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I will definitely be trying those out soon, GiraffeX, I have heard nothing but good things about them.

Only issue I would have is the shipping price, for anyone in the UK they are an amazing deal however.

prime12357 wrote:I've been looking around for some new brushes, so I'll be looking around for series sevens, as well as rosemary & co.
Also, the cloak on the warlock is pretty awesome, too.

Try them out and let us know what you think! Just make sure you get a good brush cleaner/conditioner too, and that sable brushes enjoy a dip in hair conditioner as much as hair. You can really revitalise an old brush with it.



Work continues on Lylyth, skin is done now, as is cape and bow.
Kinda regretting being all like ” IMA TRIM EVERYTHING SILVER LOL” but it will look great, this is the first layer, will be dulled down then highlighted back up to a white/mythril mix.

Broke out the new series 7, the lines.. are so fine.. uggghhhh yeah. It’s kinda the painting equivalent of getting a new toothbrush after 2 years and only then realising how crap your old one had become.

Also trying to make my photos more standardized, experimented with them a wee bit too much and trying to get everything looking like its from the same photographer now.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:Lord, it looks like I have a lot to learn. I've focused so much on learning how to paint that I haven't bothered to figure out how to take care of my brushes.
I use Citadel brushes that I got second hand (near as I can figure they're 15+ years old, they still have their points though).

Not to sound horrible, but there is a very good chance you just think they have their points, when it's actually just 5 or 6 main hairs still intact and a lot broken all around it, making it look like it has a nice tip but the tip has no real support left.

Trying out a brand new sable almost always leaves a " oh god I had no idea my old brush had gotten so bad" feeling, the tips are springy, flexible, and with a huge belly to hold lots of paint. The beauty of this is they won't lose that feeling for a long time if you take care of them. My last S7 has been used 6 hours a day 4 days a week for over a year now, and I only really needed to replace it because I was clumsy and dropped it during cleanup leading to it breaking off some bristles.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:When I'm done painting I use dishwashing liquid soap to clean, blot them, and lay them down (I've been told standing them causes water to travel into the ferrule). Anything I'm doing that I'm not supposed to? And what can I improve upon (I'm assuming a lot)?

If they are synthetic, you can get away with that. If they are hair, it would be like washing your hair with dishwashing soap. They will get dried out, very dried. They will lose the silky soft feeling of well kept sable or hair. That's going to happen no matter what, but only to a certain extent naturally. Drying them out too much will lead to bad tip quality.

I leave mine upside down when stored so the water can leave the ferrule and bristles completely, obviously with brush protectors on the end

Dicrel Seijin wrote:What's conditioner and can someone recommend a brand?

Basically its a cleaner/conditioner combo. It's very cheap, and lasts a very, very long time. As in years. You lather brushes with it to remove all traces of paint, and can then repoint them and leave them with a fresh coat of this which will dry onto them and preserve the point perfectly. It's also very gentle on skin and can remove any accidental paint you get on. I actually have a minty hand soap of it too, for the aftermath of extreme airbrushing marathons!

You can also use hair conditioner in very small amounts to perk up an older or drying out hair brush. New brushes really don't need it. Every couple of weeks I just add some of the brand I use to the brushes for 3 or 4 minutes and then wash it off to re moisturise them a little bit. Helps a lot.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:And back on topic, I've usually only highlighted with mythril, so I'm curious as to what a white (I am assuming the Ceramite White from earlier) and mythril mix will look like.

It's basically just a way of getting a very noticeable extreme highlight over mithril. Theres a very small amount of it on the bows metal areas, but with a lot of washes

Can peeps do me a big favour?

Can you have a look at this and the second image and let me know which you find gives a better view of the mini and what you think is better about it? Some people swear on basic white backgrounds, others feel it can wash out colour.



Im trying to come up with a proper standard for my shots, and you can see it changes quite often as I keep thinking I've found whats best and then changing again :( I really want them to be more similar.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:@Ifalna: I began painting in Feb/March of this year with a long break during April, so believe me when I say that I'm not put off by your comments. I wouldn't be asking if I didn't want to know. You are one of the few painters that I've contacted that's willing to answer my questions, so I sincerely appreciate you taking time to answer.
As to some of your comments. The only synthetics I have are those I use for drybrushing. (I was warned that for this technique to use old or synthetic brushes as I'd quite probably destroy them in the process.) I also took some time to examine my brushes and while there are more than a few bristles left, "silky" and "springy" are not adjectives I would use to describe them at this point.
My sister's a sculptor and she's talking me around to a couple of the art and hobby shops she's familiar with tomorrow. I'll be buying new brushes and that conditioner (perhaps that conditioner could help one of my old brushes?). (I really should post the Orks I've painted up so far so that there will be something to compare with....)

