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I also adore weathered things. Yours look great. Sorry, but you now need to go over all your greens and weather them too. And I mean every model in you army!

hmmm... i am torn... i like the waethering of the green ... you overdid it a bit on the scond spoilered pic tho... but i also think it ruins a bit the spotlight color... finally it is up to you... coolness or the duality of grim dark brought forth by bright colors in contrast to a sick world... thankfully i have not to do this decision^^

@Vit - thanks man, Was hoping someone would say that to reassure me!

@ Merlin - As much as I hate you for speaking the truth....you are right, hence the hour and a half I spent last night! All is now weathered!!

@ Vik - It was a very hard call, I think in the end though the more realistic effect looks much better, less cartoony, as for the spot colour I think its muted it a bit, but not as much as I feared.

This first pic is just to show everything I have finished so far and how much of a task the weathering was!!! The lighting is a bit rubbish though, the colours are all a bit lighter in real life. The problem with taking this picture and having a look at all the older models makes me realise I've improved alot with the faces, it annoys me and makes me want to redo some of them, I'm not sure I have the hours in my life is the only constraint



This is an example of when i got carried away and in my opinion did a bit too much on the gun:



And this picture shows when it went quite well, on both the flamer and sarge on the right.



Last thing! Do you think the bird warriors should be chipped too??

´course the birdies should be chipped... whoever is in a command squad is bound to be a vet... and a vet with pristine armor??? never!

well i knew from the beginning that i was fighting a loosing battle for your spotcolor^^ but i think it now looks good too... sometimes i have to play the devils advokate^^

as for your full army shot... with pics like these you really have to go into the gallery... one has to sijmply zoom in on all the details... and your cam allows that quite superb... so go to the gallery... and while you are there go and try the fish... ah... and vote

Those valhallans are incredible - the sculpting is absolutely top notch, and the green is such a genius spot colour. I wouldn't have thought it would work at all until I'd seen it!

The skull mask is ace on the flamer - I like that they're starting to pop up a lot in your work, not that your faces aren't fairly mind-blowing too... any chance you'd be willing to do a mini chat through on how you get that skin?

Personally I think the weathering on the green is a big improvement, and it's a lot of fun to do too! Keep up the great work!

really cool J!

 J-paint wrote:

Great family pic

@ Vik - lol! okok, the birds will be chipped! XD And thank you for playing devil's advocate, nice to hear a dissenting voice sometimes!


@Scarper - Thanks for commenting. Like I say, the green was more of a happy accident than anything else, as for the masks I'm glad you like them, nothing says grim dark to me more than creepy metallic masks! The weathering is indeed very fun to do, i didn't realise it would be, but its bascially about doing everything you normally avoid when painting! just roughly stippling edges and going for an uneven look, very rewarding. Will do a face tut for you on my next guy. =]

@Rogue wolves - Thanks.

@ Rawson - Lol it is indeed, but a very dysfunctional family consisting of whatever models I think look good!

So I'm on a bit of a modelling roll at the moment so I'll keep you informed, I got off ebay a fairly ok condition old leman russ to start bulking out my force. Now I've been messing around with it and have the start of something I like, first of all I chopped off the ridiculous looking battlecannon it came with, (am I the only one who thinks the old ones looked goofy?) and replaced it with a nice looking turret consisting of bits I thought looked cool together, If it came to a game it will count as the one with the twin linked autocannons? The name starts with an E I think.

I also replaced the lascannon with a heavy bolter so It has more of a defined role, namely destroying medium infanty and light vehichles. I then started adding little bits to it like the aerial. You'll have to forgive my lack of knowledge about leman russ tanks but I have a few questions for you shown below in bold:

Firstly should I include the track guards you see in the first pic? my main problem with these is they might look like they are floating in mid air, how are normal track guards attached?

Secondly should I include the dozer blade?


What shall I fill this hole with? The more creative the idea the better!



what is the hole in the spoiler picture and is it meant to be empty?


There is still a great deal to be done with loads of extra details and stuff so ignore any rough looking areas, I'll be going around with GS later.

Its the drivers viewport Pretty sure it has a hole in stock.

the spoliered hole is meant to look that way... it is a viewpoint... but if you feel akward about it... then simply fill it with PC or GS... do some lense effect there and you are good^^

the hole in the side is usually closed with a small door...



if you dont have one... and you don´t want to scratchbuild one or pressmould one... i can look if i have one in my bitzbox... iirc i know that i own one of these...

as for the dozer blade... well i cant picture my tanks with these things... it is a matter of taste i think... pointswise it is not really that expensive... style choice really...

as for the track guards... well i think you have got the wrong ones in your bitzbox? the pieces you show look fishy...

this is supposed to be the "fender" / end part of the trackguard...



by the way... i need to do some scratches and weathering like you did on your shoulderguards and guns... would be nice if you could do a small step by step for me as a sort of guidance? never really did that before...

