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Work-in-progress

Everything before it’s done.

Moar skinks! – Basecoat

Posted on September 5, 2014

I haven’t painted Lizards in a long while. I could say that my Old Blood was the actual last one, but I don’t know if he counts, just because volume of models is an important factor.

Here’s a pile of skinks. 24 of them. My god that’s a lot of models.

I used the P3 White Primer on them, because I was near a shop that sold it and needed more primer. I don’t know if it’s the primer, or my application of it, but they are decidedly fuzzy in places. Disappointment.

For the basecoat, it’s just Codex Grey, Mephiston Red (definitely my favourite colour now), Dwarf Bronze, Snakebite Leather and Ushapti Bone. I slapped it on, and once again felt miserable about myself. Logic dictates that one day I’ll realize that they’ll look much better after washing, glazing, shading and highlighting, but in the meantime I just keep making myself feel bad about my basecoats.

Work-in-progress

Wyrd Summer Painting Contest – Actually Painting

Posted on August 27, 2014

I failed badly at taking photos of the painting process…

Gravel

Because I’m trying to tie together my two Malifaux crews, I painted the gravel like my Arcanist bases, but with more layers. I started with Rhinox Hide all over, and then drybrushed two layers of Rhinox+Scab Red mixtures. I drybrushed the Tallarn Sand in sections, and then mixed the Tallarn and Ushapti Bone together.

I tried to drybrush all in a single direction, and when I got to the more yellow paints, I only did it in sections. This caused the ground to look a little bit like sunlight was filtering in between the trees. Totally unplanned for, but nice to know.

At the end I did a really light drybrush of Liche Purple perpendicular to the main direction. I was trying to re-shade with a common colour.

Cobblestone

The cobblestone was done like my Outcast bases. Straight black, then Codex Grey+Black, then a really light drybrush of Liche Purple. I did a bunch of layers here, with black+more Codex, more Codex, then straight Codex, then Fortress with Codex. Finally, to change up the tone a bit, I used Kantor Blue in places, and Warpstone Green in other places.

Tree

I started with Rhinox Hide everywhere on it, to ensure that it wasn’t black inside. Then I mixed SW Amethyst with Rhinox Hide almost everywhere, in particular deep in the cracks – because of that common shade colour I was working towards. Then I drybrushed Mournfang Brown, then MFB+Vomit Brown in many successive layers.

All told, painting this thing was super easy, just a lot of drybrushing and mixing colour in an insane heat that kept trying my paints out!

Some Last Modelling

I didn’t want to write a separate article on it, and I have no photos of it…but after I was done painting I had some more modelling to do. I used GW Dead Grass under the tree and in certain stones. And then SW leaves placed artfully around, as though blowing in the breeze from the forgotten tree.

Lastly, I had an unbiased reviewer provide feedback, and he suggested I model a swirl of leaves coming up from the ground. I did this, but I feel as though I went overboard – I was trying to hide the wire I was using to bring the leaves up, and so ended up with a giant leafy thing in the middle of the board.

Here’s two meager photos of some mid-stages. 🙂

Work-in-progress

Wyrd Summer Painting Contest – Building the Base

Posted on August 24, 2014

I took my Dremel once again to the piece of hardboard in my closet. I cut out the basic design with a cutting bit, and then used two different sanding bits to smooth and bevel the edges.

The tree is a fascinating thing. I bought a $5 loop of wire from Michaels and wrapped two pieces together in a “C” bend. Then I wrapped another piece around to make another root, and then another and so on. Then I started cutting smaller pieces and wrapped them around each root and up the tree trunk to try to give the base more size than the top. After a bit, instead of wrapping the wire around semi-randomly, I started wrapping it on a circle around, so that under the top layer there is a tree-like mess, and on top is semi-uniformity.

I went back and put my models on top of the hardboard, and drew on the piece so I knew where they would go. I sketched out where Killjoy’s cobblestone would start and end, and drew circles around each base.

Then…I made cobblestone. I’ve done this before on my Plaguebearer bases, but this was a little different because each piece had to be slightly different shape and size. I pressed the Milliput onto the hardboard, making sure to keep a circle open for Killjoy, and then started carving into it with one my putty tools.

After that dried a bit (it’s very hot in here), I puttied up the back in a smooth layer. This would be built up a bit, so I just wanted something to build on.

I used the Vallejo Oxid paste and painted it all over the hardboard where the Arcanists would stand. In particular, I wanted to get it on and under the tree to make sure that it was a part of the scene. Since it is such a different and other-worldly shape from what you would expect, I had to make sure to bring it back into the scene.

Last, I put another layer of Milliput on top of the back layer and carved a different kind of stone design onto it. It’s not entirely square. >.>

Work-in-progress

Wyrd Summer Painting Contest – Setting up the photo

Posted on August 18, 2014

All of the models posted recently were painted for a diorama for the Wyrd Summer Painting Contest! Building a diorama is as much about framing and composition as it is about technical painting and modeling skill. In my case, it’s also a little bit about photography!

I wanted to set up a scene such that the 3 models would be in sharp focus, but that the house in the background would be softer. This means adjusting my cameras aperture, as that controls the depth of field. For these test shots, I decided to angle the camera such that it was perpendicular to the line created by the Gunsmith and Killjoy, which put the Fire Gamin a little further towards the camera.

I took a number of different photos, but because these are all test shots I set the ISO to 256,000, which means I can get in focus shots without needing to pull out all of my lights. I moved the aperture setting up and down to see where I got the best results, I tested where to have the camera physically to get the photo I wanted.

