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Thanks Casey.

Well I very nearly completely cocked it all up with my bright idea.

The idea was thus; to give the flesh a metallic sheen by dry-brushing metal over it.

The result was; less than impressive. It did give a slight sheen to the skin as intended. But when the light didn't catch the metal, it looked horrible, flat and dirty (not in a good way).

I took photos to check (and will show you all later) and have now gone over the whole model with white spirit to wash off the metal paint. This should have taken the model back to where it was before the metal was added (as all previous layers were dry). There may be some residual metal in crevices, but that will be subtle and can be explained as the intended effect of metal skin, and there might be some bits to touch up before continuing.

Probably should have tried this on one of the weapons first as that would have been easier to fix...

Semi-disaster over, mostly fixed, normal service will be resumed shortly...

Urks... those tubes already look so disgusting real, like cutting open a fresh chicken... even before this baby is ready, I will vomit. Great job! I had painted my own to look like dead fleash, but I consider re-painting it to living tissue like you do. SO much better - ah worse - just - gulp... better not look into this blog when eating, now. Expecially chicken.

Nicely done so far! fleshy and exposed, and all sorts of effective reactions to it. for metallics, I prefer the shiny metal paints.

I meant glaze in the traditional sense of a thin transparent layer over an opaque coat, not what is labelled 'glaze' by some companies. It is a classic technique, especially with oils -- hence my mention of the Master It also is working very well for you.

As far as joining the acrylics club, meh. I keep dreaming of breaking out my oils and painting with them, but I just dislike dealing with the solvents. Turpentine especially. Linseed Oil is not so bad, but under the right conditions can spontaneously combust :| You're using mineral spirits?

Edit: Just looked it up. Ah, white spirits is UK English for mineral spirits. Never mind. And there is an odorless variety these days. Hmmm. Interest piqued. I'll get some next time I'm out. Blending with oils is so so very much nicer than with acrylics.

That's what i call a modular dreadnought,

Having the huge right power fist on it make me think off

Thanks Hruotland. Lol Good to know that it can provoke that response, just what I was going for.

Thanks Shas. I only use metallic paint for metals. I would probably have to almost completely obliterate the flesh colour to make the "metal skin" work. Something to try again in the future.

Fair enough, Red. Yeah, that one.
Strangely enough, when working on paper, I prefer to use watercolours...
Thanks.
Ja, it would be mineral spirits over there. I do use the smelly stuff, doesn't bother me with my chemistry background, I realise this is not the case for others.
Don't know how the odourless variety compares, good luck.

Thanks Jehan. Yep, fully modular for all your psychotic, violent cyborg needs.
Nice reference.
and look at how big a power fist is on a basic SM, this one is positively in scale...

So, with the "metal skin" idea binned for now, I have taken the flesh up my usual route for skin.
Looking back at the method I posted on the last page, this it taken to the end with all highlights (2 or 3 passes at each stage).
White background so that you can see the shading in the flesh.


Still have to do the red wash for the sore bits and then finish off the metals and small cables and then on to armour...

Well,, even for metallics, I do the darker metal, then highlight with a much brighter variant, the trick is having the just right contrast between the metals if they are too close the effect does not pull off enough.

I found the easiest is Tin Bitz base, dry brush it with the Dwarf Bronze, and highlight with shining gold for a very brassy/bronzy effect

for more steel like I used Bolt Gun metal base(maybe a dark wash), then do a dry of chainmail with the final highlight with the Mithril Silver.

Looking really brilliant, mate. I'm excited about the armour.

Thanks Shas. That's roughly what I do with metals.
Brass > copper > dark wash > highlight gold (for copper colours)
Brass > Gold > dark wash > highlight silver (for gold)
Gunmetal > dark wash > highlight silver (for steels etc.)

Vary the relative quantities and what wash to use for various metals. That's just the base coat above, and even the silver didn't save the "metal skin" I tried.

