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 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!
This is probably the nicest model I’ve ever painted.
Don’t get me wrong, Killjoy is a fugly dude. But something about those rolls upon rolls of skin…the invitation to mottle and bruise him…to go a little overboard with the shadows in places and to paint definition (more rolls…) where none existed. It was brilliant. The base coat didn’t look like much, but it ended wonderfully.
This model is mostly skin, and as such I spent several hours on said skin. I really couldn’t tell you what I did, but in essence it looked like:
It’s mesmerizing.
And worse, because I thought it was beautiful, every time I picked it up I found something else that needed fixing for it to be perfect. I need to finish the rest of this entry quickly so I can photograph it and be done with it…
After that, the rest of the model is pretty boring! The fireball was painted the same as the Fire Gamin. I used the Lamentor’s Yellow to do a bit of OSL around his stomach. Bloodletter Wash on his open wounds and around the open areas of his mouth. A simple Mithril Silver plus Badab Black (yes, I still have some!) and Seraphim Sepia on the metal. His wraps were Sepia’d, then highlighted with Fortress Grey (don’t ask why I did this, I had a whim) and then spot painted with Waywatcher Green glaze.
I continued gluing SW leaves to his base, because I really like them. 🙂
If you’ve read this far down the post, you get a super secret Easter Egg. Before I submitted the final posts for the painting contest, I edited out the very obvious join-lines on this guy. >.> I still fail hard at model assembly, but at least technology can help me out!
(And just so we’re clear – the only photo editing I do on my blog is to remove spots created by the lens, and adjust lighting and colour balance. I’d never lie to you guys! :))
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.
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!
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!
