Switch Theme:

Stealth Ghostkeel  [RSS] Share on facebook Share on Twitter Submit to Reddit
»
Author Message
Advert


Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:
  • No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
  • Times and dates in your local timezone.
  • Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
  • Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
  • Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.
If you are already a member then feel free to login now.




Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





Hi!

I am finishing my ghostkeel and I would love some honest feedback from your expert eye. I tried to give the battlesuit the appearance of a stealth war machine.
Where can I improve?

Thanks!
[Thumb - Long JPG.jpg]

   
Made in us
Norn Queen






The model looks flat to me. And not just because it's dark matte grey. Thats not really a problem. Its mostly just painted with an air brush with only the barest touches of other colors in the most minor areas. None of the inner workings under the armor plates are even a slightly different dark grey. Or black. Or metalic or something. Anything?

If you are going to go so monochromatic you need details. Some wear and tear on the edges of the plates. Or at least some kind of edge highlighting to break it up. As it stands this mostly looks like you primed it, gave up on painting most of the model, and just did a few extra light sprays of blue, got some over spray on the feet from the base, and then painted a couple dots.

This might come across sounding harsh. Please don't take it that way. It's meant to highlight the potential problems. You NEED more shades of dark grey in there so that it looks like it's more than primed.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/28 01:31:46



These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
 
   
Made in ca
Foolproof Falcon Pilot




Ontario, Canada

I agree; I like the idea of a stealth ghostkeel but as of right now it looks like it's just been primed grey (solid work on the bases though, they look nice). Take today's stealth aircraft for example - they are not flat grey. They have details and colours and designs on them, as the stealth technology is mostly related to being detected by tracking technology rather than by eye.
Spoiler:

Spoiler:


Don't be afraid to throw some recess shade and minute details on there to break up the grey and help things stand out. Lore-wise it doesn't rely on painted-on camouflage, It has fancy active camouflage technology for that!
   
Made in ca
Fully-charged Electropriest






First and foremost the issue is highlights. All of those edges should have a highlight and the sharpest should have a much lighter highlight.

Second even though I understand the look you are going for I would recommend breaking up the dark grey. I would focus mostly on the weapons, the chest symbol and the optics as they are the parts that draw the eye the most and as such are the best to have another color.

Another thing you can do to break up the colors is to add some battle damage. Some sponge with brown and iron paint can do wonders.

Lastly if you have access to transfers or have a steady painting hand some symbols would look good on this model.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/28 05:53:46


 
   
Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





Thanks for the comments, appreciated and I take some of those on-board.

The cleanliness of the model is on purpose though. Tau are advanced enough to not present weird stuff on their battlesuits and they don't use metal parts, or at least not my sept. I think of their alloys as more plastic or advanced ceramics rather than metals, so it is hard to use metallic colors under this umbrella.

I plan to increase the dust accumulated on the ceramic coating to give it a bit more of depth, but I understand where you guys are coming from. For someone who is not aware of the above it is hard to gauge why the battlesuit is this clean.

Thanks!
   
Made in ca
Fully-charged Electropriest






Arco wrote:

The cleanliness of the model is on purpose though. Tau are advanced enough to not present weird stuff on their battlesuits and they don't use metal parts, or at least not my sept. I think of their alloys as more plastic or advanced ceramics rather than metals, so it is hard to use metallic colors under this umbrella.


That makes sense though you can still do the battle damage through that method just replace the metal with whatever color the ceramics are naturally, I would go with a light brown or near white, unless the dark grey is the natural color.

If you want it to look brand new thats cool to.
   
Made in us
Buttons Should Be Brass, Not Gold!






I like the stealth look! I think it looks bloody good tbh. If you ever feel like you want to add detail, more weathering should do the trick.

Edge highlighting is one of those things which people have learned to expect seeing on a Citadel miniature, but IMHO it's not the only way to roll, and I really like that you've deliberatedly avoided it. It's a bit more military modelling look, nothing wrong with that.
   
Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





 tauist wrote:
I like the stealth look! I think it looks bloody good tbh. If you ever feel like you want to add detail, more weathering should do the trick.

Edge highlighting is one of those things which people have learned to expect seeing on a Citadel miniature, but IMHO it's not the only way to roll, and I really like that you've deliberatedly avoided it. It's a bit more military modelling look, nothing wrong with that.


Mate, I really love your comment and you really get the style I was trying to imbue into this battlesuit. I honestly think edge highlighting is overvalued and many times is messed up very badly. It defo doesn't call for cleanliness.

Although I fully understand the other comments. It is now so typical to see washes and edge highlighting across the board everywhere that if you don't do it you get stigmatized. So it is like, expected to be doing it.

