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So I'm getting back into painting for a little bit to kill the time while I wait for some buzzsaws to arrive in the mail for my dreadnought.

As it's been a very long time since I've held a brush (ignoring, perhaps, a christmas gift or two I made for the girlfriend) I thought I might throw up the paint-in-progress here for criticism. The more brutal, the better, as I really do want to improve.

I'll start off with the Nob. I'm very rapidly becoming a fan of the idea of very rusty things for my orks, half because I like the way it looks and half because I need a fair bit of practice before I even consider throwing a loaded brush at my Gargant. To that end, I've mostly done the rusty bits on him so far, as well as the base and lower body. The rusty parts are mostly an experiment, honestly, because I am not all that enamored with the tin bitz & boltgun appearance of a lot of orky metals.





I'm not in love with the pants, yet. I did a lot of drybrushing to the metals, but I was trying to highlight and shade his lower body, rather than drybrush. Unfortunately, I'm not very good at that - my highlights tend to be very.. visible, when I try, and I end up trying to wash them back down again. Still got a ways to go to make them pop.

The boots are minimally highlighted - really only two shades of red on them, but I think they look decent.

I actually painted some of the skin Vallejo's dark green, but it's so freakin' dark of a shade I might as well not have bothered.

The base was all drybrushed, and I tried to rust down the metal parts of his boots in the same manner. I think it looks passable.

Moving on to the ammo runt...

I actually think this fella looks awful in person, but for some reason the pictures flatter it a bit. He's very, very glossy in person, which I think contributes to how I feel about it a bit. I tried using a wonder wash thing I got from The Warstore, and while it shaded the whole thing nicely, it also made the recesses very glossy, which can look confusing - reflective shadows. It's actually a bit entertaining - I got mad at the whole grot's base coat looking so terrible, so I took the mini and just dunked the parts I'd painted into the wonder wash, then pulled it out and let it sit - sort've like dipping. It shaded things pretty decently, but it also glossed up the whole mini. I've since tried knocking it back with a bit of brushed on matte varnish, which helped in the pictures a bit. He's only about half done - I'm not sure what color to make some of the other stuff, but I'll figure it out eventually. He also needs his base highlighted up to match the nob'z.

The metal can he's carrying bothers me a lot. I think I am going to go over it and drybrush the rust colors all over it to try and knock it down a bit, because the boltgun metal is far brighter than I remember it ever being.





So, guys. Be brutally honest, please, as I want to improve.

Are you also on the Waaagh boards? As I am sure I have seen this model before. I like the conversion a lot, so good start there. I find it hard to tell you what's wrong with your paint till its done, I know that wont help too much, but with my own stuff I really don't think it looks right till I am pretty much done with it, almost like the final brush stroke causes it to be "right" any way.

You might want to do some paint on your metal and rust around/over it, it will also help give some more depth to your fig. The buzz saw if its supposed to be blood, LESS is more, do a few searches for GD winners or bigger named artist and such that use blood in their figs. You wont see that sort of blood. Hope that makes sense.

I think the model has loads of potential to be a great fig when your done. As the rokkit pack is obviously ork designed from looted parts you may consider painting the looted parts in some fashion from their original source then do some ork checks or daggs over that with you rust and chipped paint thing. That will give it some character and pull it together nicely IMHO.

I favor a brighter ork skin tone as you may have seen http://www.dakkadakka.com/Forums/tabid/56/forumid/8/postid/172157/view/topic/Default.aspx

I would say I don't like the Vellejo dark green its not quite thick enough, try the new mutation green. GWs dark green is better if you have it. You can go one of two ways on the visor leave the slit flat black and color up the helmet a bit or try to do a glowing backlit looking light inside it. That will look pretty good. Hope this helps a bit.

Keep us posted I am excited to see what you do with this fig.

Love them. I don't like the old pre-Nelson grot, but no biggy. I can't wait to see the rest of that sweet tank-busta squad, although the nob is supurb, and I will definitely copy that design!

Permission to mimick your Havoc-Rokkit Launcha please

Very nice.

The permission isn't mine to give, but I think it'd be perfectly fine.

The nob was a gift from an event running at The-Waaagh.com that I received from the talented CannibalBob, who I can safely say is whacked right out of that bionik bonce of his to come up with something like this. I like to think of it as the Orky answer to those cyclone launchers marine terminators have.

Been forging ahead a little bit with this. I had to go out to a birthday party this evening for a friend, but I found a few hours when I got back to try messing around a little bit with the pants, skin, and metals.







I lightened the Nob's pants up to a brighter shade of Khaki which I think helped differentiate it from the rusty colors enough to be distinct. I'm afraid now it might be too similar to the base, but I'm willing to have that over the rust.

I really would have gone with another color for the pants in general, but this mini is going to hopefully be going in with my army, all of which tends to have red boots as an Evil Sunz / Kult of Speed influence and brown pants. Grey just doesn't seem a proper color for leather, either, which is what I imagine the pants are often made of. Squig leather!

Anyhow. I've completely forgotten how to do Ork Skin, and have such have been basically making it up as I go along. I used Dark Green from Vallejo all over the orky skin parts, and thinking that Vallejo's Goblin Green would be a rough equivalent of GW's Snot Green (don't ask why) I started highlighting the skin with it. This, of course, was far brighter than I really wanted, so I then dug some more, discovered the proper midtone green color, and tried glazing all the skin parts in it to even things out a bit. I think I recovered from that decently well, though I'm still not very happy with the skin and it needs a bit more shading and proper, clean highlights to pop it out a bit.

