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Subbed! You've got some lovely colour work coming along here mate

Yeah it is really nice being able to prime regardless of time or weather and it costs a ton less, barely use any of this vallejo surface primer compared to how quick I seem to be able to go through cans.

I've had a bit of a hold up though, I spend the entire day painting a plasma cannon and I borked it. Really cant stand how it came out and with the damages added Im not going to bother stripping and trying it again. So I have a brand new plasma cannon in the works that will be ready to begin painting in a few hours, probably do this side by side batch painting with a few normal marines to get them under way as well. Really have taken too long on this heavy weapons guy.



I just couldn't recover the actual plasma generating area itself so I trashed it to start over >.<

My attempts to speed up my painting a bit you can see here I've started batching. I don't think I could do more then three at a time for this before I begin to 'rush' myself and make mistakes >.<

Also re-doing the plasma as you can see, to try and finish off this heavy weapons guy asap.

Looks good. Does the red legs denote a veteran or something?

Batches of 3 are a pretty decent size. I've been painted guardsmen for the past week and settled on a batch size of 3, too. Small enough to make considerable progress each day, and perfect for mixing paint and using it all before it dries

The red legs were something I actually got the idea from on Dawn of war. Which is were I came up with how I was going to do the coloring. The solid brassy/bronzy/goldy effect all over came across really dull so I picked from their heraldry colors and such which are basically gold, white, black and red featured and ultimately took a nice color that would draw the eye from the constant metallics.

Vets get the red mohawk-like head bits and the special shoulder pad for their right shoulder as opposed to the base space marine one.

Terminators and more elite troops also begin to have more red on them covering arms and such also so its a theme that runs throughout.

Yeah its good. I really do like the look of that "gold". Its very simple yet very tidy and clear. It really looks great.
Dont feel that you should rush the heavy weapons guy. I use models like that as a reward not a hurdle. Its a chance to add a splash of detail and color to the squad. You're making just fine progress, enjoy the process

Brief little update, been working so I haven't had a chance to do much.



I do have this problem though when it comes to batch painting. When it comes to detail or blending I get suckered in working in and out of the detail until its 'presentable' which causes some issue because as you can see xD The model with the base completely left the others behind. But I guess its as close to batch as I can manage.

I know what you mean. When I was painting marines, I would batch paint most of it, then get caught up on one model and finsih it well before all of the other models xD

I'm just really not good at leaving things looking 'incomplete' With the base colors its fine, because while in complete its properly blocked in and etc, but with blending (there is blending on the 'finished' legs) for the red I can't just do one shading and leave it be, one thing it is easier to blend while the paints are wet, but aside from that it doesn't look good until its done. Which sends my ocd wild.

So I end up going further and further and further, and well. You can see that one pair of legs has jumped forward a good few steps ahead of the others lol.

Another minor little update. I managed to get this done the other day but didn't put it up yet. Just starting on the arms now so those should be done by tomorrow and hopefully the heads!

Anyway~ Another picture. Because I'm pretty fond of taking them xD




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Hopefully xD the close up on the red better shows the blending I do. I prefer a more passive shift between colors. I find a lot of the types of shading people do to be um. Violent? Bold? Surreal?

I like my shades to pass from one to another seamlessly so they are actually formed more from multiple glaze-like layers to a slight edge highlight. Not that you can really tell the edge highlight is there. Which is good. xD

Ah you and a share a similar neuroses. Mini painting OCD. Unfortunately, wet blending is your only path to true salvation. having patience helps too good pix, share more! I enjoy all your updates.!

A small update >w< I am still alive!
Just been rather busy. Picture quality is a little meh I didn't have much chance to set up proper lighting or anything so this was taken in a pretty dark environment and a little rushed.

But I just wanted to show some progress being made. I recently got my new guard codex for an allied force alongside them. probably to be part of the high lords of terra's private army.



Could also do with a little dusting >.e is what happens when the proper casing hasn't arrived for them yet and I'm too busy to pay them that much attention.

A big group shot will be coming soon upon completion in a few days where the first group of 5 will be completely done.

Really cool models! WIll keep checking up on this blog

Looks great, mate

Agreed. Looking really nice!

Everything looks great so far. The red shin guards on the new guys are great. It adds a lot of color to a scheme that is generally very monochromatic. Subscribed!

Another update! So far all this has been doneeee I actually forgot to put the transfers on the shoulders xD so I will need to re-do that bit and seal it manually without spray, which is a bit of a pain.


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Wanted to add a quick shot of the transfers, not that you can really see them much in the previous picture but I can at least sort-of show how they are.

