promises. Now if only the post would hurry with my Krell and Necro models.... New updates either this weekend or early next week!

-Remi

Alright... just finished with finals and have two weeks before the new round starts. Man... never knew how much I missed this til I started getting down with the exacto and green stuff...

Anyways, I intent to make the best of this time in between my grad classes and work. Without further ado, the start of my samurai Vampire Counts!... starting with Krell!

I started with scraping the out of the original finecast model... LOL... "finecast", indeed. Lots of pot-holes (horn had a good 1/4 of it missing from the bottom, like an air bubble) as well as one on the hand, and a bend axe) but nothing my GS can't fix. Here's the body before it gets sanded down.



Here's the head with the roman-horsehair-mane thingy and horns chopped off... I never knew how small his head was without the extras...



For his weapon, I know there are axe-weapons in ancient Japanese history, but it didn't seem right to me for this guy. I took an VC skellie champion's arm that I had lying around and used the scimitar as a naginata head. It was already banged-up looking, so that saved me some time. Although you can't see it from the picture, it's actually imbedded in the shaft, like you would an arrowhead. I'll be putting GS on it to further seal it in.


Started putting on his shoulderpads. I did it with older brush protectors (the thick plastic tubes you get with your new paint brushes) cut in half and GSd. Originally, they were supposed to be flat, much like my bug guy... but I decided to try and give this guy's armor some texture as a character model.



Sideview of the new helmet and head-ornament. This was actually the first piece I did, not the body... hence the "learning curve". I'm pleased enough, but I'll be reworking a bit of it with my exacto and sand paper a bit later.



That's it for me tonight. I'll be working every single day for the next two weeks to get my modelling time in. Apologies for the long absence, and comments/critiques always welcome!

-Remi

Hey Remi, youve reared your ugly head!

Loving the work so far, have to agree that the shoulder armour is better than the head armour though!

Cant wait to see what else you come up with for these VC.

LOL, thanks Vit! I’m reading that response, and the following comes to mind…
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… thanks, I think…?

Yea, I was concerned about the helmet's quality and decided to redo it- I think it looks much better now. In addition, continued adding plates of armor to his other shoulder, his legs, and chest. Naked pad before it gets the GS treatment.



Did the left shoulderpad and chest at the same time. More detail to come.



Close-ups of the other shoulder with the head on there, and from the front.





Added detail – with the new helmet. The texturing is much deeper, and matches the rest of the armor.


From the back…



And one final shot of what his enemies see right before they get the axe… er, naginata.




Again, I’ll be thinking about this level of texture/detail work for the footsoldiers… (thinking about 30+ skellies… how about ‘NO’?) Alternately, I’m also thinking about other textures I could use- smooth lamellar plates, scale-style plates, etc. (Just watch the forest scene in Last Samurai and look at their armor very closely… you’ll see what I mean) I think that’d look fantastic with all of those different helmets and accompanying armor styles…

Anywho, thanks for stopping by! Comments/critiques are always welcome!

-Remi

The new helmet looks much better.

Perhaps you could press mould some armour plates? Smooth would look cool, especially if you used a lacquer effect (ie varnishI, scales are always cool too.

You read this? Its pretty cool and could give you some ideas/ background:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33025584/Warhammer-Armies-Nippon

Vitruvian XVII wrote:The new helmet looks much better.

Perhaps you could press mould some armour plates? Smooth would look cool, especially if you used a lacquer effect (ie varnishI, scales are always cool too.

You read this? Its pretty cool and could give you some ideas/ background:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/33025584/Warhammer-Armies-Nippon

Thanks Vit! And for the link!!! Great resource material! I'm thinking of how many different suits of armor I can make before dropping the project due to being too complex... That dude with the spikey armor is sweet!

But yea, I've got Krell on the bench, next is a liche/priest/counts-as necromancer from the plastic kit with minor mods. I should also be getting a box of Black Knights and skellies aaaany day now...

I'm also starting to get ideas for rank-n-file vampires... one being based on my all-time favorite samurai- red hair... cross-scars across the cheek... no.. you can't be...

http://www.alafista.com/2011/04/18/new-rurouni-kenshin-anime-series-announced

Probably going to be a DE body/face base and lots of GS, plus a bit of modifying to give him some light-armor aka under-clothes chain mail.

Thanks again and stay tuned!

-Remi

Good morning, Dakka! Nothing too big today, but I got to do a bit more work before going out for b-day dinner with my wife. I did all the work before starting to imbibe, so I think it looks ok… unfortunately, I can’t say the same about the pictures…

… but I finished Krell!! Behold!







