Ezki's hobby thread: "The Final Prayer" - Working on a wounded Battle Sister diorama!

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**Ezki**

Thank you both!

More progress. The painting process has started.

In it's primed state. It looks quite peaceful.
At this point, I started to think that it might actually work.

Base colors on the base. At this stage, I felt completely and hopelessly lost. I kind of liked the ruins, but the ground looked so flat and uninteresting.
I tried different iterations and tones to fix it, but conventional means did not cut it.

I started to think about lighting and how to play with shadows to make it "pop" more. A friend suggested "vignette style shading", which I immediately put to the test.
After falling in love with the initial sketch, I decided to change my direction.

I think this is a lot better! I might even emphasize the effect a bit more.

With miniatures.

I still need to think about what to do with the ruins and how I want the light to affect them.
But that's a topic for another day.

Thank you for looking!

**gobert**

Wow, that’s really effective at drawing the eye, nice work Ezki!

**muette**

It's coming along pretty nice!

**Nevelon**

You doing lighting as a spotlight highlighting the scene? Or as the sister radiating the Emperor’s light? Which is on-brand, but not always litteral?

**Captain Brown**

Wonderful progress Ezki.

Cheers,

CB

**Ezki**

Thank you so much everyone!

Nevelon wrote:
You doing lighting as a spotlight highlighting the scene? Or as the sister radiating the Emperor’s light? Which is on-brand, but not always litteral?

A little bit of both!
The light will seem like it's radiating from the sister, but some of the shadows will still be present in the deepest recesses of the clothing for both of the main characters.
I'm trying to use the ways of traditional art as inspiration to draw the eye, but not going for ultra realism with the shadows. One could call it "artistic effect" or some such haha.

Some more progress!

Something was still way off with the pictures above. Every time I looked at it, my eyes kept on bouncing to the center of the middle pillar.
I iterated a few times, as I somehow thought that the highlights would "flow" better if they followed the shapes of the ruins.
After pondering it for a while and getting some feedback from a few friends, I decided to do the metals all over again. This time aiming for consistency with the vignette effect.

Iterating and repainting the metals took quite a while.
It felt quite daunting to paint over the rather smooth blends and redo them again a few times, but I'm really happy that I did do it.
Going back and forth is part of the process after all, tedious as it is.

Thinking I'm finally moving to the right direction and the colors help the story come alive:

I'd say I have crossed the 50 hour mark with this if building is counted.
There's still a lot to do. The base needs some more attention, after which I have to start working on the characters themselves.
I'm still unsure of the color scheme for the kriegers, but that's something I need to experiment on!

Thank you for looking

**youwashock**

The lighting on this one is unreal. Looking super good.

**gobert**

Looking epic Ezki, the highlight on the metal work seems to match the light coming from the sisters level now

**aku-chan**

It's coming along really nicely!

**Tyranid Horde**

Love it Ezki, been following along on instagram, cool to see it being updated here too! Love the purple notes.

**Nilfisken**

Amazing job with the focussed light!

**PaddyMick**

Beautiful work, thanks for sharing

**Ezki**

Thank you so much everyone! I'm glad the lighting is starting to take form.

Tyranid Horde wrote:Love it Ezki, been following along on instagram, cool to see it being updated here too! Love the purple notes.

Trying to post some written updates here too whenever I have the time!

Some more progress! Mainly on the characters.

I painted the Battle Sister to near completion. Only thing missing is the weathering, which will be done in the very final steps.

Close up of the head. Could have been a bit smoother, but the stippling style matches the armor I guess.

Seems to be working quite well with the surroundings.

Also worked quite a bit on the Kriegsman. I thought they would be quick to paint, but I forgot how many details they have.
Still missing all the golds, the book and the armor pieces.

Something with the base still feels a bit off. It looked better under a warmer light, so guess I need to warm it up a bit.
Or create more contrast between the cold shadows and the warm light.

Had a small break from the diorama, as I'm taking part in Gregor Pilarski's Walker painting workshop (three time golden demon winner and the creator of this piece for example.

We will have to build and base coat a walker (all the armor panels and metallics etc.).
I chose the Chaos Wardog, as I just love the armiger model and chaos versions are always so cool.

Here's my progress so far.

Added quite a few transfers. It was quite fun, but I had to practice a bit as it's been nearly 20 years since I've last used any of these on a scale model.

So shiny after adding some gloss varnish to cover them. Hopefully the AK Ultra Matte will be enough to break the shine.

A more picture heavy and short worder update this time.
Thanks for looking!

**Waaagh_Gonads**

Love the framing and posing.