I support the idea to sometimes paint out of the box and give war machines the actual look they have in reality.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/09/28 09:22:47


 
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




I really like the shade of grey you used here. What color is it? I agree with you on edge highlighting. I think it looks bad. But I do agree that some lighter grey areas would look great. Just get a lighter shade of grey and hit a few panels. Look at pictures of f15 fighter jets and the like for examples. If you do it please post the results. I like where this is going!
   
Made in au
Fresh-Faced New User





TMF wrote:
I really like the shade of grey you used here. What color is it? I agree with you on edge highlighting. I think it looks bad. But I do agree that some lighter grey areas would look great. Just get a lighter shade of grey and hit a few panels. Look at pictures of f15 fighter jets and the like for examples. If you do it please post the results. I like where this is going!


I highlighted a few, but I was afraid of the model looking too bright, which I wasn't a fan of.
It took me several months to find out the best color to use. It is Tau confidential information that you can get only by kidnapping a virgin narcissistic ethereal .

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2021/09/30 07:15:43


 
   
Made in us
Fresh-Faced New User




Hahaha! Ok then. Keep your secrets.
   
Made in gb
Hurr! Ogryn Bone 'Ead!




chigwell, essex

Wow. This has been a really thought provoking model to look at. I came from a military model Painting background and got into 40k and all its painting tropes some time ago now. Abandoning a lot of the ultra realistic paint schemes and effects in favour of the stylistic and fantastical whf and 40k approaches... I feel, looking at this that that's a bit of a shame. This model proves that not only do the 'old ways' still have a place in 40k, but also that prejudice against them has occurred in all of us who have abandoned them in favour of the Warhammer way...
   
Made in ca
Poisonous Kroot Headhunter





Arco wrote:
 tauist wrote:
I like the stealth look! I think it looks bloody good tbh. If you ever feel like you want to add detail, more weathering should do the trick.

Edge highlighting is one of those things which people have learned to expect seeing on a Citadel miniature, but IMHO it's not the only way to roll, and I really like that you've deliberatedly avoided it. It's a bit more military modelling look, nothing wrong with that.


Mate, I really love your comment and you really get the style I was trying to imbue into this battlesuit. I honestly think edge highlighting is overvalued and many times is messed up very badly. It defo doesn't call for cleanliness.

Although I fully understand the other comments. It is now so typical to see washes and edge highlighting across the board everywhere that if you don't do it you get stigmatized. So it is like, expected to be doing it.

I support the idea to sometimes paint out of the box and give war machines the actual look they have in reality.


Totally with you both on this, I'm not a fan of edge highlights either and don't do them on any of my models. Normally, when I see lighting effects, I don't really like them either, but I think they work especially well here because it's subtle and perhaps because of the lack of edge highlights? I'm not sure, I'm not an expert painter by any means. XD

Anyhow, I do get what the others were saying about it kind of feeling muted, but as a Stealth suit, isn't that the point? If you dimmed the lights to play an "actual" night fight, it would be pretty hard to see the thing.

So yeah, I really like it, keep pup the good work.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2021/10/14 15:41:37


17210 4965 3235 5350 2936 2273 1176 2675
1614 1342 1010 2000 960 1330 1040  
   
Made in us
Norn Queen






Yeah, I don't edge highlight. But you still need some kind of contrasts to break it up. You don't need to go metalics either.

Think of colors being on 10 step scales.

Tint - Adding white
1 pure white
10 pure hue

Tone - adding grey
1 pure grey
10 pure hue

Shade - adding black
1 pure black
10 pure hue

Hue = the color wheel or the rainbow scale. It's the actual color you are looking at.

Since your working with a monochromatic grey scale lets consider 1 white 10 black.

In order for there to be an actual contrast you need to move 2 steps on the scale. 1 step over just makes the darker color look dingy or dirty. To make them stand out as actually distinct colors you need that 2 steps.

The more scales you do this on the more contrast you build but you really only need to do it on one to get some kind of an effect. Your blue lights are sitting at a 3-4 which is why they pop so much against the background.

So going with keeping things dark and matte you want the inner workings to be your slightly lighter colors.

Paint them a 6 or 7 with a black wash.

Paint the exterior plates a 8-9 with a black wash.

Or go the reverse if you want to keep the exterior plates a little lighter. I would say your exterior is already a 6 as is so it's now a matter of going darker in the joints, cogs, gears, inside the little slits and recessed boxes.

You don't need highlights to make depth. You need contrast and shadow to make depth. Highlights can also work to break things up but they are time consuming and take a lot of skill especially when there are a lot of edges. But just using the 10 step scale to break up the color profile a little with some other shades in there will go a massive way to making it look much better.





These are my opinions. This is how I feel. Others may feel differently. This needs to be stated for some reason.
 
   
 
Forum Index » Painting & Modeling Showcase
Go to: