Fjyrrulm Awaits: Aussie's Ongoing Fantasy Mini Extravaganza

[Samedi]

I like the blueish-black one, I think it works well with all the gold.

[AussieAusborn]

Thanks for the input, @aku-chan and @Samedi!

 

After doing another chaos warrior you can see here (I actually posted something in show off!!), I realized that was probably the scheme I would go with. So, I forged ahead, and got here:

 

 

I tried a different colored helmet at first, but didn't like it, so I went for the silver. The sword was looking alright, but the red-obsidian look I'm going for is difficult, and I don't really want to use a varnish to achieve that, especially since there's not actually enough texture on the blade to make that work well (I tried it )

 

I did some more work, and got here:

 

He's getting close to done, but not quite there yet. Don't let the base fool you!! I sometimes like to make sure that it'll look alright with my standard basing scheme, and it seems to. The only thing that's still at a basecoat stage is the loin-cloth; I'm not sure what color to paint it. Aside from that, I have highlights yet to do on the armor, and could stand to add more color depth to all the various heads in different states of decay. I used essentially the same scheme on all of them, and I think they can stand to be differentiated. The sword could use some more more, but I'm a bit at a loss for how to proceed. I may just leave it as is.

 

As always, thanks for looking!

[Samedi]

I think the colours work quite well. By staying neutral with the armour parts you made the old copper applications stand out nicely.

 

Obsidian is really tough to nail - I think I would "cheat" with gloss varnish. Just googled up a few pictures of red obsidian. On many pictures the dark parts go up to black and there are streaks and spots throughout the whole material. So you could try to push the dark parts all the way to pure black.

On the other hand, the sword "as is" fits the old/used theme you're going for. 

 

Anyway, great work!

[AussieAusborn]

4 hours ago, Samedi said:

I think the colours work quite well. By staying neutral with the armour parts you made the old copper applications stand out nicely.

Thanks Samedi! I rather like how it's turning out; I wanted to do colors that were less fantastical than many chaos warriors, and I think this works well. I also think the more subdued red does a good job of providing interest, without utterly stealing attention.

 

4 hours ago, Samedi said:

 

Obsidian is really tough to nail - I think I would "cheat" with gloss varnish. Just googled up a few pictures of red obsidian. On many pictures the dark parts go up to black and there are streaks and spots throughout the whole material. So you could try to push the dark parts all the way to pure black.

On the other hand, the sword "as is" fits the old/used theme you're going for. 

I hadn't even thought to see if red obsidian was a thing - I'll have to look that up! Thanks! And yeah, I tried using some semi-gloss varnish to help with that, but there's not enough texture on the blade I made, so it ended up looking...well, pretty flat. I did end up going over the center portion with a pinkish purple, for more color depth. I'm liking that, and I'll also work on pushing the darks, too. And I'm glad that old/used is what you're getting from him, because that's certainly  what I'm going for.

 

4 hours ago, Samedi said:

Anyway, great work!

Thank you for the kind words!

 

I am open to any ideas for what color to paint the loin cloth. I think maybe keep it brown with some designs to break it up a bit? Maybe black and the same? Definitely not something that should draw too much attention.

 

Thanks for looking!

[AussieAusborn]

Got a little more work done on the chaos chap. Added shadows in the...folds? of the fur cloak, added both color and darks to the sword, and worked on the steel metal more. Oh, I also added some more color to the decaying heads adorning him. I'm getting pretty close to happy with how he is.

 

[Samedi]

Good choice to go with black!

[AussieAusborn]

Thanks Samedi! It's more brown in person, but I think it suits its purpose.

I did some more work, and I think I'm in the home stretch. I did another layer and edge highlighted all of the metals, and I think that turned out nicely. I also added some more darks on the sword blade.

 

 

I want to try a light drybrush on the blade to pick out the knapping I carved into it, I think that'd help a lot. Maybe even a selective wash on the decapitated heads.

[AussieAusborn]

I'm finished enough with the guy that I posted in the show-off section.

 

Is it just me, or do the pictures look a but more saturated when you click on them? I've noticed that the versions embedded directly in the post seem so be a little de-saturated.

[AussieAusborn]

I've gotten a little work done on the dragon. I feel like it's a step backwards, which is frustrating. I tried using a wash to do some recess shading for me, which doesn't work well on this dragon. So I drybrushed some red back over it, so it wasn't so dark. The scales' texture isn't quite deep enough to make this viable for the model; or, I'm too heavy handed, which is possible. Then, I did some recess shading with some nuln oil, but using it to do pin-lining. This would have looked better had I not done the original wash, which is the frustrating part.

 

Part of my trouble is how large this guy is, and how few places there are for me to brace to keep my hands steady when I'm doing that fine detail work. Does anyone have advice for how to deal with this? It really limits how much time I can do that kind of work in a single session.

 

 

It seems I've entered the un-fun part of the process, which is something I need to keep in mind as I go back into it. I think I need to rework the main volumes again, do some pin-lining, and then work on highlighting the individual scales. I'm not sure if I have the patience to get him quite to where I'd hoped, but we'll see. One paint-stroke at a time, right?

 

As always, thanks for looking!

[AussieAusborn]

I finished up some beastmen conversions I've been working on, and got them primed. Even got some paint on a few!

 

I tried to get something that was quick and easy to replicate, while still looking pretty good. So I made use of the zenithal undercoat for the flesh, and used a somewhat heavy reikland flesh shade to get that reddish hue, which turned out pretty well. I'll want to touch up those zenithal undercoats before I continue (I have another 15 to do), just so the skin looks better and more consistent. I might go back and re-work some of the skin on these guys, particularly the dark areas, to make them better match the others. But, I'll burn that bridge when I come to it.

 

Otherwise, the paint scheme was just brybrushes over basecoats, and some washes here and there. Nothing fancy, but I now have some beastie-boys that look good on the table. I especially like the quartered shields; again, nothing fancy, but much better than just plain wood.

[Glitterwolf]

I agree, the shields look great!

[AussieAusborn]

Thanks, Glitter!!

 

I've gotten started on another half-dozen on them.

 

I didn't bother to go back and rework the zenithal coat at all. With how little effort I'm ultimately putting into them, I can re-prime and paint one if it really starts bugging me.

 

Progress is progress!

Edited October 8, 2021 by AussieAusborn

[AussieAusborn]

Managed to get some more work done. Just metallics, washes for said metallics, and a few details left to pick out. Almost halfway done with the whole group!

 

[AussieAusborn]

Managed to finish up this first batch of beastmen!

 

 

I had a hard time getting the lighting to look decent in the pictures. That's ok, because I wasn't trying to push myself at all with these minis. Reasonably happy with how they turned out, though I do somewhat wish I'd decided to redo the zenithal undercoat. But, they still look pretty decent on the table, and that's what I was going for.

 

For the second half of the group, I'm going to lay in the skin tones using the airbrush, and see what the time/effort/reward ratio ends up being there. I've used it for single figures before, so I have a pretty good feeling that I can make it worthwhile. I've been working more on painting units instead of single figures, since I have a friend who wants to commission me to paint a couple of Warhammer 40k armies for him. I'm looking forward to that a good bit; I've been wanting to paint some of the new Primaris marines, but really have no desire to get back into the game myself. So that will be a fun opportunity and challenge, since I've never done a whole army at once!

[AussieAusborn]

I managed to get some better lit pictures of the group. I'll post them all in the show-off section, once I've finished the other half of the group.