Ferox
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Posts posted by Ferox
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Classic -- I really like the colour choices. I think the 'hawk's fine as it is: with the white tee-shirt it frames the face nicely.
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Nice work! The conversion looks pretty well seamless, and I love the tones on the armour.
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Finally, I finished something this week! This is Meridh as Ras al-somethingerother, an Elf Warden who just hit Paragon tier and is doing a great job of pissing off the DM by taking a licking and keeping on ticking.
I had some fun using the Vallejo MC Air metallics on this figure. Their particle size for the metallic medium flakes is significantly smaller than the standard for brush-on paints, and the effect is commensurately smoother on the mini. I dig it!
I think these are about the best eyes I've managed to paint so far. I'm not super-thrilled with the rest of the figure, but it does the job.
The character's player is happy, so I'm happy. C&C welcome.
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Time to finish up the PCs for Yet Another D&D Party. The elf warden is just about done and should be ready for gaming tonight; the thri-kreen cleric is next on the list with a fair bit of half-finished conversion work.
In theory I'm supposed to be entering a 5-mini squad in a local painting contest next Saturday, but I doubt that's going to happen. Maybe next time. I've started basecoats, though, so I'll finish the minis.
That'll probably take me to the end of October, but it'd be nice to get some paint on my Menites eventually....
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Gorgeous! Those reds are incredible, and the dead, desaturated bases make them look even better.
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I dig it. Outstanding job on the blacks and the red. He has a bit of a swashbuckly feel for me, probably the high leather boots and the sword. Pirates vs. ninjas: why not have both?
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How did you do that, a dremel with a pointed grinding stone?
I'm curious about this as well. Seems like a good approach to unpaintably-small eyes.
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Light blues chalk up on me all the time. You might be able to mitigate the issue by glazing with something purplish -- which I think would go well in the midtones, smoothing over the transition between red and blue from a colour perspective.
Another thing that might help is looking at GreyHorde's female warrior WIP and the human skin tutorial on Massive Voodoo, just to get an idea of how highlights and shadows behave on skin (that is, highlights are broad and dominant; shadows are narrow and deep). I'm far from an expert myself, but I think correct placement of highlights is the biggest visual cue that makes a surface look like "skin" rather than "cloth" or "plastic".
Good luck!
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What they said. For what it's worth, you have the right idea on eyes -- you're getting good expressions on your faces, and are working on each one until you get something good rather than giving up. A lot of what's required for super-detailed eyes is "just" lots of practice and an instinctive familiarity with how your paints and brushes behave.
I agree with kanli: You have good enough brush control to start working on blending and more dramatic shading. That'll do a lot for the overall look of your minis, and I think you'll be surprised by how easy it is to pull off. Good luck, and keep it up!
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@Ferox - As for Vallejo Model Air, I've been looking to get into those as well. The Alclad II can be tricky but it's not as bad as I thought - for basecoating larger areas in bright metallics then shading them down with regular thinned paint ("TMM" basically). I was really impressed by this tutorial (TMM tutorial), which doesn't use Alclad II, but starts with bright metallics and shades down from there.
Yeah, I've been using Automaton's method -- or rather, trying to approximate it -- for a couple of years now. Great stuff.
Right now I'm messing around with basecoating using a mix of metallic and matte paint, more of a "middle-out" method in terms of both value and shininess. What you've done seems like a "highlight-down" approach, which I've been very happy with in the past when it comes to light colours. Maybe I'll give that a try.
For this mini I used Alclad II Chrome (might as well go with the brightest silver and deaden it down if needed, I guess?) over a basecoat of Model Master Acryl Gloss Black. This can be thinned with acetone or 91% isopropyl alcohol. I believe the gloss aspect is even more important than the black paint aspect. I'm sure it would work fairly well over other very dark gloss shades.
Interesting! I've been trimming my bases with VMC Gloss Black. I wonder if it'd work with Alclad II?
