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I would love to know how you did the Thorakitai. That kind of matte "stealthsuit" grey-black with the olive drab trim would look stellar on the Wildcats and Intruders I think.

The main armor is GW's Skavenblight Dinge, highlighted with VMC Ice Yellow and shaded with VMA Black Grey.


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Over at the ItG forum there were questions about the colours too, so I'll take the time to give a complete rundown, when I get to it.

That is beautiful painting mate

Here comes a quick rundown of the colors I used. I usually take pictures of the paints (in order of application) involved in the more important areas for future reference, so here they are:

Armor:


Metal (Buckles and launcher tube):


Lights (Visor was the same, but with more Light Red, Mahagony and some filters of VMA Tank Brown):


Cloth/Pants:
Didn't take a picture but it must have been VMA US Grey Light, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey

Corpus of the Launcher:
Again no photo, but it was VMA Olive Grey, VMC Ice Yellow, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey

The mail on the arms:
That was VMA Steel, VMC Dark Sea Blue, VMC Black back and forth until I was more or less happy with it. The texture on the miniature made blending this area impossible.

The straps:
GWfoundation Gretchin Green, VMC Ivory, VMA Black Grey (mixed with acrylic medium as I was experimenting in this area), later to be followed by layers of VMC Black and VMC Dark Sea Blue to increase contrast and dull the sheen of the medium.

Also here is a small teaser of what's currently on my table or at least was a couple of days ago:






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 neil101 wrote:
That is beautiful painting mate

Thx, mate! How is your stuff going? Am I not aware of your progress or has there been less than usual?

Am I allowed to use 'beautiful' for something so dark and brooding looking?

Love the dark tones, and the subtlety of shading. The visor sets it off perfectly, and stops the mini looking too dark - makes me think of the visor that David wears in the movie Prometheus!

Amazing stuff

Yes, you are!
Thank you!

Look at that I go away for the weekend with poor/to no internet and B paints a new miniature.

Stunning as with all your painted works. Really like the colour scheme....especially the green straps.

Question Time: Out of interest how long do you think it took to paint this latest model? Did you use an air brush or just use "air" paints on a brush?

Five in three years not too shabby....with promises of more in the future.

Interesting seeing your painting station it looks really well made and practical, a place you would want to paint and model.

GW note: Not sure I like the Tau Warriors paint scheme!

Looks fantastic mate!!
Can't wait to see you pump out an entire army at this standard!!

PDH wrote:Stunning as with all your painted works. Really like the colour scheme....especially the green straps.

Thanks, mate!

Question Time: Out of interest how long do you think it took to paint this latest model? Did you use an air brush or just use "air" paints on a brush?

Hard to tell, with all the pondering and staring out of the calculation I'd say 20 hours. As I mentioned there also was a lot of experimentation involved and being a lot more confident in the results I can yield employing the various techniques (i.e. having a little more practical experience with said new techniques) I'm sure I can speed up the progress.
Still no airbrush involved, just traditional brush work. The thorakites as a matter of fact was primed white with a can and from there on just acrylics applied by brush. So far I'm only using the airbrush for priming and sometimes basecoating. Any attempts at laying down basic shadows and lights ended up being covered by brush, because they weren't as smooth as I wanted them to be.

Interesting seeing your painting station it looks really well made and practical, a place you would want to paint and model.

For more intricate modelling work I have my workshop upstairs. This table is actually reserved for painting only, even though recently I have been going upstairs less and less.

GW note: Not sure I like the Tau Warriors paint scheme!

Hehe, that's a test run for my AlcladII metallic paints. Shiny, but not shiny enough, I made a mistake during the application.

Tech Guard wrote:Looks fantastic mate!!
Can't wait to see you pump out an entire army at this standard!!

Thanks! You and me both, let's hope we get old enough to see it. Seriously though I'm working hard on it.

Aleph has uploaded the wrong painting aspect onto my Lhost.
In other words, I'm stuck. Brush, give me strength and determination!

What model are you currently working on?

Could be Nomads running interference on your progress...

Could be, I was given a sizeable Nomad force by a friend who decided Infinity is not for him. Maybe they are hacking my cube from their showcase in the attic. Dirty Nomads!
I'm currently painting the Mk3/Asura conversion. After a lot of back and forth the base colors are applied, but I'm still wondering whether I've made the right decisions.
Very dark grey armor (darker than on my other minis) with some chosen panels painted in brownish green grey underlined with blueish light grey mesh.
I hope I'll make it through the bottle neck of scheme planning soon. I'm looking forward to actual painting.