I treat transfers like paint markings, so generally they aren't super refined printed tags. Like a lot of military gear, at least how tank symbols and such seem to be painted they aren't done with the utmost of care and only being a paint layer are subject to taking a lot of wear. So the same generally goes for my chapter symbols.




It's a little tricky to see I know >.<


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For anyone thats curious, I lay the transfer with water just like any other transfer, make a few slits to allow for folding / the bend of the shoulder pad.

Then I use isopropyl alchahol over it a few times to get the damaged worn down effect similar to its use on paint. Being 100% alchahol the degrading effect is a natural side affect of its chemical nature.


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Also got a custom foam come through for it. But it looks like I may have to chop into it a little to account for the more accentric weapons and characters.




It's to hold 5 Terminators and Moloc, will probably need to chop into the termie slots for some of the weapons.

10 Space marines with regular weapons.

4 Centurion devastators

1 Librarian

5 Scouts

And the chaplain.

I do need to add some foam padding in the bottom as its 2 inches deep (for the centurions while the rest of the miniatures dont need that much depth.

They look fantastic, mate. They make me want to do minotaurs even more (already got a minotaurs project lined up for the future - and this blog is definately a place of reference!).

You've managed to break up the bronze with the red perfectly, without using too much red to suggest it's the primary colour. That sarg's helmet crest really makes the model, imo.

Why not get pluck foam? That way it can be whatever shape/size you want it...

Z

Great mini's i had to save the pic with the eye lenses shown so i can practice my own.

Yeah that foam looks nice, where'd you get it?

Zambro wrote:They look fantastic, mate. They make me want to do minotaurs even more (already got a minotaurs project lined up for the future - and this blog is definately a place of reference!).

You've managed to break up the bronze with the red perfectly, without using too much red to suggest it's the primary colour. That sarg's helmet crest really makes the model, imo.

Why not get pluck foam? That way it can be whatever shape/size you want it...

Z

Thank you for the kind words >w< they are inspiring to carry on with these hehe, help my motivation! And yes, I thought the flat bronze armor of the minotaurs to be tooo dull? A little plain, so I figured
adding the red would help the eye move about the model better. I know, from a lot of the necron armies that too much of a single metallic can give a bad finish. Grey knights have gold to offset the silver which helps a little, and the red on there bolter weaponry and such really helped.
I was looking through minotaur scheme in the actual book and they included red here and there quite a bit. Usually small bits however so I really just built upon that ^^.

I didn't get pluck foam because to me it looked a little messy, I wanted something nice and easy I could slot stuff into (go figure I still have to make some exceptions for various models >w<

shingouki wrote:Great mini's i had to save the pic with the eye lenses shown so i can practice my own.

I hope you find it useful, I can provide the process if your that interested in how I did it. I made my lenses rather easy to do by not going as in depth as some others while keeping the same
general effect and feel.

Sageheart wrote:Yeah that foam looks nice, where'd you get it?

Battlefoam ^^

Great looking minis. The colors are really a delight to look at. This is probably my favorite Minotaur army of all the ones I've seen. The color use is really ace. I've never been a huge fan of the Minotaurs simply for their color scheme, but you've made it engaging and interesting to look at. Great job! Look forward to the next update!

 Sasa0mg wrote:

shingouki wrote:Great mini's i had to save the pic with the eye lenses shown so i can practice my own.

I hope you find it useful, I can provide the process if your that interested in how I did it. I made my lenses rather easy to do by not going as in depth as some others while keeping the same
general effect and feel.

Please do share...

Well, okay!
So like >w< its really simple...

1) I start with Knarloc green as the base for the eyes.
I also use it to go a little around beneath the eye itself which will be used for the OSL glow effect of the eyes. Be sure to actually do under the top lip of the eye but not over it.

2) I give it a generous wash of Thraka green. With this though I overlap all of he Knarloc green and even go a little bit further as to tint the color of the armor around the eye more softly beyond the green.

3) In this I paint the the very center of the eyes with Moot green. This I do with a really thin brush and drag the brush stroke from the very inner most point of the eye/face to the outer. So right eye is right to left, left eye is left to right.

After that I use the same moot green to do a sort-of edge highlight around the eye itself on the armor, going a little way into the Knarloc green we've already painted around the eyes.

4) Another wash of Thraka green! This tends to work somewhat like a glaze by the second wash, the armor will be tinted even more like before and it will act to bind all the greens together.

5) Back in with the moot green! Now with this you don't take it all the way across the eye. In a similar brush stroke to before though you do paint mostly the very center of the actual lens itself.

A very minimal edge highlight on the very closest parts of the armor to the lens.

