And finally, here’s the photo spread I submitted to the contest. If you’re a good reader, you’ve already seen it as you went and voted for it a month ago when I asked you to! 😛 By the time you read this, hopefully we’ll all know who the winner was, and have all seen a ton of amazing looking models!
I’ve got one more post in this series – the final photography and image editing.
I failed badly at taking photos of the painting process…
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.
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.
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!
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. 🙂
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. IÂ 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. >.>
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/4Â 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!
After the basecoat, I tried something new and mixed the SW Amethyst with the Codex Grey and painted that as a shadow “de-highlight” into the recesses. Worked out really well! Then Amethyst+water directly as a line in the recesses.
While I painted the jumpsuit, I was trying to darken it, but still have that bright orange “pop” from the inspiration image. An important thing here was to paint the straps in a different colour, and have them be a noticeably different colour, but not have them stand-out from the rest. I picked the brown to try to fill this role.
Lastly, since she’s probably been mucking around in that Arcanist base mud for a while, her cloak got muddied up along the edges.
After I’d done all of this, I stupidly went searching for more images of her. Someone had converted her hair to be less terrible looking. I wish I’d had that fore-thought. >.<
This guy was pretty easy after that base coat.
I mixed Sunburst Yellow and Blazing Orange together and all-but drybrushed it over it’s skin. This thing is so covered in flamey crevasses, almost anything I did here was going to hit the surface.
Then mixed in a little bit of Mephiston Red and went over it again. Some Lementors Yellow to try to make sure I kept the bright yellow in the recesses. Then I went to Mephiston and Orange, and then to Mephiston and Rhinox Hide, then to straight Rhinox Hide and then straight Chaos Black. Lastly, some more Lementors, because I think you just can’t have enough of that stuff.
All of these stages were drybrushed, trying to hit less and less of the model each time.
For the fireball, I stopped after the Mephiston+Orange, then did the tip with the Mephiston+Rhinox  Then I painted in watered down Sunburst Yellow into some of the recesses to bring back some of the yellow, as it had been mostly covered by orange at an earlier step.
Badab Black on the cloth, then highlighted with a thin glaze of Ushapti. Ushapti teeth, shadowed with Badab Black. Warpstone Green eyes with Black pupils. Mithril Silver chain links the two scraps of cloth.
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.
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….
After Joss got weirdly basecoated, and I had to run with what he had.
And honestly, I was feeling super lazy after finishing the best damned paint job I’ve ever done on my contest entry model. So Mr. Joss got Seraphim Sepia’d pretty well. >.> I’ve got one more contest entry model to paint, so I’m hoping that a weekend of gaming will cure me of my burn out!
I did feel bad about him afterwards and highlighted the Sepia, then mixed in with the SW Amethyst and painted in his shadows, did some Bloodletter Wash on his horrible mutilated arm. I tried to clean up his skin, but in the end it looks good enough. Better skin than I was painting 8Â months ago, anyway!
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!