Elouchard

Berzerkers complete. This was a very long commission but it is now done. I really stopped painting since around the middle of the last decade (the millennial decade or whatever it is called), and only did a few things here and there as I kept getting headaches and eye twitch and could not figure out why. Turns out it was old age and my eyes going. Luckily I dug out and old magnifier desk lamp this year and I can see again and actually paint details. I would not have been able to do this much painting without it (upwards of 130-140 hours), and for any of those folks out there getting into middle-age I would definitely recommend trying out a magnifier. Three cheers for no headaches. Maybe now I can try some sculpting again too, something I started up when the eyes were already going. Anyhow, here are the berzerkers.

And the next steps - metallics All metals are done in thin layers, painted in multiple strokes, so the base color shows through. gold highlighted all over with polished gold and edges with silver, then light glaze of burnt umber ink. metal backpack highlighter with bronze + silver, with edges in silver. It could use some extra burnt umber ink in some places.

Here is a very basic start to the berzerkers to show how they look at the beginning. They are primed black, then zenith primed from above with red primer (Army Painter). The metal parts are done first in RMS Ancient Bronze. Gold is given a glaze of Liquitex inks: burnt umber + raw umber + a touch of deep turquoise + matte medium. The other metal is glazed with turquoise + burnt umber + matte medium. The red are shaded down with washes of crimson+deep turquoise ink + matte medium to make the shadows. Highlights are thin layers of crimson ink mixed with a touch of Vallejo Game Color hot orange. Edges are plain hot orange, for now. These guys will not have the detail of the terminators but need to have the same basic look.

some individual shots

Thanks! I got the back shot for the team now. It's not as nice as the front but it does show the insignias.

hi all, A while back I posted the finished worldeaters dreadnaught and finally finished a set of five terminators using the same color scheme. Here is the original post since the methods were basically the same. http://www.reapermini.com/forum/index.php?/topic/42774-forgeworld-dreadnought/ I will see about individual photos soon but for now, here is the family shot. I used an old blue pillow cover for the background, something I have not done in years, so they look like some of my early work, except cleaner. The inks and metallics have been fun to use, but I still have a set of ten bezerkers to finish before the army is done. I think I will paint something other than red then. cheers, Eric www.lonebrushman.net www.antimatter-games.com click on the thumbnail for a bigger shot

The thing I like about these figures is that I remember playing the hell out of them for years. The Heritage orc is like the ones I had that basically represented every monster encounter from 1981-1988. The ones I had wielded an axe, spear and bow respectively. The Grenadier guy with the two-handed sword was my main fighter until he was replaced by a Citadel fighter from the Heroic Fighters of the Known World box set, Ulrik Ulrikson. That is one set I really want to get. http://www.solegends.com/citboxes/bc7heroes.htm The others, like the guy with the bow, and the guy holding the lantern were always in the party. But the one that was the most fun was the kicking fighter. All of those figures were in a party at some point though.

I just wanted to elaborate a bit on the concept of edge highlighting. Here is a website with some example images. contrast illusion link The idea is that the human eye perceives different brightness levels based on the local contrast, so making the background darker (blacklining or shading) makes the nearby lighter area look even brighter. In the same way, highlighting an edge makes the nearby dark background look even darker to the eye. It then boils down to what what one wants to do to achieve contrast, shading and blacklining or edge highlighting. It is much easier to highlight and edge than to paint a fine black line, so that is the best way to go if one want to finish a mini quickly.

edge highlights are just highlights on edges, like the tops of the boots, the tops of belts, the border of clothing, etc. It is important to highlight only the side facing the sun though, so the top of the belts are highlighted with MSP Golden Highlight, for example. Actually, almost everything was highlighted with that color. Thin layers of that color were applied in thin layers to build up most areas as highlights. Using thin layers allows the underneath color to come through. But the reason to do such bright edge highlights is that there are no blacklines, and there needs to be some contrast between the dark colors of different areas of the minis. It is important to remember that the human eye sees contrast very well, and adjusts its perception automatically when there is a brighter and darker region next to each other. It almost tricks you into thinking the dark area is darker than it actually is. This is one reason to apply very bright final highlights and why blacklining is not always needed unless one is going for a more illustrated look.

