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Grain of salt: I’m just a basic guy, and don’t do directional light of fancy stuff. YMMV

I’d start with a wash and highlight. If you focus the highlights on the direction you want, it might be enough.

If you need more shadow to help tie in the directional lighting, do another thin glaze on the areas you want darker. I’d stick with shades of brown, and not go black.

Yeah, more or less my thoughts as well, though as noted I'm not half to the level you have there. Highlight the lightwarss side, shade it down, and then maybe do another layer or a darker red-brown to help the direction more.

I've never done an art course and my knowledge of colour theory is pretty basic or non-existent. But my thought was because the dress is green and the skin leans towards yellow ochre, I was thinking a gold that is only subtly rather than strongly towards the red side would work better since I want the gold to blend into the model rather than popping out and overpowering other details.

So something like this but with a silvery highlight...



Or maybe like the gold in the first part of this video...




Then when I get around to her hair I'd do a reddish brown similar to what it's already painted but just neater.

This is turning into a thread of "an uneducated fool tries to paint a display model"

Few finished shots of Jakkob. Hopefully I can get dain finished by tomorrow too and get him photo'd

Sorry all, I injured myself bad and haven't been able to sit up to paint. So I am going to toss this little quicky I did yesterday instead of my triceratops

Welp, I actually managed to get them finished yesterday and take pictures today, so I'll be entering 5 old guard for this month!



More in spoiler with proof:

 Freya wrote:
Sorry all, I injured myself bad and haven't been able to sit up to paint. So I am going to toss this little quicky I did yesterday instead of my triceratops

Wow, I'm sorry to hear that Freya. I hope you have a speedy recovery.

Hope you get well soon Freya!

Here are my finished pics, didn't even attempt Sam & Frodo, just their friendly companion:

Rock in the pool
So nice and cool
So juicy sweet!
Now we wish
To catch a fish
So juicy sweet!

My girls are slowly getting there...



I'm painting them along with the rest of my metal banshees and Jain Zar, I'm very happy with the overall look of the group...

sorry to hear that Freya, take care of yourself and don't push it if you're in pain.

Viterbi, i love it.


well, i managed to finish the rest of the group. i still have nothing to base them with, however, so. . they have naked, embarrassing bases but hopefully that is okay. this fella i think is actually my strongest mini so far, but he isn't my favorite.



this was the final ork and his skin came out extremely dark. overall, he [and his ork friend before him] are kind of flat. but that is okay. i'm learning. and i, at least right now, like the idea of different orky skin tones. it might not seem like much, but the skull color on the sword was my crowning achievement. i didn't have a skull color, so i just started mixing a bunch of stuff that i thought might yield that kind of color and it worked! pretty exhilarating.



here is the group complete. an incredible achievement! starting out painting just one model was quite the laborious and lengthy task. it's still that, but i am getting faster, confident, and gaining control of my brush. it's becoming less and less intimidating (bases on the other hand. . . still pretty spooky. but i also don't have anything to base my models with yet, so)




anyway, the images i would like to submit directly to the challenge and my favorite ork:






once again please ignore that disgusting peg connecting his arm. right now i don't have access to superglue. one day he will be whole. i'm still figuring out what their identity is, but i do like the pink accents so i think i will continue to do that, but maybe dial it down. originally i was gonna call them the blood beatas, cause they had white shirts but they krumped so many humies their shirts turned red. this was great, i look forward to the next month's challenge.

Just need to add grass tufts and take proper pics but I'm done.

Get well soon Freya

I have nearly completed the statue, currently adding verdigris to it, primed a 3d printed base fior it too.
The devastators will have to wait, some family issues occured and I had to go to France.

Final pictures for the Mako-alike. Added a bit of weathering, a light rusting and stuff on the lower surfaces, and my first ever use of weathering powders! A light dusting around the wheels basically.











And a final in-universe group shot with the Kodiak from last year

Got around to taking final pictures for mine as well today:

I still need to figure out how to take better pictures, but I am happy with how the models look.

Hey, whaddya know, I actually got an entry done for once! Here are the final pics of Celeborn and Galadriel:



I think these fit the theme pretty well, as they are two of the oldest elves in all of Middle-Earth. Galadriel was born in the First Age, and Celeborn might have been too (less familiar with his origins though).

I had loads of fun working on these models. I feel like these particular sculpts are more appropriate for a battle game than the standard versions that come together (Galadriel is in her "war aspect" form, Celeborn has his armor and weapon). Everyone always thinks of GW just for Warhammer 40k and AoS, but Middle-Earth is where a lot of the best sculpts they make come from. These aren't even among the newest, and they still hold up pretty well. Apologies for the photos being a bit pixelated; I couldn't figure out how to fix it with my editing software, so I just left them as-is. That's what happens when I zoom in too much with the camera, but I didn't want to take faraway shots where you can't see any detail either.