I like the balance a dozer blade brings to the model... though I think you should mek it up a bit (perhaps some crenelations).

Thanks guys, the problem with getting it off ebay is your never quite sure if its all there Dont worry about digging out a spare Vik thats fine thanks, I'll improvise something out of pasticard, its good practice for me, as for the track guards they arn't the official ones, they are some weird extra plating you get in the chimera kit that I always get nervous about because after assembling I'm left with this large bit of riveted metal but no gaps, I just had them lying around so I heated them with a hairdryer and wrapped them round the front to represent that AV14 a little better, not sure If I like them though.

As for the chipping its pretty straight forward, I do a line of boltgun metal along any raised edges to start with, but make it a bit irregular, leave a few gaps, then do tiny irregular shapes near the line you've made, some should join with the main line but others should be totally separate, hard to explain, but really the less thought you put in the better!

On my next guy i'll show you what I mean, also I will do a quick face tutorial for Scarper and kill two birds with one valhallan!

Thanks Gits, I agree, it gives a bit of weight to the model, I may paint it but keep it separate for now, see how it looks at the end. Want to try a technique on the front of it anyway.

that sounds truly promising J-paint... looking forward to your face and scratches tut^^

and yeah... pratice makes indeed perfect^^ (to the PC works)

Sorry Vik! still havn't managed to get round to the tut yet! been a bit preoccupied with this tank! but it's next on my do to list! promise!

So here we go then guys! I've tried to use as many of the techniques in model masterclass as I had the stuff to do, which was admittedly not a great deal, but I made proxys for some of the weathering powders ect. I think overall the result isn't bad for my second tank attempt, Tips would be very useful here, how to refine/improve techniques, anything, be VERY critical. All are in gallery so click to zoom!

Great work mate! The tank is awesome. The guard troopers are great too. The converted wraith is very colorful and the complementary contrast is a little to much for my tastes, but it's still a solid paintjob and a nice conversion.

One thing about chipping:
If you want to add some more depth/realism to it, highlight the paint at the bottom edge of the chipping (i.e. brighter green at the edge) and shade the top of the chipped area (black on the upper edge of the metal). This takes some time and steady hands, but it's very rewarding when done right.

Boy... it's hard to be critical of that JP. If anything, the cleanliness of the tracks seem at odds with the disrepair and wear of the rest of the tank... and there's still a visible mold line on the spare fuel tank.

Other than that, I'd say you learned your lessons well.

J-paint, that tank looks great. The weathering is perfect, I love the oil/rust streaks. Great job!

@Baiyuan - Ah that's a great tip, I haven't heard of that one before, thanks very much, I'll give that a go next time I do a character or something important, I think it may be a bit too much effort to go to for all of the troopers! (Having said that...I may do a few.)

@Gits - Ah yes! that mold line annoyed me too, very irritating when you see them when a model is finished! The tracks your right about too, I might see about adding a bit more mud or something to them, your right, they seem a bit too clean compared to the rest.

@merlin - Thanks man! The streaks took quite a while but I think it was worth It. I'm waiting with bated breath for your update when you get back from germany by the way.

Great looking tank you have there! I think your weathering turned out much better than average, so don't worry about that! Also, very nice fix on that missing hatch door on the right side. Well done!

gotta gree with git on the tracks...but if he hadn´t mentioned that i t wouldn´t have bothered me because of all the cool weathering and the nice all around look this tank shows... the amount of grime and soot and rust... very cool work...

Still loving your work J-paint. As promised, the Korzacks are beginning to take shape in the real world...

J PAINT!!! YOU ARE STILL DOING WORK!!! AND IT LOOKS GREAT!

@Rawson - Thanks very much! Yeah the weathering is Ok, needs to be refined a little, practice makes perfect though! As for the door It's just some plasticard and a handle.

@Vik - Thanks Vik, I've since muddied the tracks up a bit more so I'll take a pic when I get a chance.

@Demetri - Awesome! Can't wait!

@Comradepanda - lol I am, thank you man!

So because I promised a face and chipping tutorial I thought I'd honour my promise for scarper and Vik, although the chipping on this guy didn't turn out as well as many others, must have been the pressure!

So first faces:
Basecoat of tallarn flesh and wash with ogryn flesh and thinned down aggraxearthshade. (You'll have to forgive how I have an odd mix of old and new paints, I buy them as the old ones run out.)
That will get you to here:


Next I black in my eyes, even though they were already fairly dark:

Then I put a VERY small dot of bleached bone on each side of the pupil, I use bone not white because white can look a bit starey. Dont worry if the eyes are a bit droopy at this stage like this guy's left eye.