Using synths is definitely the best idea for drybrushing, and the conditioner will work wonders on old drybrushes! You will be shocked by just how much paint will wash out of them. In lumps. Seriously.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:And as to your question about backgrounds. I'm not sure I'm able to answer the question and here's why--the white background offers up a lot of contrast while the gradient background does not have as harsh a contrast, however, I'm not sure if it isn't because a lot of the figure is itself blue. I've tried comparing the areas of the cloak next to the arrow fletching but I'm not seeing an appreciable difference in detail.

Oh aye, it won't make a difference to quality or detail, but it does seem to make it easier to look at the model properly, easier to take it in as a whole. I find that very interesting.

GiraffeX wrote:Iffy in regards to your backgrounds was the second picture taken with the light source in the same place as its a lot more lighter than the first image.
I prefer the second as its less harsh on the eye with the faded background,, I also think its a better quality picture as well.

See this shows how much a difference background makes, cause the second picture is the first picture with an edited in gradient on the background layer. Absolutely no other changes. Nearly everyone has said the blue version looks better and is a higher quality image, but it's the exact same image. It is CRAZY how much colours can trick our eyes.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:
My shopping trip was not as fruitful as I wish. I did find the brush cleaner and preserver. I've used it to wash and shape the brushes I use. And yes, the ones I used for drybrushing had a surprising amount of paint still in them (I really thought I had rinsed them well). I don't have any new brushes yet however; the only sables I found had splayed bristles (not sure what happened to them). More often than not, I found the brush I wanted was sold out with restock in a couple of weeks.

Ack, splayed tips D: It's why I'm afraid to order sables online, maybe try asking them to order in some fresh ones for you, they shoudln't even really be selling ones with damage tips. The S7's come in those fancy tubes to the store, so they are very rarely anything but pristine.

Miss Dee wrote:@ Ifalna, How do you do the brushes?

Not sure what ya mean, how do I do what with them?

Miss Dee wrote:clean em

Aha, well I basically give them a good wash out and make sure to never get paint on the ferrule when painting, then at the end of the day if they are particularly nasty I give them a quick dip in alcohol, then lather them up with the masters cleaner. I usually only need 1 lather and rinse and can then coat them to condition and put them away, or sometimes (very rarely) give them a quick 3 minute coat of my hair conditioner if they are very dried out natural brushes. I generally only have to do that once a month or so, it really revitalises them.

logg_frogg wrote:
This stuff seriously kicks ass! I bought some last year and it has made all of my brushes stay amazingly clean and straight!
No more trimming or tossing them when the base of the brush gets tough.


.... Apparently I missed a lot in the last couple weeks. Lots of great models. The Ork Shamman turned out really well!
And somehow you got older.... do you feel older?

It is BRILLIANT stuff. The first time I used it on an old drybrush, it looked like I was doing an exorcism on the poor thing. It was nasty.
Glad you liked Wurrzag. He is on the way to Australia and should be with his owner soon, I am nervous about final feedback! I do indeed feel older. I am an old maid now. Awful.

GiraffeX wrote:I think I need to put some of that on my shopping list.

You totally should, a single block will last years and give amazing cleaning results.

Plus it smells lurvly.

I finished up character standard Lylyth to match the big bads posted earlier, she uses the exact same scheme bar with the added bonus of crazy fire hair which really sets her off and gives a tiny bit of contrast colour to the little group of bastids.

Will get group shots soon.



Oh she also appears to have a hair stuck on the metal part of her cloak, GG SARAH WELL DONE. I’ll remove that now.






Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ohhhh holy crap, my thread turned 2 years old and I missed it.

IceAngel wrote:Happy Birthday Ifalna's thread!

\o/

whalemusic360 wrote:Mwuhahaha, one step closer to the boats! The red hair really offsets the muted tones nice on the warlock for sure.

Yessssssss I am excited for boat times. You wanted them bright pink, yes?

Gitsplitta wrote:Congratulations on two years of a wonderful and inspiring thread Iffy! Glad I could be around for a good chunk of it. The hair on that model really makes it... brilliant use of color!

Aww thanks Gits. I've been looking back through it and cringing at some of the earlier stuff, but I guess thats a good thing really. Hah.
The bright orange was the perfect offset for all the cool tones, so it sticks out like a sore thumb

inmygravenimage wrote:Love, love, love the hair. Really sets off the model as a whole. Nice job!