You did a great job on the figure. I like the green crystals. Do those have a gloss coating on them?

Here is the rundown of general steps They were primed with the triad of black, desert yellow (from Army Painter) and then white, with the light colors sprayed from higher angles. Here are the shots of how they look after priming. One thing to note is that the yellow produces a subtle midtone but is blended in with the the white. The black becomes gray in most recesses, except under steep overhangs. The idea was not to make the figures yellow but to give a bit of warmth to the midtone. One could just use black and then white but the result is more of a cool gray in the midtone. It works well for cool colors though, but I plan on using more browns, warm greens, reds and yellows. Once these dry, they were glued to plastic bases to paint, then add the base sand and rocks. The first base coats are on here, mostly thin layers of different shades of brown, khaki, olive, sienna and such. The idea is to keep the paint light so the shading from the zenith priming shows through. My 6 year old assistant Kylie did a great job on the skin and some of the bronze on the chests. The next step is glazes and washes of inks and transparent paints. Okay, here they are after glazes and washes. This is probably the ugliest stage, before any highlights and final glazes. There is no special trick here, other than mixing Liquitex matte medium in with the inks and washes. The skin is GW ogryn flesh wash. Greenish clothing gets black+olive, while the browns get various umber and sienna mixes. I try to vary the colors of the washes as much as possible on the different sections. Highlights were added in this stage, using opaque paints. Contrast is the key here, and painting edges. There is no time spent blacklining, so edge highlights are critical to delineating different areas. For the bases, my assistant liked adding dirt to the bases once I put glue on them, so those were a team effort. The bases got painted and had some flock added and then were done.

I'm thinking of a book, but a video is not out of the question. The things I am doing are not very different than what other painter do, I would think, so I do not know if I would have anything to add to the the current video scene. I have not looked at other videos at all though (Jeremie Bonamont, Hot Lead, etc.), so its all just assumptions on my part.

I still have more of these guys to paint. Here is a halfling box set all primed and ready. I just need to decide if that is the next thing to paint or to finish something else.

I got on a roll painting some old Grenadier and Heritage sets a couple of months ago. They are challenging to paint in my usual wash style, since that style depends on letting the sculpt detail "shine" through the paint and do most of the work. The figures are a bit rough in terms of detail, although charming in their own way, but do not really help the painting task. Still, with rough details comes a chance to improvise. The Grenadier figures are hit an miss with details, but they still turned out well, and were very fun to do. Most took between about 45 minutes each to finish. They were all primed using black first, then desert yellow (sand color) next as a mid-zenith prime coming down from above and to about 45 degrees. The last priming spray was white from directly above and down to about and 60 degrees at most. Painting was done with lots of inks and glazes, then opaque Reaper paint for highlights. Here is how a set of the primed figures look. First up is a group of Grenadier Fighting Men from the boxed set Then some Grenadier Hirelings Crew, including my favorite, the two guys carrying the chest. Then finally a set of Heritage figures from the dawn of time, as a commission.

About the primer, it was black to start, but the zenith priming of desert yellow and white makes it more tan and white in the end. The basic techniques would probably work the same but only if there was a base coat of opaque paint to completely cover what would be shaded and washed later. An interesting point about the Liquitex inks is that they mix well with paint that is normally a bit chalky and end up smoothing it out. Pure ink makes the lacquered appearance of the armor - like a hard shell, but mixing in some paint does not result in a chalky layer. This way one can make what is essentially a custom shade of hobby paint, taking a regular light shade like bone, light olive or white that can have a chalky texture and changing the color with inks. This works well with the different umbers and sienna to make very smooth browns, tans, leathers, etc. A good one is to mix raw sienna with white or off-white to make an effective bone. Adding tiny amounts of blue or green can make new and useful shades that are like vallejo "deck tan" or those other useful off-white colors. The same process may work with inks Reaper makes, or their glaze colors, so I should try it with them also. I just like Liquitex inks because the colors are so vivid and they are so workable, and dry fairly flat also.