I then go around all the high areas with tallarn flesh, including just under the eyeball to show eyelids. (sorry for slightly unclear pic here, lighting wasn't the best.)

Then I take a small amount of elf flesh and mix it into my tallarn flesh and pick out the highest area, especially on the top half of the face as this is where the light hits more.

This is then repeated with even more elf flesh in the mix but just on the most extreme edges like the eyebrows and nose.

Now It's perfectly fine to stop now, its a very passable face, but because these guys are a bit cold, I've gone on to give them slightly rosey cheeks and a red nose. I mix a very small amount of red gore into my flesh mix and thin it slightly, then i apply it over the tip of the nose and the bottom half of the cheeks, i.e. under the cheek bones:




As for the chipping Vik, Its pretty straight forward but I'm not a pro at this yet by ANY means, but heres what I do:
Base coat of colour with all the normal highlights/washes etc:

Then all the obvious sticking out edges are lined in metal:

Finally the edges are roughed up a bit with random chips in the middle, (this is a bad example, I wasn't very pleased with this.) This is the second of my spotters btw!


As for what else I've been doing, i have been slightly sidetracked AGAIN! I have decided to do a squad of space wolves grey hunters to go with my valhallans as a sort of cold theme, I don't like space marines normally, they seem too small, but I think I've come to a compromise I quite like, even if it only works for space wolves. I have a feeling I am not the first to have this idea but this is my take:


WIPs:

And for scale, I think it gives him a nice boost, makes them closer to the height they should be in the fluff:

what have you used for those legs? that isn´t standard SW armor? cool looking... those boots give a nice ruffian feel to them!

"loincloth" and cape look very cool... the air of that one giy tho looks weird ... there needs to be done something about that...

as for the tuts...

many thanks mate!

the facees one was done as meticulously as can be... i specially like the little remark about the white in the eyes... that´s going directly into my active memory!!!

and the chipping...have you considered using a tougher bruch ... to stipple the scratches? for my current project i needed to do lots of random looking structures and i used a very old hard brush and just happily stippled through the project to get my glow effects for my arena...with a small enough brush it might work here too...


and ...where the hell is that yellow abomination coming from???

many thanks again for those tuts!

Lol thanks for commenting Vik! Your the only one brave enough to! The legs are from warhammer chaos warriors, as are the capes, It's actually a pretty fiddly conversion but I'm getting better at it! The hair is indeed needing a bit more work. The tough brush is a good idea! might look into that, even if it doesn't work at this scale It would definitely be good for tanks and stuff, but then with things of that scale you can use a sponge for a really nice effect too.

The yellow THING was just for scale purposes, didn't have any other very common models to hand! It was an attempt to see If I could paint yellow with just a series of washes...The answer unfortunately is no! Its far too bright and uneven for my liking, but hey, it's good to try things out.

nice tutorial, lovely vostoryan, And cool spacewolfs!

Awesome stuff!

actually you have to see the yellow with the eye of a detailed mini... just a yellow canvas is too much to bear... thus your reaction...

and i had the slight suspicion it was of the choas warrior sprue... those boots... cool idea!

well... as for braveness

Hey dude, awesome thread. I'm a huge fan of your Admech, and the Valhallans are top-notch. I really like your use of Blood Angels death masks. Very creative, and I might just steal it, if that's okay!

As for your Space Wolves, a good friend of mind does the same thing with his awesome Word Bearers army; seen in this thread: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=150542

The one issue about the way you're doing it, is that, unlike my friend's, you haven't changed the look of the boots. The legs look like power armor until you get to the feet, and in my opinion, they look derpy. My suggestion is to carve the plastic below the kneecap and mold the power armor around the carved-out portions and feet with green stuff. It not only makes them look beefier, but it gives the legs a more consistent feel of armor, rather than them being Space Marines with leather boots. I'm pretty sure my friend has a tutorial on how to do it in his thread, but here's a picture comparison so you can see what I'm talking about:

Welcome darth bob! Thanks for commenting, please feel free to steal away, the internet is one big creative soup.

That is a very nice word bearer's army!

As for the boot thing, I do see where your coming from, and I appreciate in reality It would be ridiculous for them to wear either boots OVER their armour or just boots, but I was going for a very tribal look for them, I'm not a massive fan of the rounded feet on space amrines anyway so I thought it might be passable, I intend to armour them up a bit more, add something that marks them out as being a bit more high tech. But thanks for the link and the comment, I will try GSing a normal SM foot on one of them just as a comparison.