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So quick run down so far. Spent most of last month ill, and feeling like painting was the hardest thing in the world. Well, most things were to be fair, but painting especially so.

This month I get my guy primed and ready early doors, and think I will start in a day once the primer has dried fuly and I get through a couple of days of work. Last day in work, I tweak a muscle/trap a nerve in my upper back.

Not a good start! So I have been battling away against that, trying all of the usual remedies (Bruphen, tennis ball under the shoulder blade, hot baths, beer) anything to get it gone. So last night I get some painting done, and I am looking forward to more tonight. Little lady decided she had to ride on daddy's shoulders today when we went into town, back has now flared up again! Fortunately I will be seeing a friend of mine tomorrow who is a physio so he should be able to help.

Anywhoo, I have got all the armour painted on my Elf. I started off with Runefang Steel as I wanted the armour to retain the brightness that you expect with a High Elf, and then I have blued the steel with several applications of blue wash. It is at the stage now where I can clean up the scales and the raised areas of the armour with some Stormhost Silver, which should give me a nice oiled/blued armour effect which will complement the rest of my colour scheme. WIP shots are below for those interested.

Oooh nice!

And that's 3! Now I just have to wait for my Anvil Industry stuff to get here so I can give them some crew.

Some awesome stuffs!

Just a quick WIP on my guys:



Best 5 of the bunch will make it to the contest

Update:

- shortened the stick
- cut up the hammerhead for a more stone-ish look
- added some greenstuff as metal straps on the sides, on top and on the bottom of the hammerhead. Also added nail heads and toothpick ends as spikes.
- added helmet decoration
- gave him some hair on the back of his head

To do tomorrow: removing mold lines, sanding the greenstuff, glueing the last few parts and filling some cracks. Oh, and pinning him to a base.

Thoughts about him?

Quick WIP Update, getting there slowly in-between the business and a heavy cold!

 Moolet wrote:

Haha,
similar for me, I've done a base coat on the skin and the bone. I need to tear myself away from playing Gloomhaven and get some more painting done!

If you need to take the month off, I have no problem with that. Maybe rest on your laurels for a bit after last month's podium...

No, this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact you're 1 point away from knocking me out of the top 5 in the League, why do you ask?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A WIP on my entry, never painted a Blood Raven or a Primaris before so things are still a bit rough around the edges. Getting there though, I'm happy with the overall look even if he needs a bit more work.


Some great entries popping up.

Hi again.
Finished my Ethereal. I think he is okay but I´m still learning how to paint THE T´au.

@Para, your marine looks pretty good already. Still love your stuff.

@MG, thanks man

Feedback would be great to get better with THE T´au

K D

Finally got the will to paint another cinerator. We'll see if I can manage to paint him by the end of the month.

Done early this month! I tried a few new things and am really pleased with some, others obviously need more practice. Finished pics (Ork Freebooter Big Shoota Boy):

Current project has something perfect for this so lets give it a go!

As a DE player from way back, I love your choice of model, Ninjapirate - can't wait to see it done.
Love the weathering on Manalishi's artillery.
Also very envious of the weathering on that drone, Kustomer D.
The camo on your ethereal is really nice, Supershandy and that is one big truckload of grots - looks very cool, Guildenstern...
Hammer looking really good now, Tim121RVC!
Gulgog - love the stripes on the pants and the bullet holes in the rocks.
Finally, I'm very jealous of Para's Blood Raven. Awesome detail and brutal atmosphere as always - great work.

It's gonna be another tough month!

Here are more photos of my dude with the background cropped out so that the model takes up more of the picture. Do you like these pictures more than the previous ones?

Looking good Power Elephant!

Quick WIP update:

That’s a really weird image, the headless Astartes.

Since I got my basilisks done far earlier than anticipated, I've decided to enter a couple more minis this month.

First: This Manticore:



Second: My converted Master of Ordnance (side note: yay! my anvil bits are here! )



EDIT: Just to be clear, I'll be doing a full repaint of that manticore so it goes with my basilisks, it'll look nothing like that when its done.

Guys, could I have a little advice please?

I'm painting the bark my Treelord Ancient a really cold brown, almost grey. I'm going to contract this with some warm red/orange/yellow tones on areas such as the runes and the staff. What I'd like to know is what colour do you reckon I should use to shade the bark? I'm blocking in darker brown in the shadows, and lining cracks with an almost black brown, but I wanted to put a bit of wash into the recesses to change the tone a touch and add interest and a hint of colour to something that is almost monochrome at the moment.