Thanks Casey. Armour soon.

Today's update is on the reddening of the skin and the metals.
I also remembered that during the build, certain details were not visible to you chaps and thought I'd take this moment to show what was what...
(this is before the metals were done)


And this shows the body with the metal washed and highlighted, also the various cables done.


There are a few bits that need touching up (such as around some of the horns/spikes, and what to do with the exhaust, etc...), but they can be seen to as I progress.

I shall be looking at the armour next and bringing the whole thing together...

That's a very creepy skin tone, you should be proud!

Very cool work, you've put a huge amount of effort into that, some of the weapons etc

I was a little doubtful how look with some paint on them with the rest of the model, but it looks pretty damned good actually

Okay so the trick just had trouble is all. I know there are some who use the non-metal colors technique to trey and mimic metal. Old 'Eavy Metal paint tricks I felt still looked like just another paint job, but never actually metallic.

Yup looks brilliant so far. Skin tone is definately creepy, in the best possible way.

Thanks OMN. Creepy is good.
Glad to have won you over.

Thanks Shas. Oh, I never actually showed what it looked like did I?
Here you go, metallics dry-brushed over skin:

You can see where the light catches it, it looks good and shiny. Just what I wanted.
But where the light doesn't catch it, it looks flat and dirty. The grey metallic paint just killed all the shading I had put into the flesh.
Dry-brushing is not the way to do this.

Thanks Cam.

And so, I've been working on the armour. This has been though a few iterations to get here, but the colours have stayed constant... so far.
You will have to use your imaginations a little (difficult, I know. But try). The red-ish areas will be red (rich but not too bright), the brassy trim will be gold, and the black areas... will be black


At first, I had the red and black roughly 50:50 over the armour, but it looked too red. So I've reduced it to black with red bits.

Let me know your thoughts
Thanks.

Most definitely a need for highlight work on the dull parts.

Looking strong, pal, good start on the armour.

So for the skin, had you considered going with a mottled effect ala the Borg?

shasolenzabi wrote:Most definitely a need for highlight work on the dull parts.

That's what I hoped the metallic paint would do. I shall revisit the metal skin thing at a later date, when I have time to play about.

Casey's Law wrote:Looking strong, pal, good start on the armour.

Thanks Casey. Progress below...

Ruglud wrote:So for the skin, had you considered going with a mottled effect ala the Borg?

I had thought about adding veins under the skin and did try it in a couple of places, but it didn't work.
If anyone has any good ideas of how to do this affect, I'm willing to listen and may add it to certain places.

So, I'm calling the red done...ish. Many, many layers of red over brown and red-brown to get to this stage. It should look darker around the edges... rich, but not too bright?


And this shows how all the weapons are being tied in to the Dread'


There are a few areas of not quite perfect red, but this is not going to be "factory fresh" at the end, so any dodgy parts will be hidden with scratches etc...

Now to finish off the black (quickly dry-brushed with grey above, needs smoothing out), and then the gold work.

Sorry for not dropping in on peoples blogs much recently, I've been busy with this and Christmas presents that I'm making (won't be able to show these until after the day).

Sorry, can't add anything constructive - my brain has overloaded with the strain of trying to imagine the reddish areas as red, the black areas as black and the metals to be mettalic

Hmm, how about a metallic wash over the skin, that might shine a bit better in the recesses but leave the highlighting on the skin visible. If you could find a good translucent metallic glaze that might be a plan - but not too sure if you can get a good glaze that keeps it's metallic properties. Maybe a pearlescent glaze could give the skin the sheen you might be after. Not sure on any of that....probably needs some test subjects.

DR H, out of curiousity: When you said you're making money out of these projects -in the case of the Hellbrute are you making moulds out of blue stuff to replicate the parts, or otherwise duplicating it? Or is it a once-off? As superb as it is I can only imagine the time that went into creating it...

monkeytroll wrote:Sorry, can't add anything constructive - my brain has overloaded with the strain of trying to imagine the reddish areas as red, the black areas as black and the metals to be mettalic

You don't need to imagine the red parts any more, MT.