And, I received my black knights yesterday in the mail, so I started cutting them out and assembling them…




At this point, I kinda got a weird idea… the obvious idea would be to turn them into these guys…

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But I was looking at the hexwraiths… and thought I could turn them into these guys…

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So, right now, these horses are at a standstill until I figure out exactly what I want- it’s not as if I care if the army is effective… and I will have both types at some point, just trying to figure out which one I want at this moment in time… Anywho, comments and critiques always welcome.

Tonight will probably not have any updates, as I’ll be celebrating my 30th b-day (yet again)…

-Remi

He looks so badass. Armoured like a tank! lol

I love that you used the word imbibe too, i believe im the only person i know who ever uses it!

I would like to see what you could do with the hex wariths with naginatas (?) but that pic of the horseman is so evocative, so he gets my vote

Vitruvian XVII wrote:He looks so badass. Armoured like a tank! lol

I love that you used the word imbibe too, i believe im the only person i know who ever uses it!

I would like to see what you could do with the hex wariths with naginatas (?) but that pic of the horseman is so evocative, so he gets my vote

LOL... thanks! I figured I'd overdo it and ask questions later. His chaos armor was huge, so little plates wouldn't do him justice. That, and leader samurai usually had ridiculously ornate armor. (log leggings going past the knees, but starting from the hips...? ) But he makes it look pretty sweet.

Yea, I figured the samurai pic would be better. That other one just doesn't do the warrior monks justice. Was also my intention to make mounted samurai first... *sigh* Looks like it'll be the next box for my mounted warrior monks. I can't wait to see a small cohort of these guys...

Thanks for stopping by!


- Remi

Good morning and another mini-update for this VC project. Tonight and running into this weekend will be GS work on my first set of 5 black knights as well as my necro-priest.

I’ve started putting the plastic necro kit together, but due to the head being so close to the staff-holding-hand, I’ll be assembling that later, AFTER I put on his pointy-thingy- see below for example. I originally had an idea to make him a skeleton, but seeing as how I’d be having cairn wraiths here too, I’ll be keeping him human. (er, whatever is left but not quite undead)







I also thought I’d get more work done on the knights- I love the new kit, and if I wasn’t so hard-up on making them into samurai, I’d paint them as-is. Unfortunately, I’m trying to get them away as far away from their Euro counterparts as possible, and that means having to grind away at their horses barding.







Did Japanese samurai have barding on their horses? Quick and dirty answer is “no”. Most prints and artwork done have them riding saddled horses, but no armor. A bit of research shows they actually did have armor… though, how often it was used is beyond me. It looks like leader-only gear, but seeing as how the BK knights all have crusader-style cloth on their horses, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to have it on all of them, in varying forms/lengths. Like so-


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Also started with the champion’s sword arm. Seeing as how they all need katanas, I’m running out of ideas as to how to make more weapons, quickly. Obvious solution is plasticard, but that adds to the “custom-construction” time along with the armor and helmet ornaments. Might have to research press-moulding after all…




Anywho, that’s it for me. I’ll be working a bit more tonight, hopefully starting the GS work on the necro and a bit of GS work on the first knight while constructing/chopping apart the others. Comments and critiques are always welcome. Also expecting a batch of foot-skellies this weekend, so I’ll start work on them as well.

-Remi

Amazing work man, a lot of creativity there! It is not all for 40k is it?

darkcloud92 wrote:Amazing work man, a lot of creativity there! It is not all for 40k is it?

Thanks for stopping by and the compliment! No, these guys are for Fantasy, or at least... in my heart of hearts, a shot at Armies on Parade 2013.

Not too much of an update, I recently got my claws onto a copy of Mass Effect 3, and saving the galaxy from the enemy is really cutting into my motivation to do any modelling...

I started the funky hat on the necromancer, but I need a bit more theming to really have him stick out as a monk-priest... he still resembles a European alchemist... or peasant...

Also tried working on the leaf-scale for the Black Knight you see in the previous post. Yikes... that was horrid. He'll be the only one like that. I'll be doing lamellar and other, simpler versions of samurai armor for the rest of the knights and armored characters I make. Thre rest of the knights have had their euro-barding cut off, and awaiting a sanding job to clean up the cuts.

Updates coming soon... as soon as I can pull myself away from kicking Reaper arse...