The shutter speed isn’t important in either the test photos, or the final shot, because it’s only job is to ensure that I don’t get blurry photos, and that I get the amount of brightness I want out of the final photo. Basically, I adjust the shutter up or down to ensure brightness after I’ve decided on the aperture I want.

You can see one such photo here. At f/2.8, Killjoy is nicely in focus (as he’s the focus target), but the Gamin is blurry!

I swapped out for a bigger piece of hardboard and pulled the models further away from the house so I would have more “focus space” to work with. I set the aperture to f/4 but couldn’t get what I wanted still. Lastly, I set the camera to manual focus and then I finally got the photo I wanted.

I assume that the auto focus was focusing somewhere just behind Killjoy, which put the Gamin to far out of field to be in focus. This photo I manually focused somewhere on between the Gamin and Killjoy, allowing them both to be in focus.

Again, because these are test photos it’s perfectly fine that the gunsmith is to dark, shadows are all over the place and that the image is really grainy. We’re just trying to set up the framing!

Now, it’s important for me to remember that when I’m done I’ll be taking a few different photos from different angles, but I wanted to have one where I had put the work into getting exactly the photo I wanted, before I started building anything!

Work-in-progress

Outcasts – Killjoy – Basecoat

Posted on August 6, 2014

Killjoy is starting off with this thread as his inspiration. That paint job is creepy and terrific, but obviously I want to do my own thing here!

I started just with Kislev Flesh for his skin, and Ushapti Bone for his wrappings. I may change the wrappings colour as I go, in order to create contrast. Mithril Silver for the metal and the fireball in the middle of his chest is Sunburst Yellow to match the Fire Gamin that’s shooting it.

It isn’t done, but he’ll be on my standard Outcast bases when he’s done.

Work-in-progress

Outcasts – Sculpting some fire

Posted on August 3, 2014

Sculpting has been something on my “todo” list for a while, but it’s been very hard to up and just do it. I’ve had some opportunities recently to try some simple stuff, so here’s some more. I’m trying to sculpt a fireball impacting on Killjoys chest.

I started by just mushing a thick misshapen cylinder of putty onto his chest. The idea is that it’ll look like a fireball that’s being shot by the Fire Gamin, so I have to ensure that the angle looks reasonable and that the size of it is similar to the one that’s coming out of the Fire Gamin‘s hands. I left that overnight.

The next morning I pulled little pieces of putty apart and rolled them into snakes that were roughly long enough to go entirely around the cylinder on his chest. I’m aware that this first photo looks phallic.

After I’d sufficiently mushed the putty around the cylinder, I took a pair of tweezers and pulled the putty back away from his torso. The fireball is travelling towards Killjoy, and so the wind against it will push the flames backwards. I did this 5 times, to cover the entire cylinder with flames.

At the end I took a bit of putty and mushed it onto the end of the cylinder, then pulled it away. This pulled the new putty off a few times, and tore it in places, but the end result was what I had wanted – a bit of a wisp of flame at the tail of the fireball!

Work-in-progress

Arcanists – Gunsmith – Basecoat

Posted on July 31, 2014

I was trying to somewhat copy the paint scheme done here. Unfortunately, as you scroll down that thread you see that this person did an amazing basing job on her and I’m totally jealous and should have looked further before I started. Instead I have my standard Arcanist basing.

I mixed Vomit Brown and Blazing Orange together to paint her jumpsuit. I was trying for something bright, a little orangey but still brown. I think I succeeded, but the real trick is going to be the shading and highlighting business. Her jacket was simply Codex Grey and all the straps and her hair were Mournfang Brown.

Work-in-progress

Arcanists – Fire Gamin – Basecoat

Posted on July 28, 2014

This is the first of a many-many-many part series for a diorama I worked on for the Wyrd Summer Painting Contest. It was an anonymous contest, so I was asked to wait until after the voting had finished to post my work. Hold onto your hats!

This guy was super simple… just a few cogs, some Arcanist basing and some Sunburst Yellow. Whee….

Work-in-progress

Deffkoptas – 4 Years Later

Posted on July 18, 2014

4 years ago one of the first things I painted was a set of 3 Ork deffkoptas. I remember being so frustrated with them, I did not want to paint them, I wanted them to be over and done with and gone. I finally pushed myself to finish them… and then they were awful in my army. >.>

A couple years later, my friend Chris Jones put a lot of 8 of them up for sale for a good price. I bought them, forgetting the cardinal rule of GW stuff – “just because it’s a good deal, doesn’t mean you need to buy it”. They’ve sat in a cardboard box UNTIL NOW.

With the new edition of 40k, and a brand new Ork codex, I’m kind of a little excited to pull my boyz in blue out of the case and put them on the table again. The new Psychic Phase looks fun, the Tactical Objective deck looks like a ton of fun, and well, WAAAAGH!!

Work-in-progress

Arcanists – Joss – Basecoat

Posted on June 30, 2014

Joss may have been in the wrong place at the wrong time…I had only planned to paint my models for the Wyrd Summer Contest, but I had some colours out and was mixing some up and waiting for paint to dry, and he was assembled and primed…and I haven’t painted any of his themed crew except his all-metal spiders, so…

Mr. Joss has Ushapti Bone coveralls, which will likely become much darker before he sees the table proper. I did a Vomit Brown and Blazing Orange mix for his shoulder pads and the cables from his axe. Kislev Flesh skin and an Arcanist base.

Joss was originally going to be my single-model entry to the contest, but after he got the 4th rate treatment for skin, he looks closer to “table top” quality than “show me off to the world” quality, so here he is! That’s ok – I have a badass entry for this competition, you’re all going to be stoked when you see it!

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