A Nightmare in Feathers:- Kingdom Death Phoenix

[Silvervane]

I noticed that.

[AGN1964]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing this progress.  I'm still trying to think of a good colour scheme.  I don't want brown, it's a Phoenix not a sparrow.  "Rainbows" look excellent on the pinup minis, but I don't think work in the game; but I still like the tropical bird concept.  This one looks promising. 

 

All this thinking and then I look at my Phoenix and at my #2 brushes and just move on to something smaller.

[aku-chan]

I'm really looking forwards to seeing this progress.  I'm still trying to think of a good colour scheme.  I don't want brown, it's a Phoenix not a sparrow.  "Rainbows" look excellent on the pinup minis, but I don't think work in the game; but I still like the tropical bird concept.  This one looks promising. 

 

All this thinking and then I look at my Phoenix and at my #2 brushes and just move on to something smaller.

 

Thanks!

 

Progress has kinda stalled on this one, basecoating the skin areas was too much after basecoating the feathers (the feathers needed 3 layers in the end and I was up to 4 on the skin, and it was still pretty blotchy). I really need an airbrush, or at least a bigger basecoating brush!

But once I've restored my mojo by working on some smaller stuff, I'll get back to it.

 

I'd love to see someone try to pull off a rainbow phoenix, I think it would look pretty cool but would be so much work.

I did see a nice blue/grey one though, blue feathers, grey skin and all the tiny hands in a pale pink. Made me somewhat regret going for a regular skin colour on mine.

[AGN1964]

Have you seen this yet?  Impressive, like his other work.

 

http://spiralingcadaver.blogspot.ca/2015/11/happy-turky-day-kingdom-death-display.html

[aku-chan]

Have you seen this yet?  Impressive, like his other work.

 

http://spiralingcadaver.blogspot.ca/2015/11/happy-turky-day-kingdom-death-display.html

 

I have, that guy does some very awesome lighting effects.

[AGN1964]

I first saw his work on Sedition Wars.  Some days he inspires me to do better.  Some days he makes me want to throw my brushes away ;-).

 

I'm looking forwards to you returning to your Phoenix.

[aku-chan]

Woot! Progress:-

 

 

My desk light is extra yellow today for some reason.

 

Any ways, gave up trying to basecoat the whole thing first, because that just wasn't happening, and split the Phoenix into separate work areas, see if that stops it being so overwhelming.

So at the moment, I'm concentrating on the left wing. The feathers got drybrushes of 1:1 Vallejo Emerald/Vallejo Off-white and 1:3 Emerald/Off-white, and then a wash of Citadel Cordia Greenshade. This went horribly wrong as it wouldn't settle in any of the recesses and dried very blotchy and chalky (not sure if something has gone wrong with my washes, as I'm having similar trouble with my Blueshade on another mini, but I'm becoming very disillusioned with pre-made washes at the moment, except for my precious Fleshshade).

After re-basecoating and re-drybrushing, I then made my own wash of Peacock Green which worked fantastically.

 

Pretty pleased with how they're looking, they'd look a lot better if I'd worked on each feather individually (especially the bigger ones) but that way leads to madness.

 

Next up either wing-fur or wing-fingers.

[aku-chan]

Went with wing-fingers, unfortunately the piccys came out terrible (even more bleached out and yellow than the last lot), and the wing-fingers themselves are currently covered in wet varnish.

 

I'll try again tomorrow.

[CashWiley]

Mmmm...buffalo sauce phoenix...

[aku-chan]

Piccys:-

 

 

Managed to de-yellow my piccys a bit, but my camera really hates this Elf Flesh colour I'm using.

 

Any ways, wing-fingers (Vallejo Elf Fleshtone > Vallejo Fleshshade Wash > Elf Fleshtone > 1:1 Elf Fleshtone/Vallejo Off-white).

 

Going to try and get the nails done and maybe start on the wing-fur today.

[arclance]

Managed to de-yellow my piccys a bit, but my camera really hates this Elf Flesh colour I'm using.

You probably need to set the White Balance in your camera manually (if it is possible to do so) to get consistent colors.

If you still have the packaging your light bulbs came in they usually will tell you what Color Temperature to set the white balance to when using them.

It might also help to turn the room lights off and only use your work light to light it so you don't have different color temperature light sources lighting different areas of it since that can cause problems.

Not doing that can confuse your cameras Auto-White Balance mode and can cause the same color to look different on parts lit by different light sources.

 

Look at these images as an example of what I am talking about.

This is a picture of a set of stone dice where I forgot to set the White Balance manually.

The colors are incorrect and look very washed out and dull.

 

This is the same image where I set the correct White Balance manually while while processing the photo (I shoot in RAW so I can change this setting after taking the picture).

The colors are now correct and are much more vibrant and bright.

[aku-chan]

@arclance - Thanks for the big post!

 

I've looked into it before, and you can't manually set the white balance on my camera (it's a very cheap one). For my next piccy I'll try and get rid of all the other light sources, see how much that helps.

[AGN1964]

When I prime, I support my minis on odd blocks, etc.  I end up with lots of matte white and black painted blocks.  I try to put one of each on the edges of pictures I take, so that I can correct the white balance with (free) apps like GIMP.  And then crop them out, of course.

 

I think you can do the same by including a neutral grey toned object in the picture, but I rarely prime in grey and I'm too cheap to buy an official grey reference card ;-)

Edited December 10, 2015 by AGN1964

[aku-chan]

Little bit more progress:-

 

 

Fingernails done in purple (Vallejo Hexed Lichen to be exact),

Wing-fur done in grey (Aircraft Grey > Drybrush Vallejo Off-white > Vallejo Grey Shade wash > 2nd Off-white drybrush),

The little Parasite Hands have so far had a basecoat of Vallejo Dwarf Flesh and a Flesh Shade wash. Once that dries I'll give them a couple highlights, tidy up the fur a bit and I'll have finished ONE WHOLE WING! YAY!

 

I'll also break out my light-box, see if I can take some nicer piccys.

[Jasonator]

Have to order a box of popcorn !

Fantaastic Aku-chan !