-Remi

Not too much of an update, I recently got my claws onto a copy of Mass Effect 3, and saving the galaxy from the enemy is really cutting into my motivation to do any modelling...

Enjoy the game! I did up until the end. We'll see you in the ME3 Discussion thread when you're done so you have a shoulder to cry on and people to vent to.

I really like the feel of the army, and your inspiration shots really help sell what you're going for. There's tons of Japanese/Chinese myth you can dig into to create interesting and exciting stuff for the army, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:Enjoy the game! I did up until the end. We'll see you in the ME3 Discussion thread when you're done so you have a shoulder to cry on and people to vent to.

I really like the feel of the army, and your inspiration shots really help sell what you're going for. There's tons of Japanese/Chinese myth you can dig into to create interesting and exciting stuff for the army, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Ah yes... I've heard of the ending and the reactions to it from a cousin of mine who already beat it... I'd love to join- post a link to that thread so I can get into it. If they do any discussion about MP and the weapons, I can go into that. I might break up this VC army by making a Necro/I-Munda killteam based on the Mass Effect races.

Anywho, without derailing my entire thread- yea, I need the images: I'm familiar enough with the culture and history... but never knew they had barding, for example... and this army is all about theme, lest it become half-samurai, half-VC and fail to get the message across...

Thanks for the comment and check back every once in a while- I'm sure my shame will force me away from saving the galaxy to continuing the undead!

-Remi

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/436319.page

Careful! THAR BE SPOILERS!

Beat the game before delving into that wretched hive of scum and whatnot. I try to keep upbeat about things, but you know how the internet can be.

I was also thinking about making up an N7 Killteam... might use Infinity models though, they have a more svelte appearance. If I could Sculpt I really really want to make a Turian, but I can't sculpt a smiley face.

I've always like Samurai themed everything. There's such a stance of nobility and sheer badass that comes with the masks on the helmets and the weapons they wield. I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, and I'll be watching to make sure!

Chemical Cutthroat wrote:http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/436319.page

Careful! THAR BE SPOILERS!

Beat the game before delving into that wretched hive of scum and whatnot. I try to keep upbeat about things, but you know how the internet can be.

I was also thinking about making up an N7 Killteam... might use Infinity models though, they have a more svelte appearance. If I could Sculpt I really really want to make a Turian, but I can't sculpt a smiley face.

I've always like Samurai themed everything. There's such a stance of nobility and sheer badass that comes with the masks on the helmets and the weapons they wield. I'm sure whatever you come up with will be awesome, and I'll be watching to make sure!

Roger that. I'll get into the ME3 thread after I finish then. Hopefully it'll still be alive and kicking at that time...?

Infinity sounds like a good place to start, and actually, my original Pimp My Wizard closed-comp entry hosted by members Baiyuan and PDH was supposed to be a grimdark Garrus Vakkarian stalking ruins. Turned into a crazy Vespid merc assassin/warrior. Both good, just a major 180 turn in plans..



I was planning on using the Kroot head with major cutting and GS work for a more-humanoid/raptor look.... either way, the above is what it ended up as, and I'm happy with it.

And yes, samurai's are sweet. I'll be getting down to working more GS stuff on the guys tonight, as I've got a very early morning tomorrow. Stay tuned for updates, and thanks for stopping by.

I'd like to see your attempt at a Garrus in the 40k universe. Anyway, back to playing ME3...

Baiyuan wrote:I'd like to see your attempt at a Garrus in the 40k universe. Anyway, back to playing ME3...

LOL... challenge accepted... probably after I finish ME3, though...

-Remi

... no seriously, I'm going to do it. I've been wanting a ME3 killteam since I played the first one. I just need the time to put it into my schedule. Possibly between units of VC Samurai.

If you can cast it, I will give all of the Credits. ALL OF THEM.

I mean... I might be able to model up an Asari, but really, who couldn't?

Maybe cast little M8 Avengers... *mind wanders*

Good afternoon and sorry for the long delay. ME3 Adept + Inferno/Infernus Armor = I AM IRONMAN!!

Back to the game. I finished studies a bit early and started on the first mounted troops. It's been a good long while since I used GS, and whatever I learned from the PMW contest has probably gone out due to the lack of practice...

Here are the three "test" armors I've been working on. Some will have the Western style iron-plate chest piece, and I'm trying to do lamellar strips, as well as scales. The one on the right will probably be the only one of its kind... it's very hard to do and adds to the pre-paint work that I really don't have. They'll be getting a sanding too, to keep it smooth and neat(er) looking.



