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I still like the black : )

I don't think there's anything wrong with your technique - the highlighting on the orange is working great. For some reason, blacks, greys and whites are tricky to work with, I have no idea why. I don't think that you're making the transition from colour to colour too sharp... I'm not entirely sure what the issue is... you know I'm a fan of REALLY watering down my colours, so you could maybe try that. Maybe longer strokes, so the paint is spread more thinly? It's just that you need to soften the edges more...

As much as I love the Wraithlord model, it is an absolute bugger to paint - there's not a whole lot of large flat areas. You inspired me to do a bit of work on my WraithWalker - and I realised what I pig it is to work on! It requires more patience than I have at the moment! I only managed to do a couple of small bits...


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I only managed to clean up a bit of the shoulder, and then highlight a lower leg... fairly frustrating

Oh man your painting is sooooo smooth, can't wait to see how your avatar does at games day.

I zoomed in - ahhhhhhhhhh this looks horrible, you can almost see the individual brush strokes.



As you can see, with the shape the shin and thigh are (oval cross section) I figured light would run the length of the limb (although that would change with your perspective.
Perhaps I should've ran the brush stroke downwards as I think here you can see little strokes have left pools of paint.

Do you think a quick badab wash would tidy that up?

Thanks for the advice so far.

You're beating yourself up Hangy, what you've painted is really good! I can totally understand wanting to better yourself and painting skills as i'm in the same boat (maybe we should go fishing?) *ahem sorry* your blending is being scrutinised by yourself at very close range so of course you are going to see subtle variations and gradients on the armor as you paint, especially as you know how you applied the strokes! I would recommend following finnan's advice though as he is an amazingly good artist, thin down the paint heaps and almost glaze it on again and again, he uses over 30 layers to get a smooth finish, to me that's more time and patience than can muster but if you want the smoothest of blended colours then a wet palette and patience is paramount!

you do realise that all you've done so far is actually really well done? I think more confidence is needed from you! be proud, finish some mini's and pop them up brimming with confidence, we all can see the effort you're pouring into your plastic crack habit!

Nerdfest09

Oh dear, I just had a look at Nakatan's dark eldar, it's no good microwave here I come!

Honestly I swear, my paint is watered down to ink thin...looking at that picture it doesn't look like it at all does it. I'm sure it's my technique that's the issue, well that and getting frustrated, oh and poor lighting.

The good thing is i've got a second go on the arms as they are pretty similar.

Thanks for the encouragement Damo...right off to work for a long long day of staring at excel spreadsheets...if I don't go those spreadsheets just won't get stared at.

I always think my stuff's rubbish when I look at the shots too! Like nerdfest09 says, you're looking at it magnified and under a flash, which doesn't help. You'll always see the flaws (and, if you're anything like me, ignore the good bits!) jumping out at you.

I think long, vertical strokes might help, but that's not going to be the easiest fix as the leg is so thin (again, nice model, bugger to paint).

The other option is to cheat: basecoat of Charadon Granite, wash of badab, and boom! Done. Might not be as smooth as you want it in places, but a little judicious tidying up would do the trick.

Still think your too harsh on yourself - your models look amazing on the table, how often when playing a game does someone pick up your model, peer at it with a magnifying glass under a bright neon light and notice the brush strokes!

On the point of defiler kill marks - Just you wait for my oblits -shakes fist-

Alright mate , looks like you have been a busy man , since my last post , lots of lovely work , I agree with the others that your beating yourself up a bit much mate , but thats probably because your a perfectionist, no bad thing. Your colour choice is still bang on , and your work does look really good already , but i think i know where you want to be at , unfortunately I am not that good a painter my self so my advice is always going to be limited , but I have seen some things recommended for smooth transitions , windsor newton 7 brushes and vellejo model colour paints , seem to be a layer or wash mans fave acoording to my research . apparently the blends are alot smoother on most colours , due to the added flow aid in the paint . but like nerdfest says , patience and practice is what will do it , 30 layres or more sounds crazy to me. but if thats what it takes matey , looks like your gonna have to bite the bullet .
Though in my oppinion your models looks great already , if you havent got the patience for that many layers and wet wet blending is not doing it for you , maybe invest in an airbrush , a little practice and you blends will be crazy smooth .

keep well mate , and dont over do it on those spreadsheets.

