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Are we stuck in page rollover?

It sure seems like it...

Hrm... Looks like my post was eaten as well. Cant find it on this page or the last one! D:

I guess at long last we've hit the Gitsplitta Threshold

Crazyness xD
Or perhaps.... Is it time to move to a new thread?

You're not the only one to loose posts in the warp recently. Probably a server thing.

But your's appears to be working again... so where's this update?

Aye, I saw a couple of people were having issues. Good to see that it seems to have resolved!

My update was rather dull, anyways, as it was simply the below images showing progress on the Grayscale Marine!








Who needs WiP pics, though, when the final product is available!!



I have a bit more of a writeup in mind as far as things I learned and stuff, but right now Im dead tired and have to go to work early tomorrow xD
Till then, Happy Painting!~

I like that a LOT. Looks good. Rad color spray, yellow or green or what. I really wish I had known this was coming up, because I would love to show up all your rods and cones possessing punks on some pure shading.

I hear you about work tomorrow, but TGIM. I've got Tuesday and Wednesday off! Ahahaha!

Thanks, dude! Yeah its Scorpion Green, so a very bright fluorescent green.

I'll admit Id really like to see you do something like this. Im curious what sort of insight actually having a bit of color blindness might give a paintjob. Its a fascinating prospect!
(I've been feeling particularly academic lately... constantly pondering things and formulating how to write the "report"... I think ive been out of school too long! )


Anyways, Geez... I just cant believe all the talent that came out of the woodwork for this competition. Really thrilled with so many different takes. Im definitely learning a lot from studying peoples' work xD


Ok, so more of a write up, as last night I was totally beat:

Grayscale was a challenge that I've been itching to try out, but just never got around to. Ive seen people do WWII scenes to great effect. Some of them looked like damn near perfect black and white photos!

I know the conceptual basics of B&W photography, at least. Texture and contrast. This played a heavy role in my decision. I wanted to do something with varied colors and definitely varied "textures", even though its all just a smooth plastic mini.
The split scheme was introduced to add a bit of complexity to the model- a carryover from my Marines Errant, to be sure. Not only do I get the contrast of "Red" and White, but theres also the little bit of "Yellow" on the discarded helmet. I think the only reason I didnt do a quartered scheme was because I couldnt find one i particularly liked (granted I looked for like 3 minutes XD). Come to think of it, I coulda done a Novamarine and gotten an interesting look. Ah well.

Anyways, I wanted to try chipping and weathering, too. After all, thats more complexity to the paintjob, as well as visual interest and storytelling. It was surprisingly easy to figure out... Rather than using a metallic silver over a black, then line highlighting the chipped edge of paint, I omitted the metal and simply used a darker color. Black for the gray and a middle gray for the white. It was then a simple matter of picking out the regions of chipping paint that would catch the light and whatnot.
The battlescars on the dead nids needed a bit of the same, though I just used a brighter highlight color to gently bring out the chipped and worn edges of their talons and armor plates. A bit of stripeyness to the chitin got me added texture.

Next were the metals. As it was a black and white project, any colored paints (yes, even metals) were out of the question. The obvious workaround was a journey into that most treacherous of painting techniques, NMM. I've never really even attempted it in the past, so this was very much a trial by fire!
On certain areas like the gun and the harness, I dont think I went dark enough. NMM seems to really need contrast, but thats something I've always had a problem with. I used a number of reference pics from around Dakka to help me out. I definitely want to include it in my repertoire, as its really a massive mark of skill to pull it off well (imho, of course). I guess this isnt too bad for a first shot. Next time, more contrasting tones!

Finally, I wanted a spot color that wasnt the usual red. I've noticed that red blood spatter is a common thing to see in this style of painting and wanted to break away from the norm. Thus the neon green. Alien and slimy. Only concern is that the brightness of the green makes it get lost int he white of the armor. Just seems to blow out the camera a little too much!


Whew... that was a long ramble. If you read that, thanks for suffering through my thought processes, guys!


On the project front, its now back to the flyers. Im gonna try and finish them by the weekend, as I've a few other new projects lined up. Another Necron Annihilation Barge, as well as a pair of Noise Marines!!
Till then, paint away!

Well done.. I thought the 'spot of color' was right on!

All very sound thoughts, Ramos. And a great product.
The half and half split on the armour works really well. Good shading and weathering. And the spot colour choice is great.

There goes any hope I may have entertained of getting first. Not that I had much hope anyway.
Damn you, Great job.

