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Hello,

Recently we had the opportunity to paint a tounrament army of Iron Hands, relying heavily on bikes and allied Imperial Knights

We’ve done the black in our highly-reflective approach, take a look at them in our gallery and on the images below.













How is the army appearing to you?



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Very beautiful army.

Few small problems the hammer is backwards and tires have mold lines.

But I couldn't do better and still better than anything I could dream of doing.

Bolters are on the wrong sides too.

Really like the metallic effect you have, the thunder hammer around the wrong way is a bit annoying.

Honestly? These would have been better off without the airbrushed highlights. It's clearly the "look at me I have an airbrush" style, and doesn't line up with what parts you'd expect to be highlighted or how reflective metal actually looks. Spraying random blobs of white into the middle of every surface is not NMM.

I know what you mean and although I agree with you, it is still a crisp looking army, neatly painted with a very unified look. Hammer and bolters aside, I'd be more than happy to have that army on the opposite side of the table.

Good airbrush skills.

Iron within! Iron without!

D

Sorry, but I'm going to have to agree with Peregrine in that these models have no character to them at all. The airbrush quality is good, you definitely have skills in that field but the overall model quality appears to lean on the "airbrush = good painting" idea.

1. The Sergeant's Thunder Hammer is on backwards and his Boltguns are crooked. Boltgun barrels aren't drilled either which is what I'd expect if I was paying commission prices for something like this.

2. Besides the Grav Guns, there is no distinguishing features at all among the Bikers. It could have been the same Biker photoshopped multiple times. No purity seals, extra details or even transfers or company markings, just random hightlights that seem to be put there just for the sake of using the airbrush as much as possible.

3. The Knight also lacks detail. It's just...grey, with nothing that immediately draws the eye. No heraldy (which looks really weird having a blank shield and banner), it's just this odd combination of unrealistic reflections.

4. Ironclad and Drop Pod seem fine.

Overall, the actual quality of what you've painted is good, it's just a number of missing features that turn it from a well-done unique commission to "production line airbrush job".

No offence is intended here. i hope you can understand as a professional artist that this is genuine criticism and advice rather than a personal attack.

 Peregrine wrote:
Honestly? These would have been better off without the airbrushed highlights. It's clearly the "look at me I have an airbrush" style, and doesn't line up with what parts you'd expect to be highlighted or how reflective metal actually looks. Spraying random blobs of white into the middle of every surface is not NMM.

LOL go away with your airbrush hate.. seriously.. you're contributing zilch. you do this on every forum that an airbrush is used on the model.

Kill3RKiD wrote:
LOL go away with your airbrush hate.. seriously.. you're contributing zilch. you do this on every forum that an airbrush is used on the model.

I don't hate airbrushing at all, and I don't criticize every model that was painted with an airbrush. Airbrushes are a wonderful tool, when used appropriately. What I am criticizing in this case (and in the other one you whined about) is a for-profit commission painter selling bad airbrushing work.

 Peregrine wrote:

Kill3RKiD wrote:
LOL go away with your airbrush hate.. seriously.. you're contributing zilch. you do this on every forum that an airbrush is used on the model.

I don't hate airbrushing at all, and I don't criticize every model that was painted with an airbrush. Airbrushes are a wonderful tool, when used appropriately. What I am criticizing in this case (and in the other one you whined about) is a for-profit commission painter selling bad airbrushing work.

His work is incredible and his airbrushing is spot on.

Kill3RKiD wrote:
His work is incredible and his airbrushing is spot on.

Lol? Maybe you're just easily impressed by the "look at me I have an airbrush" style. If you look at it carefully it's not even close to spot-on. The "highlights" seem to have been done without any apparent thought about which parts of the model would reflect the brightest shades. And they were very clearly done with a single rough pass (probably with one color) and no real attempt to blend the colors, so there's a hard edged blob of white instead of a smooth transition from the lightest shade to the darkest. It makes it very clear that an airbrush was used to paint the model (therefore justifying the "I paint with an airbrush" level of commission pricing) and is great for assembly-line painting a commission project as fast as possible, but it doesn't give a very good result.

And of course this is entirely consistent with the lack of attention to detail in general. You shouldn't be able to look at commission work and see mold lines that haven't been removed, gun barrels that haven't been drilled out, etc.

As mentioned above, very metallic feel to it but I like it a lot.

Back in Black I guess.

 Valkyrie wrote:
Sorry, but I'm going to have to agree with Peregrine in that these models have no character to them at all. The airbrush quality is good, you definitely have skills in that field but the overall model quality appears to lean on the "airbrush = good painting" idea.

1. The Sergeant's Thunder Hammer is on backwards and his Boltguns are crooked. Boltgun barrels aren't drilled either which is what I'd expect if I was paying commission prices for something like this.

2. Besides the Grav Guns, there is no distinguishing features at all among the Bikers. It could have been the same Biker photoshopped multiple times. No purity seals, extra details or even transfers or company markings, just random hightlights that seem to be put there just for the sake of using the airbrush as much as possible.

3. The Knight also lacks detail. It's just...grey, with nothing that immediately draws the eye. No heraldy (which looks really weird having a blank shield and banner), it's just this odd combination of unrealistic reflections.

4. Ironclad and Drop Pod seem fine.

Overall, the actual quality of what you've painted is good, it's just a number of missing features that turn it from a well-done unique commission to "production line airbrush job".

No offence is intended here. i hope you can understand as a professional artist that this is genuine criticism and advice rather than a personal attack.