The owner liked it too, so I am very happy Thats the commission totally finished now.

Windows wrote:That hair was trying to sabotage you! Really like the hair and the whole model looks amazing! Looking forward to seeing whats next

You know what, so am I! Lots of fun stuff coming

logg_frogg wrote:Old maid? Far from!...... that is unless you are posting pictures of someone else lol.
That flaming hair is amazing. I'm not really a fan of the look of the model but that has nothing to do with your painting

The icon is a total lie, I look more like Meg from Legend now.

The model itself was not the best, it's a tiny 4 piece plastic model with very little room for cleanup, but I can't fault privateer press for it, the boxset these came in is not very expensive for the standard of minis

Urien_Rakarth wrote:Nice work on that Lylyth (Damn I hope that's spelt right ) That mix of fiery hair AND cool metal and clothing is awesome!
Grats on 2 years BTW!

Yeah it's Lylyth, which totally reeks of her parents trying for a super cool edgey name. Like Jayd. Lillith is an awesome name, it did not need changin imo.
2 years feels crazy, can't believe I've been updating for this long. I think it might be time soon enough to donate and be a DCM again, the site really deserves the donations I think.

And here we go, all done!
All tabletop standard bar Lylyth who is character.



Great fun to work on, awesome scheme chosen by the owner and I really enjoyed painting these guys. Sealed up with a protective matt layer and the bases should be near indestructible as they are a solid pva/snow mix.

whalemusic360 wrote:Yes, bright pink...........
Not bright pink

Yeah Dee, you can get it from nearly any art store worth their salt It's not pricy too, I've had my block 2 years and it cost like 5 euro.

I've also only used a tiiiiny bit. The chunk missing is a corner I cut off and gave to a friend.

Haha it's fine, I get royalties.

Seriously though, that scene terrified me as a child, but not nearly as much as Tim Curry did.

You just wet the brush and carefully work it into a lather on the brick of cleaner, then work the cleaner in with your fingers and wash it out in water.

Repeat until the lather is white with no paint in it, then its clean After that you can just coat it in the lather, point it, and put your brush away. The lather will dry into it and condition it.

The brick is basically like soap, it lathers up when wet. The dent in the middle is where I scrub my drybrushes into it, hehe.

No, that would be like that time I livestreamed my monitor while checking the livestream itself and it made an infinite loop of livestream windows and then my pc froze while making a progressively louder eerrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRRRRRRR noise due to a feedback loop and I cried.

It would be exactly like that. Besides I'm not really a redhead, I have very strange reddy brown hair that looks different shades based on how curly I let it get. Now Weety, Weety has a firey mane worthy of praise.

logg_frogg wrote:Regardless of redheadedness It would certainly be suiting if comone made a fun charecature of you as a mini
Sounds like a future Dakka modelling challenge.....

But dude, they already did.

prime12357 wrote:A little late, but Lylyth looks great. Her hair is perfect, it sets off the rest of the model, and the group perfectly. Also, congrats on two years of awesomeness

It was going to be orange or very dark red, and I am happy I went with orange as it was just bight enough to be super eye catching without being over the top

Dicrel Seijin wrote:And another congratulations on two years.
Saw the group shot. I'm still blown away by your work. (Though having seen the fiery red hair, I am tempted to try it... maybe an Ork Burna Boy?)
Also nice to know that I'm not doing anything wrong with the brush cleaner.
And looking forward to the Dreadfleet (or is something else being painted up beforehand?).

You should totally try it, its a lot of fun. Painting the swirls of the hair is a bit hard but you get a really nice flowing result! The dreadfleet is on my desk right now, as are some Orks and a surprise, so there will be shots trickling in shortly

FatBoy wrote:That Everblight group looks amazing. I have to agree with other posters. The fiery red hair really makes that model jump at you and say, " HEY GO WATCH BRAVE"!

Man, I have to see it. Being a peasant means I've yet to see Brave, The Dark Knight Rises, or The Avengers. How pathetic is that? D:

Solar_lion wrote:Next week when I'm in Ireland.. I won't see a land full of red head women?

Well that depends where you go. If it's Dublin, no. Expect to see lots of bright orange women wearing pajamas in the middle of the day. But seriously there are less red haired people here than there are in Scotland, Ireland is more pale with freckles and reddy brown or black hair.

Solar_lion wrote:Nice Lylyth figure. Without the red hair I think the colors would have not provided enough contrast and thou a great Paint job its colors blend together to much.
Which Meg do you look like.. forest Meg or Dark Meg?