That is fantastic, you should try sepia tones with a Brushfire mini next

But seriously, that is stunning dude.

@SL: Thanks a ton!

@DrH: Very much appreciated, mate. And dont sell yourself short! The ginger DE dude was masterfully done! Very nice contrast with the leather and the flesh, and the shading on the hair is beautiful! Where I went for gritty and dirty, you managed to pull off very clean and crisp.
I really dont envy the judges... There were so many beautiful entries that I really cant see any clear cut winner!

@Alf: (Ooooh how SUBTLE xD)
Honestly, thats not too bad of an idea. I take it that painting it grayscale and washing it with a sepia filter doesnt count?
I wouldnt mind doing something like that later on. Maybe after this round of projects when i paint something for me again Ill give it a shot!



So work has been productive... Silvers are complete on the Talon!


While the silver was out, i also put some wear on the turbines. Im thinking the center cone of the intake needs to have a pattern on it... Maybe? Im not sure. I'm a little divided on the idea, honestly. A spiral would look too out of place, but m,aybe just a red/black quartered pattern? The idea being that ground crews would know when the blades are spinning. Then again, seeing as its a marine vehicle, perhaps a solid color (or even bare metal) would be fine. Whatcha think?



At this stage, ive got the red areas and the golds to go. Im gonna wait till the Raven is to a similar step so then i can airbrush birns and such on the engines and vents all at once. Then a little detailing and theyll be complete!

I think something on the cones would look to orky.

 Ramos Asura wrote:
@DrH: Very much appreciated, mate. And dont sell yourself short! The ginger DE dude was masterfully done! Very nice contrast with the leather and the flesh, and the shading on the hair is beautiful! Where I went for gritty and dirty, you managed to pull off very clean and crisp.
I really dont envy the judges... There were so many beautiful entries that I really cant see any clear cut winner!

Don't get me wrong, I'm very pleased with how my wych came out. With such a strong turn out it could probably go to anyone. It does look like a very hard job to judge. Thanks.

As for your turbines, maybe just a simple, single stripe on one side of the cone. That way you still get the safety feature, but it doesn't overpower the rest of the model.

I'd go for a solid red cone. Add a little bit of that 'Red' Scorpion back into the model.

After some considerable thought, I figured I couldnt get something on the turbines to look good. Like WM said, it just makes it look too orky. In another scheme, maybe itd work, but I suppose Ill have to leave these guys as bare metal!

Nevertheless, the two flyers are complete at long last!!

First up, the little bird- Storm Talon!


Pilot detail... Also shows off the turbines!



And the big beautiful Storm Raven! Seriously, that extension kit makes it all the nicer to look at.


The interior is also painted, though you cant see very much of it now!




So with these guys done, "whats next?" I hear you ask.
Well Gitsplitta has officially relaunched his Mantis Maker competition! As I missed it last time, I definitely want to get in on this! Plus, there are cookies involved... and fatkid Ramos likes cookies


Next up are a couple of smaller projects: two Noise Marines (test miniatures for a client), and an Annihilation Barge + Overlord!



Thanks for reading and for tolerating my glacially-slow updates!
Till next time!~

Look good! It'll be nice to have some real armor in the force. I think more infantry is needed next time though.

Nice work on the flyer Ramos. Pilot and gunner look great in there.

Nice flyers .. only critque is I would have done some yellow on the tail.

I spy sonic weapons

@WM: Glad to hear it!
Agree with ya on the extra infantry. Plus, I really like painting infantry figs. Also, it shouldn't take me near as long to do those opposed to the bikes!

@Gits: Thank ya kindly!

@SL: Thanks! Yeah I was considering some kinda tail markings, but couldn't think of anything decent... Didnt want to risk ruining the gray either >< Im open to ideas, I suppose?

@IG: Yes indeed- I guess they're from Spellcrow. Rather nice looking, if a smidge difficult to position. They're a bit fatter than normal bolters, so chest details can get in the way.

===========================


So a while back, as I sit around checking my email/forum posts before work, I notice Kingdom Death had a few new items. One of them really caught my eye, part from the looks and definitely the price point! Sure I have a million and a half things coming eventually from Monster, but I wanted to get my hands on something KD related and actually see their stuff in person.

So with but a few remaining minis left in the store from this particular run, I ordered myself a White Knight!






Initial feelings are pretty good Sharp detail, pretty mini, very few defects. If all the stuff I get in the future turns out like this, Ill be super pleased!

The only thing to figure out now is how to paint it!

Wanna paint up my own KD model while you're at it?