Lots of nice entries coming in from everyone else, too! It should be a pretty good time going through everyone's entries when it's time to vote. Presumably next month will be the traditional Space Marines theme, so I'll see you all there!

Ah well, this is as far as I'll get her before the clock ticks over to March.



I think maybe I pushed the contrast on the metallics too hard, the combination of true metallics + shading and highlights is perhaps too strong?

Her hair and the brown bits of her clothing are not finished, but to be honest I kinda like the hair as it is even though I haven't painted it beyond the quick undercoat, lol.

The metallics look good to me. I find tmm quite difficult, but these give a good gold effect.

Up to the wire again..... :-S

AllSeeingSkink - Looks really good... tried using oils more on couple models after watching NJM doing it on youtube, but never got the hang of it. You got some really nice blends going....

OK... so another random 3dprinted model... some ancient evil or another ;-)

anyone spot the theme? maybe depends if you have kids or not ;-)






and the proof

Calling it done!

Here is the final image:

So dain is finished but I can't get any decent photos of him, so I will be entering just the numenorean soldier and Jakkob.

Nice work everyone!

My final pics of Hancock and Nick Valentine. Bonus pics in the post below of the others I was working on but these two fit the theme best I think.

As always feedback is most welcome and appreciated.

And bonus pics

A still un-primed mini stands, his outstretched hand pointing accusingly at the paint pile.

Sorry friend computer, reporting for termination. Perhaps my next clone will do better.

'ere we go! Managed to get four of the orc boys done and surely it's still Monday somewhere, right?

I like the look of your piece, AllSeeingSkink.

Life got in the way this month and my Eldar didn't get done. Thought I was going to have to miss a month but then found this little guy, small enough to get done this evening. Not quite as old as the Eldar but does date back to the early nineties so still fits the theme






One snotling is not great for a month, but better than nothing (just!)

Hi All

Sorry I've been very quiet (and still not done the league table update), Hobby time has had to take a backseat these last few weeks

Kharn the Betrayer seems like hes pretty old at this time despite time differences in the warp

Proof


Finished

the_balloon_dog wrote:
AllSeeingSkink - Looks really good... tried using oils more on couple models after watching NJM doing it on youtube, but never got the hang of it. You got some really nice blends going....

I might write up a tutorial on using oils, as I think they can potentially be a really good way to paint to an above-average level in an amount of time that is not much more than table-top standard.

I really like NJM's videos, but I used a method that I haven't really seen used on miniatures, it's more akin to how canvas painters use oils. Before attacking the sorceress, I painted this shield, and no exaggeration it only took me 10 minutes to paint. I don't know about you guys, but painting a smooth blend like this with acrylics would have taken me waaaay longer than 10 minutes.



Unfortunately I didn't take any WIP pics, but the method was to use completely unthinned oil to build up a value sketch, so using photoshop this is what I mean...



No exaggeration, it was 4 colours painted opaquely to create the value sketch.

I then just attacked it with a completely dry small mop brush in a stabbing motion to blend the 4 discrete colours together, and after a bit of blending it turned out like the top image without having to go back and touch things up.

For someone like me, the progression of "undercoat -> oil paint value sketch -> blend" is way easier.

Because the time is spent laying the value sketch, whereas acrylic painting techniques (at least to me) feel a bit trial-and-error-ish in terms of what value you get out at the end. So many times with acrylics I've painted models and overdone the shades which makes it look too dark, or overdone the highlights which makes it look like candy, but if your first step is a value sketch you can get the right amount of midtone, the right amount of shade and the right amount of highlight in the right spots on the model before you worry about blending it.

The massive downside is the drying time, I painted that shield in 10 minutes but then I left it on the shelf for 3 days to cure, lol, so that'll play into the workflow.

The sorceress wasn't as simple as the shield, because the details as so small I decided instead of doing a complete value sketch I'd just do a value sketch of the shade and midtone and only a couple of the more major highlights, then gradually added the more subtle highlights on top and blended them in as I went, and went back and forth with shades and highlights to get them right. It took me maybe 1 hour to do the skin and 2 hours to do the dress (wasn't timing, just estimating).

Minifigs Mythical Earth Man-Orc and Goblin. These are some of the first fantasy minis commercially released (1974). Age before beauty indeed! I mounted them on plastic bases so I can use them in Warhammer.