So I'm thinking I could either use a reddish brown shade, or a blue. The blue would suit the cold colours of the bark, and contrast the orange bits I plan on doing. However, it might make it too cold, or get lost in the overall feel of the bark. The red might bring a bit of life to this area of the figure. Or I could paint in the runes and such and see what I think then. What do people reckon?

For reference, the base of the bark is Dryad bark, and the highlights largely baneblade brown.

@Feltmonkey seems like you have a lot of options! I personally like the idea of using a blue. If you're afraid it'll be too intense, you can always dilute with lahmian medium or some other retardant (even water). I also think a purple could work, and also don't forget that you can mess with the hue of your treelord afterwards as well with some glazes

How about warming it slightly with a watered yellow wash?

Finished!

REDBRANDS for my D&D campaign!

Very nice, Womprat!

lipsdapips wrote:@Feltmonkey seems like you have a lot of options! I personally like the idea of using a blue. If you're afraid it'll be too intense, you can always dilute with lahmian medium or some other retardant (even water). I also think a purple could work, and also don't forget that you can mess with the hue of your treelord afterwards as well with some glazes

Yeah, I was considering a purple as well. It would be a compromise between the red and blue! The Dryad bark has a purplish hue to it anyway. I'm not sure it would change the feel of the miniature particularly, but it would create interest. Having now painted all the bark, including the younger wood these Treelords have between the plates of bark armour, and the firey runes, I do like the general hue of that part of the miniature generally. It just needs something subtle to finish it off. I'm actually considering shading in different tones on different areas - redder towards the top, head, and chest, then some purple/blue lower down on the model.

Garrlor wrote:How about warming it slightly with a watered yellow wash?

I'm not sure that would work, as the Dryad bark is pretty dark, especially as I have shaded the recesses with a mix of dryad bark and black. This was applied not as a wash, but blended in and painted where the shadows would fall. As a result, I think yellow would look kind of muddy. Besides, the idea is not to warm the bark up, as I'm aiming more to keep it cold to create a contrast between it and some warmer areas. Also, I'm thinking about how my Sylvaneth army will look as a whole. I have a more vibrant, warmer-toned Treelord, and I'm trying to make this one look older. Obviously this is all information I didn't give you before you made your suggestion!

Thanks to both of you for the ideas.

I've spent too much time trying to physically paint wood grain on the thing now. It's becoming my white whale.

A little late, but here we go!

Feltmonkey, in that case how about a purple wash at one end and a green one at the other. Even better, how about purple for most of him and green at the ends of the bark pieces etc to show even old trees can occasionaly grow new leaves!

Still stays cold and older.

As we are coming up on the year 4 change-over... Will the topic for March be Space Marines again per tradition?

Also: Just spit-balling here: Was thumbing through the old topics and was thinking of some other ideas:

1. Killer Queen: From Morathi to Jeanne D'arc. From Saint Mary to Saint Celestine. From the underhive to the glades of the Everqueen: This month's entry must be a female model.

2. Mekboy Madness: Whether it is a seamless masterpiece or a messy bodge... This month's entry must be a conversion! Make the job a good 'un.

3. Color Challenge! This month's entry must incorporate *color of the month* as a theme into their entry. (I think that a variety of challenges could come out of this - including black and white, monochrome, all the colors of the rainbow etc.)

4. Old but not Obsolete: This model's entry must be OOP! (Admittedly problematic due to variances in people's collections...)

Nice work womprat49, the red cloak reminds of of the Spanish Inquisition (No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.......)

Welcome EagleArk

All of your words made sense Felt, but it is beyond my current level of colour theory knowledge to guide you in any way only to wish you the best of luck and I'm looking forward to seeing what you do. If you overthink it you'll never get it done.

 keezus wrote:

1. Killer Queen: From Morathi to Jeanne D'arc. From Saint Mary to Saint Celestine. From the underhive to the glades of the Everqueen: This month's entry must be a female model.
3. Color Challenge! This month's entry must incorporate *color of the month* as a theme into their entry. (I think that a variety of challenges could come out of this - including black and white, monochrome, all the colors of the rainbow etc.)

I like the colour one not to many technicals challenges get voted for over themes but would like to see it and its open to everyone. Also if we did number 1 I could do an Ork dressed a Freddy Mercury dressed as a woman (or something like that)
2. Goes without saying for me really but some people may not want to do a conversion.