Should the NMM reflection on the left side of the middle strut be to the right of the diorama, rather than the left as is to give consistency to the light source?

**JoshInJapan**

I really, really like the spotlight effect you applied around the dead sister. Very subtly, and very effective.

**Ezki**

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:Love the framing and posing.

Should the NMM reflection on the left side of the middle strut be to the right of the diorama, rather than the left as is to give consistency to the light source?

Thank you!
Could you elaborate a bit more (take a screenshot and mark it maybe?). My sleep deprived ass could not catch exactly what you mean.

Unless you mean this bit. If so, that's a good catch! The steel parts are still very much WIP, but I definitely need to think about reflections and bounce lights.

JoshInJapan wrote:I really, really like the spotlight effect you applied around the dead sister. Very subtly, and very effective.

Thank you so much! Glad the effect draws the eye.
Also, she's not completely dead yet

**Ezki**

Huzzah! Vehicles are cool!

So, I'm back from the workshop by Gregor Pilarski and oh boy did it ignite the love for weathering and painting vehicles again!
Been a bit under the weather for the week, so posting the update was a bit delayed (of course I'm sick on my summer holiday

).

Gregor showed us his weathering techniques step by step, while providing personalized feedback to each and every one of us.
It was a blast! Him not being from Finland, we of course had to show him how to enjoy Sauna the proper Finnish way

I thought I would be able to get the Wardog finished during the workshop, but that proved quite the challenge.
There were quite a few steps to follow and painting all the metallic parts took quite a long time.
Instead of trying to rush every step for all the parts, I decided to focus on the melee arm for the whole second day.

It was fun to find new ways how to paint true metallics and how to control the oil washes to achieve different effects.
There's still a lot to learn of course!

When I got home, I started working on the gun arm.
That still needs a bit of work, as I went overboard with the dark glazes. Gotta bring that brightness back a bit!

This project will likely go on hold for a moment, as I really want to finish the Final Prayer diorama for World Model Expo.
Will try to complete the Wardog over the summer though.

The flu still has a grasp on me, but I've been able to do some painting. Not being able to focus on display projects, I've been working on my Dark Eldar army for an event at the end of the summer.
I finally got the Scourges painted which I started working on back in September, if memory serves me.

The wing patterns were fun to paint, but all the small details and the bony parts were tedious. But a fun project nevertheless!

Over the next couple of weeks I will be working with the diorama quite intensely. I have three or so weeks to finish it if I'm to bring it to France.
I also need to fix a few mistakes on my other entries.

A bit of an messy post, but just wanted to throw a bunch of pictures and update my progress.
Thank you for looking!

**gobert**

Seriously gritty work on the war dog arms, it’s gonna be a superb doggo.

Love the textures on the scourge wings, was that stippling or deliberate individual brush strokes?

**Ezki**

gobert wrote:
Seriously gritty work on the war dog arms, it’s gonna be a superb doggo.

Love the textures on the scourge wings, was that stippling or deliberate individual brush strokes?

Thanks gobert!
The texture / pattern on the wings was done by stippling using a sponge (actually a piece of foam from a miniature tray, but nearly the same thing!).
Starting from very dark red and moving from magenta towards pink and finally a hint of Cadian Fleshtone into the mix. So a few passes for each wing.
Surprisingly fast. The bony parts in the middle took three times as long!

**Ezki**

So, quite a bit of progress has been done with "The Final Prayer" diorama.
World Model Expo is closing in and I'm on the final "crunch" and every minute is precious, so I will let the pictures do the talking.
Just wanted to give one last work in progress update before the event.

The characters are practically done. I will maybe add a bit of weathering and finish their boots once they have been glued to the base.

I ended repainting most of the sister's armor (or rather touch up all the volumes etc.), as the previous iteration did not match the same quality as the kriegers.
At first, I had planned to paint this rather quickly. But then something happened and I decided to take my time with it. More so than usual.

Face is a bit messy, but I think the eyes turned out quite nice.

Details! Skulls & chains.

Wanted to make the backside a lot colder.

Light volumes! This looks a lot better from up top. Maybe I should position it like this in the competition haha.

Test fitting! Still needs a bit of warmth.

That's it for today folks!
Still a few days left before the event, so time to get painting!

Wish me luck!
I'll hopefully post the finished pictures after the trip.

**Nevelon**

Good luck! Not that I think you need luck with your skills. Looks amazing. Can’t wait for the final pics.

**youwashock**

Judging by that last picture, I'm not sure she's gonna make it. No head, and all.

But seriously, outrageously good stuff.

**gobert**

Absolutely immense Ezki, every part of this is choc full of detail, love it!