Most of these issues are going in pair with the thing, that we're providing the painting service in several qualities - with the lowest one, we're able to produce the neat effect, without much field to create "wow effect". In higher ones, there is plenty of opportunity and time to go more wild on the models. Not everybody wishes (or have the funds, but still would like the army to be done) to have the army painted in the highest standards. Going with the lower quality for the basic models is a common way to go.

It's also going with the airbrush quality and detail work - the better the quality, the more time we're able to spend on the project, what is resulting in the better quality of airbrush blend. The same applies to the other issues mentioned.

Kill3RKiD wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:
Honestly? These would have been better off without the airbrushed highlights. It's clearly the "look at me I have an airbrush" style, and doesn't line up with what parts you'd expect to be highlighted or how reflective metal actually looks. Spraying random blobs of white into the middle of every surface is not NMM.

LOL go away with your airbrush hate.. seriously.. you're contributing zilch. you do this on every forum that an airbrush is used on the model.

It's more than what you've contributed to this thread.

For me the white highlights are far too strong and look like very little care has been taken to give a smooth transition which takes no time at all, so even at the basic level this should done. I've got to be honest this is a very sloppy commission and the fact the models are built incorrectly highlights this.

I think the criticism is overblown in this case. They seem fine for a lower level commission. None of us being privy to the actual cost, its difficult to ascertain the cost to quality ratio. Painting style is just that, a style indicative of the painter. The customer may have
desired that and not some other form, in which case this commission is a product delivered as ordered.

Models being built incorrectly, yea, that should probably be fixed before the customer receives it.

First Image has the Thunder Hammer backwards, with mould lines still visible.

Crooked Bolters. without drilled barrels.

Mould lines on the bike tyres.

If the client prepped them like this before sending for paint then more fool them.

If Awaken Realms pepped this way then it's a bad advert. It's a bad advert either way if this is what they are using for promotion.

I have been considering Awaken Realms for a commission, I still may use them - a reason for the mistakes would be nice.

 Mr. Burning wrote:
I have been considering Awaken Realms for a commission, I still may use them - a reason for the mistakes would be nice.

While I understand why you'd want AR's reasoning for the modeling mistakes present you realize that you are asking AR to potentially alienate an existing customer in the process answering your inquiry, right?

Publicly stating that assembly errors were a customer's fault (even if true) is a bad idea from a customer relations standpoint.

If you really want to know the story behind the incorrect modeling perhaps contact AR privately and address your concerns relative to the upcoming commission you are planning.

My gut tells me that a lower assembly standard was chosen by the customer (as AR indicated with the painting), which doesn't excuse the backwards or misaligned parts, but may well explain the existence of mold lines and non-drilled barrels.

You can't reasonably expect them to say that it's the customers fault can you? I think it is a safe assumption that well established, professional commission painters know how to build a basic model. You can hardly expect them to publicly blame the client for misbuilding the models, that would be extremely unprofessional, especially in light of it being a tournament army.


Edit ah darktraveler, you beat me to it!

I agree with Peregrine in general, the airbrush is a tool you use to make work go fast and easy. A good airbrush is when you can't tell it has been used. The white doesn't feel like a good highlight because it looks like the model in that spot got bleached by the sun in that specific area somehow. A stronger contrast instead of a fade would have been better I feel.

You guys paint good but lack in modeling skills. Kinda like beautifully painted contemptors looking like they stepped on a banana peel.

 Peregrine wrote:
Honestly? These would have been better off without the airbrushed highlights. It's clearly the "look at me I have an airbrush" style, and doesn't line up with what parts you'd expect to be highlighted or how reflective metal actually looks. Spraying random blobs of white into the middle of every surface is not NMM.

My thoughts exactly.

Hello,

To respond the recent voices.

Aside from the work of more quality, we're showing our lower quality armies/projects just as the examples of those qualities - we believe that sharing the projects of all qualities (not only the best ones) will result in better understanding of our work and the differences in the qualities of painting we're providing - as not everyone might want to have the army done in the best standards, sometimes choosing lower ones due to the budget issues and/or treating the army just as a tool of gaming.

For information about the wrongly assembled parts and every other issues we're encouraging to ask in a way DarkTraveller777 and JamesY suggested- as sometimes these issues are not dependant on us, and sometimes we can also make something wrong and overlook it.

Also, there are projects, where the customer just want to have the models painted to play with them - as he's more a gamer then a modeller, hobbyist and painter, he wishes to have the army just basicly done, caring less for the issues like undrilled bolters, without "fireworks" the better qualities may provide. For those, our standard quality is a good option, as for relatively good cost he can get his force done (with the painting style that is fitting the customer taste - we're able to produce an army without heavy airbrushing if that's the customer's taste - http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/663058.page as well as get far better qualities of airbrush - http://awakenrealms.com/galleries/house-hawkshroud-imperial-knight/ - but it all comes to the quality of the painting, what is directly connected with the cost.)

We're open to suggestions of the customers and if any issue (like special care to painting faces, drilling the bolters or limited use of light effects) is being adressed, we're always taking this into account.

For anyone thinking about getting the commission (or just wanting to have a talk with us) our Private Message box and Mailbox are always more then open. You may find there answers for your questions before the commission or just get an insight in our work.

Finally, thank you all for contribution to this thread - the feedback and criticism is always good to see, as only thanks to that one may learn to get better and it also help us to know how our projexts are looking like in the broader eyes of the community.