Aye she would have been way too cool without it, it helped pull her scheme back into balance.

Oh and you are thinking of princess Lilly, Meg was the far more attractive green woman who tried to eat tiny Tom Cruise in the swamp.

Solar_lion wrote:This has been a public service announcment by Ifalna....
Thanks ( I 'm still going with more like lily then.. Lillyfalna?).. And we'll be all over the Island. so .. there is hope!
In general How much of your influence do you get with your paint choices. I assume it customer by customer, but on average what do most people input. ( I'm Obviously not a professional here)
SL

The amount of control I get over schemes and style varies a lot. I mean in the space of two months I had the squigs come in which were " Do whatever you want, I just want them super crazy" which gave me awesome leash, and then the little empire guys which came with some print outs of exactly what the owner wanted them to look like.

Both of those are awesome. Free reign is great, and extremely detailed instructions is just as good. I would say the majority of the work I do however goes under the " I kinda want them to be x and y main colours and for you to try and keep z style, but do what you think works too". That seems to be what most commissioners want, a final piece that matches their expectations but has your own flair to it.

MagickalMemories wrote:
I like the blue better. It's softer. The white is very stark, and kind of irritates the eyes. I find I'm more prone to squint at pics with a stark white background (like being outside in the snow when the sun's bright).
Eric

Yeah I think I will be sticking to the blue, it has way less of a starkness to it and I think it compliments the mini's better Looking forward to having standardised shots now, also amusing myself with how much I have learned with GIMP considering when I first started with it I could barely manage resizing an image.

Rogue Wolves wrote:
Well played Iff, well played...

Thank you, I do try.

I finished these little tabletop standard gobbos up for Gitsplitta today, tomorrow I am working more on the massive timesink that I will not post till it is all finished, and start on some boats. BOATS!

Here are some Gobbos.






They are so very small it is insane.

Rogue Wolves wrote:very nice work as always Iff, I especialy like the metals on these guys

The metals are super fun and messy to do. I love pairing really messy stuff right beside really neat stuff like the skin, always looks slightly crazy

Gitsplitta wrote:My grots!! They look wonderful Iffy. You do not disappoint! You can never have too many ammo runts.
You know, there's stuff I send you that I could easily do myself... but it just doesn't have the character that you can provide. Simple little figs like gobbos need character... it's what makes them come alive!

Aww Gits, thrilled you like them However, they won't look right till you hit them with your basing magic! I think it's hard not to paint these dudes with character, their little faces have so much sculpted on.

Briancj wrote:To get some cooler models
I've been posting them to Eire
They go out looking poncy
But they come back looking finer
She fancies gobs, she fancies squigs
Her painting's mighty flash
She shades so many colors
Its always worth the cash
You get your models quickly and never looking naff
And when they're up on Dakka
You're happy as a clam
And ev'rybody tells Gits that he's cool to be a Nob.
We're talking Gobbbbbbbbbbbs for Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits.
Gooooooooooooooobs for Giiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiits!

Wow. Wow.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:The details on the ammo runts are insane. I really like the green skin on them. It's so... vibrant. Mine are more of a sickly green... I rather like yours more.

I love painting greens, haha. I tend to highlight tabletop greenskins up to pure scorp green, so the layering is snot green, thick wash of 1:1 green and sepia wash, highlight 1:1 snot to scorp, highlight scorp.
It's relatively quick and as long as you are neat it gives a really nice vibrant colour. I also paint the red eyes with the first layer of green, then wash them too. It sinks into the recesses and shades them so you can just rehighlight them slightly and they look nice.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:I think small steps are in order. I'm going to try those little white dots the next time I paint up my Orks and see what that does to their expressions. (I also have ammo runts so if I get my little guys anywhere near what I see in the pics, I'd be satisfied--scratch that, I'd be jumping up and down squeeing like a little schoolgirl.)

Ah yes, a tiny bit of extra eye detail can really make a huge difference. The eyes of a mini are one of the main focal points as we tend to look at them automatically without even really noticing. If you add some little shine lines or spend a bit extra time getting a good pupil and offwhite colour around the edges, it makes a really massive difference to the finished look. Well worth the time.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:I'd love to know how you got the weathering done on the blunderbuss and the ammo crates (I weather all my Orks' gear so I'm always looking to add to my toolbox).

With preschooler art skills!