 Alfndrate wrote:
Wanna paint up my own KD model while you're at it?

Yeah you should! The KoD figure are very unique!~

Maaaaaaaybe....
What was the mini you ended up with again, Alf?


And dont worry- We're sure to see more KD stuff once Monster starts to ship. I have a boatload of stuff set to come to me... Even considering adding one or two more things that I missed out on all those years ago!

I ended up with this awesome looking dude:

Oooohhhh ya know I really like that one! So much flowing cloth... one of my favorite things to paint xD Very cool!


So I've been trying to keep up with my painting, but its mostly been assembly and all that jazz this week in preparation for the CSM and Cron projects.
WM came up for the day Saturday, and we got our usual game of Zombicide in (as well as a couple rounds of horrible FPS games for the PS3 . We also swapped out projects, trading the finished Red Scorpions for a much larger project below.


But before all that, the project progress log must log project progress!

As mentioned before, Im doing a pair of Noise Marines. The client wants to keep the colro closer to the stock scheme, so no electic pink marines like my previous Slaanesh lord! xD
This is where I stand after a few various mixes of P3 Carnal Pink and White, then a wash with a mix of various SWM washes. He loos a little light now, but should darken right up after putting on the black trim!



The second project on the table is another Annihilation Barge for my usual Necron guy!


Pretty standard, eh? Nothing out of the ordinary about this...

Where we deviate from the norm is the Lord. As he already has the previous magnetized barge, he had no real need for a second, so the big gun is just gonna get glued in. As such, the lord is gonna be a pure foot lord. He wants to have him as the big lord of his army, so asked me to do some upgrades, a stand-out paint scheme, and more importantly a new scythe!

A little bit of cutting and pasting, and I rigged this up:


I wanted to keep the look very Necron, so this meant taking a blend of Egyptian and tech and seeing how it set up. I modeled the scythe blade on an Egyptian Khopesh, which is notable for its very unusual blade- its close to a scimitar, but has a straight segment to the blade as well. The lenses were donors from a Storm Talon sensor array (or it mighta been the DA flyer). The plan here is to paint the blades solid black, with green lines accenting the sharpened edges. Then Im gonna hit it with gloss varnish.




Finally, as i had mentioned, WM had popped down with the next box full of minis.





Oh my.... Thats a lot of human skin to paint...

O___o''

Lots of interesting project stuff there Ramos, looking forwards to the Relic Knights I have some of those to paint as well.

Nice. Keeping busy indeed! .. What no farm animals?

Theres no pleasing you, is there, SL. Too many farm animals, not enough farm animals....
I have a couple Brushfire minis that I could do, but those are a little bit down the list for now. These two are the priority projects at the moment!

Hrmm.... So Emperor's Children pink and black is a bit harder than I anticipated....



The nice pale pink I got just looks terrible next to the black trim, even in this most basic state. Theres just too much of a contrast between them, and not nearly enough contrast on the pink armor... I think im going to have to restart these guys. Maybe if I started with more Warlock purple in the base pink mix, rather than starting at a pure bright pink... I just dont want these guys to turn into fluorescent pink marines too quickly.


Hrm... actually, I may have botched this initial test. Looking online, it seems that the trim is usually a silver color? Maybe that would look a little less insane... aghhhhh





I did see another painted set of Noise Marines in a really odd variation of the scheme


The differing areas of black and pink do look pretty solid... Im still running into the contrast issue though... the pink just doesnt have enough, and the black has too much. Silver might be a better option though... Doesn't fix the pink though...
Maybe if I got them more like this:

A little more of a subdued highlight on the black though...



This is surprisingly harder than I thought it would be.



What do, dakka?

Maybe a touch more shading on the pink areas, but how about a dark to medium grey instead of black. That will also lessen the contrast, but next to the light pink, a dark grey will still appear "black".

I think i might have a problem with that as there will be areas of true black on the model, pauldron insets, etc, that I dont think could be a dark gray without looking out of place. Having them black with the rest gray would look awkward too, i think.


*Severely underestimated the effort required in painting good pink and black*


On the upside, I may have inadvertently been given a solution. I ordered a bunch of paint from The Warstore, and they mixed up one of my colors so I got the Vallejo Game Air color for Warlock Purple instead of Tentacle Pink... I just happen to now need to spray a little warlock purple....




In the meantime, before priming again, I sprayed a little magenta ink on the marine to try and give him some shading:




Better... The black isnt -quite- as jarring...

Still gonna need to respray these guys though!