As an aside: GOD I HATE PAINTING THOSE STUPID NOOKS AND CRANNIES. I know that there are a few spots of blotched paint on places they should be - the chest glyph, the glove, etc. You'll notice most of those are green, from my struggles to actually paint underneath the silly ork arms. I remember now why I usually like to paint miniature components separately, then assemble. Still, there are some models where you just have to grit and bear it, I guess.

I tried edging a little bit with boltgun metal after a very light pass with a drybrush of tin bitz. It's... moderate. I don't know. I hope you guys can forgive me - first reaction is to drybrush the rusty parts in boltgun a bit, but I'm just afraid of ruining it with my half-assed brush control.

I used a bit of boltgun to try and cut the blood back from the center of the wheel in a circular pattern. I'm not entirely sure it was effective - there's a slight spin to it now, but it still looks only half-painted. I don't want the blood to look fresh, I think, but I can't quite make it look dried without then getting some confusion between that and the rusted bits.

I picked some of the glyphs out in yellow. God bless the foundation colors for yellows and reds, guys - that was the most painless detailing I've ever done in my life, directly over the rust colors. I added a 'Skar' glyph on the power klaw's front to try and strike something of an orky balance - a glyph on either 'hand'. I sort've want to draw a crosshair on the button mechanism he's holding, white on red, in his right hand, but I don't think I can control the brush to draw something that fine.

Anyway, slow and trudging steps forward, and comments appreciated. I don't expect any more progress on this tomorrow - I'm going to basically be in school for twelve hours - but Tuesday will hopefully bring some more free time. Who knows, I might even get those buzzsaws I've been needing in the mail so I can finish building my looted dreadnought!

If you are fairly good at controlling rather liquid paint, try making some thin brownish red (mostly brown) and applying a little to the saw, starting at the teeth and flicking it in a little. This will give a smoother, fluid look when it dries instead of the powdery rust look. I find dry brushing is great for things like dust, rust and powdery sorts of things, but fluids need a glaze a little thicker than a wash. Put on a few different layers to make it look like there are lighter splatters and thicker areas (essentially where it goes each time is fine so long as there is overlap) and the smoother look will make it look like it flowed (which it did of course.)

Now, how thick you make the glaze/wash I can't help with. I just wing it.

Rather than the Robocop approach...



What do you guys think of either of these? The nature of the visor brings this Golden Demon winner to mind, which I'm tempted to emulate:



The only problem with doing that is that there's a slit in this visor which demands some sort of attention. I don't know if trying to do OSL and make it glow is a good idea, though. It's scary, as I've never considered it before. I usually just stick LEDs in things.

Can anyone give me some pointers if I were to undertake this?

Last little update before I hit the hay. Struggled a bit with getting a brush at the parts of his shirt I wanted to make red, but I think I won out in the end. The straps of his harness were such a pain, though - I originally went for a grey color to break up all the brown on him, but it looked awful, as I haven't quite learned how to highlight blacks and greys with the effectiveness I'd like. I ended up going over them with brown again and generally making a mess of things, though I think they're passable for now.

I highlighted the edges of his shirt, but I don't know if it looks alright. I get the sense that it doesn't look very cloth-y.







I know I'm spending an inordinate amount of time on this mini for pretty standard results, but it's been a while since I've painted and it's helping me fill the time while I wait impatiently for a bunch of trades to arrive.

I had a lot less time to paint today than I was originally hoping for.

I painted up his cigar, picked out some of the wiring in yellow (bless you, foundation paints), painted the back 'engine' to some degree, started base coating the rocket launchers, drybrushed the grot's base to a matching color, and washed the shirt in a bit of dark flesh to try and tone the red down and add proper shading to it. I think that last little detail worked best on the back - the front needs one or two more goes.

My plans are to do the launcher up in a very dark red, crimson and brass scheme similar to word bearers. I'm starting to get concerned with the amount of red and brown on this model, though. I mean, if I paint that visor red, he's going to be moving so fast he won't even be able to shoot properly.







Ah well. I'm really not sure what details to pick out on the launcher. I'm still base coating it presently, so don't mind any messy paint on it as I haven't cleaned anything up yet. The ability to paint yellows on a whim is a wonderful effect of having the foundation paints, and I'm considering doing the missiles up in a yellow to help accentuate them a bit, perhaps - I was thinking originally red with black detailing, but that would really start to get excessive. Maybe I'll skimp out and boltgun them, instead.

Man. Imagine the amount of time I'm spending just painting this nob? The stupid Stompa's going to keep me busy till christmas. >_>

My typical mantra for projects is 'model more so you freehand less' but I suppose there's exceptions for everything, right?

Anyway, I was kicking this idea around since this morning and I got to put a brush on the model only around midnight-ish tonight. I'm not and never will be all that great at painting stuff like this on - I usually prefer to model it on so I can just pick details out - but I think it's a decent way of tying the red and yellows of the model in. I'll do the targeting array on his head in boltgun and wash it in brown a bit like I did the engine on his back to properly cut the brightness of it down.







<!--emo& -->It actually looks pretty sharp from tabletop distance. Getting this close with a camera reveals all the little spots I screw up or didn't draw quite straight, but I'll get over it. <!--endemo--> Still need to highlight the rocket launcher on his back properly and pick some parts out in a brassy color, as well.

Hope you can forgive me for not being quite brave enough to venture an OSL attempt on this guy.

So here's some more of the Nob. I'm not sure if I'm very happy with the way the whole launcher looks; the brassy bits feel a bit cheap to me, and I'd like to orkify the whole thing a touch more but I'm not exactly sure how - painting dings and scratches on it might be a decent start, but I'm not sure how to execute that sort of thing.

I also think I might want to have a go at brightening up the red on his visor a bit, and in these pictures I realize there was a bit of back cabling I missed that I have to go over.









Thoughts? Opinions? Criticism? Ideas? Haiku? Interpretive Dances?