Voila



A bit of sponge torn from the padding on a booster pack can really work wonders. These guys had their metals based in a 1:1 mix of black and boltun, then had mithril sponged on top, were given a thick wash of devlin mud, had mithril sponged on again, and then had some rust speckles from old flesh wash ink added. Really, really quick, though quite messy. Best to do it first, I did it later and got some on a hand I need to clean up.

Kazwulf wrote:
Not to drop a competitor video in, but Lester Bursley made a mighty fine video on brush cleaning with "The Masters" Brush Cleaner and Preserver:
I still watch Lester's videos to learn. I wish you would do a few Ifalna ... Lester does mostly airbrush work and as I don't have an airbrush yet, I could really use the tips. (And I have trouble listening to GirlPainting)

Haha I wouldn't consider Les a competitor, I'm not quite in the same league as him yet. He's a cool guy, he's helped me out with some stuff in the past and is a really friendly chatty person. His videos are outstanding and I refer to them all the time!

Girlpaintings vids are great but they are a bit harder to follow alright, still some totally useful stuff in there.

I deffo want to do some vids but I'm not sure what I should start off with.
Is there anything in particular people would like to see a short tutorial/explanation of?

Solar_lion wrote:Since you seem to have a audience for green, Why not start with the formula you mention above. It's something obviously you have mastered so should be an easy and good choice to get you some experience. In addition you could start with some tried and true basic techniques. It essential to have and see good technique. There is still lot of variation and seeing a proven painter is always helpful.
I look forward to see whatever you put out.
Always learning SL

logg_frogg wrote:A tutorial on painting and shading bright colours would be fabtastic
Your bright/light colours are always amazing!

Hmm, green could be fun. A lot of people paint orks and gobbo's and I've rarely seen tutorials that weren't for very dark toned heavily washed ork skin ( tutorials for beginners that is) so yeah, that could be a good idea I'm sure someone would find it useful.

Dysartes wrote:Not looking for a tutorial, Ifalna, but how would you recommend painting an animal's large-irised eye? Imagine an Aberdeen Angus calf, for instance - minus the ridiculous eyelashes.

Oh I would go with painting it naturally. Cow's generally have extremely dark brown irises that cover nearly their entire eye, so you could skip white altogether, go for a deep brown iris, then a black sideways pupil and a good painted shine enhanced by a gloss coat. I always just copy reality when I do animal eyes, hehe.

Bacms wrote:One tutorial that I never managed to find is how to paint OSL with a light. I mean there a few ones done but not with video.

The quickest way is with an airbrush. I can handle that, but painting OSL is not something I would consider myself good enough to make a tutorial about :( Maybe when I have more practice with it and feel I've gotten good enough. Theres a great OSL airbrush tut on Dakka though, I'll see if I can find it.

So I've been working on the sea bases for the boaties today, they are quite tricky to get right, but I would say I am nearly done Nice frothy sea green so far. I might get some shots later today, but if not I will have some for tomorrow!

I also finally finished this guy ( character standard for a friend, working on him in between other models for quite a while )



That is a HUGE picture, so please do feel free to zoom, hahaha.

I am really happy with him, he looks overly dark here but he really is extremely dark and I didn't want to edit him to be lighter and lose colour. The banner was a total pain in the bum. We wanted something that would suite Bjorn, but his banners just couldn't fit properly because of how much space the wolf head took up.

The only way I could get something remotely detailed on was to lower it and make it simpler, so I went with the basic banner of navy, yellow, and red, then added on a big wolf skull. It looks nice in reality, not as nice in the shots sadly. Can't see the brushstrokes I tried to emulate cloth with.

Either way, I learned a lot from this guy. He was a mishmash of ideas I had never tried before and I loved painting him Owner doesn't know he is done, so I'm going to giftwrap him now hehe.

Dysartes wrote:For airbrush OSL, try Eggroll's Blood Angels thread - lots of good power source and headlight examples there.

Yeah his work is fantastic, I have had a look myself and learned a lot about airbrush osl I'm still too nervous to actually try it because of the " OH GOD I PUT TOO MUCH WEIGHT ON THE TRIGGER AND RUINED THE MODEL" factor, but I will one day face my fears and try it out. Maybe I shall just get drunk first.

Gitsplitta wrote:Nice work on that dread Iffy! (even if it IS a space wolf)
Man, you guys have just got to zoom in on that pic to appreciate it! Lucky friend! (voted too!)