6 OPTIONAL) you want to go a little more you can also venture to adding a slight brighter green dot on the inner side of the eye to lighten it even more, but for a table top standard I don't really think that more is better for this. As eyes are so small so long as a hint of OSL is there and you've remained within the lines things are fine.


How to recover if you messed up a little?

The hardest part is staying 'within the lines' when eyes are concerned, if your brighter layers have over stepped the boundary of the lens its quie easy to just give it a nuln oil wash in the most recess areas around the lens to give even greater definition about the eye, encase you've smudged a bit or done too much.





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I think I might do some pictures on this xD I still have 4 more normal marines to do.


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If you take into consideration that they eye lens itself isn't completely illuminated, then against some of the OSL lighting tutorials I've seen I would assume and believe that the light itself wouldn't necessarily be illuminating even the recess areas of the lens itself, somewhat like an LSD light, the lenses don't have flood lights in them so the fact that the glow would mostly be centralized to the middle of the lens kinda makes sense.


Other osl stuff would suggest the lens itself would be the complete brightest source of the light in which the recess around the lens then should also be quite brightly flooded with light, which I don't think it should >w<

Another small update. With that last bunch done its time for some more. I'm being a little more ambitious with this >w<

Still have the weapon of the devastator marine / heavy weapon guy to be completed and will be with this batch because!
The second plasma cannon guy will be in with this next lot as well I plan to do both the plasma cannons together.



Also in this you'll see two with capes! Thats the promotional web exclusive marines by GW I plan on using them as alternate Sergeants for my marines in the off chance that I will give them power fists and or unique stuff. I also wanted to try my hand with free hand so his will be a first time ever for me when it comes to those two in particular I will be having a go at 2 free hand banners.

Looking good. What color are you going to paint the capes?

I'm torn between White, black and red. I think red with the shin guards would be too much. The only other colors lent by the insignia's are white and black trim so it would probably be between those.

I'm more inclined to go with the white as I think it would reinforce the golden armor more.

Thanks for sharing the how-to on the eyes. Always good to know good painting techniques. Even if you dont use them, you can always adapt / experiment with the stages.

The models in progress look cool. White cloaks are hard, so if you take that route, I wish you luck
I just did a quick google image search for minotaurs. Overall, the models are painted with quite a dark palette. Maybe a black cloak would be better?

Either way, i'm sure you'll nail it. (You could even do both, one on each... )

 Sasa0mg wrote:
I'm torn between White, black and red. I think red with the shin guards would be too much. The only other colors lent by the insignia's are white and black trim so it would probably be between those.

I'm more inclined to go with the white as I think it would reinforce the golden armor more.

I definitely concur with your thought process. I think a nice, deep off-white with gold edging would look good. I'm envisioning almost a cream color.

Zambro wrote:Thanks for sharing the how-to on the eyes. Always good to know good painting techniques. Even if you dont use them, you can always adapt / experiment with the stages.

The models in progress look cool. White cloaks are hard, so if you take that route, I wish you luck
I just did a quick google image search for minotaurs. Overall, the models are painted with quite a dark palette. Maybe a black cloak would be better?

Either way, i'm sure you'll nail it. (You could even do both, one on each... )

Thats what I was originally thinking of doing, but then it struck me that I wasn't really basing my minotaurs on the dark pallet.
http://wh40k.lexicanum.de/mediawiki/images/thumb/e/ea/Brazen_Minotaurs_Bild-1.jpg/200px-Brazen_Minotaurs_Bild-1.jpg
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130614071353/warhammer40k/images/c/c5/AsterionMoloc3.jpg
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130625221145/warhammer40k/images/b/b4/Minotaurs_Tartaros.jpg

Some of the reference material that I've been going from. Now, the color of the bronze to me seems more gold, as I have done, and doesn't appear to be as dark as a lot of people have been painting the miniatures...
While the color presented in the logo is of a dark bronze brass to me the minotaurs seem like they should be colored more like the brazen minotaurs, more gold then bronze. I mean, they were originally bright yellow and red as well.

Darth Bob wrote:

 Sasa0mg wrote:
I'm torn between White, black and red. I think red with the shin guards would be too much. The only other colors lent by the insignia's are white and black trim so it would probably be between those.

I'm more inclined to go with the white as I think it would reinforce the golden armor more.

I definitely concur with your thought process. I think a nice, deep off-white with gold edging would look good. I'm envisioning almost a cream color.

I was thinking of making it a little off-blue shades within the white, I can't find an example off hand at the moment, but I was thinking to go for a more pure white, simply because the robes being used by the robed marines are already a bleached bone / cream.