Another WIP from we just to show some progress

 keezus wrote:
As we are coming up on the year 4 change-over... Will the topic for March be Space Marines again per tradition?

Also: Just spit-balling here: Was thumbing through the old topics and was thinking of some other ideas:

1. Killer Queen: From Morathi to Jeanne D'arc. From Saint Mary to Saint Celestine. From the underhive to the glades of the Everqueen: This month's entry must be a female model.

2. Mekboy Madness: Whether it is a seamless masterpiece or a messy bodge... This month's entry must be a conversion! Make the job a good 'un.

3. Color Challenge! This month's entry must incorporate *color of the month* as a theme into their entry. (I think that a variety of challenges could come out of this - including black and white, monochrome, all the colors of the rainbow etc.)

4. Old but not Obsolete: This model's entry must be OOP! (Admittedly problematic due to variances in people's collections...)

While I think a lot of these ideas are cool, I think most of them are pretty restrictive, and the bulk of people would have trouble finding an entry. I think we should avoid hard rules, like “must be female”. It’s one thing to play fast and loose with the theme, but let’s avoid binary yes/no things when we can. Especially with the dearth of decent ladies in most model ranges.

Mekboy is only an issue for my due to the time. Generally I have a couple of months lead time before stuff gets paint. a decent conversion is not always going to be readily available in some people’s painting queue, and not something that can be rushed.

I’m a big fan of the color one. I seem to recall once there was the thought to have at least one of the options for the vote be a technical/painting one, not a subject mater one.

While I can’t swing a dead squig without hitting models older then most posters, I think I’m in the minority here. If this got voted in, I suspect it would get a lot of “I’m out, see you next month” replies. I’m all for age related themes, but leave them open to interpretation, so someone could paint an elderly knight, or a venerable dread, or something. It would be a good excuse for us greybeards to get the lead out though.

I’m for keeping March marines, but some of these ideas could be tweaked a bit for April.

IMHO, YMMV, etc.

Okay, I'm going to call my entry finished as there are many other models that require my attention. I present to you my Alpha Legion Sorcerer on a jump pack (and of course, he's carrying a very big stick!):


Like my entry last month, this guy is not at my usual standards for my entries in these challenges, and for the same reason (I'm trying to work fast to prepare for Adepticon). I feel like he turned out okay though, and I did have fun painting him. Feel free to vote for the pics in the Dakka Gallery, and I look forward to seeing what everyone else turns out (hopefully it's better than my pitiful effort).

 feltmonkey wrote:
Guys, could I have a little advice please?

I'm painting the bark my Treelord Ancient a really cold brown, almost grey. I'm going to contract this with some warm red/orange/yellow tones on areas such as the runes and the staff. What I'd like to know is what colour do you reckon I should use to shade the bark? I'm blocking in darker brown in the shadows, and lining cracks with an almost black brown, but I wanted to put a bit of wash into the recesses to change the tone a touch and add interest and a hint of colour to something that is almost monochrome at the moment.

So I'm thinking I could either use a reddish brown shade, or a blue. The blue would suit the cold colours of the bark, and contrast the orange bits I plan on doing. However, it might make it too cold, or get lost in the overall feel of the bark. The red might bring a bit of life to this area of the figure. Or I could paint in the runes and such and see what I think then. What do people reckon?

For reference, the base of the bark is Dryad bark, and the highlights largely baneblade brown.

Maybe I'm too late but if not I think a subtle bluish (dark desaturated blue, navy blue, would be best) shadows would do the job nicely. I see you already highlighted with baneblade brown
which is a grey brown I believe, you could go over highlights with a light orangy brown tone. Blue is a complementary color to orange so you would create a nice contrast, cold shadow vs. warm highlight.
Orange goes well with the blue.

Thanks for the further advice, Modock, Midget, and Garrior. Some really good ideas there! Garrior, I like the idea of a bit of green. There is going to be green on the model even if it's only on the base. I'm considering trying to do a mossy effect in patches on the Treelord. It's a bit nerve wracking though because I've never done it before and don't have time to redo any mistakes. Modock - there are quite a few warm orange tones as spots of visual interest on the runes, the magic areas, and so on, so the cold bark is supposed to contrast them a bit. Midget - the advice not to over-think it is probably the smartest advice anyone has given me!

I can't wait until I post it and you all think, "wtf that's just brown, same as all his other trees. What was all that fuss about?"