Thanks Gits! It is a huuuuuuge picture, I think it's the biggest I've uploaded. Notice my amazing skill at including two of the exact same shot in the group? That was totally intentional, all the cool kids are doing it.

prime12357 wrote:I'd be interested in seeing how you do your ork skin, so that's a vote from me.
The dread is awesome! The only thing I'm not sold on is the banner, but if it's better in person, it should be fine. The owner certainly is lucky to get it.

I think I will indeed paint up a tabletop ork or grot for my first vid, people always seem eager to know quick ways to get nice results with them, so that could be a very good thing to do first!
I'm going to work on making the vid this week, a friend of mine even made a really great cg opening for the vids I'm going to do for a college project, so I am thrilled

The owner got him today, he was happy. I am happy now too.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:I always liked MajorTom11's article for osl:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Zenithal_Airbrushing%2C_OSL_and_Snow_and_Ice_Tutorial%2C_subject_-_Grey_Knight

Yeah this one is fantastic, really great tut.

Gitsplitta wrote:Yggsdrasil wrote a great brush OSL tutorial: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/351390.page

I'd not seen this one before, bookmarked! I've tried halo osl before but not enough, I want to deffo keep pushing at it.

Briancj wrote:Woo hoo! BFFs!
*does a little dance*

/hifive

logg_frogg wrote:All of the OSL sources that people have noted are excellent resources. Both articles are quit thorough and I especially enjoy eggroll's thread as you get to see first hand how he shades things throughout the panting progression.

I have so many threads on Dakka saved because they have amazing resources, I think everyone should definitely go out of their way to find out new techniques from others. It's a great way to make painting really fun and broaden your horizons.

Gitsplitta recently painted up some Necron barges using a technique I've not seen before and oh my god they are incredible. Like, I couldn't come close. And being the Git he is, he is being all humble about them. Clearly he is a terrible person.

logg_frogg wrote:Iffy,
That Bjorn is damn amazing!
It's been too long since we have seen you paint to this standard. The attention to detail on the banner, the freehand, the weathering are all very nice and super clean without being over the top. I really enjoy how the entire model stays in the same hue. The freehand on the banner is also top notch!
Superb work.

Dicrel Seijin wrote:@Ifalna: thank you very much. I'm going to try those techniques on some grots that I coated with primer a while back. (I really should create a plog here some day.)
And that was a beautiful Ven Dread (not really a SW fan, but I have to admit the little touches, like the bone halo, pelts, and iconography, really do give it quite a bit of character). I pushing in on the close ups as well. Wow, that is detail.

Glad you liked Bjorn, he was only meant to be character but my friend was so incredibly patient with this that I kept picking at him and he ended nearer showcase ( full showcase would have had a bit more extreme detailing on things like the scrolls and glow cannon thingy) but I am really happy that he likes him

Oh and Dicrel, you should! I would totally be interested in that and I'm sure a lot of other people would be too

Today I am painting tiny oceans, which belong to tiny boats -



I am technically on weekend but am really enjoying painting the water, so hope to have shots up later

I can't remember the names of most guns etc as it has been years since I played, so I tend to just make up my own and stick with it. It works fine till I try and discuss the minis with other people however

And now for something very different:



BEHOLD.

A tiny ocean.

Tiny ocean is the size of a euro coin, and is the test ocean for the rest of the dreadfleet. I went with cold looking rough waters, as coming from Ireland, that is the only kind of sea I can comprehend.

The others are on their way to being done, will get a group shot too I noticed a bit of rogue foam on the right pic after loading it up, gotta sort that too.

Edit: Oh and they are indeed quite big, but it's mostly their sails. The main boats themselves are quite small

logg_frogg wrote:haha, I'm just ribbin ya' I know you don't play currently
It looks liek you go the highlights down perfectly on the water.
I'm guessing 2+ colours of blue base, blue wash and then white highlights? Maybe some highlights before washing

Hehe, it was a pretty epic amount of washes, Ill give the recipe below

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Id bet on there being a bit of green in there too.
Looks great for freezing uk water Roll it out!

Yah I figured a lot of people paint Dreadfleet bases really strong bright blue, but that's kinda out of place when you think about it. It will also give these guys a bit of a unique twist I think.

Gitsplitta wrote:Beautiful work on the water Iffy. That'll really make the boats stand out nicely. Don't forget the wakes!

I hope it will for sure The waters already look pretty crazy, I can't wait to start on the boats ;D I think I can bring the wakes up a bit brighter so it looks like there is air bubbles in the water, I'm gonna do that before I post them, great idea

Rogue Wolves wrote:that dreads banner looks great Iff, and I am excited to see how you fair with those ships! Im just prepairing for my jaw to be dropped with awsomeness!