The Alcad II is really cool stuff. It's probably 97% solution and 3% metal flake, which are small. Like silt. It's very thin, but it dries very fast. I've found it best to coat the area fairly generously on the first go, as you don't want too many layers and brush strokes, etc. As you probably know, the paint is made to be applied with an airbrush.
Are you brushing on the Alclad? I've only ever heard of people applying it with an airbrush.
As a close second for bright metallics, I've found Vallejo "liquid silver" to be pretty good. I have to stir it with a toothpick and shake it forever, and it requires dillution/cleaning with alcohol but shows a similar flashing, "sparkle" effect while the paint dries on the mini, so you know it really shines!
Yep, that's the good stuff. That said, I picked up bottles of VMC Air Silver and Bright Brass, and they're damn near just as bright and shiny as VMC Metal Medium. This merits some experimentation.
Thanks for going into detail on the metallics, kanli. Much appreciated.
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Nice job! The armor looks really good, as does the axe. How did you find working with the Alclad? I recently picked up a pair of Vallejo Air metallics, and the smaller flake size is making me very very happy. Seems like Alclad might be an even bigger step up, although it doesn't look as simple as "basecoat dark and brush on".
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Nice work! I think the flesh would look good with some red and purple glazes -- swollen and infected rather than dead and papery -- but as it stands it surely is disturbingly effective.
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Nice looking hair so far. Between that, the skin, and the sword, I'm impressed with how she's turning out.
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It works very well -- the eyes, the pale face, and the red hair all put the focus right where it needs to be. Your shading's excellent for a "second mini back" -- it took me at least a dozen before I got as much contrast on the mini as you have here. I think you did the right thing with the sand, too.
Hair is a tricky thing to get right -- it has a very particular way of reflecting light, and if it isn't painted just so it looks "wrong" in a hard-to-identify way. Studying photos is probably the only way to get it right, but given the precise way you painted the eyes and eyebrows I think you have the brush control to pull it off. The only nitpick I have is that the greens and browns on the base are brighter than the greens and browns on the figure, and attract too much attention.
Well done!
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Nice work! I like what you've done with Fianna, too, and R2DD2 (heh!) reminds me of old-school airbrushed "sexy robot" art -- very bright, clean, and shiny.
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Count me in! I've done similar things in the past, but they've never been particularly accurate, usually just quick hack-jobs.
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Nicely done, sir. I dig... er... like those zombies, and Nicodem's an impressive piece.
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Nice work on the second guy! I like the two-tone scheme; it sells "lizardman" very well. The shoulder wrap and leather bits are effective without drawing attention.
For the black lizardman, have you considered using a dark demi-metallic? One thing I notice in the reference art you posted is that the reflections are really strong, with a few warm tones in the highlights and a few cool tones in the shadows. You might be able to capture that by mixing some dark brown into a medium-dark silvery metallic paint, then shading with very dark blues (Midnight Blue and Blue Liner come to mind).
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Do you sign body parts?
Are they attached?
Good answer!
Congrats!
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I have a lot of figures like that, too. Seems to me that this is one of those things -- like neatly-organized painting desks -- that some people can't live without and others can't stand.
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Now that you folks mention the blue skirt, it sure looks like it has brighter highlights than the NMM. It should probably be the other way around -- and you might have better luck figuring out how much contrast you need on the NMM if you tone down the highlights on the skirt with a glaze or two of the midtone.
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Good clean work, excellent colour choices.
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It's an old Privateer Press figure -- not sure if it's still in print, but it's on their website.
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Love how the blonde hair turned out.
Me too! Getting highlights on hair to look natural seems to be a rare skill in this hobby, and you nailed it.
As for freehand on the shield: Start with some very thin paint, with just barely enough pigment to see what you've painted. Your first layer should be very unobtrusive. Keep refining the shape with very thin paint until you like what you see, then fill it in with something a bit more visible. From there it should be easy to clean up the edges.
Also, I think your photos would come out better if you cropped them a bit -- as it is, the minis look a bit small and lost.
Capt. Sicarius/ GW model
in Show Off: Painting
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Nice work, as ever.