**aku-chan**

Amazing work, good luck in the competition!

**mcmattila**

The diorama looks awesome, really looking forward to seeing it finished! Hope you have/had a good trip!

Ezki wrote:
mcmattila wrote:
snip

Good to see you!
Hmm, reddish light might be a good idea! Will have to ponder about it while thinking for color schemes.
At first I read the first half of your suggestion - "paint them something like the traitor sergeant" - and immediately began thinking of scenarios, where a traitor would show some humanity and come back from the darkness. Even for a while. Ideas are happening...

To answer your question, whether painting display and competition minis has affected my tabletop painting: yes, very much so. But it's complicated.
I'd say the biggest impact is related to the use of color and being more brave with different techniques.

Over the early years of my hobby, I was impacted most by the 'Eavy Metal painting style both from the Warhammer box covers and the official tutorials. This style stayed with me for the longest time and I tried replicating it the best I could. To specify, there is nothing wrong with that style, but it definitely values smooth transitions and clean lines. Following these guidelines, I became nearly obsessed with trying to smooth everything out all the way to the point that I actually avoided certain colors or models just because I could not make them smooth enough. This is not particularly the fault of the said style, but maybe the mindset many miniature painters have.
Mind you, I'm still learning not to be obsessed with these things, but it's a long process.

When I started entering competitions and paint display projects, I began looking at miniatures very differently. I took note on color schemes, techniques and visible brush strokes. Even trying to find intentionally rough color transitions that I might have previously thought as mistakes. After taking part in short workshops by Roman Lappat and Alfonso Giraldes, I finally began to understand the basics of color theory, ambiance and the importance of "contrast over smoothness" (contrast meaning both tonality and temperature). Hearing feedback from the judges and having discussions with other artists in events have further broaden my understanding of these topics. But in a way, I have also understood that the main difference between painting tabletop minis and display pieces is more of a mindset, rather than a set of certain skills.

All this has impacted my tabletop painting quite a bit. Instead of replicating the box art, I atleast try to bring my own touch to each piece. I do still follow the official color schemes and / or artworks of various minis, but I try to focus on what's important, whether it's the actual color scheme, the weathering or a set of textures for example. If a miniature is supposed to be rough, I make the paint job rough. Sometimes I still struggle with this, but "letting go" a small part of the perfectionism has actually made painting gaming pieces a lot more fun. However, I have started to find batch painting horrendous, which is kind of a negative when it comes to painting full armies. Luckily I do have quite a few painted 40k minis in my collection!

Hopefully this made some sense. I have a lot of thoughts regarding this topic, but it's hard to turn them into words.
It was a really good question! If we were to meet in an event one day, I would be happy to discuss this further!

Sorry I haven't replied to you sooner, but thank you for the detailed answer, it was an interesting read and definitely made sense! I think I'm still mostly in the 'Eavy Metal phase with all it's edge highlights. I try to break out and do a "messier" model every now and then, but it's really difficult for me as well. Of course, it's not a big deal since I pretty much always love the end result. It would be interesting to attend a painting workshop by a master, just to see if it would affect my painting/mindset.. I'm not currently looking to push my skills to competition painting - I don't have the time/opportunity - but I'm sure there are plenty of tips for all skill levels.
It would be cool to meet some day, maybe Cold North Open '26?

**Ezki**

Thank you everyone!

I'm back from the trip, but I will do a more detailed post about it when I manage to get pictures of the diorama!
Those of you who follow my instagram might have already seen the results. So in a typical Finnish way, I'll be prompt: Highly Commended in Master's Fantasy Painting and a bronze medal in Master's Fantasy Wargaming!

More of that later.

mcmattila wrote:
The diorama looks awesome, really looking forward to seeing it finished! Hope you have/had a good trip!

Sorry I haven't replied to you sooner, but thank you for the detailed answer, it was an interesting read and definitely made sense! I think I'm still mostly in the 'Eavy Metal phase with all it's edge highlights. I try to break out and do a "messier" model every now and then, but it's really difficult for me as well. Of course, it's not a big deal since I pretty much always love the end result. It would be interesting to attend a painting workshop by a master, just to see if it would affect my painting/mindset.. I'm not currently looking to push my skills to competition painting - I don't have the time/opportunity - but I'm sure there are plenty of tips for all skill levels.
It would be cool to meet some day, maybe Cold North Open '26?

No problem! Glad it made some sense haha.
I think your quality and style is already really good and it would definitely hold it's ground in Cold North Open! Even this year

But if you decide to take part in Ropecon this year or the next, just give me a message or "vedä hihasta" at the miniature area