BfSP box, Dark Elves, Warmaster and various other stuff - by sigur

[Catferret]

Suppose I can chime in with some words about ork/orc skin. I think the duller greens seem a bit more natural. Conveys a better sense of their fungussy nature. Let all the riotous colour stay on the equpment. Clan colours or whatever.

Now I have contribution type crap outta the way I can do the usual, "OMG! Those Warmaster guys is awesome!" type of post. I am very impressed with the level of detail on those little guys. You have a lot more patience than I do.

[McMullet]

Great work on that Shokk Attak Gun. I assume you'll be adding some yellow as well? That, and some of your excellent purple and I think you'll have used all the colours.

[sigur]

@Catferret: Thanks for your contribution crap.

@McMullet: Ya, well, the pants are kind-of-yellow. But purple is a good idea. Maybe I'll just dunk (is that even a word?) those 0,5kg of metal into any paintpot I find, travel back in time and become part of the 'Eavy Metal team.

Meh, Orks aren't cool anyway. Here's another one of my collection of random WIP stuff. I think I really improved my painting by ramming a drill into this fella's crotch like the big painter guys do:





This dude is "The Rules Lawyer". His purpose is keeping me busy by offering an occation to blend ocre until the next batch of WM stuff so I can pretend to be actually productive.

[silverstu]

I think I really improved my painting by ramming a drill into this fella's crotch like the big painter guys do:

Well he certainly looks surprised if not entirely comfortable!!!

Nice painting mate but it did make me laugh..

[Harry]

All joking aside did you actually find using the drill as a handle helped your painting.

I have been considering different methods of holding models whilst I paint them.

[sigur]

All joking aside did you actually find using the drill as a handle helped your painting. [...]

Not really. Maybe it's helpful in later stages when you don't want to touch your miniature all the time and maybe shinifying the surfaces you painted earlier but it seems like it costs lots of handling and I constantly fear that I could break the drill bit. Holding the mini in one hand while painting it with the other still seems to be superior.

[voiceofthewarp]

What is your purple recipie? I want a slightly darker purple for my Grave guard you see(log link in sig)

-voiceofthewarp

[sigur]

Just straightforward black-purple-mix -> liche purple -> purple-bleached bone-mix layering with a few various in-between mixes.

[Nephilim of Sin]

Meh, Orks aren't cool anyway. Here's another one of my collection of random WIP stuff. I think I really improved my painting by ramming a drill into this fella's crotch like the big painter guys do:

.....
This dude is "The Rules Lawyer". His purpose is keeping me busy by offering an occation to blend ocre until the next batch of WM stuff so I can pretend to be actually productive.

Exactly. "Orks" are not cool. "Orcs" are.... Although, I was counting on stealing all your 'Ork' recipes when I finally do my Orc army...


Now, for the 'dumb NOOB' question: Are you layering, or blending? The purple is done so seamlessly, it looks like blending. Yet, you spoke of 'layering' for your mix. I may be confused. Since your 'flesh' is also done so well, I am really wanting to know.

Oh, and of course, the ochre looks great. Thanks for the tip of not drilling, as that seemed to be too much work compared to simple gluing (strips, paint pots, bases, etc....).

[sigur]

Exactly. "Orks" are not cool. "Orcs" are....

Who has the bikes and big guns?

Now, for the 'dumb NOOB' question: Are you layering, or blending? The purple is done so seamlessly, it looks like blending. Yet, you spoke of 'layering' for your mix. I may be confused. Since your 'flesh' is also done so well, I am really wanting to know.

noob answer: I'm quite sure it's layering mainly with watered-down strokes here and there to "connect" the layers if the junction isn't smooth enough. For the skin, it's pretty straightforward layering. It's a relatively small surface with many features so there's not as much attention on smooth transistions. On other miniatures than Dark Elves, which have very strong facial features, I tend to use inks/washes too (like on plastic Catachans or LotR minis which have a little less strong facial features).

Oh, and of course, the ochre looks great. Thanks for the tip of not drilling, as that seemed to be too much work compared to simple gluing (strips, paint pots, bases, etc....).

Yeah, maybe I just did it wrong or maybe it's more comfortable for you but I learned that painting-on-drill isn't for me.

[sigur]

Update

Here's what I did today (even more randomness):


It's....PARCHMENT! Hell yeah, parchment. This, gentlemen, is hardcore. I also did some tiding up on the robes, but, like ...PARCHMENT!!

*ehem* Enough of this foolishness; this is all layering and i'm happy with the result.



But this isn't all. Here's the other thing:






(all that's new on this guy is the NMM. He has become something like the "tryout miniature" I proceed painting whenever I want to try something new)

Yes, NMM. Some of you might remember how I always go on about not liking NMM, etc. and I always felt a bit bad for saying "I don't like it" without ever having tried it myself. It's not like this would mean anything in a thing like miniature painting but still, I felt like I should give it a try. Especially these days since I somehow got bored any fed up with handling metallics (mainly because my cool metallics brush died and my current ones are pretty much teh suk).

Anyway, I think that I got a little bit of understanding why people do NMM: It's fun to paint because compared to other techniques, it's glamorous. Colour theory is boring, wet blending is frustrating, glazing is alright but still all knowledge of theory and material, etc. By the way, I don't say that I have any real clue how these techniques work and I'm far from mastering them or applying them in a proper fashion. This goes for NMM too of course. This is just a little theory of mine after fiddling around a bit for the past few hours.