As a side note I've had an idea for a long term side project. I'll be building and painting a full fletched Infinity diorama, including at the very least 4 infantry models and a converted TAG.
Pondering over it the last two days it has already developed from a loose idea to a complete scene. Just some details about the setting will have to be determined before the basic construction work can begin.

Ariadna or Bourak as setting?

Well hope you push through the sticking point soon and look forward to seeing what you come up with.

As for the diorama, Ariadna or Bourak depends on what minis you'll be using.

Bourak could be cool for all the desert and dust effects you could bring in, it would also depend on whether you wanted a futuristic Dubai or Rural Afghan kind of look.

What models? Can't say!
I'm in favor of a desert theme for said reasons (dust effects etc.), but fluffwise I could place it in the Commercial Conflict on Ariadna just as well. All in all the desert theme will create more room for eyecandy and I guess that means I've already decided. Thx, for setting me on the right track.
How futuristic the design of the environment will be, I don't know yet, but it will be urban, not rural.

I don't know if you've looked at any of the concept art from Bungie's new game Destiny, but the landscapes are awesome and the artwork is very inspirational for Infinity themed scenery. There are quite a few landscapes that merge the sand and dust of a desert world with futuristic city-scapes.

I'm not sure what to say. It's always much easier to tell someone else how to break their block than it is to break your own, I know that. The only advice I would give is to make your color scheme contrast (at least somewhat) with your terrain. You'll look at them yourself more than you will play and therefore more than anyone else will look at them. By that logic, your photographs (and background for photos) will be what people see most.


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You named the thread "reckless abandon" which, for you and your exacting standards, is still statistically ALWAYS going to be more precise than anyone else's around here...Throw some paint on!!

@sacra: Yes, I've looked at the Destiny concept art just recently, but of course I don't know what you refer to specifically. So if you have something in mind that could help with urban desert scenery, don't hesitate to post it in here.

Thx, Dave. Two different projects actually, the one I'm stuck on is the paintjob of my Asura. The desert diorama thingy still being in the modelling phase I could easily work on it for days on end.
I actually try to use it as a change of pace, when I don't feel like painting, but it's hard to not dive in head on.
So far I have already pinned the TAG and cut its legs into pieces to rearrange its pose. It's working out quite well and next I'll have to mirror/copy the left knee over to the right side to make it bend.
I hope the infantry arrives soon, so that I can put together a first mockup of the composition. Then I'll be able to decide how much and what kind of scenery I'll have to build.

Regarding my painting trouble I've got some games at the FLGS scheduled for the next few weeks. One is on thursday already, but the other is on the first of november and it'll help motivating me to get the Asura done by then.

Baiyuan,

These are two of the images I was thinking of from the Destiny concept art:





There is some great artwork for this game that has a very Infinity like feel, at least how I imagine the game anyway.


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Baiyuan,

A quick question about the paint scheme on the thorakitai:

When painting the visor and lights on your thorakitai what order did you apply the colours in? Did you start from a base of scrofulous brown and highlight up to golden yellow then ice-yellow and shade down to light red and then burnt umber?

Thanks

 sacramentofcarnage wrote:

The first one is not what I can imagine for my diorama, to much like Mars or something. The second is great though, I'll keep that in mind when I enter the construction phase.

Did you start from a base of scrofulous brown and highlight up to golden yellow then ice-yellow and shade down to light red and then burnt umber?

Precisely. There was some back and forth until I was happy with the result, apart from that it went like you assumed. I also came back later and painted in fine reflection lines with white or ivory, but unfortunately it's almost invisible on the finished miniature.


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Random inspiration. Just stumbled across this. It has got both a lot of 40k and Infinity (at least my dark interpretation of it) vibe.
http://vimeo.com/75782290

Breakthrough, finally found the right main color for the Asura, the rest will hopefully be a more pleasant experience.

Also got another side project that is due next tuesday. My fiancé and I had recently joked about a certain play of words and I had non-commitally said I'd draw her a picture of it.
Instead I have secretly decided to sculpt and paint it instead so that she can put it on her desk or wear it on a necklace. Next tuesday being her fourtieth birthday gave me the perfect occasion to do so.

Hey,

Hope the Asura is going well. Do you ever post wip photos?

Quick question about your approach to painting, do you use a layering technique or do you wet blend when painting miniatures?

Alas, the Asura is not getting any love at the moment. I'm still busy with the birthday present, but I'm almost done with it and then it's straight back to the Asura, I promise.

WIP sometimes, but I'm not a friend of PIP. Too much changes during the process, it would be confusing for everybody involved.

Technique... a wide ranges of different ones, depending on the area/miniature that is to be painted. Layering, two brush blending, one brush blending, one brush two colors blending etc. I use them all to some degree when I think it is most efficient to do so.
Recently I've been using one technique more than others though. It's a little trick I learned from Ben Komets, but I couldn't explain it in words alone, you'd have to see it. A specific way of applying and moving the paint to achieve fast but convincing wet blendings.

Also today I went to my FLGS for a game with Schattenschwinge, the guy who organized all the league stuff here in Hamburg and also the german Infinity championships.
We had a very interesting game and even though I lost or maybe because I did, I learned quite a bit.
The only vexing thing about it was, that I know exactly in which moment I messed up. There were two orders which I should have spent in a different order (as in sequence). So sniper first, HMG second instead of the other way around, but I had not even been aware of the fire lane for the ARO until it was to late. My fault because I lose my cool whenever my AD troops touch down and get sloppy. Maybe next time...

In other news, I picked up some paints, the infantry box for my diorama and as it happens Nessaie Alke which arrived at the store right after our game.

For a change of pace I have started changing everything I don't like about the miniature. Namely the goofy hair and the nonsensical position of her sword arm (being a martial artist I otherwise just couldn't help but looking at the wrong positioning of the hand/weapon all the time).
I'll report in detail and with visual proof of my work once it's done.

Now back to work.

Thanks for the update and for the insight into your painting techniques.

I think I know the technique you're referring to, I have Ben Komets tutorial that he did for Miniature Mentor and his new Painting Buddha one on its way.

Looking forward to seeing the Asura when it's done and the mods you do to Nesaie Alke.

Totally frustrated!
My compressor just died in the middle of painting the present for the missus.
There are three equally aggravating results to this:
If I can't borrow a compressor from someone I won't be able to finish the present.
Sooner or later I'll have to spend a couple hundred euros on a new compressor.
Until then I obviously can't use my airbrush and I'm currently broke as feth.

Get a cylinder filled with Co2 or air from a gas station, fit your regulator on the cylinder, then put it in a bucket of warm water to prevent freeze-over. You could also buy a can of compressed air, but that's really a waste of money. Got a SodaStream or welding cylinder? Any gas will do as long as it has the right fitting or adaptor to fit your regulator (and it isn't toxic or flammable)

Since I got my Badger TC910 compressor, my old big box compressor is just gathering dust and cobwebs, but it doesn't do you much good here. Sucks man, so sorry.

Thanks for the advice and compassion, Dave!

Venting my frustration without letting my fiancé know why exactly I was so pissed off by the broken compressor was a real achievement. Anyway she was thinking more clearly than I did and set me up to borrow one from a friend who actually lives next door. I hadn't even thought of him.
So I stopped by today and got his Silair, which is a fine piece of equipment, which I'll have to consider getting myself at a later date.
So it's all good for now. I can continue working on the present and worry about a new compressor later. Xmas isn't too far away after all.

Good news! My new one is fantastic! It's almost quieter than the fan I use for drying! It doesn't wake up Ladygeek or the dog when it runs

 Baiyuan wrote:
Thanks for the advice and compassion, Dave!

Venting my frustration without letting my fiancé know why exactly I was so pissed off by the broken compressor was a real achievement. Anyway she was thinking more clearly than I did and set me up to borrow one from a friend who actually lives next door. I hadn't even thought of him.
So I stopped by today and got his Silair, which is a fine piece of equipment, which I'll have to consider getting myself at a later date.
So it's all good for now. I can continue working on the present and worry about a new compressor later. Xmas isn't too far away after all.

Nice solution! A compressor dying in the middle of a painting session can be incredibly frustrating... it's already happened to me as well, although luckily it was an easy fix that the company was able to send out a small part to me to get going again. Glad you had such a neighbor and can continue your progress here!

Baiyuan,

I know you mentioned in one of your posts that you'd used some of Ben Komets' techniques. If you haven't seen it already he has released a DVD set under the title paintingbuddha. It's great stuff and he goes into detail on his wet blending. If you haven't got it already I highly recommend it.

Hope the project is going well, mate.

how did your compressor die? My first one was DOA and the guys that sold it to me talked me through a way to repair it. You'll have to excuse the technical jargon here, but maybe this is worth a look:

On the top part thingy that sits above the bottom tank, one side is basically just a wheel turned by a motor, if you open that side up with a screwdriver you can turn the compressor on and check that the wheel is turning. On mine the wheel was turning but the piston arm thingy had detached. They said you can fix this yourself but you need a special strong glue stuff. I sent mine back but I think it was a pretty easy fix if I had needed to do it, and quite common too apparently.