And a side view for the leg armor. The leaf-scale armor will be the only one. I'm having a hard time copying that, so it'll be one of the other styles of leg armor (strips, wide-scales, detailed strips) and matching chest plate.



Tonight, I plan to continue my work (after schoolwork) on the at least the Black Knight Champion's arms/shoulderpads. I'll also get some armor on the remaining 2 knights. And if I'm really lucky/prodigious... I'll start on my skeletons on-foot!

Comments and critiques are always welcome, especially GS tips at this point! Thanks for stopping by!

-Remi

Very nice, fwiw, the scaled gs looks great!

I like the lamellar strips too, not quite sure about the squares though, what are they supposed to be?

As for tips, when sculpting inorganic materials, i tend to mix in more blue, so the gs generally keeps its edge better. Also, sculpt it messy and then cut the edges in after its cured a couple of hours.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Very nice, fwiw, the scaled gs looks great!

I like the lamellar strips too, not quite sure about the squares though, what are they supposed to be?

As for tips, when sculpting inorganic materials, i tend to mix in more blue, so the gs generally keeps its edge better. Also, sculpt it messy and then cut the edges in after its cured a couple of hours.

Thanks, I assume you mean the guy on the right? *groan* That means I have to make more of them... the thing is, the scales don't look the same as the leaf-leg scales that come on the GW models... I might just have to cover them as well.

The squares were my attempt after little to no practice for several months and several glasses of gin/tonic. Yea... probably going to redo them tonight.

And thanks for the tip- I think the right-most guy had more green than blue, the lamellar strips and the square-guy had too much yellow. And too much drunk.

I'll be working on the necromancer and the rest of the knights... or maybe complete the three I've got going here. We'll see how much I can squeeze in!

-Remi

Good morning and sorry for the long delay. It’s hard get into the modeling mood when Reapers are setting the galaxy on fire.. that, and GS takes so long to cure. But I did get a bit of time yesterday and continued work on my mounted samurai and my necromancer.

Without further ado, let’s get to some pictures!

Here’s the work on the Necro-priest guy. I believe I would have been more pleased had I used a skeleton head instead of the natural nasty-old-guy head that came with the kit. He’s also in need of a bit more theming, I think- I just not sure at the moment where to do it on the model. He’s got the hat with the neck-flap thingy, but not much else that brings him into the samurai-Japanese world.




And a back shot for more detail- I tore up the back to make it match the rest of his gear.



Right now I have two ideas for him, so he isn’t going to get primed/painted just yet. One is to shave down his ripped sleeves- the priests and in general, traditional kimono clothing have “long and triangular” sleeves, but that’s all but gone because it’s all torn up. I could cut/shave them off then rebuild them with greenstuff. Another idea is to put two GS strips going down both shoulders to his knees/feet, tied off at his belt. I’ll give it a bit more thought later.


And next we have the samurai. I made a decent batch of GS and did 4 helmets/heads and one leg-pad with zero to no waste. I gotta admit, I’m pretty pleased with myself, as I usually end up not being able to use half of the stuff I make… or worse, not enough.

Here they are all lined up. I decided to do one guy without a helmet, and there’s a close-up of him below.



Here’s the guy who had the crap-square leggings a few posts back. I decided to redo the pads- he’ll have a western-style iron chest plate and the fine-grain leggings/helmet.



Samurai-sans-helmet. I decided to give this guy a chon-mage or topknot. The head had a bullet-shot in the front and exit on the back. Covered that with GS, then moulded the rest before detailing with my hobby knife. I’ve still got to add a small bit in the back of the head for the knot detail and he’s finished (or at least, that part of him is).



And the last guy. Yes, I’m keeping the horns.



The helmets need a bit of sanding and cutting to make them more neat, but overall, I’m pretty pleased with the look of them. After that, I'll add the helmet ornaments out of plasticard.

That’s it for now. As always, comments and critiques are always welcome. Any ideas for the priest to make him look more like this guy below?




Thanks in advance!

-Remi

For the priest it just seems like the head-bit needs to be more vertical and pointy. Make it look like it's practically standing up by itself.

The Necromancer needs a really really long fu-man-chu. Like one of those ridiculous Confucious mustaches, I think it would really start to pull the character into the theme a bit more.

No idea how to sculpt it of course.

The knights (samurai) look good so far! I'd like to see another shot of the skull guy, because the topknot looks well sculpted.

Keep it up chief!