Contrary to many other techniques, NMM is like... you try to recreate this effect which you never see in the real world, only in pictures. You play around with light sources, you have to work out what parts of the metal look like what and such. It's playing around, basically. At least the way I did it today.

So, on this guy I tried out a colour composition for gold of which I thought it would look good and tried to have a direction of the light source in mind which I imagine to be somewhere in the front of the miniature, slightly to the right. Apart from that, it was mostly guessing, trying and mixing. I took two pictures from different angles (one from the left and one from the right) so you could see how I tried to make the reflection show the position of the light source.

Another thing I noticed: What I did here looks weird in real-life. The light source, the way I painted the metals, is too low (since the chaos warrior is quite hunched). But in the pictures I took, it looks pretty darn good, I have to say. I hope that you have to say the same. ;-)

So let me know how you like it and if anyone of you has suggestions, just fire away!

[Catferret]

Fancy theories and terms are thrown about a lot these days but the fact of the matter is if the model looks cool and people think "wow" then you have done a good job.

Personally I think it looks pretty damn good and hadn't realised it was NMM at first. Probably a good sign?

[Toschenko]

The scroll, ehm, the parchment looks almost a real piece of paper, nice one sigur! Now you've just to add some writing ...

That was your first try at NMM painting ? I'm in awe, man... but why you didn't paint in the same manner the leg? Anyway, I hope you want to experiment something else, that mini is looking soo cool I want to see it finished

Toschenko

[the angel chosen]

Who is making that model

very, very cool btw

[Harry]

I love the way the wizard is coming along. The layering/blending is simply stunning ... whatever it is.

I am also a fan of metalic metals but I have to say everytime I see it done THET WELL I think I should get off my **** and give it a try. I had to look twice as well. Can't believe that is your first go at it. Sigur Squirrel I may have to stop being your friend if you insist on getting better all the time.

[Nephilim of Sin]

Wow. There is too much here to say what all is good, because it all looks great. Your painting style is quite impressive, and the 'noobs' among us thank you for sharing the details of how you achieve your effects. The parchment is great, although I myself would be to afraid of writing something on there when it is that well painted...Maybe just a big "X" with a "You are Here" would suffice?

I have never been a fan of NMM either. Even in pics, it always seemed to look off. However, you did a great job there. Considering it was your first try, you did a phenomenal job. Of course, it does make sense that your 'try out mini' for new things is something of chaos! Nice job, and we wait for more.

[sigur]

Thanks for all the kind replies.

@Catferret: Yes, either a good sign or a very bad one ("oh my, this silly guy painted the Chaos Warrior a silly yellow hat.").

@Toschenko: Cunningly, you pointed out what I'm afraid of. It's always the same: You paint some smooth surface, are happy with it but you know that you'll have to mess it up with free-hand stuff. Any suggestions how to do really nice scribbled text?

I didn't paint the leg the same way because I just wanted to try out the NMM on a little part so I get fast results. You better don't see the back of the miniature because the nmm there looks like rat's ****.

@the angel chosen: It's a khornate (obviously) Chaos Warrior from 1989. I got a bunch of Chaos minis from that time some months ago.

@Harry: Blending, layering, whatever. In my understanding, you layer stuff with the goal of the colours blending nicely in the end. I guess I have to redefine a few terms for myself.

@Nephilim of Sin: Indeed, but there HAS to be something scribbled on the scroll. One has to get over that fear of messing up the earlier stages by adding something more, otherwise things look unfinished. And since I'm considering this Wizard just a practice miniature too, no harm can be done.

[the angel chosen]

I was meaning the cool wizard, sorry for the inconvenience

[sigur]

Oh, that one. He's one of quite a lot of plastic mages GW released sometime in the early nineties; I think they originally were used for Warhammer Quest or Talisman but they also got released as a box for WHFB. Just a few months ago, I saw this box at my local indie retailer. Some of those mages look quite static (like the bear shaman dude) but they are mostly pretty cool miniatures.

Here are some new pictures:





I really don't like how the kneepad turned out. Seems like I have to look up some tutorials on how to really do it.



I'm also not too flattered with this mace. Doesn't look NMMish enough. Everything I do looks like fancily highlighted matte laquer but not like shiny metal.

[Toschenko]

I really don't like how the kneepad turned out. Seems like I have to look up some tutorials on how to really do it.

Maybe it's lacking a a dark area on the lower half, like the plate near his neck. Just a thought, though, I can't judge the real shape of the kneepad from the pic.

I'm also not too flattered with this mace. Doesn't look NMMish enough. Everything I do looks like fancily highlighted matte laquer but not like shiny metal.

You need to simulate the reflecting light with some oblique lines on the flat parts: I'd add some near the handle and on the outer parts of the mace head. That said, I don't see it looking bad at all

@Toschenko: Cunningly, you pointed out what I'm afraid of. It's always the same: You paint some smooth surface, are happy with it but you know that you'll have to mess it up with free-hand stuff. Any suggestions how to do really nice scribbled text?

I always had the same problem, I was hoping to grab some information from you . The only thing I can suggest is to avoid pure black and go with a darkened scorched brown to better fit the rest of the parchment, add a fancy capital letter at the beginning of the paragraph (or two, if you plan to add a long text) and when you've done try to blend all with a very diluted glaze passed only around the text, to create some form of shadow. Sorry but I can't give you any other help

Toschenko