Oh frick I dropped it.

@Finnan, good point perhaps starting with a grey then wash and highlight would have been better than going straight from black to highlight. Have added Charadon granite to the shopping list.

@Incurus, I know I know, but it's difficult not to be harsh when you spend a hour painting, take a photo and then think "WTF, that looks like I just painted it with my left hand (or right hand if you're left handed).

@Neil, hey buddy long time no speak, that's my fault, I'm terrible at not commenting of other people's blogs, especially when I realise i've got about 5 pages of reading to catch up on. Good to see you're still showing Blue Peter how it's really done. In fact could you rename your blog to "and here's one I made earlier" Re: blends, I did the middle grey sheild (where the belly buttin would be) as a wet blend as opposed to layers. I quite like it, but it takes ages and I find I get really frustrated doing it, so I'm going to stick to layers for the time being, I think I just need to learn patience and let the layers build as opposed to jumping colours in order to see a transition.

Well I got some gluing done and some more painting.

it's looking so good 'fire - well done and keep it up! The gems are looking great, and are a nice contrast to the orange.

I feel your pain about the time put into something - I'm punishing myself and doing another white scourge, and it takes a g e s, especially to get it smooth. Also, it's making me even more insane as I keep asking myself "Is that white, or grey? Another few more layes won't hurt...". However, it does pay off eventually - keep it up

Got a bit further today, painted the back - grey, which I'm feeling alot more comfortable with.
Painted the head and had a go at some NMM gold.

I'd really appreciate some feed back on the gold. Not sure I got it right.

A few more Wips, the end is in sight, just finish off the flamers. Paint and attach wings, then base.

pretty shiny thing! I love the sword - and your background

Looks ASTOUNDING!

You do realise i'm going to have to buy my obliterators quicker now JUST to destroy it on the first turn

that's looking wicked 'fire! Kudos.
Loving the warm reds, oranges and yellows against the blacks, greys and white, really nice colour scheme, and unusual too, so it stands out.
The gold looks good as far as I can tell, but I love the head

Real nice orange and effect on the sword!

Whoa Hangy! my man! that's nuts! I love it especially the sword, it looks beautifully like cold polished metal, you are just such a damn good painter now, don't ever let me catch you beating yourself up again over your work o.k! you have absolutely nothing to be concerned about! all we want to see is more work from you, especially to that standard, i'd love to see it in person one day, as somehow i don't think the photo's (as good as they are) do it justice!


Nerdfest09

Looks great mate , love your lighting too.

It's done, it's finally done.

Thanks for the comments guys, it really helped me push on to get this one completed. I think this is my first mini i've fully completed and not thought I must go back and do x y z.

Next up...another wraithlord this time i'm going off craftworld with a SENMM gold one. Going to be tough, but i'm looking forward to the challenge.

Final one looks amazing! Mork looks incredibly good and the colour scheme really, really works.

The sword looks great and I could well imagine it carving up those poor Noise Marines you butchered!

I await shiny mindy with baited breath

Thanks man, good game last week, finally my scorpions proved to be useful. Can't wait for our next game.

Greetings dakka,

So i've been busy with exams and course work and finding a new job etc etc.
I've been finding the time to paint but mostly just speed painting my Flames of War army or basecoating my Dire Avengers, neither of which is worthy or interesting enough to post up.

A few days ago I got the urge to paint something properly, my poor farseer has been in every game of 40k i've played but has alwyas been sans-paint, well no more.





As always i'd appreciate any c&c

Thanks

Hangfire

I think this is just lovely 'fire! Calm, composed, elegant, strong and just beautifully done - kudos! Really well balanced use of colour. You should be really proud of yourself with this one

Nice Hangfire, that's a very tasty model, well done!

I haven't updated my log in a very long time, but I have been a busy little Hangfire....so thought it was time I updated this bad boy...

First up, i've been enjoying making some hills, these are my 40k hills.



and this is my flames of war hill (I need to make more)



My Harlequins, an absolute finecast disaster, unfortunately I got a box from the first batch to hit the flgs, a lesson learned. These were in a right state and I spent many an hour with a hairdryer sorting them out. That kinda ruined it for me so I didn't really try that hard with the painting. These are a bit rough, but my standard for tabletop.



and finally for now, my first 40k vehicle a Wave Serpent



That's all folks, I have done other stuff but nothing finished, currently I'm working on my second wraithlord, I want this one to be special so i'm going to wait until tomorrow and photograph it under natural light with a background.

that wave serpent is sweet! Lovely crisp lines and fantastic saturationon the colours - thumbs up!

Howdy Finster,

We quite often end up painting similar things, your wraithseer is coming along beautifully.
I was chatting to a mate yesterday about going to Games Day this year and I was telling him about your avatar.

Anyway as promised, here's a WIP shot of my 2nd wraithlord, I stopped mucking about with that nmm gold gubbins as it wasn't really working and more importantly wouldn't have tied in with my army.



There's quite a lot left to do, re-visit some grey areas which I obviously painted in a hurry (round the lower legs), hands, fix some mishaps, do the wepons, then I want to go crazy with runes. I want runes everywhere and I'm tempted by the tatoo sleeve mentioned ages ago. Just need to find one I like.

A ton of work recently Hang! She looks amazing, can't wait to see the finsihed article.

Wave Serpent is really striking too

Good afternoon Dakka dakka

I've managed to take a few days of work,with which I can do pretty mush what I want. Wife is working, kid is in school, hangfire is free to play.

So, I recently bought an airbrush...yay! I've pretty much painted the GW terrainscape with it, just need to complete some detail work. I chose that as it would give me a nice intro to using an airbrush and if things started to go wrong it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Fortunatley for me, I live near an airbrush specialist shop (www.everythingairbrush.com), so I popped by this morning had a long chat with a fiendly chap named Tim and bought a load of paint, cleaner and primer.

I'm painting the bulk of my new German army for Flames of War, it's a mechanised Aufklarungs company. I say bulk because i'm still waiting for a couple of bits.

This took an hour...


Conclusion - It went on a bit thick in some places, due to my impatience apart from that...I love my airbrush.

Step2 - The basecoat


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Basecoating done.

The primer dried really nicely and lots of spots where I thought I'd airbrushed out the detail are actually okay - good drills.

This took 1 hour and 10mins. For those manager types amongst you, that's not a drop in productivity, the 10mins was spent clearing a blockage. (In the airbush not in me )

I'm going to let this dry really well before tackling the next step - brown camo stripes, at this stage i'm not sure whether to swap to a 0.2 size needle and nozzle - probably. Also I'll need to go a lot slower. I'll give it a go today, then hit it hard tomorrow.




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Seems to work okay, just turned the pressure down to about 15psi and made sure I tighten the paint control screw thingy.

These stripes are quite wide, but don't worry there's a reason for that. I'm going to paint green in the middle. Green in the middle I hear you say! That's right, I saw it done on the FOW website and it looked cool as. Hopefully I can follow suite.



I would carry on tonight, but I've actually got a game booked (40k, not FOW). Wish me luck, i'll need it!

All the best laid plans...

My daughter has come down with flu, so i'm playing nurse, which kinda ruins my plans a bit. I'll try and get some painting done when she's asleep or watching cbeebies

For now here's the brown stripes done. My airbrush didn't want to play ball today and I was constantly struggling to find the sweet spot between pressue and paint flow. When I did find it, it seemed to clog up real quick. So unfortunatley there are a few blobs here and there.

Looking at this photo the stripes look far too thick. I hope what I do next will sort that out.




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Oh yeah, this works for me...

I love this phase of painting, just when things are starting to take shape.







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I gloss varnished, before a thinned Devlan mud wash, which has really helped blend the colours together and make them look a bit more realistic.

In other news, my wife just went and had a go at some polish people using our driveway for their van - hilarious.