Well I hope they turn out awesome too I'm gonna break out the real metals for them, lots of super strong golds and silvers. Should be really great fun.

weetyskemian44 wrote:Really pretty water you got going there. I am very excited to see some model boats getting done - I've always loved miniature boats.
Question - what brand of static grass do you use? I've gone with army painter because I am a sucker and didn't learn a thing from my bad experience with their spray primer. I would love to see you do a basing tutorial as I am a total basing noob.
Oh and congratulations on two years of getting commissions. That's very inspiring.

I'm using an old tub of GW grass, but I've been looking at those little army painter tufts and getting verrrrrry tempted.. my bases are totally simple though, have you seen Gits? Those are crazy! The only thing I think I do nicely are little grassy clumps with static grass, and thats mostly just being patient

The first year of commissions was mostly a test run, seeing if anyone would actually be interested in the service while still working full time. I think the last 6 months or so have been when I've been outputting the most as I switched to working on painting so much more and refined a lot of what I was doing to streamline processes. It's kind of terrifying to see my gallery approach 600 images with the majority of them being from this year.. thats freaking madness. I USED TO PAINT SO SLOW WHAT HAPPENED D:

Reaper Man 2020 wrote:I'll be watching the dreadfleet stuff with interest as I have just aquired the box myself! Great work so far on the water.

The models are really fantastic, I was deffo not expecting them to be this gorgeous

Dicrel Seijin wrote:Living in Hawaii, I tend to see the ocean quite a bit, but I have to say I've not seen such unwelcoming waters. (And for those picturing idyllic blue water, one word: hurricanes.) I've not seen the Dreadfleet game here (on the shelves, yes, but not being played) and I too did not realize how big (for a relative value of "big") those ships are (when there is an object for reference). I'll be curious to see how these will be painted up.

I honestly can't wait to get working on them either hehe, I'm technically on weekend and not meant to be painting, but my partner is off too and wants to see them be painted as much as I do haha, they are the first mini's to get him really interested!

prime12357 wrote:I saw the water and immediately thought, looks too cold to swim in... until I realized that it's painted plastic the size of a quarter.
Any chance of a recipe? It's brilliant

The recipe is a little crazy as I spent a while on them, but from memory it was:

-Base a very deep blue, like a regal/black mix.
-Start drybrushing in multiple highlights all the way up to enchanted blue.
-Do a thick 1:1 green black wash (read this in white dwarf, gives them their first green tinge but I pushed it further later)
-Drybrush with enchanted blue again.
-Drybrush in multiple highlights up to a very pale blue, near white. Keep this mostly around the peaks.
- Paint on a watered white peak along all the tops of the waves
- Wash the whole thing again with a 1:1 green/black wash thinned a little with water.

You now have a very green tinged sea with lots of really nice blends, but it is quite green and not like a natural cold sea.
So to fix that, get blue wash and thin it a little, then carefully paint it onto all the deeper parts and feather it up onto the waves. You want the sea to look deep blue, the waves to start to turn green as they rise, and the peaks to be pale.

Once thats dry, give the peaks a couple of layers of thinned white and dot on some solid white carefully, then gloss varnish the whhole thing.

The bigger bases are a bit darker because they have less actual wave peaks than this tiny one but they still look really deep and cold, they took quite a while but it was lots and lots of fun

LF, I've honestly been thinking of doing that and having them in the packages I send out for people to leave in their flgs and stuff

I just have to find a very cheap printing service as I am a peasant.

logg_frogg wrote:I have a few good friends in the multimedia/printing business. I can make some cost inquiries for you if you want. I may even be able to get it done for the price of the paper

Oh dude that would be awesome! I've had a look at sites like Moo but they are charging a fair bit for them and I can't really justify spending €25 + on 50 cards, as nice as they would be.

whalemusic360 wrote:Vistaprint is super cheap (at least over here) for cards, and rather customizable.
Glad you are both liking the models. If you wanted a personal set, I've seen them very cheap on the swap shop and other places. This set is not like space hulk where it is 3x the price it was originally. The game is pretty solid, if a bit limited, and the models are great. Good addition for people that like stand alone games.

I'll have a look at Vistaprint now and see what their prices are like, have not checked those yet

I've heard the game itself is actually great fun, I like the idea of GW games that don't end up requiring spending hundreds on additional models, hehe.