Hmm, how about a metallic wash over the skin, that might shine a bit better in the recesses but leave the highlighting on the skin visible. If you could find a good translucent metallic glaze that might be a plan - but not too sure if you can get a good glaze that keeps it's metallic properties. Maybe a pearlescent glaze could give the skin the sheen you might be after. Not sure on any of that....probably needs some test subjects.

It's an interesting idea. I'll remember that.
I'll try out various metal skin techniques another time as I don't want to experiment and have to re-do the skin again on this one.

thegreatchimp wrote:DR H, out of curiousity: When you said you're making money out of these projects -in the case of the Hellbrute are you making moulds out of blue stuff to replicate the parts, or otherwise duplicating it? Or is it a once-off? As superb as it is I can only imagine the time that went into creating it...

This is a one-off, super, extra-rare, extra-special, one-of-a-kind piece.
and will be priced accordingly...

However, no I won't be making back the money for the time taken on this one. But like most of the things in this thread, it's an experiment to see where money can be made, what sells well, what doesn't, where to put the effort in, etc...
So far I've tried things such as:
Basic models with basic paint-jobs, (easy, guaranteed, but lower profits)
Usual, "official" paint schemes Vs. Unusual paint schemes, (unique seems to sell well)
Various techniques to give unique touches, (some good, some not so good)
Casting my own pieces, (jury's out...)
Group Vs single models, (the more specific the model, the longer it takes to sell)
And, the various things on the Helbrute...

I try to keep track of how long things take to give me an idea of what is worthwhile and what wastes time.
Turns out, scratch-building 14 interchangeable pieces for a modified, single-pose model, takes a lot of time... I won't be doing things like this often...

As for moulding these pieces, some of them would be possible as they are, but some would have to have been made differently to allow for casting. Many of them are also custom made to fit this particular model and therefore the casts would not be worth that much to anyone else. It would be better to make casts of unique weapons that fit onto an existing model with easily exchangeable parts (a multi-piece, pose-able model for a start), which won't require the buyer to modify their model to make it fit.

 Dr H wrote:

Ruglud wrote:So for the skin, had you considered going with a mottled effect ala the Borg?

I had thought about adding veins under the skin and did try it in a couple of places, but it didn't work.
If anyone has any good ideas of how to do this affect, I'm willing to listen and may add it to certain places.

How about this link, scroll down and there's some WIP pictures on this model and paint effect...


Also found this with some explanation of painting the skin on GWs Great Goblin (Hobbit)

Thanks Ruglud. I'll give it some thought and see if I really want to give it a go on this model.

Progress. This is Pre-highlighting (you should no longer have to imagine the black or metals any more )


Still lots to do...

Thanks

It's very faint....a lot of satic......IT IS him! Hold on doc, you've been caught in a warp based page rollover. Soon have you out....

Help! I'm stuck in blog limbo!

Dr H, are you there - we can hear you but not see you - it's like the Twilight Zone here

Hoorah, it is me, I have found the way out of limbo by following the holy light of the Legoburner.

Thanks Lego'.

You can see my update above now. ^

I'm currently highlighting...

Brothers and sisters, he is not lost to us, he has emerged from the warp unscathed (well, you know, slightly damged, but there was always a trace of hat anyway....) and is once more free to , well, you know....to do....stuff

YAAAYY

Welcome back to real space. Hope the beacons we lit helped some...

Thanks chaps. Still some of the seasonal warp storms going on here, but some progress has been made.

Here's where the Chaos Dreadnought is standing at the moment:


Some of the smaller details are now being added. Still more to do/finish. Then finish the base and weathering all over...

No? Well, let's see if this gets any comments...



Just the weathering left to do; mud and dirt, chips, scratches and burns.
And any final touch-ups...

Happy New Year.