Edit: Ack, checked out Vistaprint and they don't do HD uploads, so Pete looks a bit crappy on the cards. This will not do

WhaleMusic, thanks for pointing towards Vistaprint actually

They had a bit of a problem taking regularly sized images without making them very low def, so I dregged up my old giant photo of Pete and that looked great minimised

Went for a really clean, simple little card that should make Pete catch the eye really well without the writing taking away from him, here we go



Got 250 of those, a bunch of really nice shipping lables also featuring the pink git, and shipping costs included it only came to €15 Thats really really awesome.

Dysartes wrote:Is this a good time to point out you missed the apostrophe, Ifalna? The heading should read "Ifalna's Miniatures"...

No no, don't be silly, punctuation does not exist in my homeland. What is grammar?

I left out everything to keep it looking very minimalistic, hence no full stops either. It's not quite on par with the Paul ALLEN card, but I would rather not induce the wrath of a psycho either. Ya know?

Awww cmon, the addresses can't count!

Dysartes why so mean? Why

Dysartes wrote:Not mean, Ifalna - pedantic...

I will have to let you away with it then. This once.

Rogue Wolves wrote:Im not going to lie.. but I think you picked the perfect spokes squig for your commissions.. just saying.. he's(she's?) awsome!

You can't go wrong with Pete. I figured he was ridiculous looking enough to counterpoint using a very basic understated card (cause it was cheaper ohohoho)

More work on more tiny boats tonight Another huge shot. Could have actually started on the boats but I'm not really meant to be painting at all right now so I am being awfully bold already.



Seriously you can zoom so far in it is madness. Your eyes may get wet.

Briancj wrote:Count yourselves lucky, that card is in ENGLISH, as opposed to her actual accent...

How dare you m8 mi english is so good.

Dysartes wrote:It isn't often you see a boat that says...

Aww man.. can I not touch that boat anymore?

Cutthroatcure wrote:Your Bjorn is breathtaking!

Thanks dude Owner was super happy with him so I am too. God he was a real effort, learning as you go with a mini is pretty hard!

Dicrel Seijin wrote:@Ifalna: I'm not sure what you meant by the water being primarily dark for the ships. There seems to be enough waves and wakes there. It wasn't noticeable with the small coin-sized base, but with the bigger ship bases, I can see how the gloss varnish catches the light, creating the illusion of water (albeit water frozen in time). And while pusing in looking at detail, I'm amazed at how detailed the ships really are. These really should look fantastic painted up.

I think the bigger ones just look a bit darker cause they lack the white peaks right in the center like the wee one has. It's not a bad thing, they do all look like they are sailing the same water so it's working out well Gloss varnish is an amazing tool that I don't see used that often. Painting it inside mouths and on eyes can make such a difference to a model, and it only takes a second to do!

The ships are crazy detailed alright, the murals on the church are insane. Looking forward to detailing

Minus wrote:Wow ! I only discovered this blog now, and it looks fantastic !
Your painting is clean, with lot of contrast and bright and vibrant colors. I particularly like that orc shaman with the wood mask and all that feathers (is that Wurzag ?). He looks wonderful, I need to put so much colors on an ork myself !
Keep going, for our eyes sake !

Welcome aboard! Glad you have enjoyed it so far I do indeed love strong colours and contrasts, I always have the most fun when painting them

There is a loooottttt to come, wait and see!



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Ooooo I just found an old metal SM chaplain on a bike on my closet, going to paint him up to tabletop while watching movies tonight and then throw him on Ebay

Don't worry people who have sent me mini's, I'll be back doing proper painting tomorrow I allow myself to be silly on weekend.

GiraffeX wrote:Wow Iffy the water on those boat bases is amazing, when you zoom in you get the urge to dip your fingers in (or toes if your that way inclined).

Haha, cheers They look super wet irl because of the gloss effect, it works really well and is so easy to do, I swear!

Quick shot of mr marine after cleaning, priming, and the first airbrushing-



Have his metals down now and starting on shading/highlighting. He will look very different shortly.

Well Dysartes, I could probably make up a big long complicated and slightly believable reason for it, but in reality it is because



When I sit down to paint something for funsies I basically just grab whatever colours I want and go for it. I usually regret this later when someone points out to me that LOTD are not actually yellow, or that Orks are by nature green and not pink.

I'm going to have to start actually running things through you guys first before I start painting something for fun, but I'm enjoying this guy wayyyyy too much to stop now

This is his bro that was in the same box as him, has the exact same paint scheme as the guy I'm painting had before I started the repaint -



Brought to you by the same artist that painted this -


And here is where the chap is now



Moving onto his highlights.

OK! His right or right when looking at him?

I take it you mean the blank shoulderpad?